Things do not pre-exist their relations; they emerge through ‘intra-action’. Observer, apparatus and observed are entangled.
- +Fits Feminist Epistemology, Post-structuralist Epistemology, Pragmatist Epistemology
- –Tension with Positivist Epistemology
The longer story
Barad's 'agential realism' goes beyond Latour: it's not just that humans and non-humans both act, but that they only become what they are through mutual entanglement. 'Intra-action' means entities don't precede their interactions; they're produced through them. Matter isn't passive stuff; it's dynamic and co-constitutive. For arts research, Barad enables thinking about how materials, bodies, and meanings are mutually produced. The boundary between artist and medium, instrument and player, isn't fixed—it's performed into existence.