C103
Article
MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE OBJECT
Stuff:
here Paul Caffrey sets the scene for this issue's theme,
material culture.
 |
|
Everyday
ephemera, matchboxes, the only examples of Irish
packaging praised by the Scandinavian Report
(1961) on Irish design; courtesy the author
|
The world
is full of material objects, some natural, some hand-crafted,
but most mass-produced and industrially manufactured.
Few of these objects are ever the subject of prolonged
consideration. Some are regarded as entirely functional.
Some are regarded as devoid of aesthetic interest. Almost
all will be discarded when redundant or obsolete, cast
aside or destroyed. As societies become more conscientious,
so they seek to recycle those objects surplus to requirements.
Very few objects are regarded as worth preserving. Even
fewer are regarded as beautiful. Some fewer are regarded
as so important as to be worthy of veneration, either
for their intrinsic value or for what they represent.
Of such heterogeneous and diverse objects is the totality
of human production composed. It is this aggregation that
is referred to as our 'material culture'.
This issue
of CIRCA contains five articles which survey different
aspects of material culture. They deal with two perspectives
in this field.
The first
commences with Linda King's study of the nature of the
ephemeral in material culture and continues with Lisa
Godson's inquiry into the significance of religion and
the objects of religious devotion in the formation of
Irish material culture.
On the
second perspective, contrast Mick Wilson's article on
The Problem of Things, which explores the relationship
between art and the object, with Sorcha O'Brien's exposition
of the dramatic changes in our material culture brought
on by rapid technological change and its impact on everyday
life - Technology and material culture: or the art
of work in the age of mechanical dysfunction.
A context
for these four articles is provided by my own attempt
to draw together some of the fragmented pieces which make
up Irish material culture, in the first article in this
series, Irish material culture: the shape of the field.
Dr Paul
Caffrey lectures in the History of Art and Design;
he coordinates the Design History courses at the National
College of Art and Design, Dublin.
