Description
Book SynopsisWhat do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for the real thing' become so important because the high-tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us?
This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point of object's lives. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings and associations that reflect and assert who we are. Defining designed things as things with attitude differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary aretefacts that are too easily taken for granted.
Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. Beyond this, she shows the mate
Trade Review
Wild Things is particularly relevant to ongoing discussions of the politics of things. This is because of both Attfield’s choice to focus on voices hitherto unheard from – working class, domestic, female voices – and her effort to situate identity construction – in particular gender and sexual identity – within the her subjects’ choices to buy, use, and accrue things. * Design and Culture *
It is wonderful to see a reprint of this seminal wide-ranging, thought-provoking book that, challenges us to consider, and then re-consider, how we think about things, and write about them too. I read the book in early draft form and often return to it; sometimes to think through things raised in it, at others for inspiration, or to remember her pioneering contributions to contemporary material culture studies and reflect upon her enormous impact upon generations of students and scholars across a range of disciplines. A designer before she turned to design history and discovered a passion for anthropology and critical theory, as well as for “history from below” her lively intellect knew no disciplinary boundaries. In Wild Things Judy’s love of objects and people, ideas, herstories/histories, and grappling with theory, is everywhere apparent. Enjoy the journey you take with her. * Pat Kirkham, Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London, UK *
Table of Contents
List of illustrations Preface to the original edition Preface to the current edition by Claudia Marina Introduction: The material culture of everyday life Part I: Things 1. The meaning of design: Things with attitude 2. The meaning of things: Design in the lower case 3. Things and the dynamics of social change Part II: Themes 4. Continuity: Authenticity and the paradoxical nature of reproduction 5. Change: The ephemeral materiality of identity 6. Containment: The ecology of personal possessions Part III: Contexts 7. Space: Where things take place 8. Time: bringing things to life 9. The body: The threshold between nature and culture Conclusion Afterword by Jo Turney Bibliography Index
