Although matter and materiality are intrinsic to the arts and heritage fields, the terms underpinning discourse and practice around its manifestations are arguably more contested than ever. Negotiating terms and their boundaries becomes an essential task when redefining materialities and their past, present, and future. Understanding what matters in material culture and the various disciplines underpinning its study will help us understand decision-making processes regarding the conservation, historicisation, and overall transmission of art and heritage practices.

This seed project aims to set the basis for creating a critical lexicon addressing the diverse ways in which materiality is performed within the arts and heritage fields, and, specifically, in museum practice. It draws on existing efforts to interrogate how we understand matter and knowledge (specifically through posthumanism) to expand the idea of materiality in itself by creating a lexicon. Due to their intrinsic relationship with language (and, therefore, culture and practice), lexicons have particular potential to emerge as critical tools to rehearse forms of situated practice.