Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time

Sep 10 2024 19 ep. 36 mins 232
Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time Podcast artwork

Stories of the materials used in making art are often as thought-provoking and illuminating as the objects themselves. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Immaterial examines the materials of art and what they can reveal about history and humanity. Each episode looks at a single material: paper, clay, jade, shells, and others, exploring the qualities and meanings that are often overlooked.

  Arts
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Time: Keeping Digital Art Alive

Sep 10 2024 37 mins  
How do art conservators save video art from obsolescence? If a painting on canvas rips or a marble sculpture shatters to pieces, art conservators are trained to respond accordingly and repair it. Artworks that unfold over time – like videos and software based works – are a different thing altogether. These artworks are made using cutting-edge technologies that are constantly be

Wood: The Most Musical Tree in the World

Aug 27 2024 41 mins  
How did one tree become a world-famous tonewood for guitars? Deep in the forests of Belize, a wood importer from Florida discovered a rare tree that produced a sound unlike anything guitar virtuosos had ever heard before. But why does this material cast such a spell? And at what cost does that come? Guests: Ellen Ruppel Shell, journalist Ken Parker, luthier Reuben Forsland, luthie

Trash: The Archaeology of Rubbish

Aug 13 2024 34 mins  
An archaeologist and an artist walk into a dump… For most of us, we throw our garbage to the curb, and it disappears from our lives. But to some, that’s just the beginning of trash’s story. In this episode, we follow two people who seek the truth in trash—an archaeologist who excavates ancient rubbish in Turkmenistan and an artist who spotlights the people responsible for

Chia: Beyond Superfoods and Infomercials

Jul 30 2024 44 mins  
What can the tiny chia seed reveal about the history of oil painting? For centuries, one of the most prized mediums of art at museums like the Met has been oil painting, a European tradition embodied by the so-called "old masters." This is the story of how the oil of the chia seed — yes, the same one that’s a staple add-on for smoothies and acai bowls — and its origins in Mex

Blankets and Quilts: Threads of Identity

Jul 16 2024 40 mins  
What happens when our most intimate possessions end up in art museums? Blankets comfort and keep us warm. They accompany us through our lives. They are keepers of some of our most intimate stories. We look at a group of artists who harness this power of blankets and quilts as totems for memory, community and cultural survival. Guests: Loretta Pettway Bennett, Gee's Bend quilt maker

Space, Part 2: Behind the Scenes at The Met

Jul 02 2024 38 mins  
What is hidden in the 'empty' spaces of an art museum? The Met is more than a museum of art. It is a city unto itself: population 2,000, with a transient population of 5 million. The Met is 21 buildings nested together like puzzle pieces, and it takes 400,000 light bulbs to illuminate all the spaces. But who actually changes those light bulbs? In this episode, peek behind the curta

Space, Part 1: Giving Form to a Feeling

Jun 18 2024 32 mins  
How does an artist give presence to absence? Bronze, wood, paint, and stone—classic materials for art making. But what if you're trying and struggling to convey a vast expanse, a terrible loss or a haunting presence? In this episode we'll look at two artists who turned to the material of space to express what nothing else could. Guests: Rachel Whiteread, sculptor Brinda Kumar, As

Stone: Making and Breaking Legacies

Jun 04 2024 42 mins  
What happens when the unbreakable breaks? Throughout art museums around the world, you’ll find ancient stone statues of rulers and marble monuments immortalizing noblemen. These objects were made to survive decay and destruction, to remain intact and whole. But from the moment that stone is extracted from the earth, it is bound to become a more fragmented version of itself–chis

Introducing: Immaterial Season 2

May 21 2024 2 mins  
What is hiding in the material choices of artists and makers? Immaterial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s marquee podcast, is back with eight more episodes that reveal the emotional origins and transformative power of art through the lens of materials. This season we learn from Mexican artisans keeping centuries-old traditions alive; we go to ancient Mesopotamia to understand ti

Bonus Episode: Tarot

Sep 14 2022 26 mins  
Grab a cup of tea and join us for a bonus episode on tarot.