Note:

You do not have to read the text in this colour, but these texts can help you to understand the significance of this toolkit. The designer expects that everyone can enjoy this toolkit and can construct their knowledge by playing this toolkit, even though they are not interested in theory.

This toolkit has no limit on the maximum number of people. But the time limit is designed for 2 players, so if there are more or less players, please change the time limit.

Examples are provided to aid your understanding. If you understand what you need to do, please refrain from consulting examples and develop your ideas freely. Please do not rely on them.

If you would prefer to proceed via online video conference. Please start only after reviewing STEP 5.

Preparation: 

• Some friends (better), you can play alone as well；
• A space (where you can sit around and leave an empty ground or table among you);
• Bring any types of stone that are related to your daily life or culture.

(You might take note when you’re out and about, and collect stones of various sizes, shapes, and colours to bring back. Try to find different kinds of stones, crystals, gemstones, minerals, or processed minerals, such as bullets(Processed copper ore) or concrete spalling from buildings that are good as well.)

Step 1: Find the position of the stone (2 mins)

• Exhaust your knowledge and imagination to describe the role stones play in your understanding. Select one to form the foundation of this toolkit. Actually, you may also decide upon your choice of stone before you begin. Please do not rely on the examples provided below. Whenever possible, select the role of stones within a cultural context or perspective with which you are familiar.

（e.g.,

If you wish to demonstrate the emergence of stone from an ancient perspective, consider how stones were displayed/ appreciated (e.g., Taihu stones, rockeries, necklaces and bracelets), how people worked stone (e.g., crafting chipped stone tools, creating sculptures, constructing buildings and walls, inscribing steles), which rituals employed stones (e.g., divination, cursing, prayer), and which stones served as medicinal ingredients (e.g., China’s five-stone powder).

If you wish to illustrate how stones appear from a modern perspective, consider how we process and utilise various stones (such as crafting jewellery for adornment, refining them into conductive materials, smelting iron and steel, forging weapons, producing concrete, creating artificial bones), and any other forms you can conceive that manifest in daily life.

If you wish to adopt a non-human perspective, you might consider what role stones play in nature (how they interact with other animals, or how their stresses and geological transformations might be viewed as a form of agency, and so forth).

•  A concrete image will be helpful. If you can sketch it out, a simple draft is good enough.

Step 2: Introduction (3mins)

Please reflect deeply and describe to your peers why the stone appears in this form, and what underlying culture or ideology prompted its creation in this manner.

Step 3: Select stones (1min)

• Select any number of stones to ensure you can construct an object or scene representing the sketch you have drawn. You do not have to create a perfect 1:1 representation; a rough indication will suffice.

Step 4: Think and communicate (5 mins)

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” —— Wittgenstein

Do not merely imagine them in your mind; writing them down will help you and your companions understand one another.

• Try to list what kind of feature the stone has that can be used for.

(e.g., crystals possess the characteristic of transparency, thus they may be observed and employed to refract light; alternatively, crystals may exhibit distinctive hues, enabling them to evoke particular emotions.）

We can call these capacities “affordance“, which was defined as “a specific combination of the properties of its substance and its surfaces taken with reference to an animal”(Gibson 1979).

• Try to describe how the cultural background interprets stones’ affordance.

(e.g., Transparent substances that refract light are often regarded as possessing the capacity to enable the mind to perceive phenomena beyond dimensions by means of ‘transparency’.(Theissen 2019), Thus, transparent crystal is regarded as capable of connecting humanity with deeper realities. )

Borghi’s research (2021) argues that the way we respond to affordances can be influenced by the characteristics of the physical environments we experience in our cultural milieu. He demonstrates how our thinking and perception of affordances are projections of cultural context. In this toolkit, we shall blend diverse perceptions of stones by combining their affordances from multiple perspectives, thereby recontextualising culture, creating a third space that hybridises with modernity. (Bhabha 2012).In other words, affordance is not something that inherently dictates to everyone how to use an object; rather, people learn and are trained within their own cultural conventions to ‘perceive’ certain uses. Consequently, different cultures discover distinct possibilities within the same object.

• Consider how these affordances become fixed into specific cultural functions or uses.

(e.g., crystal becomes a tool for divination.)

• Introduce these notes you’ve written to your companions.

• If you want to play this toolkit along. You can try to consider the affordance from your ancient culture perspective and science perspective, or do some research on other cultures. 

Step 5: Mix (9 mins)

In the previous step, we analysed how materiality provides possibilities for action within culture, and how culture in turn shapes the possibilities of action through which we interact with materiality.

In this step, we shall attempt to create a hybrid culture by ‘consuming’ the possibilities offered by other cultures (De Castro 2015).

• Select one of your companions’ content.

For example:

These contents should have been completed in the previous step. You just need to select one.

Your idea:

Taihu stones are used as ornamental objects.

Cultural Logic:

In traditional Chinese cosmology, qi is the fundamental energy or vital force that constitutes all things in the universe. The fundamental topography of the cosmos—mountains, rivers, and valleys—is formed by the condensation of qi, serving to gather, channel, and transform energy. Therefore, the flow of qi is regarded as the order governing the universe’s operation.

The intricate, undulating contours of Taihu stones form miniature topographical structures regarded as microcosms of mountains and rivers, while their porous composition is perceived as conduits guiding the passage of air currents. These characteristics enable Taihu stones to be interpreted as visualised miniature cosmic models, thereby rendering them worthy of contemplation.

Your peer’s idea:

Crystals can be used for divination

Cultural rationale:

Throughout European history, transparent substances have long been associated with clarity and truth; thus, the more transparent a substance, the more readily it reveals reality. In Christianity, it is solely the manner of God’s manifestation; thus, transparent substances can bear and reveal the divine light. Thus, the crystalline transparency’s property, serving as a medium for light propagation, is interpreted as capable of revealing divine messages and is therefore regarded as solidified sacred water.

• Analyse the similarities and differences between your peer’s approach to interpreting the cultural availability of stones and the one you have proposed.

For example:

Similarities:

In both perspectives, the unseen is regarded as the authentic essence underpinning the world’s functioning.

Differences:

Taihu Stone: Perceives matter as the authentic projection of the world’s true existence, discerning the cosmic order through close observation and tactile experience.

Crystal: Regards matter as an instrumental medium for understanding the world, pursuing truth through ritualistic practices.)

• Attempt to explain the logic of viewing stones in the culture you propose, using the logic of viewing stones in the culture your peer proposes.

For example:

Flowing water embodies the essence of flowing qi, while a crystal is regarded as sacred water in a solid state. Thus, a crystal may be perceived as solidified qi. Crystal itself becomes the vessel for a ‘microcosm’—a realm where light (divine information) flows and manifests. The process of light passing through and refracting within the crystal resembles ‘qi currents traversing Taihu stones’, serving as the pathway through which material structures reveal intangible energies (or divine information). Crystals may be understood as the European cultural equivalent of a ‘microcosmic model’. Their transparent crystalline structure, much like the undulating topography of Taihu stones, guides the flow of divine light, enabling sacred information to manifest and be perceived. Thus, the sacredness attributed to crystals stems not merely from their transparency, but from their capacity—much like Taihu stones—to visualise invisible forces (here, divine light), allowing observers to experience cosmic or divine order.

• Please consider how the availability of the stones your peer selected might be interpreted under this explanation.

For example:

Crystals are substances capable of guiding the propagation of light. Through the refraction of light, the observer may experience the cosmic order. Thus, crystals may be interpreted as tools that can be employed to reveal the cosmic order.

• Consider how this availability might enable the other party to select stones for use in novel forms.

For instance:

By employing clustered crystals to channel light, the space is transformed into a ceremonial venue for prayer.

• Construct a model of a new usage pattern. If online, please draw a sketch.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Stone Culture Blender!

• Through this process of observation, dialogue and blending, you have reconsidered how the meanings we take for granted are shaped by the interplay of culture, senses and experience.
• By completing these steps, you have moved beyond merely discussing stones to practising a way of thinking that transcends established frameworks, reawakens sensory perception, and creates new possibilities across different cultural logics.
• May this toolkit serve as the starting point for your ongoing exploration, enabling you to encounter any material, object, language or culture with greater openness, nuance and creativity—understanding them, activating them, and co-generating new fragments of the world together.
• You are welcome to return here at any time, inviting different friends to begin anew from varied perspectives!

REFLECTION

• Have these new approaches inspired fresh insights into the relationship between materiality and culture?
• Do you consider this cross-cultural reconfiguration to be creative or disruptive? Why?

Reference:

Mulholland, Neil. Re-imagining the Art School​. Creativity, Education and the Arts. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. 100-117.

Hickey-Moody, Anna Catherine. “New materialism, ethnography, and socially engaged practice: Space-time folds and the agency of matter.” Qualitative Inquiry 26, no. 7 (2020): 724-732.

Fuller, Matthew. Media ecologies: Materialist energies in art and technoculture. MIT press, 2005.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. “Tractatus logico-philosophicus.” (2023): 1-133.

Gibson, James J. “The theory of affordances:(1979).” In The people, place, and space reader, pp. 56-60. Routledge, 2014.

Borghi, Anna M. “Affordances, context and sociality.” Synthese199, no. 5 (2021): 12485-12515.

Bhabha, Homi K. The location of culture. routledge, 2012.

Morgagni, Simone. “Affordances as possible actions: elements for a semiotic approach.” (2012).

De Castro, Eduardo Viveiros. Cannibal metaphysics. U of Minnesota Press, 2015.

Theissen, Gerd. “Religious experience: Experience of transparency and resonance.” Open Philosophy 2, no. 1 (2019): 679-699.

Create a stone cultural blender © 2025 by Houde Chen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

(License: CC0 Public Domain George Hodan has released this “Sea Stone” image under Public Domain license. It means that you can use and modify it for your personal and commercial projects. If you intend to use an image you find here for commercial use, please be aware that some photos do require a model or a property release. Pictures featuring products should be used with care. https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=175060&picture=sea-stone)