Delamination is where layers of material that were glued together during manufacture come apart, usually under strain from use.

For me, it’s the much more general opposite of “suturing” in French Theory. The epitome of a phenomenon of delamination in my work is the way that NFTs unbundled the tangle of restrictions and affordances that are represented by the contemporary concept of ownership of property.

I got the concept from 80s/90s skateboard culture as “delam” (I have never been a skater but my brother is).

“Delam” is where the wooden layers of your plywood skateboard separate under the stress of your use of it to perform a trick. It’s the sudden, frustrating, and embarrassing material failure of previously reliable equipment, its form and affordances, as it returns to the components it was assembled from.

I think I’m going to go back to the shorter version. It’s more evocative.