1st Edition

Surfaces Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth

Edited By Mike Anusas, Cristián Simonetti Copyright 2020
208 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

208 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

208 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

In attending to surfaces, as they wrap, layer and grow within sentient bodies, material formations and cosmological states, this volume presents a series of ten anthropological studies stretching across five continents and in observation of earthly practices of making, knowing, living and dying. Through theoretically reflecting on time spent with Aymara and Mapuche Andean cultures; the... Read more

1 Introduction: turning to surfaces

Mike Anusas and Cristián Simonetti

2 On opening the book of surfaces

Tim Ingold

3 Air, smoke and fumes in Aymara and Mapuche rituals

Juan Carlos Skewes and Debbie Guerra

4 In light and shadow: surfaces and polarities in rituals of second burial in Central East Madagascar

Christel Mattheeuws

5 Re-animating skin: probing the surface in taxidermic practice

Petra Tjitske Kalshoven

6 The temporality of surfaces

Cristián Simonetti

7 Threshold as social surface

Ray Lucas

8 Vital surfaces and the making of urban architecture

Anuradha Chatterjee

9 On the substance of surfaces: situating materials and design in Melanesian environments

Graeme Were

10 On knitted surfaces-in-the-making

Lydia Maria Arantes

11 A life surficial: design and beyond

Mike Anusas

12 Epilogue

Susanne Küchler

Biography

Mike Anusas is Lecturer in Design & Screen Cultures, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. Originally having trained and worked as a designer and engineer, he retrained as a social anthropologist to teach and research at the intersection of design and anthropology, exploring relationships between skilled practices, form-making and environmental perception.

Cristián Simonetti is Assistant Professor in Anthropology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His work concentrates on how bodily gestures and environmental forces relate to notions of time in science, the topic of a monograph he published in 2018 also with Routledge, entitled Sentient Conceptualisations. Feeling for Time in the Sciences of the Past.