This course is about thinking and experimenting with materials that have extraordinary properties around ordinary practices as an entry point for identifying new affordances in form-giving work. From piezoresistive fabrics to leather and wood, we will look at material as both raw stuff and skilled undertakings, engaging ideas of mutability, reproduction, age and belonging. To what degree do materials trace and redefine our environments? How do they wear, grow and recombine? What do they stabilize or set off balance, make strange or familiar, highlight or obscure? By diving into a particular set of materials through both theoretical and hands-on work, we will think through new design opportunities in the domain of 2D, 3D and interaction design.