Wild things : the material culture of everyday life / Judy Attfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Attfield, Judy, author.

Series:

Radical thinking in design

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Material culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 pages).

Edition:

First edition.

Distribution:

[London, England] : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Place of Publication:

London [England] : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.

Summary:

"What 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 materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment."-- Provided by publisher.

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

Notes:

Originally published: Oxford: Berg, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350070745

1350070742

9781350070721

1350070726

OCLC:

1181849729