This research theme studies the entanglements and interactions of art, architecture and materiality, no less than of space and agency. The production of artwork and architecture is examined in and with relation to its specific material and spatial dimensions as well as in consideration of their creators’, sponsors’ and own agency. This includes collaborative research with scientists, artists and specialists in the regions of our research on the extraction and processing of materials and related crafts from a socio-technical and socio-religious perspective as well as the study and practice of art. In this way, not only the full scope and spatial context of artistic and technical creation is apprehended but also its aesthetic, functional, political, material and immaterial values and properties, in particular also by including local concepts and terminologies.
The so far unpractised and therefore innovative transdisciplinary study of art, architecture, and resources in socio-religious and economic space enables novel results that have not yet been achieved through approaches of single disciplines. This approach illuminates processes of interaction between art, architecture, materiality, space, and agency. Architectural and spatial anthropology, art-based research, art history, archaeology and exhibition-making, all based on field research and historical, also archival source studies, are essential elements to gain insight into current and past practices of creation.
Multifaceted projects are realised within the scope of this theme. By examining narratives of gender and male hierarchies, the role and understanding of female agency in art, architecture, ritual, image and text will be augmented. In examining communities of practice such as house construction, artisanry and pastoralism, particular attention is given to their socio-technical context of extraction, the processing of material and related crafts, especially in relation to the environment and climate change. Further research questions address how different levels of digging, excavation and resource extraction are perceived by pastoralist societies and which human and non-human agencies are evoked by these actions, and in what ways vernacular architecture is inextricably linked to climate and how it will affect future building technologies.
