Paper presented at the summer school “Lost Objects”, NICA, University of Amsterdam, 8-9 June 2011

Interdisciplinarity as a key notion of the School. For more info about the call and the program click here.

///// ABSTRACT:

This paper presents my research of how objects become things and subjects that ‘do’ and ‘are’ and that can form a basic matter of thought, discussion, investigation… Presenting two of my projects in relation to objects, I discuss the ways objects contribute to our reality and subjectivity. One of these projects refers to economic, social, political emotional, affective and other codes and value systems inscribed on them while the other investigates the communication potentials of these codes as well as their limitations.

My effort to perceive at once the different, contradictory ingredients of meaning and value inherent to objects, is like trying to see a 3d image through its printed 2d form. I assert that interdisciplinarity tries to achieve such a holistic perception of the world. That explains why this term is per definition positive and it has no negation. That is why, it starts having religious or godly characteristics. In my striving for such a holistic overview, I am careful about hallucinations of apocalyptic visions and at the same time, fascinated with the magic hidden in objects. /////

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