What draws me in about this topic is the connection people have with the things they own and why those connections exist or why they disappear. What has caused these items to end up where they have ended up. I think of the ides that some people resemble their pets and wonder if people resemble/ embody the things that they own. All this memorabilia making up traces of a person.

2A: top middle section

2B. middle middle section

3: bottom middle section

4: top right image

5: bottom right image

1.Donated or acquired with intention

2A+2B.accidentally passing over connections

3.Hoarding - car boot fuelled, actively acquired

4.Left with purpose- is it waste (fly-tipping)

5.Actively acquired - not pleased will this end up in front of house in cupboard or at a car boot fair?

1. The clutter surrounds the item. Full of things that are left unwanted unbought feels like a cluttered dinner table.

2A. Bin of keys, lost keys, feeling there has been a breach of security. Till you get a new lock and forget about the keys you lost on the train/bus.

2B. There's a note of European Catholic Grandmother in the organised repetition of this scene. Like a dedicated collection or organised hoarding

3. This image feels tight, claustrophobic and dense. The attachment to each item seems heavy and overwhelming.

4. Purpose items being shed from this persons space and shared with others walking by.

5. I edited this persons face however they seem unsatisfied with this purchase. It is unwanted and we can assume won't be in their possession for long.

1. mould/toy selected from a group of objects on a table.

2A. Keys and keychains in a box.

2B. Scooters, bikes and framed photographs neatly organised in a room.

3. Stack of obkects cluttering and filling a room

4. Signs indicating "ALL FREE" filling a room

5. A person squatting by an opened suitcase with items that aren't theirs.

Focussing

Image I decided to focus on is image 2B. This image shows part of TFL lost and found archives owned by TFL.

Focussing further on the longest scooter centred at the bottom of the image. There are other scooters that this interacts with. It leans on an image that looks as though it could be a sandwich. Isolated and outr of place. I chose it for its isolation and lack of significance visually it blends in with the neatly organised bleak selection of objects. The inage reminds me of the iconic europen catholic home walls densly adorned with crucifixes. A neat chaos.

poignant, hilarious and frequently profound” The guardian writes regarding

Found Magazine a publication that explores the significance of found objects

as a celebration of human connection. Created by Davy Rothbart and Jason

Bitner the magazine has run since 2001, the contents range from handwritten

letters and photographs to doodles on napkins, grocery lists and discarded

notes.

The magazine explores the objects we keep and the objects we throw away,

when does something become valuable?

" In attempt to represent intangible feelings, people imbue their [ossessions with significance [...] belongings serve as reminders of particular event person or place[...] they blur inti an amalgam of lives lived"

and

"when life comes to an end it does so with loose ends left untidy"

1. Hopkins, Samuel. “10 of the Best Car Boot Sales in London to Find or Sell Second Hand Trinkets.” Secret London, 4 Feb. 2022, secretldn.com/car-boot-sales-in-london/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

‌

2. baggage auction.2023. “Baggage Auctions UK | Lost and Stolen Property Auctions.” Baggage Auction 2023, www.baggageauctions.co.uk. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

3. Barratt, Bianca. “6 of the Best Car Boot Sales in London.” Evening Standard, 21 July 2017, www.standard.co.uk/shopping/esbest/6-of-the-best-car-boot-sales-in-london-a3593516.html. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.

‌4. Cheapo, London. “Best Car Boot Sales in London | London Cheapo.” Https://Londoncheapo.com/, 1 Feb. 2022, londoncheapo.com/shopping/best-car-boot-sales-in-london/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.

‌

5. Dazed - Emily Dinsdale. “Photographer Nadia Lee Cohen Transforms Herself into Imaginary People.” Dazed, Emily Dinsdale, 1 Mar. 2022, www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/55481/1/nadia-lee-cohen-hello-my-name-is-strangers-characters. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.

‌6. Facebook, et al. “Who Are You? In 5 Objects.” National Museum of American History, 27 Aug. 2012, americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/08/who-are-you-in-5-objects.html. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.

7. Haynes, Gavin, and Martin Godwin. “Missing in London: Inside TfL’s Lost Property Office.” The Guardian, 28 Aug. 2017, www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/aug/28/inside-transport-for-london-lost-property-office.

‌8. Heritage, Stuart. “Bagging a Bargain? My Hellish Visit to a Luggage Auction.” The Guardian, 8 Sept. 2014, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/08/luggage-auction-bargain-baggage-battle. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.

‌9. Infolio. “Infolio Property Advisors.” Www.infolio.com.au, 17 Aug. 2017, www.infolio.com.au/bidders-behaving-badly-7-things-you-should-never-do-at-auction/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

‌10. Kettle, Emilia. “Love an Auction? Inside TfL’s Lost Property Auction and How You Can Attend.” News Shopper, 2 Apr. 2023, www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/23420582.inside-transport-londons-lost-property-auction-greasbys/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

‌11. Robson, David. “Dogs Look like Their Owners – It’s a Scientific Fact.” Bbc.com, BBC Future, 2015, www.bbc.com/future/article/20151111-why-do-dogs-look-like-their-owners. Accessed 9 Oct. 2023.

-Jaffe, Eric. “Why Dogs Look like Their Owners.” Fast Company, 20 Oct. 2014, www.fastcompany.com/3037279/why-dogs-look-like-their-owners. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

‌

‌

‌12. Magic Cleaning, Midwest . “Midwest Magic Cleaning - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, 15 June 2022, www.youtube.com/@MidwestMagicCleaning. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

13.Rothbart, Davy. Found. 2023. Simon and Schuster, 1 May 2012.

14.Nancy Bruning Levine. Hardcore Crafts. 2023. Levine, Nancy Bruning, 1976.

‌

15.Diamond, Norm. What Is Left behind : Stories from Estate Sales. 2023. Daylight Community Arts Foundation, 2016.

‌

‌16. Shapton, Leanne. Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. Sarah Crichton Books, 3 Feb. 2009.

17. Walker, R. and Glenn, J. (2012). Significant Objects | …and how they got that way. [online] significantobjects.com. Available at: https://significantobjects.com/category/project/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2023]. Significant Object’s first ‘volume’ of stories — by Sheila Heti, Nicholson Baker, Lydia Millet, Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Lethem, Chris Adrian and 94 others. Contributed to writing whilst Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn came up with the idea in 2009.

    
    

18. Whiting, Francesca . “Top Baby Names of the Decade: 2000 to 2010.” BabyCenter, 7 Oct. 2021, www.babycentre.co.uk/a1045185/top-baby-names-of-the-decade-2000-to-2010#. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.

19. McDonnell, Terence E. “Cultural Objects, Material Culture, and Materiality.” Cultural Objects, Material Culture, and Materiality, vol. 49, no. 1, 26 Apr. 2023, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-031021-041439

20. Hudek, Antony. The Object. London, Whitechapel Gallery ; Cambridge, Massachesetts, 2014.

21. Carolina Balthazar, Ana . Journal of Material Culture Journal of Material Culture. vol. 21, no.4, London, Sage Publications, 2016. Article: Old things with character: The fetishization of objects in Margate, UK.

22. Kilroy-Marac, Katie . Journal of Material Culture. , vol. 23, no.1, London, Sage Publications, 2018, pp. 20–38. An order of distinction (or, how to tell a collection from a hoard).

23. Lewis, Camilla . Journal of Material Culture . vol. 23, no.3, London, Sage Publications, 2018, pp. 295–311. Making community through the exchange of material objects.

24. Lipman, Caron . Journal of Material Culture. , vol. 24, no.1, London, Sage Publications, 2019, pp. 83–100. Living with the past at home: The afterlife of inherited domestic objects.

(11)

Hoarding charities

(communities of volunteers that help with hoarding online)

-->

Magic Cleaning, Midwest . “Midwest Magic Cleaning - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, 15 June 2022, www.youtube.com/@MidwestMagicCleaning. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

Reference (12)

reference (12)

Connects to :

TFL LOST|FOUND

(7) [contact 03432221234]

LOST PROPERTY AUCTION

(10)

CAR BOOT SALE

(1, 3, 4)

WASTE SITES

CHARITY SHOPS

(ref some images taken in the field)

Auctions:

airport auctions

(2,8, 9)

estate sale

https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/archive/using-the-archive

Street or charity shops and car boot sales (where I have already taken lots of photos

2 -Climate and Environment

3 -Online Community( Cleaning hoarder houses)

4 - Emotional effect

How does each lens illuminate my points in new ways?

1- It's important to consider communities with no or low disposable income having to buy cheaper items get rid of them and find accessible items. Constantly replacing due to the quality of more affordable items.

Charity shops and car boot sales becoming a trendy activity as opposed to a low-budget option to recycle someone else's unused items.

2- From a climate perspective the casual dropping of items on a street from one lens could be seen as the recycling of objects. Alternatively, it could be seen as a lazy option and more often than not items are disposed of as opposed to collected and reused by passers-by.

3- There are lots of articles online discussing people's lost items as well as communities where people aid in retrieving lost items or boards online where people will make public what they've lost and others may aid in their retrieval.

4- Emotionally really depends on the context of the item which is not fully provided so it is to be imagined. There seem stronger emotions relating to lost items.

COULD EXPLORE FURTHER

through interview

In this example the satirical impersonation of an 'IKEA' I felt however that this was not the message I wished to focus on.

My intention was to advertise these free items I was interested in so with the help of language I'd seen in this 80s magazine and that helped me develop my second draft.

I mistakenly had misunderstood that the brief informed us we should be selecting an article that connects to our subject. So I decided the context of how I had found my article provided the story through it's use and I would connect my illustration to the topic I had chosen by advertising an item I had seen on the street. Initially cutting out parts of the newspaper to serve as a sofa. I came across an add from a 1970s mag that advertised custom velvet curtains, displaying a chaise lounge that was just part of the background but not key to the add. I decided to use the language I had seen in this add to aid in the way I chose to advertise the street furniture.

In this example the satirical impersonation of an 'IKEA' I felt however that this was not the message I wished to focus on.

My intention was to advertise these free items I was interested in so with the help of language I'd seen in this 80s magazine and that helped me develop my second draft.

2A: top middle section

2B. middle middle section

3: bottom middle section

4: top right image

5: bottom right image

1.Donated or acquired with intention

2A+2B.accidentally passing over connections

3.Hoarding - car boot fuelled, actively acquired

4.Left with purpose- is it waste (fly-tipping)

5.Actively acquired - not pleased will this end up in front of house in cupboard or at a car boot fair?

1. The clutter surrounds the item. Full of things that are left unwanted unbought feels like a cluttered dinner table.

2A. Bin of keys, lost keys, feeling there has been a breach of security. Till you get a new lock and forget about the keys you lost on the train/bus.

2B. There's a note of European Catholic Grandmother in the organised repetition of this scene. Like a dedicated collection or organised hoarding

3. This image feels tight, claustrophobic and dense. The attachment to each item seems heavy and overwhelming.

4. Purpose items being shed from this persons space and shared with others walking by.

5. I edited this persons face however they seem unsatisfied with this purchase. It is unwanted and we can assume won't be in their possession for long.

1. mould/toy selected from a group of objects on a table.

2A. Keys and keychains in a box.

2B. Scooters, bikes and framed photographs neatly organised in a room.

3. Stack of obkects cluttering and filling a room

4. Signs indicating "ALL FREE" filling a room

5. A person squatting by an opened suitcase with items that aren't theirs.

Focussing

Image I decided to focus on is image 2B. This image shows part of TFL lost and found archives owned by TFL.

Focussing further on the longest scooter centred at the bottom of the image. There are other scooters that this interacts with. It leans on an image that looks as though it could be a sandwich. Isolated and outr of place. I chose it for its isolation and lack of significance visually it blends in with the neatly organised bleak selection of objects. The inage reminds me of the iconic europen catholic home walls densly adorned with crucifixes. A neat chaos.

see what unit 9 brings

Your ideas are really promising. You’re talking a bit about curation as an artistic practice I think - collecting and presenting / re-presenting things in order to create a new work. You seem curious and interested in what you are doing, so collect things, represent things, remake things as you were talking about.

ACTION PLAN:

• Go to the Aby Warburg institute (its free and you can stay there all day) to look at how information is linked and displayed and categorised

• Look at (research online/library) artists as curators

• Find things

Feeling unsure of my direction after this Tilly and I sought out office hours additional advice from Jen and Becky. This felt helpful, I was given references and told to write all the possible questions I could present as my title.

cleanliness, sterile, contaminated, sealed, making.

Looking at tampering with seals and releasing the grime of the world to new objects with no history

cleanliness, sterile, contaminated, sealed, making.

Looking at tampering with seals and releasing the grime of the world to new objects with no history

1. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 21 No 4 2016] Old things with character: The fetishisation of objects in Margate, UK. - Ana Carolina Balthazar (2016)

2. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 23 No 1 2018]. An order of distinction (or how to tell a collection from a hoard) - Katie Kilroy-Marac

3. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 23 No 3 2018]. Making community through the exchange of material objects. - Camilla Lewis

4. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 24 No 1 2019]. Living with the past at home: The afterlife of inherited domestic objects

5. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 21 No 2 2016]. Considering the glass case: Material encounters between museums, visitors and religious objects. - Steph Berns

6. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 14 No 1 2011]. Your trash is someone's treasure. - Joshua Reno

7. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 16 No 3 2009]. The real thing? souvenir objects in the West African collections at the Manchester Museum. Emma K Poulter

8. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 17 No 3 2012] Old objects, new media: Historical collections, digitization and affect - Jenny Newell

9. [Journal of Material Culture: Vol 18 No 3 2013] On the senses and semantic excess in photographic evidence. - Ross Gibson

30, 31, 32, 33, 32, 35, 36 and 37

From page 196 of the introduction

:

"We off-load work onto objects to replace human effort and then forget how those objects have come to shape behav- ior. We ignore cultural objects’ centrality to action until they break down or misbehave. By taking objects for granted, we treat them as static constants in our analysis. Instead, if we view objects as partners or collaborators in action, we can see how objects bring dynamism to our explana- tions. People collaborate with objects; objects are our imperfect but essential partners in action that require work from us so that objects can work with us. I call objects imperfect partners be- cause they require a great deal of stabilization to act predictably. Just as no representation perfectly captures or communicates an idea (Becker 2007), cultural objects can hold meaning for only so long, until they require repair and stabilization—else their meaning changes (McDonnell 2010) or they cease being a cultural object altogether when they degrade beyond recognition (Domínguez Rubio 2016)."

The text highlights key points about the relationship between humans and objects:

1. Dependency on Objects for Work Off-loading as a replacement for human effort.

2. Forgetting the Origins of Object Influence, often overlooked until the object malfunctions or breaks completely. How objects can shape human behaviour and development.

3. Neglecting the role of cultural objects.

4. Treating Objects as Static Constants, as unchanging elements instead of dynamic contributors.

5. Viewing Objects as Collaborators

6. Imperfection and Stabilization of Objects required for the objects to act predictably (need for collaboration). An extension to this could be care given to items, if something is well maintained it is likely it will continue to function as intended as opposed to an item treated without care.

7. Collaboration and Work with Objects, is a partnership which requires humans to take time to ensure the objects can effectively work with them.

8. Temporal Nature of Cultural Objects, "cultural objects can hold meaning for only so long until they require repair and stabilization—else their meaning changes..."

9. Degradation and Loss of Object Identity, "...or they cease being a cultural object altogether when they degrade beyond recognition (Domínguez Rubio 2016)."

In summary, the text emphasizes the interactive and dynamic relationship between humans and objects, highlighting the need to recognize objects as active collaborators in shaping human behaviour and the importance of maintaining and stabilizing cultural objects to preserve their meaning over time.

Following quote pj. 196-197:

"A focus on object qualities orients us to potential meanings and lines of action afforded by those objects. Interactions among object qualities and people’s embodied cognitive capacities shape and change agentic possibility. Objects, then, have cultural power both by stabilizing meaning-making and social arrangements and by the inverse—destabilizing routines and opening up new lines of action. Objects have power through various direct and indirect mechanisms, which I discuss through the lenses of figure and ground. By centering these insights from the study of cultural objects and mechanisms of meaning-making, we deepen theories of culture in action, culture and cognition, and the produc-tion and reception of culture. "

The text conveys key points about the relationship between humans and objects, particularly focusing on the influence of object qualities on human cognition and cultural dynamics:

1. orientation to object qualities, "A focus on object qualities orients us to potential meanings and lines of action afforded by those objects."

2. The cultural power of objects can be seen through their ability to stabilise meaning-making as well as their power in destabilising routines whilst introducing new possibilities for action, proving their duality in cultural dynamics.

3. Objects exert power through various mechanisms, both direct and indirect. This power is discussed in the context of figure and ground, suggesting a nuanced understanding of how objects influence culture.

4. Objects contribute to cultural stability by stabilizing meaning-making and social arrangements. Simultaneously, objects have the potential to disrupt routines and open up new lines of action, contributing to cultural change.

5. The insights derived from the study of cultural objects and mechanisms of meaning-making contribute to the development and deepening of theories related to culture in action, culture and cognition, and the production and reception of culture.

In summary, the text underscores the dynamic relationship between humans and objects, emphasizing how the qualities of objects influence human cognition, cultural dynamics, and the production of meaning within a cultural context. The discussion also highlights the dual nature of objects, serving both stabilizing and destabilizing roles in culture.

30, 31, 32, 33, 32, 35, 36 and 37

These themes are also explored in (Balthazar. A.C, Old things with Character: The fetishization of objects in Margate, UK, 2016) Which delves into the different charity shops and lightly compares a £1 shop to a more high end shop. This had inspired my need to reflect on the materials used in mending and how they may not be accessible to all. Which is why i sought to find (Lynch.D, What Is David Working on Today? Pants Repair, 2020[film]) as an example of mending with what you have, although not done perfectly done intuitively in an accessible manner as a response to these challenges.

Another facet of this article I wish to delve deeper into is the discussion of an object's role in the loss and regeneration of value, and how it can be warped(2009, p.34,p.36), which I have delved into and presented as part of my position in my argument of how cultivating care affects us as people the objects and our environment. I believe I can cover this concerning us and objects in more detail if I continue with this direction as I plan to in the next Unit.

We printed on a speckled white paper to add texture to the print and chose blue and neon pint to make it as bright and exciting, visually, as we could with the content we were working with. I think the poster effectively reflected the sentiments of work being in progress and in process. The process of scribbling bits out and footnotes that are all part of final outcomes or our journeys as creatives.

I wish that I had been able to delve deeper into the research I had conducted in my interviews with TFL Lost Property Office workers and the photographer Edward Wright I had met there and emailed back and forth with the following. However, these experiences have influenced my research clearly through my experimentation with creating interview-style conversation transcripts and in my consideration of how objects are reflections of the people they encounter. I aim to refer back to and develop this research much further in the next unit through exploring objects in a physical sense through symbolism and sculpture.

The title I had chosen at this point felt suitable as it was clean and didn't feel too obvious. I wanted it to provide as an indicator of what the content could be without being too obvious, suggesting the viewer to open the contents to gain further context.

Image to the right echoes in part the principal aims of my argument with Care at the centre of what I believe needs to be nourished as part of Western practice. Although I could've developed this further I didn't wish for the medium to be overpowered with text and hope that the points I have included and the overall tone, theories and examples explored reflect my perspective as caretaker, investigator and translator of the research I have undertaken and my position on the issue of the connection people have with objects under their care as well as objects they find in the Western world.

The page to the right, page 18, developed on the page that is before it in the publication. I t allowed me to play into my role as storyteller as well as caretaker and investigator. Using my own ideas of nostalgia with hopes the reader may relate and using an image from the very beginning of our project, with the trip to dungeons as an ode to process which I care about greatly as a creative.

Page 17 is a continuation of a specific example of objects aid in forming connections through the research I have thus far conducted. The image serving as a background to create a more engaging display, featured in images collected section of padlet.

Page 15, right, offers a continuation on the subject of moving on from our items using storytelling as well as research to entertain the scope of possibilities with our approaches to moving on from items. Giving examples of how people do that and providing an illustrated figure as a metaphor for passing the items on to the next owner whether direct or indirectly. This figure is cited in the publication bibliography.

Page 10 is a continuation of the ideas aforementioned in the last page. Applying visible mending in a way that is engaging and positioning the audience to consider how they too can use their own intuition when it comes to caring and mending the items under their care.

Kirby, B. (2013). Some people have a knack for finding lost items. [online] The Augusta Chronicle. Available at: https://eu.augustachronicle.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2013/01/26/some-people-have-knack-finding-lost-items/14467045007/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2023].

CATHEDRAL, N. (2021). Article: St Anthony, Patron of Lost Things | Newry Cathedral Parish. [online] newrycathedralparish.org. Available at: https://newrycathedralparish.org/2021/06/17/article-st-anthony-patron-of-lost-things/#:~:text=Anthony%20of%20Padua%20is%20one [Accessed 20 Dec. 2023].

Burkeman, O. (2002). Lost and found. The Guardian. [online] 13 Nov. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/nov/13/usnews.g2 [Accessed 4 Oct. 2023].

What I am considering at this stage is accumulating objects and reference materials, as many as I can possibly get. Visiting other parts of London or achievable parts of England may be good for this exercise. Then I will categorise what I have found so far to find links between objects.