Thinking with Things: Landscapes, Connections and Performances as Modes of Building Shared Understanding

This article explores the relatively underexplored potential for physicalisations to materialise qualitative data related to human experiences and knowledge domains. Our reading of ‘data’ in this context extends from imperceptible systems and infrastructures to mental models and the phenomenological dimensions of experiences themselves. Physical objects can be regarded as a form of knowledge with which to inquire about human life, bring about improved conditions, and imagine alternative realities. Objects are made of materials, which are manipulated materials into various configurations. The materials used in the process of externalisation have a profound influence on the resulting forms, and through them on how knowledge is constructed and internalised. We pay detailed attention to the characteristics of materials and how they are combined, in the context of interdisciplinary exchange. We are motivated by the need for a shared understanding of what work materials can do in the making of physicalisations. We suggest this work is useful in the analysis of physicalisations, specifically where they seek to articulate the phenomena of lived experience.