Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

Wild Things:

The Material Culture of Everyday Life
Front Cover
1 Review
Berg, Dec 1, 2000 - Social Science - 318 pages
What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects after the check-out reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for 'the real thing' become so important because the high tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us?

This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point in objects' 'lives'. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings that reflect and assert who we are. Defining design as 'things with attitude' differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary artefacts that are taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to 'clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. But beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment.

Shortlisted for the Design History Society Scholarship Prize 2001-2002
  

What people are saying - Write a review

Review: Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life

User Review  - Julia - Goodreads

Attfield weds design history (which has tended to focus on "good design" as a way of raising standards in a consumerist society) with material culture (which takes a broader view of consumption and is ... Read full review

Related books

Contents

The Material Culture of Everyday Life
1
Things
9
design in the lower case
45
Things and the Dynamics of Social Change
75
Themes
97
The Ephemeral Materiality of Identity
121
The Ecology of Personal Possessions
149
Contexts
173
Bringing Things to Life
213
The Threshold Between Nature and Culture
237
Conclusion
263
Index
287
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

References to this book

From other books

Non-Representational Theories: Space, Politics, Affect
Consuming Sport: Fans, Sport and Culture
All Book Search results »

References from web pages

Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life
Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life ... Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life von Attfield, Judith ...
www.moneyhouse.ch/ buchshop/ Wild_Things-The_Material_Culture_of_Everyday_Life/ Attfield_Judith/ 9781859733646.htm

Oxbow Books - Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life ...
This is an anthropological study which investigates the ways in which human beings relate to the objects around them. Drawing on her experiences as a ...
www.oxbowbooks.com/ bookinfo.cfm/ ID/ 29273?/ Location/ Oxbow

The contribution of material culture studies to design
1. Connecting Fields. Nordcode Seminar. Oslo 10-12.5.2006. Toke Riis Ebbesen and Susann Vihma. The contribution of material culture studies to design ...
nordcode.tkk.fi/ oslopapers/ ebbesen& vihma.pdf

template for notes from books
Judy Attfield (2000) Wild Things: The material culture of everyday life, Oxford, Berg, especially ‘Dressing practices’ pp.162-172 and ‘An ambivalent love ...
www.sussex.ac.uk/ mediastudies/ documents/ cultureeveryday0607.doc

unformat_material_culture
Attfield, Judy: Wild Things. The Material Culture of Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg Publishers 2000 Diese Studie untersucht das Identitätsgefühl, ...
materialcultureunformat.blogspot.com/

Moderne materielle kulturstudier i design – Angloamerikansk ...
Moderne materielle kulturstudier i. design. – Angloamerikansk designhistoriografi. 1975-2000. Hans Christian Jensen. 22. I arbejdspapiret redegøres der for ...
www.humaniora.sdu.dk/ kultur/ arb_pap/ Modernedesign22.pdf

JEMSØGT
H. JEMSØGT. Tingenes væsen og kroppens mekanik i reklamens, kunstens og. okkultismens fotografiske univers, Danmark 1910-1950. ...
www.staff.hum.ku.dk/ krabbemeyer/ afhandling/ MetteKiaTekst.pdf

About the author (2000)

Judith Attfield is a Senior Lecturer in History and Design, Winchester School of Art, at the University of Southampton.

Bibliographic information