This text is the introduction of M. Finke & K. Nakas, Fluidity : Materials in Motion, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag GmbH, 2022, 320 p. It is freely available online here.
Fluidity is a common material phenomenon. We encounter it countless times every single day : for instance, when taking a shower, pouring milk into our cereal bowl, drinking a cup of tea, washing the dishes, watering plants, stepping into fog, refuelling the car, and so forth. Fluid phenomena may be familiar, but they are by no means trivial. Examples of the wide-ranging nature, significant consequences, and manifold intricacies of fluidity abound. As we were preparing this volume, the news was awash with innumerable instances of fluid issues that constitute and affect the world we inhabit : There are the melting glaciers, rising sea levels, changing atmospheric flows, and the slowdown of ocean circulation systems due to global warming. Moreover, we were experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, reminding us of the correlations between aerosols, the dissemination of diseases, and fossil-fuelled mobility on a planetary scale. Rivers burst their banks, flooding wns, leaving behind swathes of destruction, and claiming human and non-human lives. A container ship jammed the Suez Canal, interrupting supply chains and the global movement of materials and goods. Elsewhere, sewage polluted with fertilisers and the stagnation of water currents stimulated massive algae blooms and the production of marine mucilage, causing the extinction of sea life. Endocrine disruptors and antibiotics seeped into the environment, polluting groundwater and food products, eventually jeopardising the health of living beings. Waste disposal, broken pipelines, or exploding warehouses brought about the leakage and dispersion of toxic chemicals. The list could go on and on (cf. Chen et al. 2013 : 4–5). The study of fluidity, however, should not be limited to such cases of ecological disasters and hazardous material events ; and it is not only a subject of the natural sciences, either. There is way more to fluidity, since above all, it is about materials in motion – materials active and activated, mobile and mobilised, activating and mobilising. What this volume therefore suggests is a kind of critical cultural rheology that draws a bigger and more differentiated picture of the material complexities, ecological dimensions, political ramifications, and epistemic functions of fluidity.
The image we have chosen for the cover of our publication shows one of the most archaic and sublime representations of fluidity (Figure 1.1). It is a photograph of glowing lava as it flows from Kīlauea volcano on Big Island, Hawaii. In this case, fluidity is a powerful natural phenomenon relentlessly changing and forming the environment. These streams of molten rock might help to develop a more complex understanding of fluidity, particularly with regard to the mobility and mobilisation of materials. First of all, the lava draws attention to the fact that the differences between the fluid and the solid, between flow and stasis are only gradual. [...]
