On 'Animate objects'...

…on moving…
…on the things that surround us in our everyday lives…
…on ways of classifying things – not by function or form but by what they mean and how they’re valued; by the memories, thoughts and associations attached to them…

In Things Magazine, in the Article ‘Animate Objects’, Krystal Chang discusses the objects that have come and gone in her life, things that have remained; things lost - that only remain as memories, traces. This is interwoven around the concept of moving house. She explores the categorisation of objects, making lists of types of objects…

‘There are some things we kept and some things we left behind.’ (Chang 2004: 166)

‘Things left behind… a dead moth to be sold according to my grandfathers instructions.’ (Chang 2004: 166)

‘Things we wished we still had… the snoopy ice shaver we left in New Jersey.’ (Chang 2004: 166)

‘Ugly and useless plastic things that have decorated our house: a plastic cube with dimes floating in it…’ (Chang 2004: 166)

‘Pretty but equally useless things: a giant pinecone from a national forest, a set of nesting Russian dolls, a dried up pear…’ (Chang 2004: 166)

‘Ungiven things…tiny swords made out of fishbones, tied together with brightly coloured thread…’ (Chang 2004: 167)

‘Things I gave and took back: a ceramic green dinosaur with blue spots and a smile and a gold thread…’ (Chang 2004: 168)

There’s something poetic about things classified together because they’re all ‘ungiven things’ (does that mean they stay wrapped in wrapping paper, never arrive, never become, a ‘not being’) or ‘things left behind’ (existing only in memory, a sense of loss – is the memory better than the actual physical object?)

References:
Chang, K. 2004. ‘Animate Objects’. In: Things, 17-18 Spring 2004