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Material Agency in the Urban Material Culture Initiative
Author(s) -
Rotenberg Robert
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/muan.12048
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , assemblage (archaeology) , focus (optics) , sociology , structure and agency , consumption (sociology) , public relations , computer science , history , social science , political science , archaeology , physics , optics
This contribution to the discussion of collecting contemporary objects reviews the implications of taking seriously how and what objects communicate, especially how we can identify the ways messages are coded in the forms of familiar objects. Of special interest are the conceptual tools that are available to differentiate these messages when objects are arranged in assemblages, including emergent implicit messages, the messages implicit in sets of objects. I advocate an approach to collecting in museums based on the tactics people use to create these assemblages at home. What theorizing about material agency offers to our collection program is a focus on objects in use rather than objects isolated from use. [material culture, consumption, agency, assemblage]