Matter of context

materials game

Ahead of a workshop we ask students to bring in a material of their choice. On the first day of class they are asked to place the objects on a table and to rearrange them from most “natural” to most “artificial”. At first the objects are usually clumped into two categories on the tablet soon it becomes clear that there's no right and wrong and we are required to provide some more context for them to continue. We then ask the students to rearrange everything from most biodegradable to the least and then with various other criteria. Rather than two clear categories, it seems more useful to arrange in a spectrum of materials sourced from less or more abundant natural resources, less or more manipulated by humans, and so on. The game provides insight into the importance of thinking big picture, asking big questions and then understanding the systems at play and the context your material exists within.