Abstract
During highly polarized times, issues are quickly addressed in ways that emphasize divisions. To support the healing of our polarized culture through art, new materialist theory as presented by Karen Barad and Rosi Braidotti will be entangled with art and artmaking according to Dennis Atkinson and Makoto Fujimura to argue for art as an act of environmental and cultural stewardship, creating new possibilities and differences in the virtual that are merciful, graceful, and hopeful. To form this argument, first a summary of new materialism and ethics through Agential Realism and Affirmative Ethics is addressed. Next, a cartography including scientific and theological perspectives is presented for a diffractive reading regarding the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope to develop a new materialist understanding through a philosophy of immanence to counter the circular perpetuation of violence. These concepts are then individually addressed through the proposed new materialist framework to further break from material-discursive dualistic thought. This approach is then explored through various artworks to investigate the co-constructing material-discursive nature of art to create new relations and possibilities in the world. Finally, an in-depth study of the artworks Becoming Us by Megan Constance Altieri and Teeter-Totter Wall by Ronald Rael are addressed to detail how a new materialist approach to art that focuses on the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope can position art as an act of stewardship.
Highlights
We are living in highly divisive times where political, religious, and environmental conversations are quickly polarized (Pew Research Center 2020; Schaeffer 2020)
To engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue regarding ethical behavior, the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope are addressed from a new materialist perspective, presenting a theoretical bridge for scientific and theological worldviews to begin mending current cultural divisions by focusing on immanence and becoming
It should be recognized that the act itself of addressing language from multiple theoretical foundations that include new materialism presents natural limitations to the understanding of language and identity. In spite of these limitations, it is through these discussions that the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope can begin to temporarily align across domains, allowing for implications within the arts to be actualized
Summary
We are living in highly divisive times where political, religious, and environmental conversations are quickly polarized (Pew Research Center 2020; Schaeffer 2020). Since the focus of this article is to propose how art can heal cultural divisions by making differences in the world, the differences made need to counter the circular perpetuation of hate, anger, and violence (Butler 2020); merciful, graceful, and hopeful differences are needed These terms will be diffractively read through their reflective secular and theological understandings in order to develop a new materialist understanding of what differences mercy, grace, and hope create within a philosophy of immanence. Through this approach, various worldviews can engage with artwork in a way to bring about new understandings which supports the healing our highly polarized culture. In this final section, Becoming Us by Megan Constance Altieri and the Teeter-Totter Wall by Ronald Rael and supporting artists are discussed to clarify how artworks can simultaneously exemplify mercy, grace, and hope for cultural and environmental stewardship
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