Entangled Matter: Thinking Differently about Materials in Design

What role do materials play in the communication of information in a public space? In this article we look at a metro station in Oslo and focus on how and where messages, such as posters, graffiti, and commercial advertisements, are connected to the station’s surfaces. How to understand this relationship between materials, surfaces, and messages? In a discussion of representational and ecological perspectives on the properties of materials, we propose to understand the station as a zone of entanglement. This enables us to see how the realities of the station, including the properties of its materials, are constantly produced in the practices of the people who use the station. This understanding of materials presents design not only as a non-deterministic practice, but challenges us to design for not yet known uses. Making future uses possible should be based on ongoing engaged and entangled design practices today.