Knowing Through Matter: Material Practice and Cultural Epistemology

Oriol, Olga Cuxart

Knowing Through Matter: Material Practice and Cultural Epistemology

James Alexander Gordon on 13th February 2026

Author Information

Olga Cuxart Oriol, Independent Scholar, Spain

Abstract

By examining how material practice generates forms of knowledge that emerge prior to, alongside, and beyond discursive representation, this paper challenges cultural frameworks in which knowledge is primarily understood as symbolic, linguistic, and transferable. Drawing from artistic research and process-based inquiry, it proposes material practice as a cultural site where knowledge is not merely acquired or applied, but actively produced through situated engagement. In this context, matter is not approached as a passive substrate but as a co-constitutive agent within epistemic formation. Knowing arises from irreversible interactions between bodily action, perception, and material response, rather than through symbolic instruction or explanation. Selected examples demonstrate how forms of understanding develop through continuous perceptual recalibration in response to evolving material conditions. Cases including ceramic transformation, Eduardo Chillida’s Peine del Viento XV, and Joan Miró’s Chicago illustrate how making operates through temporal adaptation, technical mediation, and ongoing negotiation with material conditions. By foregrounding material engagement as a form of situated cognition, the paper repositions artistic practice as a legitimate epistemic domain within contemporary artistic research.