I have recently read this text: Epshtein, M., 1993. Things and Words: Towards a Lyrical Museum, in: Tekstura: Russian essays on visual culture, University of Chicago Press.
This article describes the idea of a Lyrical Museum which, instead of displaying rare or valuable objects, would consist of ‘the things of everyday life’ (page 153). Things valuable because of their personal significance.
The article also discusses the life or journey of an object from the warehouse via shops and the home to the rubbish dump.
The ‘Twentieth Century created two great symbols of the alienation of things from man: the warehouse and the dump. The first absorbs the things that have not reached him, that flaunt haughtily their perfect surfaces and bright labels. The second the things abandoned, without attention and care, dusty, filthy, rotting and rusty before their time’ (page 158)
This led me to begin thinking about a designers responsibility to consider the lifespan of their product. How will an individual relate to the object they buy? Will it be kept or thrown away?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment