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Lecture 2: Material Culture and The Everyday
The Secret Meaning of Things
Material Culture The Study of “Things”
Artifacts are ‘tools’ but also as signals, signs and symbols
Their use and functions are multiple and intertwined; their meaning is often subliminal and unconscious
The Meaning of Things Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The things people use, own, and surround
themselves with might accurately reflect their
personality. Not surprisingly, the clothes one
wears, the car one drives and the furnishings
of one’s home, all are expressions of one’s
self, even when they act as disguises
rather than as reflections.
The Meaning of Things Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
… the things that surround
us are inseparable from
who we are …
… objects are intimately
related to the self …
The Meaning of Things Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
… the material
environment that surrounds
us is rarely neutral….
The Meaning of Things Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
… the material
environment that surrounds
us is rarely neutral … it
either helps the forces of
chaos that make life
random and disorganised or
it helps to give purpose and
direction to one’s life.
Toothpicks and Logos John Heskett
Utility and Significance in Everyday Objects
Toothpicks and Logos John Heskett
Utility and Significance in Everyday Objects
Toothpicks and Logos John Heskett
Utility and Significance in Everyday Objects
Toothpicks and Logos John Heskett
Even the smallest utilitarian objects are capable of
embodying values
Q: When is a sheep not a sheep?A: When it’s a work of art.
Damien Hirst, Away from the Flock, 1994
Roland Barthes (1915-1980)Mythologies 1957 (1993)
Semiotics
Objects as ‘signs’
Roland BarthesMythologies 1957 (1993)
Citroën DS (Déesse) - 1955
… cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the
Gothic cathedrals … the supreme creation of an era..
Roland BarthesMythologies 1957 (1993)
Semiotics - the study of ‘signs’
Signifier: its physical form (ie: a diamond ring)
Signified: the mental concept it refers to (ie: engagement)
Roland BarthesMythologies 1957 (1993)
A photograph will be a kind of speech for us in the same way as
a newspaper article; even objects will become speech
Jeans = signfierBeauty = signified
What are increasingly
produced are not
material objects,
but signs
Roland Barthes
Perfume = signfierPhysical Allure = signified
Richard HamiltonJust What is it that MakesToday’s Homes so Interesting, so Appealing? 1956
The Chapman Family Collection Jake and Dinos Chapman 2002
Neil CummingsThe Collection Yellow 1998
Tony Cragg (1949-)
We have such a bad
physical relationship to the
objects and material we
produce that it is almost
embarrassing to consider the
metaphysical, the poetical,
the mythological.
Staubsauger - 1981
Rainer Spehl
Qoffee stool 2000
Every object in the
world can pass
from a closed silent
existence to an oral
state
Roland Barthes
Material CultureAnd The Everyday
Material Culture The Study of ‘Things’ (artifacts of Everyday life)
Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi The ‘things’ that surround us are inseparable from who we are (‘things’ are never neutral)
Material CultureAnd The Everyday
John Heskett Utility and Significance of Everyday things
Roland Barthes Everyday objects are not just ‘things’ but a complex system of signs which allow us to read meaning into people and places