Articulating Novelty in Science and Art

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XII

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2. Introduction, Study Design, and Theory

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13

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   2. Novelty and Technological Objects

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 15-70

3. Analysis: Three Articulations of Novelty

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 71-71

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   2. Identity: How Loose Elements are Connected

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 73-105

   3. Form: How Materials Become Effective

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 107-160

   4. Difference: How Categories are Valorized

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 161-217

4. Discussion and Conclusions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-219

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   2. The Aesthetic Reflexivity of Material Practice

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 221-232

   3. Articulating Novelty

      • Julian Stubbe

      Pages 233-247

5. Back Matter

   Pages 249-257

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Julian Stubbe aims at characterizing what novelty is in the becoming of objects and how the new becomes part of a shared reality. The study’s method is comparative and concerned with technological practice in science as well as in art. It draws on a detailed comparison of two cases: the becoming of a robotic hand made from silicone, and the genesis of a media art installation that renders visible changes in the earth’s magnetic field. In contrast to the canon of sociological innovation studies, which regard novelty as what actors in the field label as new or innovation, the author attempts to delineate certain shifts in an object’s becoming that individuate an object and render its difference visible. This entails attending the enactment of novelty through cultural imaginaries and narratives about technologies, as well as acknowledging the shifts in technical forms that make loose elements enter a new kind of circularity. From this perspective, novelty is an articulation: when differences are not contradicting, but when differing characteristics are aligned, fitted, and click in so as to appear and behave as a distinct entity.

 

• Innovation Society
• Reflexivity
• Imaginaries
• Future Studies
• Actor-Network-Theory
• Gilbert Simondon

• Berlin, Germany

  Julian Stubbe

Dr. Julian Stubbe currently works as scientific consultant in the field of demographic change and future research.

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