Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Culture and the much-more-than-human
T2 - the case of colloids
AU - Szerszynski, Bronislaw
PY - 2022/12/31
Y1 - 2022/12/31
N2 - In this paper I try to identify a minimal definition of culture that might be applicable in the much-more-than-human realm that extends beyond organic matter and human involvement. I speculate that culture conceived in this broad way might be a metapattern or ‘machinic solution’ available to matter of diverse kinds, organic and inorganic. I explore how this idea might apply this to colloids – hybrid forms of matter such as sols, foams and gels that are mixtures of matter in different phase states, some continuous and some discontinuous, and which can behave in complex ways that mix features of solid and fluid behaviour. I conclude by suggesting that attending to both the similarities and differences between ‘culture’ in the organic and in the inorganic realms might force us to rethink our understanding of both.
AB - In this paper I try to identify a minimal definition of culture that might be applicable in the much-more-than-human realm that extends beyond organic matter and human involvement. I speculate that culture conceived in this broad way might be a metapattern or ‘machinic solution’ available to matter of diverse kinds, organic and inorganic. I explore how this idea might apply this to colloids – hybrid forms of matter such as sols, foams and gels that are mixtures of matter in different phase states, some continuous and some discontinuous, and which can behave in complex ways that mix features of solid and fluid behaviour. I conclude by suggesting that attending to both the similarities and differences between ‘culture’ in the organic and in the inorganic realms might force us to rethink our understanding of both.
KW - nonorganic life
KW - colloids
KW - culture
KW - physics
KW - much-more-than human
KW - metapatterns
U2 - 10.2478/csj-2024-0016
DO - 10.2478/csj-2024-0016
M3 - Journal article
VL - 14
SP - 120
EP - 127
JO - Cultural Science
JF - Cultural Science
SN - 1836-0416
IS - 1
ER -