interstitiumista

Interstitiumista is a contemporary conceptual label used in art criticism and urban studies to describe a sensibility that foregrounds interstices—spaces of transition, margins, and connective tissue that bind systems. It treats the hidden seams between architecture, bodies, data, and ecological networks as sites of meaning and inquiry.

The term combines interstitium, a term borrowed from anatomy referring to the fluid-filled spaces between tissues, with the -ista suffix that marks practitioners or adherents. The resulting label signals a focus on porous boundaries rather than solid divides, and a willingness to work across disciplines.

Philosophically, Interstitiumistas emphasize relations, networks, and process over fixed objects. Influenced by relational ontology and network theory, they conceive social and material worlds as continuous, tissue-like matrices where art, science, and everyday life illuminate connective pathways rather than complete separations.

Practices associated with the approach include site-responsive installations in liminal spaces, choreographic or performative interventions in transit zones, ethnographic fieldwork to map overlooked connections, and data visualization or speculative media that reveal hidden networks. Collaborative, iterative methods are common, often involving communities and multidisciplinary teams.

Reception of the term is mixed and still evolving. It appears mainly in experimental galleries and niche journals, with critics praising its attention to overlooked connections and its resistance to binaries, while others caution that the label can be vague or overextended. See also: interstice, liminality, connective tissue, network theory.