Tran Anh Thu Ho: The inquiry process into young children’s urban experiences of pollution in Hanoi from a New Materialist perspective, represented through Vietnamese lacquer artmaking

From this theoretical perspective, children are not the only agentic beings shaping their experiences; pollution, materials, urban spaces, weather, light, research tools, and the researcher all have agency and participate in constituting the phenomenon.

The phenomenon does not pre-exist as a complete entity waiting to be discovered but temporarily emerges through specific intra-actions. Similarly, the blurred layers of lacquer represent boundaries that are not yet determined; light represents weather, the hands represent the researcher, and the polishing tool represents research tools. The polishing process depicts intra-actions among materials, the researcher, tools, and the environment, through which a temporary image emerges.