Take One Object
An Ethnographic Journey through Everyday Design, Material Culture and the Home
Take One Object
An Ethnographic Journey through Everyday Design, Material Culture and the Home
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Description
Bringing together forty-five authors to reflect on the importance of everyday objects, this volume showcases how things found in the home can provide a valuable method of design and ethnographic study. With each chapter foregrounding an author, an object and a domestic space, it delves into the material ecologies that surround us to create a contemporary portrait of the places we inhabit.
Combining analytical and empirical perspectives with autobiographical and archival recollections, an international line-up of designers, anthropologists, artists, architects and archaeologists each focus on a single domestic artefact. These objects demonstrate how anything can become the subject of design. From everyday products such as matches, blankets, toothbrushes and lamps to more personal items like a model Trabant car, a vinyl records collection and a vyshyvanka shirt, they showcase contemporary notions of materiality in different ways. The essays span diverse cultural, geographic and disciplinary contexts as well as thematically across gadgets, personal heritage, everyday essentials, furnishings, more-than-human companions, symbolism, and the past and future.
A blend of personal storytelling with design sensibility and ethnographic insight, this will be a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in new design research methodologies and the emotive and evocative power of everyday objects.
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Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Foreword. Primus Inter Pares, Daniel Miller
An Author, an Object, and a Home, Francisco Martínez and Tomás Errázuriz
Part I: Biographies of Continuity
Blanket, Magda Craciun
Cabinet, Tinatin Khomeriki
Pebble, Adam Drazin
Chair, Mika Pantzar
Photo Frame, Blanca Callén
Pie Tin, Jeremy Gould
Part II: Methods of Dwelling
Lamps, Maria Manuela Restivo
Fireplace, Jenny Rinkinen
Hooks, Roland Reemaa
Pitiless Floor, Ben Highmore
Earplugs, Pedro Neto
Frames, Patrick Laviolette
Part III: Devices of Care
Fridge, Tomás Errázuriz
Dishwasher, Martín Ávila
Hair Dryer, Giacomo Pozzi
Cochlear Hearing Device, Jeff Malpas
Arepa Grill, Catalina Cortés Severino
Hummingbird Feeder, Hermione Spriggs
Part IV: Social World-Making
Cheese Ball Container, Katie Kilroy-Marac
Jam Jar, Sophie Woodward
Cupboard, Lucy Khofi
Books, Michael Jackson
Woven Basket, Justicia C. Tegyeka Kiconco
Family Photos, Ricardo Greene
Part V: Evocative Things
Framed Hole, Kiven Strohm
Key-thing, Martin D. Frederiksen
Empty Honey Jar, Elizabeth Saleh
Shirt, Nastasia Fomina
Matchbox, Suzie Thomas
Castle Knocker, Tim Edensor
Part VI: Displacement
Passport, Carna Brkovic
Guitar, Hanna Valynets
Perro, Ana Gutiérrez Garza
Vase, Beatrice Juškaite
Pointe Shoes, Jenny Tang
Beach House, Damián Omar Martínez
Part VII: Futures of Dwelling
Vinyl Collection, Francisco Martínez
Sublet Room, Anna Kin
Countryside House, Sung-Hoon Hong
Book, Anatolijs Venovcevs
Futures Table, Sarah Pink
Afterword. A Saturation, Kathleen Stewart
Home: A User's Manual, Santiago Orrego
Index
Product details
| Published | Dec 10 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 336 |
| ISBN | 9781350597747 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Visual Arts |
| Illustrations | 42 colour illus |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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