Opening text by Kamran Babrak
April 16th,2019
Agency and Social Life of Objects
The keyboard 1/5 is the first
project of Of Carriers and Barriers. This project was conceived to highlight
the important aspects of human-object relationship and their importance in our
daily life. 40 Participant from 14 countries have reflected back to 34
curiosities in form of more than 800 responses investigating various important
aspects related to the topic. This project in particular offers larger scope of
inquiry into meaning of objects, the role of objects in human life and
describing human-object relationship. However, apart from the necessities and
reliance of modern human on the world of objects, or his/her for granted
disposition towards them, the most important factor that dominates through the
layers of all curiosities is the agency of the objects. This factor remains
prominent and powerful in all the curiosities, reflections and answers with
strong indication of the agency of the objects – they have over humans and
society. Another important factor which is debatable is the social life of the
objects that surround humans. These objects actually have a social life by
virtue of participating in a system of commodification and exchange. The way the world works, things move and
give the value of things in economic system, this actually is the way we treat
objects and things as they have social life. Similarly we all have social life
like in modern world just like objects. (Damien Skinner 2013)
There are much more things and
objects in the world than the number of humans. Objects and things around us
multiply much faster than anything in the world. It is quite interesting to
compare the biological growth with the growth in number of objects around us.
And some of these objects have strong position and fundamental importance in
our daily life
Be the objects of desire, companionship,
belonging, association, nostalgia, longing, chasing, power, security, mystery
or weirdness, it is clear and evident that these material things called objects
have some sort of power that governs human actions to attract towards, interact
with, acquire and possess them. Just like
Humans, the objects have strong agency to affect the things and situation
around us, they have ability and power to move and change the things (Bennet, 1957). Every new product or its
new identity challenges the older one, thus establishing its own agency. Though
most of daily use objects are manmade nevertheless these objects secretly or
obviously govern human lives. This agency keeps human beings thinking about
these objects, in thoughts that keeps human mind occupied throughout their life
that revolves around the interaction with the objects. It is interesting to
notice that human-object interaction is more frequent than human-human
interaction. There is very personal and special relationship of humans to some
or most of these objects. We tend to socialize, to
profoundly engage, with everyday objects, beyond their functionality that helps
to reinstate their existence more than just (functional) object.
The selection of the images is
made according to the readings from the perspective of agency and social life
of objects. This selection offers viewers to establish contexts and their
further meanings. The questions/curiosities that reflect and correspond in best
possible way to the agency and social life of objects are included.
List of Curiosities/Question:
2. Any inert object you found to be
physically or emotionally overpowering?
 |
| Narimaan Aziz |
 |
| Stephen Garrett Dewyer |
 |
| Faisal Khan |
3. An object to which your access is hurdled, and it’s a constant struggle for
you to gain/earn/open that access?
 |
| Patti Nelson |
 |
| Ayako Tadahira Shepperd |
 |
| Renee Hoogland |
4. Any object that you deeply and
intensely desire (d)?
 |
| Galaxia Wang |
 |
| Tsai Shinqhuey |
 |
| Faisal Khan |
15. Do you have a disobedient object in
your environment?
 |
| Anonymous |
 |
| Barbara Bauer |
19. Are there any things that instill
instant fear in you?
 |
| Erik Lindeborg |
24. Any object, whose
underlining/governing systems you always wanted or tried to replicate?
 |
| Hae Won Sohn |
 |
| Erik Lindeborg |
 |
| Nayda Collazo-Llorens |
25. Any object that you instantly need to replace with a similar one (a copy or
a replica) as soon as it disappears from your reality (through expiry, loss or
use)?
 |
| Hae Won Sohn |
 |
| Sabeen Jamil |
 |
| Faisal Khan |
29. Any object whose purpose of
existence or production escapes any logic?
 |
| Naveed Sabir |
 |
| Galaxia Wang |
 |
| Iris Bodemer |
 |
| Narimaan Aziz |
30. Something, which is a commodity by every definition of the word, but you
approach or understand it otherwise?
 |
| Anonymous |
 |
| Linnea Bergman |
 |
| Stephen Garrett Dewyer |
31. Anything that encouraged or enabled you to stay put in a certain state of
mind? Something that proved to be an anchor, a reminder, a carrier, or a
barrier?
 |
| Amna Qureshi |
 |
| Anonymous |
 |
| Nicole Cavanah Miller |
 |
| Stephen Garrett Dewyer |
32. Did you ever become an object, or at least tried to become one?
 |
| Patti Nelson |
 |
| Giulia Bonora |
 |
| Iris Eichenberg |
 |
| Sabeen Jamil |
33. Do you have an object, which puts you under a state of stress, shame or
pressure?
 |
| Barbara Bauer |
 |
| Hae Won Sohn |
 |
| Tsai Shinqhuey |
 |
| Narimaan Aziz |
34. Do you have (or ever had) an uncommon object in your possession?
 |
| Giang Pham |
 |
| Unk Kraus |
 |
| Faisal Khan |
 |
| Iris Bodemer |
 |
| Trygve Fast |
