Material

Explorations of the many ways of being material in the digital age. In his oracular 1995 book Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte predicted that social relations, media, and commerce would move from the realm of “atoms to bits”—that human affairs would be increasingly untethered from the material world. And yet in 2019, an age dominated by the digital, we have not quite left the material world behind. In Being Material, artists and technologists explore the relationship of the digital to the material, demonstrating that processes that seem wholly immaterial function within material constraints. Digital technologies themselves, they remind us, are material things—constituted by atoms of gold, silver, silicon, copper, tin, tungsten, and more. The contributors explore five modes of being material: programmable, wearable, livable, invisible, and audible. Their contributions take the form of reports, manifestos, philosophical essays, and artist portfolios, among other configurations. The book's cover merges the possibilities of paper with those of the digital, featuring a bookmark-like card that, when “seen” by a smartphone, generates graphic arrangements that unlock films, music, and other dynamic content on the book's website. At once artist's book, digitally activated object, and collection of scholarship, this book both demonstrates and chronicles the many ways of being material. Contributors Christina Agapakis, Azra Akšamija, Sandy Alexandre, Dewa Alit, George Barbastathis, Maya Beiser, Marie-Pier Boucher, Benjamin H. Bratton, Hussein Chalayan, Jim Cybulski, Tal Danino, Deborah G. Douglas, Arnold Dreyblatt, M. Amah Edoh, Michelle Tolini Finamore, Team Foldscope and Global Foldscope community, Ben Fry, Victor Gama, Stefan Helmreich, Hyphen-Labs, Leila Kinney, Rebecca Konte, Winona LaDuke, Brendan Landis, Grace Leslie, Bill Maurer, Lucy McRae, Tom Özden-Schilling, Trevor Paglen, Lisa Parks, Nadya Peek, Claire Pentecost, Manu Prakash,Casey Reas, Paweł Romańczuk, Natasha D. Schüll, Nick Shapiro, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, Evan Ziporyn Book Design: E Roon Kang Electronics, interactions, and product designer: Marcelo Coelho

The fundamental burden of a theory of inductive inference is to determine which are the good inductive inferences or relations of inductive support and why it is that they are so. The traditional approach is modeled on that taken in accounts of deductive inference. It seeks universally applicable schemas or rules or a single formal device, such as the probability calculus. After millennia of halting efforts, none of these approaches has been unequivocally successful and debates between approaches persist. The Material Theory of Induction identifies the source of these enduring problems in the assumption taken at the outset: that inductive inference can be accommodated by a single formal account with universal applicability. Instead, it argues that that there is no single, universally applicable formal account. Rather, each domain has an inductive logic native to it.The content of that logic and where it can be applied are determined by the facts prevailing in that domain. Paying close attention to how inductive inference is conducted in science and copiously illustrated with real-world examples, The Material Theory of Induction will initiate a new tradition in the analysis of inductive inference.

The Material Point Method: A Continuum-Based Particle Method for Extreme Loading Cases systematically introduces the theory, code design, and application of the material point method, covering subjects such as the spatial and temporal discretization of MPM, frequently-used strength models and equations of state of materials, contact algorithms in MPM, adaptive MPM, the hybrid/coupled material point finite element method, object-oriented programming of MPM, and the application of MPM in impact, explosion, and metal forming. Recent progresses are also stated in this monograph, including improvement of efficiency, memory storage, coupling/combination with the finite element method, the contact algorithm, and their application to problems. Provides a user’s guide and several numerical examples of the MPM3D-F90 code that can be downloaded from a website Presents models that describe different types of material behaviors, with a focus on extreme events. Includes applications of MPM and its extensions in extreme events, such as transient crack propagation, impact/penetration, blast, fluid-structure interaction, and biomechanical responses to extreme loading

"An important book, brimming with insight."—Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer A master craftsperson explores the ways in which working with our hands reveals the essence of both our humanity and our relationship with the natural, material world In our present age of computer-assisted design, mass production and machine precision, the traditional skills of the maker or craftsperson are hard to find. Yet the desire for well-made and beautiful objects from the hands (and mind) of a skilled artisan is just as present today as it ever has been. Whether the medium they work with is wood, metal, clay or something else, traditional makers are living links to the rich vein of knowledge and skills that defines our common human heritage. More than this, though, many of us harbor a deep and secret yearning to produce something – to build or shape, to imagine and create our own objects that are imbued not only with beauty and functionality, but with a story and, in essence, a spirit drawn from us. Nick Kary understands this yearning. For nearly four decades he has worked on commission to make fine, distinctive furniture and cabinets from wood, most of it sourced near his home, in the counties of South West England. During this time, he has been both a teacher and a student; one who is fascinated with the philosophy and practice of craft work of all kinds. In Material, Kary takes readers along with him to visit some of the places where modern artisans are preserving, and in some cases passing on, the old craft skills. His vivid descriptions and eye for detail make this book a rich and delightful read, and the natural and cultural history he imparts along the way provides an important context for understanding our own past and the roots of our industrial society. Personal, engaging, and filled with memorable people, landscapes and scenes, Material is a rich celebration of what it means to imagine and create, which in the end is the essence of being human, and native to a place. As Kary puts it, “Wood and words, trees and people, material and ethereal – it is here I love increasingly to dwell.” Perfect for fans of The Hidden Life of Trees or Norwegian Wood, Material is a rich, inspiring read for woodworkers, potters, craftspeople, bibliophiles and anyone who enjoys working with their hands.

This book is designed as a software-based lab book to complement a standard textbook in a mechanics of material course, which is usually taught at the undergraduate level. This book can also be used as an auxiliary workbook in a CAE or Finite Element Analysis course for undergraduate students. Each book comes with a disc containing video demonstrations, a quick introduction to SOLIDWORKS, and all the part files used in the book. This textbook has been carefully developed with the understanding that CAE software has developed to a point that it can be used as a tool to aid students in learning engineering ideas, concepts and even formulas. These concepts are demonstrated in each section of this book. Using the graphics-based tools of SOLIDWORKS Simulation can help reduce the dependency on mathematics to teach these concepts substantially. The contents of this book have been written to match the contents of most mechanics of materials textbooks. There are 14 chapters in this book. Each chapter is designed as one week’s workload, consisting of 2 to 3 sections. Each section is designed for a student to follow the exact steps in that section and learn a concept or topic of mechanics of materials. Typically, each section takes 15-40 minutes to complete the exercises. Each copy of this book comes with a disc containing videos that demonstrate the steps used in each section of the book, a 123 page introduction to Part and Assembly Modeling with SOLIDWORKS in PDF format, and all the files readers may need if they have any trouble. The concise introduction to SOLIDWORKS pdf is designed for those students who have no experience with SOLIDWORKS and want to feel more comfortable working on the exercises in this book. All of the same content is available for download on the book’s companion website.

The ability to measure and manipulate matter on the nanometer level is making possible a new generation of materials with enhanced mechanical, optical, transport and magnetic properties. This important book summarises key developments in nanotechnology and their impact on the processing of metals, polymers, composites and ceramics. After a brief introduction, a number of chapters discuss the practical issues involved in the commercial production and use of nanomaterials. Other chapters review ways of nanoengineering steel, aluminium and titanium alloys. Elsewhere the book discusses the use of nanoengineered metal hydrides to store hydrogen as an energy source, and the development of nanopolymers for batteries and other energy storage devices. Other chapters discuss the use of nanotechnology to enhance the toughness of ceramics, the production of synthetic versions of natural materials such as bone, and the development of nanocomposites. Nanostructure control of materials is an ideal introduction to the ways nanotechnology is being used to create new materials for industry. It will be welcomed by R&D managers in such sectors as automotive engineering as well as academics working in this exciting area. Reviews key developments in nanotechnology and their impact on various materials Edited by leading experts in the field