REU • Research Experience for Undergraduates (2024)

Under our Feet

How Foraging for Wild Clay Can Inform Human-Material Interaction

Description

In the context of more-than-human design, non-human actors like physical materials are foregrounded as active participants in the design process. While material origins have been examined, understanding how design technology to foreground these relationships is overlooked.This paper explores the practice of clay foraging, where ceramicists source and process wild clays from their environment, as an exemplary model of cultivating a profound material connection. Through material-participant observation during clay foraging, we identify themes in material relationships, revealing clay as a reactive material whose properties are significantly influenced by its treatment. The painstaking process of making clay suitable for forms uncovers a deep material relationship. Using speculative design, we envision how technology can leverage foraging practices to enhance practitioners' connections with physical, digital, and immaterial materials.