Matéria (in)tangível : entre o infinitamente grande e o ínfimo que aprofunda

The present doctoral study arises from the questioning about the material boundary conditions of sculpture through human perception and incorporating optical instruments, taking into account the role of social representations. In this context, instead of focusing on a positivist perspective related to cutting-edge instruments that allow us to identify and manipulate increasingly larger or smaller matter, we undertake a systemic approach that brings to light epistemological questions arising from the intertwining between art and science. As a basis for these premises, and from a theoretical-practical point of view, we adopt a triangulation approach: a) theoretical reflection (an analysis about the evolution of the concept of matter in art and science from Classical Antiquity to Contemporaneity); b) artistic practice (which focuses on three vectors of the relationship between human beings and matter: without the use of optical and digital instruments; through technological devices as an orthosis of human perception; ontological and epistemological confluences of a human being who is part of nature and, in parallel, relates to the world through technique); c) empirical research (from semi-structured interviews with artists and scientists who work and reflect about materiality). From this triangulation process, we propose the hypothesis of expansion of the material boundary conditions of sculpture beyond the notion of scale, especially denoting an intermaterialism that is expressed as a continuum of material transactions between the body and the world and, additionally, as a process of awareness that the human being is a material entity that forms cultural realitie