Workshop: "Storied [Art] Matter. Methodological Approaches across Material Engagement and Aesthetics" at the the Lechner Museum Ingolstadt, March 25-27, 2026.

The workshop will explore methodological experiments and alternative approaches to narrating material culture, with a particular focus on three-dimensional objects. Participants will examine the stories we tell about materials, as well as the stories that the materials themselves embody, creating a dialogue between material agency and aesthetic interpretation. Through hands-on methodologies such as fieldwork, material science and engagement with materials, alongside ecocritical theoretical frameworks, the event will bring together new approaches to researching the ‘storied matter’ of artistic production.

"[…] the stories of matter are everywhere: in the air we breathe, the food we eat, in the things and beings of this world, within and beyond the human realm. All matter, in other words, is a 'storied matter'."

The above statement, taken from Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann’s book Material Ecocriticism (2014, 19), outlines a theoretical approach involving the understanding of matter as a constant process of shared becoming that sheds light on the ‘world we inhabit’ (19). Materials used to make (art) objects have become the subject of renewed critical attention from artists and researchers alike. Questions concerning the provenance of materials, artistic production and the concept of materials as historical, multispecies assemblages resonate deeply with ecocritical discourses within the environmental humanities. In order to understand materials as expressions of a more-than-human past and present, scholars of art and material culture are combining methods from different disciplines in novel ways. These new research practices challenge traditional narratives about the creation of objects. Materials are no longer viewed as inert matter devoid of history and awaiting artistic shaping. Instead, objects are conceptualised as temporary and fragile assemblages in which more-than-human stories intertwine.

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PROGRAM:

WEDNESDAY, March 25, 2026

18:00 Serpil Oppermann (Cappadocia University): “Artistic Encounters with Storied Matter in the Blue Humanities”, virtual keynote streamed live exclusively to the museum, followed by a Q&A.

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THURSDAY, March 26, 2026

10:00-10.30 Kaja Ninnis/Ursula Ströbele: Welcome and Introduction

10.30-11.30 Olga Smith: Undermining Extractivism as Method

11.30-12.30 Marjolijn Bol: Sticky Material Engagements. Exploring Ontologies and Ecologies of “Glue”

12.30-14.00 Lunch Break

14.00-15.00 Alice Iacobone: Synthetic Becomings. Material Plasticity and the Polyurethanic Plasticene

15.00-16:00 Dominik Bais: Between Material Agency and Industry: On the Material Aesthetics of Alf Lechner

16.00-16.30 Coffee Break

16.30-17.30 Carolin Bohlmann/Ina Jessen: Constantly Expanding: The "Materiality(/ies)" Working Group with a Close-Up on Conservation

17.30-18.30 Aleksandra Lipińska: Forgotten Origins of Alabaster Sculpture? Looking at Art through a Geological Lens

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FRIDAY, March 27, 2026

8.30-9.30 Transfer to the Lechner Sculpture Park in Obereichstätt

9.30-11.00 Reading Session with Olga Smith "Methods for Ecocritical Art History"

11.00-12.30 Site Visit

12.30-13.30 Lunch Break

13.30 End of the workshop
Separate registration is required for this event, as the number of participants is limited to 20.

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The workshop emerges from "Art | Material | Ecology. Working Group for the Study of Material Flows and Ecologies in the Arts" and is organised by Kaja Ninnis and Ursula Ströbele following the invitation of Dominik Bais.

Admission is free.
Please register by March 15, 2026: infolechner-museum.de