Guest blog by student Curator Joshua Speer
Object Walks in Derby, UK
I first came across the #objectwalks project on Twitter, when a fellow tweeter liked one the of images. Coming from a background in object research, I was quick to find out more and initiate a conversation with Andrea Hadley-Johnson.
Currently studying a masters degree in curatorial practice at The Glasgow School of Art, I’ve found an interest in the research of objects and ‘things’ through the philosophical branch of Object-Oriented Ontology. Better known as OOO to the cool kids! OOO is an enquiry into the existence of objects, and understanding their existence by giving them the same importance as humans. In doing so, humans are not all powerful over objects, instead we live in a kind of co-existing harmony on planet earth (which is also an object..). It can become very confusing, and although I have doubts in some of these thoughts, I definitely agree that objects hold a strong presence in our world. From the iPhone, to kitchen utensils, or even a bus: objects are forming increasingly deeper relationships with our lives, in some instances causing fear. When objects start to take the form and/ or personality of humans - in the form of robotics - it is easy to feel threatened. This is one way of understanding object/human relations, but in the context of #objectwalks where the object is more about materiality, do we have anything to fear? Why would we? Whilst chairs help us relax, duvets keep us warm, knives and forks help us eat, and smartphones, well, give us everything, we can see how object/human relations can be a mutual exchange of existence. However, through research it is apparent that our awareness of objects may not be all that it seems. We spread some jam using a knife, give it a clean, and shut it back in the draw until its use next time. Our object/human relations is thrown into autonomous human mode, taking advantage of the knives preparedness to assist in making a jam sandwich. The same can be said for public transport: we rarely acknowledge the bus until it is late or breaks down, at which point we tend to become frustrated. We only acknowledge the objects’ human relation when it brings negative actions or feelings, otherwise it’s existence is to be taken advantage of. The internet: before this existed, books, face-to-face conversations and travel where the only ways of building knowledge, now all we need to do is produce a Google search or ask Siri. I find #objectwalks particularly exciting because by bringing museum artefacts out of the institution and into public space, their existence becomes not only as fetishised things to be place behind a cabinet, but actually to understand their own lives in relation to ours. Museum objects themselves are fascinating because although they hold essence through materiality, they are usually rooted in an historically social and/ or geographical context which initiates an interesting conversation when placed within close proximity of another object. In doing so, conversations are initiated that confront existence on both levels: object and human.