Careers of things. Studies on the development concepts in material culture studies
My research during the summer term 2016 shall be devoted to a critical analysis of some current trends in material culture research. Based on anthropological findings, I intend to develop arguments against the widely accepted functional or semiotic embedding of things.
People are surrounded by huge amounts of things. The life-world in modern societies is dominated by numerous objects, which are associated with an endless number of meanings and functions. Many things, however, receive only little attention and only a few are the focus of sincere expectations and concerns. Approaches to material culture have been dominantly oriented towards the valued, valuable and meaningful and highly functional things. The aim of my fellowship in Morphomata will be to develop concepts that seriously consider the very different levels of relevance, and thus also look at the less valued objects as an integral part of material culture.
In the extended meaning of studying different ›careers of things,‹ I am interested in particular in the coexistence of the attention and emotional feedback of things. This also applies to the dynamic shift from a privileged status (= high awareness, attention) toward the status of being neglected and vice versa. I understand the recent history of theories in material culture studies as a history of attempts to »stabilize things« as an essential part of culture. Starting with theories that rather suggest a distancing from the materiality (with the aim of an ideal access), the more recent trend pleas for a clearer recognition of things in their physical dimension. The objective will be to contribute to a more realistic concept, which integrates the dynamic shift between the different levels of relevance of the material.
