Narrations and Imaginaries in Tourism

Material culture in Tourism

Università degli Studi di Bergamo

26/10/2016

Milos NicicUniversity of Belgrade – Faculty of Political Sciences

milos.nicic@unibg.it

Objects that create tourism

Books, movies, brochures, images, magazines...

Architecture, urban/rural landscapes, monuments

Technology, Food, Design

Art Objects, Iconic Objects, Souvenirs

Souvenirs

Unlike the pre-travel tangibles (books, movies,

brochures) souvenirs do not exist outside of travel

contexts.

The tourism framework that renders these objects

souvenirs.

Souvenir is both a label and an object

Souvenirs

Connections to the host communities

Items that simplify complexities of host communities

Encapsulating history/heritage/geography/peoples

↓Image of the destination

Questionable process

Souvenirs - production

Souvenirs capture imaginaries about the destination or its

peoples in an tangible form and introduces destination, its

attractions and peoples to the managable size of the tourism.

Direct links to the ways destinations imaginaries are visualized.

They also induce further imaginations as they are ready-to-

carry imaginations.

Souvenirs - production

Souvenirs are always selective and fragmentary, they only

represent a fraction of what they claim to be representing.

Need further inputs by travel narratives to complement them

and give them broader significance and meaning.

Souvenirs ↔ Art

Souvenirs - production

1) Traditional crafts and objects of intended useUtilitarian (express tool to satisfy a symbolic or tangible need)

Sale not in mind at the time of production

Criteria: aestetic and fucntion

2) Fine ArtArtistic (express artist’s worldviews, aesthetic characteristic and artistic trends)

Eventual sale in mind – not primary motivation for creation

Criteria: aestetic

3) SouvenirsCustomer oriented production

Sale is primary motivation – aestetical and functional less so.

Souvenirs - production

Objects of repetitive manufacturing in which profit overrides the aesthetic

standards

Profit motive is the main purpose for the artefact’s production

The mass productivity of the souvenir and its standardization is something that all

acters – artist, market and buyers (tourist) recognize.

Souvenirs do not carry the imprint of artistic genius, as the object is always

referential – it needs to possess certain links to tradition, heritage, and images of the

destination/people. In other words to conform to certain imaginaries and by doing so,

it also reproduces them.

Souvenirs – production

Souvenirs satisfy a particular way of seeing a

destination – tourist way. They are designed for the

purpose of satisfying an equally unique way of

seeing.

They tangibly ground Urry’s idea about the

dichotomy between

ordinary-everyday/extraordinary – travelling.

Souvenirs – characteristics

Aesthetic(the ability to catch the tourists eye by virtue of design and materials used)

Informative (need to refer to the experienced site/culture/destination/people)

Souvenirs – found and made

1) Sampled usually natural objects that are intrinsic to the destination and whose meaning

comes from the process of collecting (sea shells and pebbles from the summer

vacation or particularly nice pinecone from the ski trip). These objects are collected

directly by the tourist, with no intervention or mediation by the host culture.

2) Representative – Artefacts that represent culture/destination/people and

are purchasable.

a) Made of generic media (postcards, calendars, etc.)

b) Crafted (endemic materials and production – pottery, boomerangs)

Souvenirs – function and role

Objects that attract attention and express

knowledge/power/wealth of the owner

No links to the experiences on the destination itself, activities undertaken by the

traveller: Taxidermied Animals, Elephant tusks.

They serve to show

the status of the

owner and

accumulate social

capital for the

owner.

Souvenirs – function and role

Reminiscent of travel experience serve to extend the experiences lived during the travel well into the time after the

travel, time of the “ordinary”.

Souvenirs document unrepeatable event is travellers diaries

– serve as traces of authentic experience(that one unique trip to Japan, honeymoon in Mexico)

Evoke narration substitute the need for contexts of perpetual consumption of travel experiences.

Souvenirs – as narratives and narrative

extension

Souvenirs are always incomplete and are reliant on the

imaginaries to complete the narrative it suggests.

1)Gifts

2) Mementos

3) Evidence

Souvenirs as gifts

Souvenirs are not only intended for the

purchaser, but for an alternative customer too.

Souvenirs as

Mementos

The souvenir is an important component of the

tourist experience, with most tourists bringing

back mementos and souvenirs as reminders.

People like to be reminded of special

moments in their lives and to hold evidence of

those special moments.

They are the images from the on-travel

narrative that tourists want to take home and

be reminded about - tangible symbols to

signify or commemorate travel experiences.

Analysing souvenirs

1) Description Complete and comprehensive description of the object, including its

biography (history of the item is inseparable from the people who made

it/sold it/use it)

2) DeductionWe place the object in wider category and based on the description, we

determine its characteristic in the class of similar objects.

3) Interpretation (contextualization) Object is placed in wider cultural context and its place in ethos and

culture is estimated. We form hypothesis of its functions and meanings.

Souvenirs – videos

London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f64KPEG5LM

Berlin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEQWYCnu

QTg

NYC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvAgvj0qwoE

THANK

YOU