Assignment #4 Jonathan V. 1
"With its acknowledgement of agential matter, neo-materialism questions the anthropocentric narrative that has underpinned our view of humans-in-the-world since the enlightenment, a view that posits humans as makers of the world and the world as a resource for human endeavors."
-Barbara Bolt, “Toward a New Materialism Through the Arts” in Carnal Knowledge, page 2.
Bolt begins her article by questioning the need for a return to materialism, a movement she says died with the birth of humanistic worldviews associated with the enlightenment. In the above quote, she presents the challenge that neo-materialism poses to the human/non-human binary central to enlightenment thinking. According to Bolt, humanism sees humans as makers of the world and the world as a resource for humans. She cautions that “the idea that the world is a passive resource for use by active humans is no longer sustainable.” Because of this, neo-materialism rejects humanism and instead focuses on the role matter plays within human creations. With this definition of neo-materialism in mind, Bolt applies the notion of agential matter to the arts, with a special emphasis on film and visual arts.