The Critical Matter group envisions a future for design that goes beyond the mere application of technology. Instead, it seeks to use technology in more critical and transformative ways—sparking the imagination, provoking conversation, enhancing perception, augmenting social interaction, and empowering voices that have not been heard.
From fashion and art through to architecture and the public realm, the group will develop projects, ranging in scale. These projects will be inspired by the materiality, morphology, and intelligent behavior of natural systems, but will also deploy various advanced technologies, such as computer vision, AI, robotics, digital fabrication and novel material systems. The overall aim is to address pressing social, cultural, and environmental issues of our time.
The term ‘Critical Matter’ carries two intertwined meanings: First, it denotes an inquiry into matter as a form of scientific material research. Second, it points towards critical issues rooted in critical theory, philosophy, and the social sciences. By bridging these two domains, and examining how materials are entangled with broader social, cultural, and environmental questions, Critical Matter highlights the inseparability of materials and meaning.
Within this framework, matter—whether living or non-living—becomes an active participant in shaping identity. Identities are never formed in isolation; they are co-constituted through material engagements. The clothes we wear, the tools we handle, the interfaces we touch, and the environments we inhabit all leave traces that inform how we understand ourselves and how others perceive us. In this sense, identity—whether individual, collective, or relational—is materially mediated.
The Critical Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab explores the emotional, cultural, and social dimensions of material systems. Through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of design, technology, and critical theory, the group investigates how matter can serve not only as a medium for functionality, but also as a vehicle for expression, empathy, and critical transformation.
CRITICAL MATTER RESEARCH THEMES
1. Critical Inquiry
In Critical Matter, we investigate urgent issues through multiple, intersecting lenses:
- Critical theory and critical thinking: situating technologies within broader structures of power, society, and culture, while providing tools to interrogate dominant assumptions and narratives. (Using emotional participatory design, feminism,...)
- Critical design: materializing critique through experiential forms that provoke reflection and dialogue
- Critical feeling: attending to the embodied, affective dimensions of interaction.
Together, these approaches allow us to question not only what technologies do, but also what they mean, for whom they matter, and what futures they make possible.
2. Material Exploration
Interaction is always grounded in matter. Materials are not passive substrates carrying computation, but active participants that sense, morph, and respond. Drawing on philosophical discourse in New Materialism and theories of morphogenesis, we reframe materials as expressive agents, with tendencies, affordances, and capacities to shape form, interaction, and meaning.
We explore:
- Material Morphogenesis & Expressivity
- New materials (eg. biomaterials, advanced textiles, 3D printing, robotics and novel fabrication systems, etc)
- Material Affordances & Affect
- Interactive design strategies that attend to the affective and social dimensions of materials
- Machine perception and sensing matter
This dual emphasis on critical inquiry and material exploration allows us to bring together theory and practice, philosophy and fabrication, to imagine new relationships between matter, meaning in shaping our identity.