In trying to express a lively materiality through my tangly sculptures, I often worry about my own role in the process seeming too intrinsic, too imposed. The following extract from my previous essay felt relevant in addressing this.
Seeing Paterson’s Earth-Moon-Earth through the lens of thing-power and anthropomorphism
sets us off well down the path of vital materiality; whether we are thinking of the assemblage
as an anthropomorphised conglomeration of supposedly inanimate objects or as a lively,
layered material thing unto itself, the idea that nonhuman matter might possess some kind
of unexpected vibrancy has begun to take root. A notable snagging point, however, is the role
of the human as both the creator and consumer of Earth-Moon-Earth. Bennett wants to point
us towards a vibrancy of matter, a collapsing of ontological hierarchies, a minimising of the
unique human-ness, but this all seems somewhat undermined by the reliance on the human
(in this case Paterson) to orchestrate the experience. If only humans are capable of creating
and consuming Earth-Moon-Earth, this certainly does not bode well for Bennett’s claim of
human/nonhuman equality. On this, Bennett says the following:
In emphasizing the ensemble nature of action and the interconnections between
persons and things, a theory of vibrant matter presents individuals as simply incapable
of bearing full responsibility for their effects. (Bennett 2010: 37)
She introduces the idea of an ‘ensemble’ between human and nonhuman, highlighting the
tangled nature of material world of which we are all part. We are reminded that flattening
the ontological hierarchy does not necessarily equate to a complete homogenisation of
human and nonhuman, ignoring any differences between the two. Instead, in recognising
‘vibrant matter’ we acknowledge a diversity but do not prioritise one set of characteristics
over another. Vital materialism shows us a world of ‘interconnections between persons and
things’, recognising that human-ness cannot be separated from, untangled from, the
nonhuman matter all around us. As such, it follows that, as Bennett says, no singular individual
can ever bear full responsibility for the outcomes of their actions – we exist in a knotted
material web and as such any movement will spark a cascade of ripples, shooting out
uncontrollably, far beyond the initial moment and with no regard of the original intention.
With this in mind, can Katie Paterson truly be considered the sole creator of Earth-Moon-Earth? Even if we acknowledge that she made some choices and initiated some actions that
caused an outcome, we cannot ignore the roles of, for example, the radio, Moon and piano
in the piece. They were not just present to bend to the human will but more so to enable the
piece to happen at all; they are directly responsible for the precise characteristics and form
of the outcome, and for this we must give them credit. The matter that took part in, and that
comprises, Earth-Moon-Earth introduces a fundamental nonhuman-ness – a wild,
unpredictable agency – that is simply unknowable to the human mind, and without which it
would not exist.
Anna Harris 