Vital materialism is a branch of posthuman philosophy contending that all matter, including non-human objects, has a liveliness no matter how inanimate such objects appear. One proponent of this radical, materialist school of thought is Jane Bennett – author of Vibrant Matter (2010) – who, instead of asking what something is, asks what it can do. This is to say that objects have the capacity to produce effects within the network of relationships they are involved with.
Think of the relationships people have with their favourite pair of shoes or perhaps the loving effects produced by the giving of a present to a significant other. In a similar sense, 21-year-old Hanne Zaruma creates a new life of vitality for technologies the world had all but forgotten, by utilising them in her practice. Commanding we see the magic in these everyday things, Zaruma discusses with METAL her creative expression alongside her potential career pathways.