Please respond to the following readings:
Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, “Shaping the Field: The Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Material Culture,” in American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, edited by Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, (Winterthur, Delaware: Winterthur Museum, 1997), 1-20.
Dell Upton, “The City as Material Culture,” in The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology, Essays in Honor of James Deetz, edited by Anne Yentsch and Mary Beaudry (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1992), 51-74.
Keep in mind that your responses should do two things. 1) You should include a short summary of the author’s argument and/or purpose, and 2) you should include observations, questions, and points of discussion for the class.
You may always express your own opinions and you may compare specific ideas that you find in the reading to your own outside knowledge or experience. You may want to consider if or how the ideas in the readings may be useful to you or how they might be applied to the work/philosophy of the contemporary artist.
Click on the comments section of this post to add your response and read the thoughts of your classmates. Remember to post before Monday at noon and check back to read all the comments before class. Please sign your responses with an identifiable nickname so that we all know who has been responding and so that I can give the proper person credit for her/his ideas! Happy blogging.
12 comments:
Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, “Shaping the Field: The Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Material Culture”
While reading about the many different approaches taken toward material culture, I began to think of the endless amount of material there is that can be examined. It's frustrating to try and begin anywhere when you feel like there is an endless amount of material to choose from. This feeling of frustration is similar to the way I felt when I had to choose a topic to focus on in my current work. How does one simply choose what to investigate?
I was intrigued with the idea of working with manuals. Joseph Corn examined the evolution of technological manuals, but that seems like it's more of a text than a material. (Although I realize the physical object that the text is on is a material.)
Dell Upton, “The City as Material Culture”
When exploring the city as a part of material culture it is important to include the way humans inhabited it. The sounds and smells, which were created by humans and human byproducts, effected every part of the city as a culture.
I found the idea of cleanliness as virtuous and filth to be evil extremely interesting. This made me think of people with obsessive compulsive disorder who are fanatical about germs and disease. People associate filth with sickness and I think that could be a very worth while topic to explore.
Dell Upton, "The City as Material Culture"
An important idea addressed in the article by Dell Upton is the material state of an artifact. Also addressed is the idea that city landscapes can be considered artifacts once the notion of material-culture is pushed from its original realm of thought. The reader is asked to broaden the field of material-culture by including not only the physical materials of our world but also the “invisible world” that co-exists. The point is made that past material-culture studies have relied mostly on limited focuses such as physical objects, the intentional, patterns in observable objects, and subject/object relationships.
The city grid system that is discussed becomes the prime example of a physical object or artifact. This man made construction lends itself not only to be considered as an actual object but also is the embodiment of intangible layers. The point made, with which I agree, is that to truly understand the city as material-culture the boundaries needed to be pushed in the field of material study. By considering the “invisible objects”, the ideas, the senses, and the reactions of the beings that exist in the space of a city we can better understand the way in which a city’s material-culture works and evolves.
The questions that arise from this reading for me:
-What makes an artifact?
-What is lost when one relies solely on objects to study material-culture?
-Could a standardized definition material-culture studies exist? or Is this a fluid concept that must bend depending on what it is that is being studied?
Shaping the field:
first stream- "the ultimate goal was the recovery of mental templates that would enable scholars to discern the mind-set of people in another place or time." my friend christine went to school in ithaca, new york. ithaca prides itself on its gorges. bumper stickers read: Ithica is gorges. supposedly the school that she went to had the highest suicide rate in the country... people jumping off the gorges. i talked to my sister's fiancee mark (who is finishing his archeology phd ) about this sort of pschogeographical phenomenon. he told me about a town in texas that has the lowest suicide rate. it turns out that the water supply in this town contains abnormally high levels of lithium.
2nd stream:
The economic records of socially undervalued people is... broke.
3rd stream:
people make their own history. People act in ways contradictory to their social norms and the history of their environment. This is more of a post industrial revolution notion... which brings us to material culture.
The city as material culture:
This reminds me of the book "The Jungle." should that title be surrounded by the upper double commas, i dont know. maybe an underline. i dont know how to underline in blogger so onward to nothing much... how does one account for the smell of bedpans being dumped out the window? back in the old days (i dont know about those days because i am an alien) people could not video tape crap falling from the penthouse and hitting them in the faces. it was probably shitty. some things about the city of memphis suck. like all the racism and all the anger. and all the broke folks hanging out. also no swimming holes for all the broke hot folks hanging out in the heat. from my experience (however limited), there are some pretty major urban dilemmas in memphis.
Wow, what an eye opener! This reading delved into the theories and ways of life. The city as an artifact is a interesting notion, along with the grid of the city being considered an artifact. I found the discussion about the city gird very insightful to my own work, as a matter of fact it helped me move closer to my objective in painting.
I had never stopped to think that maybe sounds and combinations of sounds could have an impact on the design of the city, especially the cracking of a whip disturbing the courtroom so that the proceedings were held up.
Finally, another discussion that was interesting was the issue of prisons. They were designed as small cities, and it seems that no effect on the prisoner was accidental. Although the prisons were in effect the perfect city, the human condition was another aspect that seemed to be forgotten.
Again, this discussion opened up my eyes to a world never before considered.
Shaping the Field discusses the topics brought up at a conference called The Shape of the Field. Discussed are theories of Henry Glassie and his study of Virginian buildings, Deetz is also mentioned, he argued that historical archeology should be considered " the science of material culture". The whole notion that we can take the objects around us, or left over from another time and study them to find out more about our history is interesting. There is a discussion on the illiteracy within American Culture at the time, brings forth the question of "What about the people without written record?" Slavery and Women are used to explain this idea. At the end, the discussion brings us to the conclusion that in order to comprehend fully our history, we need to also understand the objects that make up that history.
Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritche Garrison, “Shaping the Field”
This article presented the lineage of American Material Culture. It is a nice introduction to the field of study for one who is not familiar with the topic. The conference held in the 70’s became the forum to pose questions about what established areas of study have the foundation from which material culture study can/should be based in as well as, the different ways in which the study of objects can be approached.
From the readings one can start to feel the unlimited possibilities of direction and use the material culture studies present. Written history seems to be the basis of study that was primarily used when investigating past histories of people. I feel that with the focus beginning to shift to object/material study one can accomplish findings that may only exist in these objects. I feel that the field of material study can only continue to grow and in its expansion the ideas associated with it will further change. All fields mentioned within the article have room to grow because of their investigations of object meaning and object significance.
Questions to possibly discuss:
-How can the art field benefit from study of material culture?
-What is gained by study of “object as text”?
-Since the 70’s what advances have been made in the field of material culture studies?
“Shaping the field:”
The author describes a very resent cooperation between fields that commonly study humans. It is surprising that this change occurred only in the past thirty or thirty-five years.
There was in interesting example of a cooperation that combined the work of a Greek paleontologist and new translations of ancient Greek texts, on the History Channel last Tuesday. History’s mysteries, ancient monster hunters, describes how many dinosaur bones have been found in Greek archeological sites and stated that before about 1970 these bones would have simply been thrown in the dump. Now these bones are considered as objects that the Greeks collected and even made their own inferences about through their myths. One ancient Greek Scholar even accurately recorded where these bones could be found.
“The City as Material Culture.”
I like to photograph abandoned buildings, in rural areas not so much in the city. This has a lot to do with the mass of human activity in the city that makes the city such a wealth for the study of people. When I am photographing an abandoned house on the side of a dirt road with thick woods grown up all around it, I know if I hear dried leaves rustle that it is only an armadillo. I don’t mind standing under a wasp’s nest that is over a foot wide or having a bat fly by me while I take pictures. What really scares me is going to an abandoned building and finding a large homeless man sleeping with an empty forty ounce bottle of Colt Forty-five next to his head.
"Shaping the Field..."
The article was basically an introduction to the field of study that is Material Culture. The author delved into the many roots scholars of the field had come from and talked about the cross-pollination of ideas (from the many backgrounds) that have lent the shaping of the field of Material Cultural Studies. We also learned various approaches to viewing and interpreting materials from the past.
Some of the reading made me feel a little lost in that I have no idea of 90% of the names dropped by the author through the article, but it leaves me with something to get acquainted with in the near future. The one thing I couldn’t get past is, whenever one is studying the objects and the contexts of the objects with their juxtaposed counterparts (the humans who used them or interacted with them), how does this researcher overcome his/her own societal inferences of these objects. It reminded me of that movie from the 80’s “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” The Coke bottle of an airplane pilot is thrown out the plane and lands on the ground near some African Bushman. The bottle causes all these problems in their tribe because everyone wants to use it. They then wonder what it is, why would the Gods keep bringing this thing back to them. In their culture the bottle wasn’t a drinking vessel, it became a multifaceted tool… with every use except drinking. How does the field work to eliminate this problem?
"The City as Material Culture"
The article by Dell Upton was probably the most interesting of the readings. The article discusses the idea of taking, as components of material culture, the experiences of people in history as experiences that were affected by the growth of culture in cities. This affect in turn effected change in the way cities and then prisons were constructed. Because of the experiences of the people living in densely populated cities, new materials and commerce was created. These intangibles such as smell and sound impacted culture in dramatic ways. The author makes a strong case for the inclusion of the unseen, the experienced, in the realm of material cultural studies.
The part about New Orleans in the article reminded me of the experiences you get turning Mardi Gras. If you’ve ever been in the Quarter during Mardi Gras, you can never forget the wonderful smell of vomit, beer, urine and just nasty people crawling up your nose as you trudge through the streets piled in muck and party debris. This actually enacted change. Typically a Mardi Gras is gauged successful or not by the tonnage of debris and trash collected at the end of Carnival. In an effort to improve the cities image, they now have done away with that gauge and are trying to crunch the economic numbers instead and this includes materials and texts to accomplish this.
LOOK AT ME GETTING THE COMMENTS IN ONE MIN. BEFORE DEALINE! haha
Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, “Shaping the Field: The Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Material Culture”
I thoroughly enjoyed the readings. The first touched upon so many varying topics and interesting ideas. They seemed to focus upon word, context, and meaning. Word or text suggests that there is a particular grammar and vocabulary at work. the context lends it self to study and possibly the "science of material culture." The views of object as a means to an end were broached, as well as the who and the how of the object. Meaning, the writer states is imbued into the objects permeating every aspect of their use, manufacture, and their rich context. ultimately things are connected through human agency.
Dell Upton, “The City as Material Culture”
The author speaks of the city as artifact and the city as a sort of remnant displaying imprints of the a particular society and culture that formed it. I found it interesting the varying ways Upton described the city and the problems associated with each type. i.e. the roaring city, thundering, whispering, deafening, and the visible/ invisible... The reading reminded me of Cox's book the Secular City. It is a great read. It touches upon some of the funk and bile of cities such as the way cities function and why, the importance of large sidewalks, multiple purposed spaces, and the necessity of the "eyes of the city" for safety.
Jonathan Postal: in reference to Del Upton's The City As Material Culture
Dell Upton seems to feel that the physical evidence of the objects one
would use to explore cities through material culture (in this case
architecture) tell the whole story.
He would like us to consider an Invisible World evidenced in writings
of the time to fill out the picture.
This Invisible Material Culture reveals itself in smells, textures,
and noises. These would trigger the senses of the citizens of the
cities of the 19th century there by setting into motion historical and
cultural events.
I think the idea of an invisible history is an interesting one and it
makes me ponder the infinite number of other invisible legacies that
ride alone silently with Mr. Upton's.
The cities of the 19th century were in many ways experiments that went
hand in hand with the attitudes of the time. On the cusp of many
scientific revelations that we now live with as facts, it was a far
more interesting time with any good theory up for equal consideration.
The Republican city fathers of the time had a chance to try out some
theories not afforded in other eras. The foremost was building or
rebuilding a city on a grid. This also included the flattening of the
terrain when possible (if not logical such as the case of Boston).
The point was spatial giving equal access to all. Space in general
was a good thing both mentally and spirally. The Republican's were
each a trinity of virtue, health and order why should the city not be
the same.
Well primarily because we humans are messy noisy monkeys. The clear
grid obstructed with pushes carts and venders. The clear view
obstructed with signage and of course, there was the stench and noise.
The stench is historic in cities as even when people have untold
miles of empty land in every direction we just seem to like to cluster
together for protection and company. When we do generally for most of
our time on the planet the best place for anything you didn't want in
your house was just outside your window.
As far as the noise while a health hum was well though of the
cacophony that greeted the ears of the citizens was overwhelming. If
there was just a was that everyone would behave properly so this urban
experiment would work like it should – wait there was. The modern
penitentiary newly constructed with all the grid like integrity you
could wish for.
Upton feels a repressive urbanism emerged from all this creating a new
mute inner directed citizen. I think all roads would have led to the
inner directed citizen.
:in reference to Ann Smart Martin & J. Richie Garrison's Shaping The Field
The field we are talking about is the field of material culture.
It seems a fairly new and open field which is rare thing to find. I
mean would it not be great to find out about rock and roll right after
Little Richard when all Bo Diddly had to do was come up with that
strum and he was home free.
On top of that aside from all those French names referenced it is
custom build low sleek and chopped for America. This is a country
that knows how to generate an artifact. If you are going to concern
yourself with the perception of history and culture through stuff, hey
well know country knows and loves stuff like the USA.
There is a detective like quality about it all that is more
reminiscent of Sam Spade than Father Brown. When Henry Glassie says,
"objects are more honest tools when dealing with an illiterate
population " he has a home here.
The primary cultures that lend themselves to this (slaves and women)
are not new. They existed before America, however there is something
about our white middle class males that makes it more interesting and
satisfying to gather all our objects in the drawing room, find the
guilty party and put em away.
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