Experimental Approaches to Energtic Materials

TY - CONF

T1 - Experimental Approaches to Energtic Materials

AU - Lushetich, Natasha

N1 - Conference code: 3rd

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - The production and use of materials accounts for approximately 45% of global warming emissions. Although it is clear that transforming how materials are made, used and recycled will be key to reducing the risk of further aggravating climate change (UN 2024), we have reached an impasse. There is no shortage of ‘intelligent’ polymers, thermoelectric and semiconducting materials. Yet none of these materials are adaptive or sustainable enough, nor can they ‘learn from experience’. In other words: they are not intelligent enough. This is at odds with the vast history of Indigenous design, one example of which is the Alaskan use of ‘intelligent’ intestines for clothes that communicate their durability through differences in released grease. Another is the more recent art-science work, coming from labs such as The Multispecies Futures Lab at UCLA and from SymbioticA, University of Western Australia. Comparing select examples of Indigenous design with recent art-science inventions, this paper does three things: a) it explores the energetic potential of ‘internal’ organic materials; b) it projects these explorations into the next three decades; and c) it examines the social and ethical concerns surrounding the use of such materials.

AB - The production and use of materials accounts for approximately 45% of global warming emissions. Although it is clear that transforming how materials are made, used and recycled will be key to reducing the risk of further aggravating climate change (UN 2024), we have reached an impasse. There is no shortage of ‘intelligent’ polymers, thermoelectric and semiconducting materials. Yet none of these materials are adaptive or sustainable enough, nor can they ‘learn from experience’. In other words: they are not intelligent enough. This is at odds with the vast history of Indigenous design, one example of which is the Alaskan use of ‘intelligent’ intestines for clothes that communicate their durability through differences in released grease. Another is the more recent art-science work, coming from labs such as The Multispecies Futures Lab at UCLA and from SymbioticA, University of Western Australia. Comparing select examples of Indigenous design with recent art-science inventions, this paper does three things: a) it explores the energetic potential of ‘internal’ organic materials; b) it projects these explorations into the next three decades; and c) it examines the social and ethical concerns surrounding the use of such materials.

UR - https://materialsworld.scientifink.com/speakers/

M3 - Other

T2 - Materials World 2025

Y2 - 24 April 2025 through 26 April 2025

ER -