Open Exhibition Invite 1

Submissions are sought for an Open Exhibition
Send us a visual interpretation of the term
‘Object Abuse’
 
September 21st to December 15th 2013,
at Spinach: a central London space.
 
A Private View shall take place on the 12th Dec 2013.
Contributions will be accepted until the day before the private view.
 All artwork will be exhibited and artists credited.

As the artwork comes in over the three-month period, the exhibition will thus expand and we hope it completely takes over the space. Updates on this progress will appear on the website. All contributing artists will be credited and listed on the following websites; www.objectabuse.com and www.spinach.co.uk/artists/

What does Object Abuse look like?
The answer to this question is not so straight forward, but when you put obvious ethical or ecological perspectives to one side, then the possibility for speculation really is limitless.
Who is to say the object in question is passive and not active? What really qualifies as abuse (in this context), is it quantifiable and can we envisage it’s subtler variations? For that matter, what is an object; or rather can we say what isn’t an object…with any real certainty? Isn’t everything an object?
 
Submission details:
We request that artworks be submitted as hard copy, so it needs to be sent through the post to the Spinach space (address below). Submissions can also be handed in.
We will only accept artwork in a 2D format and it should not exceed an A4 scale. Submissions can take the form of an image, drawing text, collage, a proposal, documentation, etc. Please do not send …

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Open Exhibition invite 2

Submissions are sought for an Open Exhibition
Send us a visual interpretation of the term
‘Object Abuse’
 
All artwork will be exhibited and artists credited.
 
September 21st to December 15th 2013,
at Spinach: a central London space.
 
A Private View shall take place on the 12th Dec 2013.
Contributions will be accepted until the day before the private view.
As the artwork comes in over the three-month period, the exhibition will thus expand and we hope it completely takes over the space. Updates on this progress will appear on the website. All contributing artists will be credited and listed on the following websites; www.objectabuse.com and www.spinach.co.uk/artists/
What does Object Abuse look like?
The answer to this question is not so straight forward, but when you put obvious ethical or ecological perspectives to one side, then the possibility for speculation really is limitless.
Who is to say the object in question is passive and not active? What really qualifies as abuse (in this context), is it quantifiable and can we envisage it’s subtler variations? For that matter, what is an object; or rather can we say what isn’t an object…with any real certainty? Isn’t everything an object?
 
Submission details:
We request that artworks be submitted as hard copy, so it needs to be sent through the post to the Spinach space (address below). Submissions can also be handed in.
We will only accept artwork in a 2D format and it should not exceed an A4 scale. Submissions can take the form of an image, drawing text, collage, a proposal, documentation, etc. Please do not …

Read More

Tom Watson

 
Tom Watson has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Title: Soft Touch (Life jacket & Thread, Height 20x Width 25x Depth 2cm, 2012)
“I emulated the required thickness of leather by wrapping polyurethane foam in the polyester outer, and then following exactly the craft of master whip maker Ron Edwards,  to produce a bullwhip, without the mass required to function.”
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Tom Watson

 
Tom Watson has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Title: Untitled (Padded chair & fixings, 1.5x1x2m, 2010)
“I dismantled & reconstituted a chair with the same tool of its original construction. The piece offered the fantasy scenario of lighting the polyurethane foam on the floor behind, sitting facing backwards placing your head in the hood & eventually succumbing to asphyxiation.”
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Nick Pearson

Nick Pearson has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Title: Japanese Temple
Visiting an ancient temple near Tokyo with a Japanese friend (who was proudly reciting the ancient credentials of the several hundred years-old wooden building she was showing us) I noticed a couple of carpenters working on one of the internal supporting posts. They were replacing it with a new piece of seasoned timber. My friend told me this is quite normal, as the temple requires constant maintenance and had for centuries.
I thought how this ‘ancient object’, like our own skin and other cells, was being continually replaced and renewed. Its physical status, existing only in a constant state of replacement and renewal. Its spiritual or intellectual purpose as a ‘place’ however, staying always the same.
On returning to my studio in London, recollections of that incident triggered off a memory of what some might call a more prosaic, but I believe equally philosophical reference to the status of objects: An episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and an exchange that will forever live (at least in my mind) in the tradition of great philosophical ideas, as ‘Trigger’s broom (like ‘Schrödinger’s cat’) ‘
In Sid’s Café, road sweeper Trigger shows Boycie, Del Boy and Rodney a photograph in which a local councillor presents him with a medal for saving the council money.
Trigger: ” . . . I happened to mention to her one day that I’ve had the same broom for twenty years. She was very impressed . . . This old …

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Alison Carlier

Alison Carlier has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Michelle Atherton

Michelle Atherton has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Title: Untitled – 2010
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Torsten Lauschmann

Torsten Lauschmann has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
This Photograph shows a Wabag warrior in Papua New Guinea wearing a Kellogg’s tin for decoration.
Photograph by Michael Leahy  (around 1934) National Library of Australia.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Short text by Jaspar Joseph Lester

 
To anthropomorphize objects is perhaps the greatest abuse that we can inflict on the object world. We like to imagine objects staring back at us and even, on occasion, position objects so that they appear to be watching us (see Jaspar’s image in the Visual Interpretations section).  This delusional fantasy is perhaps best challenged through the process of putrefaction where the human body decays to the point of being indistinguishable from the earth that envelopes it.
.
‘That which is exteriorized or dissolved into its precursor exteriority becomes a differential interpolation of a nested series of interiorities whose limitropic convergence upon zero (i.e. reflection upon death) has a weirdly chemical – thus contingent and productive – disposition which simultaneously forecloses the idea of return to the ideal origin and differentially convolutes the path of decontraction to the originary flatline of death.’
.
Reza Negarestani, ‘Undercover Softness: An Introduction to eh Architecture and Politics of Decay’, COLLAPSE, Philosophical Research and Development, Vol VI.  p. 391.
Lukol 1 pc

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Jaspar Joseph Lester

Jaspar Joseph Lester has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Lea Torp Nielsen

Lea Torp Nielsen has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Hannah Shaw

Hannah Shaw has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
This image is the first of a series.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Simon Barker & Nayan Kulkarni

Simon Barker & Nayan Kulkarni
(still from multi-channel video), 2012
(found gateway embellishments, Medway, Kent)
 
Simon Barker and Nayan Kulkarni have offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Marie von Heyl

Marie von Heyl has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our contact page and let us know: contact
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Richard Sides

Richard Sides has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.

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Natalie Finnemore

Title: Untitled (studio 1), 2012, pencil & water colour on paper, 30.5 x 22cm
Natalie Finnemore has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.

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Object Abuse and the Proprietorial Fallacy (a short introduction), Dale Holmes

’They (the Moderns) do have a fetish, the strangest one of all: they deny to the objects they fabricate the autonomy they have given them. They pretend they are not surpassed, outstripped by events. They want to keep their mastery, and they find its source within the human subject, the origin of action’.
 (Bruno Latour, On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods)

1.     Concrete? Or Abstract?

The distinction between abstract and concrete objects remains contentious and the question of whether objects can exist at all outside of the human mind has haunted western philosophical investigation since its earliest days. Plato argued that abstract objects – objects that are non spatio-temporal and therefore causally inert – exist. Empiricisms of all stripes continues to question the existence of such objects; none more radically than the nominalists asserting as they do that only concrete objects can exist. For the philosopher Martin Heidegger humans transcend the objects they encounter so completely they are rendered invisible and only become truly visible at the moment they are useless to us – in this sense the discrepant object is the real object. In his Zeit und Zein (1927) Heidegger illustrates this through the figure of the hammer and how at the moment it breaks we no longer have any purchase upon it; it is no longer useful to the human that transcends it and the broken hammer becomes an object in-itself – autonomous and ungraspable. The privileging of the human subject in the world and the autonomy of objects …

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Paintings’ Awakening, Karen David

Tom: I’m Tom.
Jerry: I’m Jerry.
Both: (gasp) You talk!
— Tom and Jerry: The Movie

Through observing the De Lacey family, the monster has become educated and self-aware. It had also discovered a lost satchel of books and learned to read. — Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

“Beep, Beep, Beep!” the microwave signalled the popcorn was ready, but Painting had already smelt the aroma as it wafted through the kitchen. Painting was rectangular in shape and lived in a constant state of flux. It was unsure of itself. While painting knew it existed, it did not know much more. Painting had no religion but it believed in belief as a tool and it was a curious soul.
Its curiosity led it down various avenues in it’s quest for enlightenment. Painting was well read in meditation, but couldn’t gain enlightenment even when facing a Rothko. It knew Caspar David Friedrich, but often felt more like the character in the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818). It had heard rumours of Hilma af Klint and her trances that possessed her to make paintings, but it felt no such alignment. Once, on a trip to London, it happened upon Osman Spare and learnt of his sigils and automatic writings and wondered what or who was the ‘automatic’ force. It had read of Transpersonal Psychology and the work of Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson and their research into the use of Psychotropic drugs to attain higher dimensions. It had also read that the use of Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) could …

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Ben Connell

Ben Connell has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Ruth Herbert

Title: Hands
Ruth Herbert has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Eugene Nyee Macki

Eugene Nyee Macki has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Cerlin Karunaratne

‘Punched Pointy Hat’
 
Cerlin Karunaratne has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Lindsey Mendick

Lindsey Mendick has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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McCormack+Gent

‘Dumb Fixity’
‘Listening Series’
McCormack+Gent has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.
 

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Keith Arnatt

Keith Arnatt’s photograph has been adopted, as a speculative interpretation’ of Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Galen Riley

Galen Riley has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Prof. Dale Russell

‘MacAir Table Wedge’ 2012
‘G5 Coffee Table for Smokers’ Brighton 2012
 
Prof. Dale Russell has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Harriet Davies

‘No Climbing’
‘Oh Dear’
 
Harriet Davies has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Rebecca Stewart

‘Smudge Tool 5’
‘Smudge Tool 13’
 
Rebecca Stewart has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Lucy Cash

‘3rd February’
‘1st May’
 
Lucy’s contribution is from a year-long project – 1 x Polaroid.
In 2008 Polaroid announced that its instant film was to be discontinued. On January 1st 2009, I decided to take a single Polaroid for the next 365 days. My aim was simple: to make an image every day, to improvise and respond to a particular moment, without planning ahead. This rule was sometimes broken. Either if I was somewhere particularly eventful (resulting in more than one image), or if I ran out of film / couldn’t find a way to respond to the day, (resulting in no image). These days are represented by a blank Polaroid.
The two images selected for OA come from East London and Chicago respectively. I’m often drawn to abandoned, yet arranged objects, similarly objects which are adapted in order to deliver a message, (and sometimes, perhaps, a message more ambiguous than intended!).
 
Lucy Cash has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of …

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Karen David

‘Apophyllite VI’, 2011, Acrylic on canvas with apophyllite crystal, 51x50cm
‘Triangle Charging Station’, 2012, acrylic on canvas (with chair), 47x40cm
‘Magnetite Effect’, plinth, 40,000-year-old Canyon Diablo Meteorite from Arizona, USA and compass, 2012
‘SiO2’, 2012, acrylic on canvas with clear quartz, 45x70cm
‘S3’, 2012, acrylic on canvas with sulphur crystal, 150x150cm
‘Desert Rose’, 2011, acrylic on canvas with desert rose crystal, 44x35cm
_________________
The work ‘Magnetite Effect’ presents a small fragment from a meteorite which collided with Earth around 40,000-years-ago in the Canyon Diablo crater, Arizona. Placed directly above the meteorite on top of the perspex case is a compass.  The compass needle has a magnet on it which is attracted to the North Pole of the Earth, but because some meteorites are magnetic, when placed in proximity of a compass, the needle will spin towards the meteorite.
 
Magnetite is a highly magnetic mineral, crystals of which are found in the brains of bees, fish, birds and bats helping them navigate by sensing the Earth’s magnetic field, much like a compass.  Strangely, a tiny shiny crystal of magnetite is also found in humans in the ethmoid bone between the eyes, just behind the nose.
 
The work ‘S3’ presents three blue painted square canvases of equal dimensions, upon which rests a piece of yellow neon sulphur crystal. Sulphur is often referred to in the Bible as ‘brimstone’ as in “fire and brimstone”, and is used in gunpowder.  When burned, Sulphur releases a blue flame and melts to a blood-red liquid. The S3- molecule derived from a sulphur radical gives the …

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Pheobe Wild

Pheobe Wild has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Jim Howieson

‘Reformed Bat’
 
Jim Howieson has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Gary Simmonds

Squeege
 
Gary Simmonds has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Object Abuse…, Cerlin Karunaratne

I do think about objects quite a lot.
 
I wonder if it is ok to keep making them and I think I expect too much of them. I try not to, and allow them to be but sometimes it is hard. Sometimes as with people you are aware of what they could do but they are what they are.
 
Is it us abusing the object or does the object abuse us by its presence?
 
Do we have a right to expect objects to do work by their mere presence? Is it abusive to give an object meaning without its consent?
Things are constantly done to objects without their permission. Planned obsolescence is one such thing. Is it an abusive action to plan something’s demise in advance?
 
Does an objects presence cause pollution – practical, visual or ethical? –
Practical pollution- Its use value is not equivalent to its material value not in a monetary sense but an ontological sense. How do we judge that? Should we judge that?
 
Visual pollution – Can there be such a thing or it is just a matter of taste, style, waste?
 
Ethical – to have an object exist is giving a strand of human thought form – there are many outcomes for thoughts but to become objects is such a definite action. This action then has an implication. Not to judge in a moral way or in any way but going back to the fact that the form exists.
 
I read an interesting essay last week – Behold the Invisible by Keja Silverman. …

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Sharon Kivland

Title: ma poufiasse. deer’s head
Sharon Kivland has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.

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Andy Welland

Andy Welland has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Dave Green

Dave Green has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Amy Davis

Amy Davies has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Robyn Leroy Evans

Robyn Leroy Evans has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Dr. Fiona Candlin

Fiona is Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies in the School of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London.
With Raiford Guins she is editor of The Object Reader (2009), and her research on audiences, museums, and the senses culminated in Art, Museums and Touch (Manchester University Press, 2010). She has just begun a new book entitled Micromuseology, which rethinks museum studies from the perspective of very small independent organisations. Between 2005 and 2007 Fiona Candlin was Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University, Sweden.
This was the final provocation of the morning. How can the museum come alive through and for its visitors? And now we have added museums of witchcraft and thoughts of the essences and auras for the objects inside them and the actions and patterns of behaviour of their audience to our already fizzing minds. We were ready to tackle the issues by talking for the rest of the day.
Further reading:
The Object Reader – Fiona Candlin, Raiford Guins
Art, Museums and Touch- Fiona Candlin
Bringing a Museum Object to Life – Jenny Wei
Lines – Tim Ingold

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Gabriel Gbadamosi

Gabriel is an Irish-Nigerian Londoner, a writer and broadcaster. His radio play The Long, Hot Summer of ’76 won the Richard Imison Award; his recently completed novel Vauxhall won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize at the London Book Fair. He was AHRC Creative Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Cambridge University.  His essay on the African male nude was recently broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
This provocation kicked off the day’s proceedings with energy and intrigue and superstition. We passed conch shells between us. The sun was shining and Gabriel’s voice filled us and the space with tales of West African oracles and divination. This system is on UNESCO’s list of ‘Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’.
 
 
IFÁ ORACLE
I   I
I  I
I  I
I  I
Eji Ogbe (Ogbe Meji)
They took palm oil and poured it into the room
And Ant came out;
They took fire and heated the walls
And Cockroach came out.
Orisha said, “That is what happened.
“Orunmila, you took all my slaves and hid them.”

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Professor Dale Russell

Dale is an internationally renowned design practitioner, a futurist and academic.
She advocates innovative design through the synthesis of foresight, research, and practice to initiate people-centred design. introducing narrative insight and understandings as we shape our future, her creative and strategic guidance inspires visionary design cultures and projects in design and technology teams across a diverse blue-chip portfolio. she is Visiting Professor, Innovation Design Engineering, Royal College of Art joint MA/MSc with Imperial College and Honorary Fellow of the RCA; Visiting Professor, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; and advisor to UAL research centres: Design Against Crime (DACRC), Textile Futures (TFRG),  and Spatial Practices.
Dale provoked second. She provoked us with insights into objects as materials that do things. That live. That are by their very design themselves from the inside out, and the outside in; from the code of their makeup to the form they inhabit and the function they perform. Where will these object-materials take us, now that we have created them?
 
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Arcimboldo Mug

Arcimboldo Mug has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Ruth Wilde

Title: Mixed Up Things
 
Ruth Wilde has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Objects Without Us

When we stop talking about the object, does it disappear? Perhaps this is the moment when the object itself comes into existence; when we are taken out of the equation. And what for imagination? Perhaps the object has one. But what is ‘imagination’, other than a human word for something that humans experience themselves.
This is a conversation that took place between Jaspar Joseph Lester, Tony Hall, Gabriel Badamosi, Emma Cocker, Dale Holmes, Michelle Atherton, Amy Davies, Sharon Kivland, Lea Torp Nielsen, Julie Westerman, Andy Welland, Dave and another. It started at 4:15pm on 23rd March 2012, and is still going.
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Resisting ‘Inquisition’: The Object’s Right To Silence

“_____________________________”
The more they don’t speak the more we want to hear them. The more we yearn to know what they are saying behind our backs. This is a strategy, this dumbness. This is a considered non-participation in human chit-chat. But are they bugging us, tracing and tracking us? Sending information about us elsewhere?
This is sci-fi at its finest, but sci-fi is becoming reality everyday. The utilities of these objects are their disguises. Once they have a function, they can disappear.
This is a conversation that took place between Emma Cocker, Yang Jiwon, Amy Davies, Jos Boys, Matthew Harrison, Dale Holmes, Lea Torp Nielsen, Harriet Davies, Gary Simmonds, Julie Westerman and Ruth Wilde. It started at 2:45pm on march 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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Julie Westerman

Julie Westerman has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

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Ventriloquising Objects

What have the chairs been saying as we have sat here sharing words of the possibility that humans will always speak in the place of objects? Like the ventriloquist throws words into the mouth of his dummy, can this be a metaphor for our everyday complacency for doing the same to the objects alongside us?  In the absence of humans, do objects consider themselves separate from each other?
This is a conversation that took place between Emma Cocker, Rose Martin, Amy Davies and Andy Welland. It was started at 5:00pm on 23rd march 2012, and is still going.
View conversation notes
Listen to recorded discussion
Further Reading:
Conversation about urban objects

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Being An Object, Or Very Close To

And, What Is The Relationship Between Idea and Object. In particular, a discussion concerning the immaterial object of labour. Those who become object in public when doing mundane activities such as wiping tables, cleaning bollards, are becoming invisible. Is this invisibility where they want to be? My body is an object, if I say it is. So perhaps this invisibility need not be a negative condition; only when it is self chosen.
This is a conversation that took place between Richard Layzell, Gabriel Badamosi, Jasper Joseph Lester, Rose Martin, Fiona Candlin and Lucia Farinati. It started at 2:45pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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Ascribing Meaning To Objects: Superstition And Mental Health

Objects free you, objects tie you down: which do you believe? Your new shoes are on the table, the ladder is being walked underneath and that horseshoe is hanging the wrong way round. It’s all in the mind and in our cultures, yet it pushes our behaviour in peculiar directions. Objects are activated by narratives that are created surrounding them, and what happens when the objects are removed from the ideas? Don’t whatever you do, open that umbrella inside.
This is a conversation that took place between Alison Carlier, Richard Layzell, Amy Davies and Matthew Harrison. It started at 3:30pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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How Does An Object Relate To The Overall Topology Of The Space?

Exploring what constitutes atmosphere and how this unseen force emanates. Don’t you think there are spaces that already hold their own energy? Such as the UFO museum in New Mexico or the Museum of Witchcraft in Cornwall. You have to be there to feel it. You can’t feel it through the technology of the computer screen.
This is a conversation that took place between Robert Wallis, Richard Layzell, Karen David and Yang Jiwon. It started at 4:15pm on 23rd march 2012, and is still going.
View conversation notes
Fiona’s provocation
Listen to recorded discussion
——————————————————————————————————–
Topology |təˈpäləjē|
Noun
1 Mathematics the study of geometric properties and spatial relations unaffected by the continuous change of shape or size of figures.
• A family of open subsets of an abstract space such that the union and the intersection of any two of them are members of the family, and that includes the space itself and the empty set.
2 The way in which constituent parts are interrelated or arranged : the topology of a computer network.

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Is It Okay For Objects To Have Trivial Meanings?

Nostalgic objects, objects that make you go “ahh”, objects that you can’t explain why but you succumb to their triviality, except simply…because. A PEZ dispenser. Grand Designs. A snow globe, the perfect trivial object. Trivial makes everything important. The fun-factor, the entertainment, the enjoyment, the non-importance we pull from these trivial things, to what impact on the object?
This is a conversation that took place between Jos Boys, Paul Wilson, Galen Riley, Emma Cocker, Jasper Joseph Lester, Dale Holmes, Lisa Watts, Harriet Davis and Ruth Wilde. It started at 3:30pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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Mediating/Investigating The Emotional Life Of The Object After The Death Of The Owner

Before we are able to enter language, objects bring us into contact with the world beyond our mother’s body. We use the same apparatus again to deal with a loss; we attach ourselves to their objects. But how can we choose what to keep and what to throw away? This is hard. This is why so many objects are being donated to museums. But do they have value, energy, life, beyond the emotions the donator feels of them? What counts as ‘dirt’ is subjective; Britney Spears’ chewing gum at auction anyone?
This is a conversation that took place between Rose Martin, Fiona Candlin, Julie Westerman, Andy Welland and Lea Torp Nielsen. It started at 3:30pm on 23rd march 2012, and is still going.
View conversation notes
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Happy objects, Sad objects

How can it be that we find a human emotion with an object? Is this an energy inherent in the being of the object, or is it always going to be something we bring to it, that we place onto it? It is impossible to say, impossible to know, impossible to even compare the subjective feelings we feel of these objects. Is feeling knowledge? Is thought knowledge? How do you make sense of your senses?
This is a conversation that took place between Gary Simmonds and other participants (names not noted). It started at 5:00pm on 23rd March 2012, and is still going.
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Netting Objects: The Importance Of Rope And Stringing Things Together

“Objects are the clasps on the pockets of space” said Malcolm de Chazal. What do the lines between objects look like; can they be tied together with string or would that tie them down? In the process of mapping we erase what is there. Are objects what they are because of their connections? Hosted by Galen Riley.
This conversation has not yet started. Can you?
View conversation notes
Further Reading:
Sens-Plastique – Malcom de Chazal

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Making Objects Through Touch, But Not With The Hands

“Does an object have to exist in space or, if I talk about a tree that I saw (it was summertime, it was full in bloom) is that an object?”
This discussion discusses the intangible object, the object of language. Is this an object? Language is human, so how can this be of the object itself? Maybe our language is all we will ever know of these objects; an ever-shifting layer which blankets the object from us as we continue to talk over it.
This is a conversation that took place between Eugene Nyee Macki, Lisa Watts, Galen Riley and Andy Welland.
It started at 2:45pm on 23rd march 2012, and is still going.
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Objects In Fiction

Don’t let the truth get in the way of a great story. Imagined objects are snuffed out when they are realised by someone else in the film of the book. What is this dissatisfaction? We must hold pictures of objects in our minds akin to characters, and this failure to represent our own narratives means these objects must serve another purpose… are time machines involved?
This is a conversation that took place between Richard Layzell, Paul Wilson, Yang Jiwon, Michelle Atherton and Matthew Harrison. It started at 5:00pm on 23rd March 2012, and is still going.
View conversation notes
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The Relationship Between Making An Object And Its Meaning

Is everything now so conceptual that we are forgetting what it feels to actually make something? David Hockney offers a relief to view his output in which there is more concern for making than meaning. And what of skills; they have had to reshape themselves as demand is for brands over high quality craftsmanship. We talk about aura…has the value of quality been subverted?
This is a conversation that took place between Jos Boys, Alison Carlier, Rose Martin and Eugene Nyee Macki,. It started at 4:15pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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Our Desire To Possess Objects

Unexplained human emotions drive you to gather, collect and care for multiple things. Or you despise objects cluttering and covering and invading your space. Or you gather and disperse in fluctuations of ownership. What does this trait say about you? What do these interactions reveal of your understanding of objects, or is it something deeper, more concerned with your age, stage in life and state of mind? Here we go again, using objects to make judgements about ourselves…
This is a conversation that took place between Julie Westerman, Fiona Candlin, Jos Boys, Gabriel Badamosi, Galen Riley, Eugene Nyee Macki and Sharon Kivland. It started at 5:00pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
View conversation notes
Listen to recorded discussion
Further reading:
Emotional life of objects

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In-between Words And Pictures

The boundaries are not so solid. Categories such as ‘word’ and ‘picture’ apply to…what exactly?  Where is meaning: emotional response or literal definition? Somewhere in the middle. Could you draw the meaning of an unknown word intuitively? And how is it that English cows say “Moo”, yet French cows say “Maa”?
This is a conversation that took place between Alison Carlier, Tony Hall, Paul Wilson, Robert Wilson and Karen David. It started at 3:00pm on March 23rd 2012 and is still going.
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Objects In The Urban Environment

London vs Seoul. The cuteness of Gilbert + George; have you ever seen them dining in Dalston? This discussion attempts to move a cup with telekineses. And covers pigs, pigheads, pyschosis, truth and literal meaning. Are objects in urban environments extensions of our bodies? Perhaps we are mediated by objects through our relations with them. We continue to misunderstand them. Who is driving your car? We say our interaction defines their use, so the opposite is also applicable to us?
This is a conversation that took place between Yang Jiwon, Eugene Nyee Macki, Michelle Atherton, Lucia Farinati and Sharon Kivland. It started at 3:30pm on March 23rd 2012, and is still going.
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Painting: Who’s Watching Who?

Is painting a noun or a verb; is painting an object or something that artists do? Alternatively, can painting be an understanding, a knowledge or an experience happening beyond either of these; could painting be a conversation about a painting? And is it something intrinsically artistic, concerned with the nature of being an artist, or is painting the process of learning, like a child, drawing their way into understanding the world?
This is a conversation that took place between Karen David, Tony Hall, Robert Wilson and Gary Simmonds. It started at 3:30pm on 23rd March 2012, and is still going.
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Robin Close

Robin Close has offered a ‘visual interpretation’ of the term: Object abuse.
Each one of these visual interpretations adds insight and depth to what exactly Object Abuse might look like. This question is by no means obvious when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active, where does any variation of abuse originate from? And what is an object, or can we really say with any certainty what is not an object?
OA’s intension is to provide a platform to question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.
If you would like to offer us a visual interpretation, please go the our Contact page and let us know.
OA began as a symposium, now it is housed as a website and next it will become a network, with events; presentations and exhibitions.
See About and Future events.

Read More

Golf Balls

golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls golf balls.
This is a conversation that took place between Harry, Galen, Ruth and Paul. It was started at 4:15pm on 23rd march 2012, and is still going
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Object abuse asks the question:
who or what is being abused?

Object Abuse has been set up to provide a platform for people to discuss, provoke and question the very nature and orientation of objects. The aim is to readdress the unquestioned drives of our collective pursuits, to turn the tables on the object-subject dynamic.

This investigation’s relevance is reflected in recent developments in philosophy, shifts in our socio-cultural landscape and is finding expression in the visual arts. This questioning of our human-centric perspective is reflected through current ideas found in the works of Bruno Latour, Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux, Anselm Franke and others.

The question: what exactly is object abuse is by no means obvious, when you think about it, who is to say the object in question is passive and not active? Also it is worth asking where does the form of abuse originate from? What qualifies abuse, is it quantifiable, can we identify subtler variations? And for that matter; what is an object, or rather can we say what is not an object…with any real certainty?

OA‘s function is to invite a multidisciplinary engagement; to be a forum, a curatorial framework and an archival space.

We welcome expressions of interest and contributions to the ongoing debate.