material-semiotic knots

Concept: This is a conceptual approach of working with objects, where the cultural/personal/symbolic and scientific-material-molecular significances of the chosen object/s overlap.

 

Theory: Material-semiotic knots (Astrida Neimanis, Bodies of Water, 2017)

 

Method:

1) Find roots, symbolic, personal, cultural significances of objects that call out to you.

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2) Explore through stream-of-consciousness talking or writing of what memories, associations, imaginations emerge through encountering that object.

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3) Explore the objects material composition, scientific processes etc through research on its history, its evolution or its formation.

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4) Conceptualise the assemblage or action based on the confluence of the material and semiotic significances that emerge through these explorations.

 

Eg. The personal-semiotic significances of beetroots as a family dish from my paternal lineage is associated with daily comfort food and the scientific-symbolic imaginations of beetroots—water laden (88%) root vegetables containing earthbound energies as it grows underground. It reminds me of a heart-blood-organ, synchronised with its biological capacity to purify my heart by increasing oxygen flow, or nourishing my body with vitamin B9, B6 and C, iron and betalains, folate and nitrates (and more). And on the contrary, the sociological tendencies of treating beetroots as the ‘other’ among vegetables, a historically neglected food, which people avoided touching because of its bleeding pigment, and its strong smell and palatability require adopting an acquired taste.