Lecture 2: Material Culture and The Everyday The Secret Meaning of Things

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