ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the fragmented afterlife of the World Trade Center (WTC) via the trajectory of its remnants, the steel beams that once formed the structural skeleton of the building, and their physical and cultural transformation and recontextualization in a number of highly symbolic contexts. It also examines the term 'faith in steel' in a not-dissimilar way to examine the enhanced material and symbolic status of mass-produced industrial steel from the World Trade Center and its work in the 'theatre of spirit-literalization' post-9/11. The chapter explores the changing values, meanings and affective intensities assigned to and accumulated by WTC steel, its circulation in different 'regimes of value', and its 'binding materiality' as a privileged agent of mediation. It considers the 'authentic' afterlife of mass-produced materiality – millions of tonnes of WTC steel – and its selective mobilization and deployment as durable artefacts marked by destruction and salvaged for posterity.
