EcoMat Methodology: Artistic Creation of Emerging Biobased Materials (EBMs)

Abstract

In the post-pandemic context, marked by a resurgence of formalism and performative practices within the museum sphere, this article introduces the EcoMat methodology, a strategy for developing emerging bio-based materials (EBMs) from an artistic and sustainable perspective. Inspired by the Material Tinkering (MT) and Material-Driven Design (MDD) approaches, EcoMat seeks to rethink the relationship between humans and matter through an ethic of environmental care, articulating a research-creation model that integrates artistic inquiry, material experimentation and knowledge generation. 

As a case study, the article examines the research project Material Ecology: Interspecies Biomaterialities in the Framework of Science, Art and Technology [EcoMat], in which a methodology is developed that reinterprets error, contingency and chance as creative catalysts. This methodological proposal draws on Wilfrid Sellars’ critical realism, the pedagogical precedents of the Bauhaus and Vkhutemas, the legacies of Process Art and Land Art, as well as contemporary collaborative practices. The process involves experimentation with organic waste, the classification of materials by format and the systematic cataloguing of results.

The findings suggest that materials themselves can act as an active agent in the generation of form and meaning, challenging the traditional creation–application paradigm and opening new pathways towards an artistic practice grounded in the interaction between matter and subject. In this sense, EcoMat introduces a methodological innovation by positioning artistic practice as a space for material and ecological transformation, where aesthetic experimentation intertwines with environmental, scientific and technological research.