1/28 recap- approaching analysis

In the course of our discussion about American Artifacts we spent some time considering the applicability of Haltman's assignment-style outline of Prownian analysis. Patrick suggested that we use the steps the introduction outlines as a reference as we plan our own object analysis for our final project. We discussed the logistics of this outline -- both the interpretive possibilities that it opens up and the potential difficulties the process may present, depending on our academic backgrounds.

We proved the different ways in which we would need to adapt later in class, when Patrick gave us prints of "America Guided by Wisdom" and asked us to write an initial description of the image. When we discussed our various approaches, we found that some of us got entrenched in describing detail, while others kept descriptions general, and that some of us struggled with the urge to contextualize what we described, while others were better able to set aside questions of context. We also saw some variety in the stylistic approaches that each of us adopted to describe the image, and in the portions of the image where we each began or concentrated our descriptions.

The exercise in description was helpful both in demonstrating the importance of practice for all of us to get comfortable with using this method, and in giving us a taste of the various styles and analytic tendencies that our own readings are going to take. Our discussion of Prown's theoretical framework also gave us a sense of the differences in our approaches. We mentioned Prown's relative mistrust of non-objective historical evidence, to which the class responded with various degrees of disagreement, qualification, and acknowledgement. We also spent a while considering our various positions on Prown's fondness for using binary categories to read objects. For some of us clean dualism seems the best way to form a strong concept in our work, while for others a spectrum of possibilities seems to allow us more freedom of interpretation. Patrick reminded us that no matter what our approach, when we make an argument about an object's meaning, we're always going to be privileging evidence that supports our point, to the relative exclusion or marginalization of other aspects of the object. This seems like a point which may remain useful to us both in formulating our own readings and in evaluating the interpretations of the writers we'll be encountering this semester.

A blog about prints but a specific post on "America Guided by Wisdom"

I ran across this and perhaps folks will be interested to see it: http://antiqueprintsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/america-guided-by-wisdom.html

EKD

1/28 class summary

Patrick asked: where does material cultural sit in the history and iarc worlds?
A few responses:
- it provides an additional way of understanding history
- a valuable method of research for archaelogy
-it arose in the 1960s and came from history and literary studies because some scholars felt these disciplines over-privilege texts

There are three ways to use the study of material culture: 1. when written documents do not exist 2. in combination with written documents 3. to study the artifact alone

A little background on the authors/editors of today's readings:
Prown: art historian at Yale; "working in the margins" of art history
Haltman: Prown's student; Patrick's professor at Michigan State
Lubar: curator at Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History
Kingery: Professor of Anthroplogy and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona

Haltman's Intro: discusses Prownian analysis on page 8 and provides a list of steps in the encountering and analyzing of an object; discusses the idea of polarities - Patrick asks: are you black and white or gray? and urges us to "live in the gray" and be loose for a while

Prown: objects can be seen as historical facts and artistic fictions, and combining the two provides for a richer reading of an object

Gordon: the theme that runs throughout the case studies: that looks simple is not always so; artifacts of technology provide a way of understanding that writing cannot when it comes to these artifacts

Rawson: an artifact's ancestry must be understood to understand its history

Maquet: sins of research: global apprehension and institutionism

prown : the truth of material culture

IN SUMMARY : material culture is the manifestation of culture through material production. its study is to investigate objects to understand culture. art as artifact; artifact as historical event (unlike ephemeral event, it survives); artifact as fiction. artifacts don't just happen, they are the results of causes (traditions, culture, and individual). artifacts reflect the mind; as a result, they are hard to read. form is the great summarizer because style most informative in revealing underlying beliefs (where expression is least sub-conscious especially in mundane objects). meanings can be spring loose when not considering artifacts solely as historical events materialized (this is ok as a process because history is small truths stitched together to make a large untruth). metaphors (signs) represent an incredible tool in analysis: the teapot as breast. there are both structural + textual metaphors.

persistent metaphors = morality + death, sexuality + gender roles, privacy (seeing + being seen) + communication, power or control + acceptance, fear + danger, giving + receiving.

persistent beliefs = static-dynamic, order-disorder, dcisreteness-continuity, process-spontaneity, sharp-soft, outer-inner, other world-this world

not all beliefs can be retrieved from objects. in doing material culture analysis, we have the challenge of not laying our own beliefs on the objects or the world from which they came. material culture allows us to overcome that very pre-disposition.

FOR DISCUSSION : prown has a number of juicy quotes that beg for discussion (or are likely to cause arguments) not the least of which is...."it is a sobering corrective to realize that in one sense history consistently uses small truths to build large untruths" (p. 15)....are there other morsels that beg for argument/discussion/probing?

gordon : interpretation of artifacts

in summary : artifacts important when documentary record is not complete; technological artifacts often evade description or drawing, have to rely on the artifacts themselves. when writing exists about artifacts (rare), we need to be cautious about the artifacts being boosted or oversold. there are two steps to interpret artifacts of technology: archaeometry and context analysis. archaeometry relies on determining internal structure, analyzing form, observing surficial markings, and determining other physical properties. context can be thought of as backward-linkage components from the artifact (natural resources, human resources, function comparisons, and social structures) or forward-thinking (interactions of users withthe artifact and other observers of the artifact). three examples illuminate this approach, a partially completed ax, a piece of slag, and a steam locomotive. in all three instances, gordon capably demonstrates that even the simplest of objects and processes belie a complexity and skill level of artisans and craftspeople who made the objects.

FOR DISCUSSION : gordon reminds several times during the article of the importance of seeking, understanding, and explaining the context for artifacts. SPECULATE on any instance where you feel context might not be important for an artifact.

rawson : ancestry of chinese bronze vessels

IN SUMMARY : a case study to demonstrate the change in values of ding bronze vessels in six periods of chinese culture. in the first period, the vessels equated with power and hierarchy in the deployment of the material itself, and in the inscriptions placed in the vessels. as religious beliefs shifted in the second period, ancient ding re-discovered fueled interest in the past. as opposition to buddhism rose in the third period, leaders re-appropriated the meanings of the vessels as symbols of the ancient past linked to their present, prompting rubbings of the vessels and widespread collecting. the bronzes had relatively little value in the fourth period, only to be re-discovered again in the fifth period at the fall of yet another dynasty. the objects became a means to co-opt the ancient societies and beliefs for use in the present. in the twentieth century, the symbolization of the bronzes turned outward from china to the world, prompting another appreciation of their longevity and slow-changing form/style/content.

FOR DISCUSSION : rawson suggests that the ancient chinese bronzes are in museum collections because we have "inherited an interest in them generated in the past and sustained by Qing scholars" (p. 69). how often is what we collect influenced by the past? how does re-appropriating that past impact the values and meanings embedded in everyday objects as well as extraordinary ones?

friedel : some matters of substance

IN SUMMARY : the material conveys the message; only when we consider the material of the thing itself do we encounter its true history. function, availability, economy, style, and tradition all suggest reasons about why a thing is made with a particular material. geography, technology, science, fashion, and competition represent factors that impact material selection. the relationship between materials and values can be described in terms of scarcity, aesthetic, functional, and associative. the values are not inherent in the material but are determined by circumstances. the values attached to materials affect the values attached to things but they are not the same thing. over the last two centuries, our perception of objects has changed. by the middle of the twentieth century. we had embraced new materials and technologies, producing an ever more vast array of consumer goods in the "neotechnic" era (as distinguished from the "eotechnic" and "paleotechnic" eras heretofore). technical changes also impact the materials. perceptual changes indicate shifting relationships between objects and people...from bounty + stasis to ingenuity + change...and finally to science + novelty. rather than concentrate on one specific object in isolation, learn what can be seen when considering assemblages of objects as they inscribe individual and communal life.

FOR DISCUSSION : what did friedel mean when he indicated "all i can think to do is understand their making, their acquisition, their use, and even their disposal, all in terms of real people" (p. 50)?

maquet : objects as instruments + signs

IN SUMMARY : there are five ways to read objects...as instruments, as symbols, as images, as indicators, and as referents. written sources become increasingly significant when we move from instruments to referents. polysemous meanings perceived by others are best sorted through utilizing written records. "objects can illuminate words. they cannot replace them." (p. 40). meanings are not inherent to an object or ascribed by the designer, they belong to the group of people to whom the object is relevant. as meanings change, so do groups.


FOR CONVERSATION : discuss the importance of multiple sources in "doing" history. taking maquet's position, what happens if written sources are not available to pair with an object under scrutiny? speculate on maquet's approach that suggests the meanings of commissioner and designer are not relevant in the face of group-assigned significance. what happens when we leave the first two meanings out of the equation? discuss the "capital sins of research" and maquet's strategies to avoid them (p. 38).

csikszentmihalyi : why we need things

IN SUMMARY : artifacts compete with humans for resources, almost as a third entity beyond the natural world. we are burying ourselves under a mountain of objects, pre-conditioned by the presence of objects from the past. objects help to organize experience (keeping random-ness at bay). they do so by demonstrating power (largely along gender lines), in the continuity of self through time (in light of great change + mobility in our current society), and in providing evidence of one's place in the social hierarchy (illustrating family ties + notions of gentility, wisdom, care, creativity "we need objects to magnify our power, enhance our beauty, and extend control over our future.

FOR CONVERSATION : speculate about the challenge in assuming that objects are objective (p. 23). discuss the idea that one can train oneself to reduce reliance on objects by quieting one's mind (p. 28)