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 […]
Read More’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, […]
Read MoreTom: 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 […]
Read MoreI 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 […]
Read MoreObject 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.
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