What is Materializing?

Learn about one of the foundational Emotion-Centered Design methodologies used at Matter–Mind Studio.

Materializing is a process researchers and designers use to make emotions visible and tangible. The purpose of practicing Materializing is to support individuals in making visible their complex inner experiences that would otherwise go unseen.

An important ethic for a researcher or designer facilitating a Materializing process is to leave the degree of what’s shared exclusively in the participants’ hands. It is up to them to decide how much they share, in what ways, and if at all. This process is not designed to extract information that participants are not prepared or willing to share.

Use Cases

In the lookbook featuring Tools for Emotion-Centered Design, there are seven visual use cases showing how Materializing can be practiced in four different formats:

• Sit-Down Workshop
  [Sitting down together] to make emotions visible and tangible
• In-Depth and Long Term
  [Phases of work] to make emotions visible and tangible
• Installation
  [Installing objects] to make emotions visible and tangible
• Do-It-Yourself
  [Mix and match exercises] to make emotions visible and tangible

A brief history of the term, Materializing

2012

The term, as it is used in research and design, was first published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at an academic research conference and a design conference in 2014. It was developed in 2012 and published after two years of research as part of Myriam Diatta’s research thesis.

The design term was defined in the context of a research project in collaboration with a family therapy program.

In Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, parents need the straightforwardness and solidity they have in therapy and metaphorically ‘bring it home’ with them. What this Materializing phase addresses is, ‘What if this wasn’t just a figure of speech What if they could literally ‘bring’ their therapy skills home?’ I first thought of a way to take the essence of each skill and represent it visually and symbolically. This way, parents wouldn’t be using their memory skills at home, but their visual skills.

This translation is actually a capacity most spatial designers are trained to have early on in their education. By this, I’m referring to the design exercise where you take an abstract concept or term like ‘movement’ for example, and though the basic principles of design come up with several visual forms that represent ‘movement.’ As part of Material Communications, this is how Materializing works.

2016

We added the term to Matter–Mind Studio’s Glossary of Terms.

To translate an intangible concept or sentiment and convert it into physical objects.

2017

Here’s how we described Materializing at a conference workshop.

People build sentimental connections to objects and particular spaces, but further, people actually think through the physical qualities objects have. By that, we’re referring to how satisfying and easy people find it to connect colors, weight, temperature, size, texture to very personal experiences.

Trying to find the “universal” color for happiness or safety, for instance, isn’t interesting or useful. What is rich and substantive is the way Materializing facilitates conversations. In the Physical Emotion Booth, a participant has to talk about their decision for choosing this texture or this composition and may debate it with someone who disagrees about why exactly, for example, the personal experience of ‘learning’ is prickly, not warm.