Thursday 22nd October – CTS Lecture
COLLECTING AS MEDIUM AND MESSAGE
SUSAN PEARCE
In this lecture we looked at medium and message as one entity and how objects are selected, how and why they are classified (time, subject, media,etc..) and therefore how characteristic groups (collections) are created.
In this chapter, Susan Pearce looks ‘to the ways in which we relate’ to the object, our relationship with them, and considers the ‘open nature of collections as part of the political world of perceived value’. She explains that objects are implicit in social action and ‘explicit in that social practice can be ‘read’ from them’. Objects are both active and passive, our world revolves around them and their value, we make them and they influence us. When it comes to value, objects are only significant in groups or sets to which meaning can be attached, be it monetary or sentimental.
What is a collection? They derive from the object world but they are, never the less separate from it.
‘Collection (is) ‘an obsession organized.’ One of the distinctions between possessing and collecting is that the latter implies order, system, perhaps completion. The pure collector’s interest is not bounded by the intrinsic worth of the objects of his desire; at whatever cost, we must have them.’-Aristides 1988:330
In a material culture, objects are organized in sets which embody genuine human social experience and are therefore capable of transmitting that experience to other people. Pearce explains that the understanding of selection and process of selection is crucial when creating a collection because when beginning to recognise this, a collection can start to take shape. Collections or selecting objects majorly depend on how society ascribe value; through knowledge or experience. What is ‘important’, ‘fine’, ‘authentic’, ‘historical’, purely ‘sentimental’? How do we differentiate? How do we select?…
Collections provide us with our own private world, it is a physical projection of our mind, experiences, beliefs, passions; our passage through life. They are an extension of our bodies and souls. The objects in them have come to us from the past (personal souvenirs/family heirlooms), or belong to an important moment, or the finding itself is the important moment. It means a lot to us for our objects, these collections to stay intact, as they may be passed on; they are ‘our hope of a little immortality’.
SALOMÉ GAUTIER 