focus issue- mai: feminism and visual culture.

feminist new materialist practice: the mattering of method.

The aim of this focus issue of MAI, titled Feminist New Materialist Practice: The Mattering of Method is to bring together feminist academics from round the world in the social sciences, arts and humanities to examine the relevance and productiveness of new materialist theories in doing and-or making research. Until recently, the new materialisms have mainly constituted a conceptual field, viewed as ‘high’ theory. However, contemporary work is beginning to explore the methodological suggestiveness of new materialist thinking, developing a range of methods and practice research approaches that both put these insights to work, and reflect back on them, reshaping what new materialisms is, what it does, what it can do and how it can be done-made. As yet, this emerging field of methodological and practical work has not been mapped from a feminist perspective. This focus issue is therefore distinctive in its sustained effort to draw out, consider and push further the implications of new materialist philosophies for new feminist research methodologies, methods and practices – and vice versa.

Coleman, B., Page, T., & Palmer, H. (2019). feminist new materialist practice: the mattering of method. MAI: FEMINISM & VISUAL CULTURE. https://doi.org/10.17613/tm0h4-3zg32

https://maifeminism.com/issues/focus-issue-4-new-materialisms/

introduction- feminist new materialist practice: the mattering of method

Research and art/s production practices are modes of thought already in the act. Contemporary arts practices call us to think anew, through remaking the world materially and relationally. Building on this ethos of practice as thought already in the act, this Special Issue responds to the increased attention being paid to the intra-action, diffraction and spaces between, practice and research, practice and theory. The aim of this collection is to shift the focus from the subject and/or the object to their entanglement and the action between. It is also to examine how, not only are we always with/in bodies, we are always with matter. So, not only do we make matter and meaning, it also makes us; we are entangled, co-implicated in the generation and formation of knowing and being. This collection works these intra- actions of bodies with matter, theory with practice, practice with research, to develop new approaches and bring together a collective knowledge and understanding of these activities.

Coleman, B., Page, T., & Palmer, H. (2025). Introduction. Feminist New Materialist Practice: The Mattering of Methods. MAI: FEMINISM & VISUAL CULTURE, Summer(4). https://doi.org/10.17613/h3z9y-v7m04

https://maifeminism.com/feminist-new-materialisms-the-mattering-of-methods-editors-note/