The Way Things Are

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/t148fj505

Abstract

What motivated the chair that hooked my bag today? What was in it for the bag?

I resist acknowledging that the objects inhabiting our lives are inanimate. By considering the objects' needs, and denying our needs for those objects, they can expose a life and language of their own. A sagging couch expresses its physical exhaustion from the continuous support of lounging bodies. A coffee table makes its hostility clear to the car keys by continuously throwing them over its edge and onto the floor. By carefully observing the relationships between furniture, knick-knacks, and utilitarian objects, I have found them to reveal less about the lives of their owners than they do about their own hidden lives.

These objects present evidence of the physical and psychological states of objects that often go unnoticed. In this realm, objects cause unexpected encounters, such as the chair that hooked my bag. When these interactions are revealed, we look at things and they look back.

Creator

Date Issued

Additional Information

For access to any supporting images, CU affiliates may log into the Visual Resources Center collections and search for the author's name. Link: https://aahvrc.colorado.edu/luna/servlet

Academic Affiliation