The Efficacy of Intimacy and Belief in Worldmaking Practices

“Crossing continents and disciplines, and fundamentally concerned to examine practices of worldmaking, this engaging volume maintains a remarkable unity of purpose. It succeeds admirably in troubling long-standing assumptions about self and subjectivity, proximity and distance, and brings a superbly comparative sensibility to the challenging task of exploring fraught intersections between materiality, experience, and belief. In doing so, it makes us reflect in new and sophisticated ways about something that we thought we knew best, but which we perhaps did not know at all: intimacy.” - Simon Coleman, Anthropologist and Chancellor Jackman Professor, University of Toronto

“This important collection of globally arrayed essays argues for the materialization of belief. Whereas it had become a commonplace that “belief” meant something narrowly Christian—an interior state of volition keyed to creeds or doctrines—this book explores belief in the intimacy of bodies, practices, and material culture broadly understood. The impressive result will help change the conversation. The authors encourage readers to think about belief as part of the spectrum of agencies that propel human behavior—from within and from without. This is a very welcome contribution of original work.” - David Morgan, Duke University

“In this volume artists, scholars, and practitioners use the theoretical framework of “efficacious intimacy” to explore relationships between the body, materials, and belief. With the diversity of perspectives presented, makers from all disciplines will have access to new ways of thinking about their own making, and how a proximate and intimate act resonates beyond the immediate object or action. This collection of essays resists the separation of art from life, situates it firmly within generative experience, and presents new ways of relating to both the natural and built world.” - Wendy Weiss, Professor Emerita, Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln