Little has been written about the specific and complex environments of the studio and the art school. A ‘material culture’ approach to art and design can throw light on the multi-materiality of works of art and design, and on the affective resonances of artefacts. We complied this special issue of the journal 'Studies in material thinking' with particular focus the multisensorial and affective materialities in relation to the objects, meanings and practices of art and design and art education. While many writers have noted that the multi-sensual aspect of material culture is also that which resists attempts of narration or rationalisation, we discuss how this raises particular concerns within some of the less well theorised or observed fields of art and design, where practitioners may themselves believe that ‘theory’ is not part of practice. We examine the formation of identity also, as art school students can be thought of as self-fashioning professionals, young adults engaged in varying processes of self-creation and self-narration through material practices. we examine the continuous appropriation within the art school of vernacular cultures, and the repurposing of various amateur practices.
We introduce the issues and debates in a collection of critical reflections that bring together the study of material culture with that of affect, aesthetics, and politics in a cross-disciplinary dialogue, engaging theorists and artists, thinkers, makers and collectors/connoisseurs of objects.