Following Materials

Following materials is the operational core of Ingold's critique of hylomorphism. Instead of the blueprint-first sequence, in which the maker conceives the form and then executes it, following materials describes a different sequence: the maker enters into engagement with the medium, attends to what it does, responds to its resistances and offerings, and lets the form emerge from the interaction. The potter follows the clay's moisture, its plasticity, its tendency to sag. The boat builder follows the grain of the larch. The weaver follows the tension of the warp. In each case, the maker has intentions and directions, but the specific form of the artifact is produced through the following, not specified before it. This is not passivity. It is a specific mode of active engagement — what Ingold, following Heidegger, calls attending — in which the maker's agency is exercised through responsiveness rather than through command.