Material plasticity: an essay in counter-morphology

"Plasticity is receiving much attention in contemporary debates, especially those at the crossroads of biology and philosophy. Often described through sculptural metaphors, it is generally approached through the lens of human subjectivity. But what happens when we shift attention from the plastic brain to plaster, from subjectivity to the artist's workshop? By recovering the material, artistic, and technical meanings of plasticity, this book offers a new perspective on the concept - one that examines wax, marble, glass, plastics as privileged vectors of plasticity. If plasticity is a category about form and matter, rethinking it through artistic and artisanal practices means calling into question our understanding of both: matter is diffracted into a multiplicity of materials while form is countered by the figure of the imprint. This alternative plasticity, as the key concept of a counter-morphology and a material aesthetics, does not deny form or matter: it rather forces both to concretize"-- Provided by publisher.