About

Welcome to Material Intelligence, a digital platform that celebrates the human capacity to understand and shape the physical world around us.

We take a deep dive into commonplace materials, with the help of contributors who come from many disciplines and walks of life. Here you’ll find stories that illuminate vital, at times unexpected connections: between art and science, history and contemporary life, the tangible and the intangible. A new featured material is added quarterly, and is free for all to read, along with our growing archive. Material Intelligence is published by The Chipstone Foundation.

The Chipstone Foundation

The Chipstone Foundation is a Milwaukee-based foundation devoted to promoting the study of American material culture and the decorative arts through its collections, innovative curatorial and research practices as well as community outreach.

The Chipstone Foundation is committed to respecting intellectual property rights. We have made diligent efforts to identify copyright holders, secure appropriate permissions for the images used on this site, and provide accurate attribution.

If you are a rights holder and believe that any content on this site infringes your copyright, has been used without proper authorization, or lacks appropriate credit, please contact us so we can make corrections.

Editorial Team

Lead Editor
Glenn Adamson

Contributing Editors
Rose Camara
Jonathan Prown
Natalie Wright

Rights & Reproductions
Tina Schinabeck

Social Media
Colton Witt

Design
Marci LeBrun

Co-Founder
Wynne Patterson

Contributors

Get in touch

“As Crowe’s work shows, beautifully coiffed hair doesn’t need to elevate women to some imaginary height, as if they were riding on dragon-back. It can also eloquently explore their position within the world as it really is, connecti
Memento Mori by Indira Allegra ✄ Featured in our recent issue of Material Intelligence, Hair. Read more via link in bio! #materialintelligence #digitalmagazine #onlinepublication #digitalpublication #publication #art #crafts #fineart #arthistory #h
“Antoni has said that she seeks to create objects that “hold” the gestures that she puts into them. In Loving Care, that holding became literal. Her texturization of the floor was a momentary communion: I find myself empathizing wit
"We know from surviving objects and textual sources that hair for embroidery was painfully plucked from the root, rather than cut with scissors. Religiously sanctified suffering is a phenomenon found across cultures, often serving to increase pr
“Working in a local shop, and later owning one, I witnessed firsthand the barbershop as both sanctuary and stage, where respectability is negotiated and memory preserved.” - Keeper of our Secrets by Faisal Abdu’Allah @fauhaus ✄ Fea
“We all grow it, in many forms, shapes and sizes. Many of us care for it meticulously. Yet when it’s cut from our heads, we rarely think about where it might end up. Over the last decade, I have been deeply fascinated by the potential of
“The coarse long hairs from their tails are used in the manufacture of bows for violins, violas, and cellos, the scaly surface ideal for grabbing and releasing strings to produce a distinctive, resonant sound. Softer hairs from horses’ ma