Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative - ISSN 1780-678X
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Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative - ISSN 1780-678X |
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Issue 22. Autofiction and/in Image - Autofiction visuelle II |
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Evocative Objects. Things We Think With |
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Author: Jan Baetens Evocative Objects. Things We Think With. ISBN-10: 0-262-20168-2
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At first sight Evocative Objects is simple, disappointingly simple even: its succession of short testimonies combined with even shorter theoretical fragments from a wide range of horizons does not seem to obey the implicit rules of what can be expected from an academic publication, leaving the distracted reader with the impression that he or she can have a great time thumbing through these autobiographical mini-essays and enjoying the theoretical insights suggested by the various quotations, but nothing more. A comparison with collections such as Lorraine Daston's edited volume Things That Talk (MIT 2004) easily comes to mind, which is not exactly to the benefit of the present book. However, once the reader really enters the book and gets familiarized with its multilayered and multifaceted approach and structure, Sherry Turkle's collection appears to be an extremely rich, thorough, and rewarding volume that profoundly challenges each of its readers. The book then turns out to be not disappointingly simple, but deceivingly simple, for little by little the essays which Turkle has gathered in a very elegant and clever presentation unfold a world that is at the same time wholly familiar (but rarely discussed in such an explicit way) and totally new to almost all of us (as it is hard to imagine a reader whose experience spans all the fields covered in this book). The basic ideas of Evocative Objects are now generally accepted: our thinking is networked, and mediated through objects, which are more than just 'tools'. And not all objects are equal: while all objects help us think, some objects are more appropriate than others to make us think. Also widely agreed upon nowadays are the basic ideas of the authors who have emphasized the role of such objects: Winnicott's transitional objects, Latour's hybrid beings, Bachelard's poetic space, and so on, are now -fortunately- part of the methodological toolbox of both humanists and scientists. Yet the objects that Turkle foregrounds are different. The objects she calls evocative are not only the ones that are helpful or necessary for our thinking, but the ones we love, since for her "We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with." This is an important shift, which explains the exceptional density and personal commitment of both the objects and the subjects that meet in this collection. The overall structure of the book obeys four major rules, and each of them reinforces the three other ones. First of all, the essays are grouped in sets that follow the human life cycle. Evocative Objects start with "objects of design and play" (which are of course deeply rooted in childhood and infancy, although childhood and infancy can last for ever) and end with "objects of mourning and memory" (these are objects that learn us how to die, and they are often disclosed in situations that engender intergenerational solidarity) and "objects of meditation and new vision" (which represent here the more transcendental, even mystic aspects of our relationships with objects, and once again -just as we may remain children when getting older- we do not have to await the end of our lives to experience this kind of feelings). Second, each essay is accompanied by a short theoretical reflection chosen by the editor, which enables her to sketch in a very elegant and subtle way a list of "further readings". This list is extremely diverse, as well as perfectly focused and complete. Turkle really succeeds in showing through concrete quotations (which are objects too, obviously) what literature is relevant behind this type of research, and it is a pleasure to notice how the quotations and ideas the reader may think of fit wonderfully in the global scheme. (One of my favorites, for instance, one of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's educational theses on the relationship between child and object -"not to bring the object to the child, but the child to the object" ("Ainsi quand un enfant désire quelque chose qu'il voit et qu'on veut lui donner, il vaut mieux porter l'enfant à l'objet, que d'apporter l'objet à l'enfant") - would easily find its place in several parts of this book, and thanks to Turkle it is now possible better to understand the role of desire in the Rousseau quotation). Third, the scope of Evocative Objects is interdisciplinary in an exemplary way. Not only are many types of objects and many types of humanist and scientific research peacefully -and lovingly- combined in this book, but one of its wonderful surprises is that the link between object and discipline is not predictable. Scientists read comic books too, everybody takes anti-depression pills, psychologists use vacuum cleaners, and specialists of social informatics have not forgotten their ballet slippers. (Actually, almost each essay of the collection might illustrate this type of cross-disciplinary encounter). Fourth and last, but certainly not least, all essays are directly autobiographical. This is a logical choice given the focus on loved (and loving) objects, for only personally committed researchers are able to disclose the deepest meanings of this type of situated knowledge (although several authors rightfully stress the fact that this personal and individual viewpoint is not at all a guarantee of complete knowledge, while others no less rightly remember that the thought-provoking capacities of objects do not belong exclusively to those who made or own them). Finally, it is also a perfect choice seen from the perspective of the reader, who is invited to share things and thoughts that a different approach might leave dissimulated. For the warmth and sympathy, which do not exclude occasional pain, that one feels while reading this book, one can only be grateful to its editor and contributors. |
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Jan Baetens is teaching at the Institute for Cultural Studies of the KU Leuven and is founding editor of Image [&] Narrative. Jan Baetens enseigne à l'Institut d'Etudes Culturelles de la KU Leuven et codirige "Image [&] Narrative". |
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