Zoe Laughlin

Performativity
Materials perform. Stuff is constantly getting up to things. Matter is doing all of the time, at varying scales of time and space, in order to exist and generate the world of objects. Reference to performance, the performative and the performativity of matter is done to draw attention to this –the agency of materials. With performance describing both the act and quality of a ‘doing’, it is embraced here as both a theatrical reference point and engineering qualifier. Imagine what would be considered as a high, poor or specialised performance material for either discipline. 
(Extract from Beyond the Swatch, Zoe Laughlin, 2010, p359, 2010.)