Sociolegal model making 5: Material metaphorization

Sociolegal model making 5 Material metaphorization from Amanda Perry-Kessaris on Vimeo.

This is the fifth in a series of experiments (see the first, second, third, fourth, sixth,  seventh and eighth) investigating how modelling can be used in econosociolegal research processes.

It is an extension of a collaborative project that I completed with Andy Renmei as part of our MA in Graphic Media Design at London College of Communication.

That project centred on an interview with Zoe Laughlin, materials scientist/designer and co-founder/director of The Institute of Making at University College London. The project focused on the potential of a materials-based gaze to ‘fire imagination and advance conceptualisation’ by considering the physical properties of materials as metaphors for the concept of social transformation.

This experiment is intended to explore the idea of material metaphorization specifically as a sociolegal research method:

• The physical properties of bioactive glass scaffold are reinterpreted as the properties of law and legal systems.
• The human body into which this material is designed to be implanted is reinterpreted as social life.
• The processes by which the glass scaffold is integrated into the human body are reinterpreted as the social change and the internalisation of norms.
• A link is made between the functional and aesthetic promise of bioactive glass scaffold and that of international legal development work.