HSAR 110 Lecture 16 Objects at Rest PDF

Preview

Summary

Notes...

Description

Lecture 16 Objects at Rest 01 November 2016 10:31

Ergonomic and tectonic function can't be separated from social function and use. Function scale: • Necessities (shelter, protection) - one room plan of a house o Posts set into ground will eventually rot o Wattle and daub on chimneys needs to be maintained • Improvement o Central chimney o A series of rooms rather than one room o Second floor • Luxury o Larger, space allocated differently - largest room allocated as a specialised dining room o Inside finish is significant in public rooms - panelling, carving o Outbuildings (kitchen, carriage house, dairy, smokehouse, slave quarters) Necessities: • Life sustaining elements • Food, food ways, fuel, shelter, storage • Temporary or low-risk in nature, multi-purpose spaces and objects, locally made and easily replaced or renovated Iroquois o Winter shelters could be picked up and moved o Extended families would live in long houses together o Central fireplaces dug into ground, covered in woven mats which smoke can be let out of by rolling them up o Iroquois often known for ceramics (low fired, earthenware cooking pots) which had rounded bottoms to be set into these central fire places. Ceramics were replaceable, a cycle of necessities Dutch Settlers o Storage below, a story and a half high o Reliance on ceramics for cooking - relating to diet, often cooked 'soft food' which didn't need constant heat, o Tin glazed earthenware - emphasis on local ceramics o Used skillets, pipkins, and colanders • Wood Necessities o Treenware: wooden bowls and tableware, made by turning • Easily replaceable, low cost materials, only gets its desireability eroded when ceramics start to replace it o Chests: • Basic forms which are desirable as they can be used as storage, extra chairs, alternate workspaces Improvements: • Objects that make life appreciably easier are often more permanent, and tie you to a place longer • This also increases the likelihood of specialisation • Linked to increased population

In terms of foodways: • Metal, cast iron cooking pots o Heavy, durable, expensive o Growth of metal in late 1600 and 1700s o English settlers in America wanted large fireplaces and lots of metal pots (says something about staying put) o Replaces ceramic culture by 1700s • Becomes a ritualised behaviour, and so business gatherings revolved around food - and so sets of ceramics were important, transfer decoration and moulds facilitates a unification of the people around the table - the individual becoming a part of the cohesive whole Rather than one individual chair, matching sets • • Storage: chests with drawers and elevation, to differentiate storage, writing cabinets are portable, compartmentalised •

•

Using the light from the fireplace to extend the day - a way people begin to develop lighting technology o Metal dishes filled with animal fat (tallow) and a wick - smelly, smoky o Beeswax candles - best, expensive o Candlesticks: eventually became sets o Looking glasses were used not just as mirrors, but mostly to amplify light and make rooms seem larger • This helps explain late 18th early 19th mirrors which are convex (called girandole mirrors) which reflect light much better • Or Argand lamps, which have a lamp in front of a magnifying glass to brighten it. Beyond lighting, there is comfort o Bedsteads would have full sets of bed hangings, because of very cold housing o Seating became upholstered - started off in a saddlery tradition with leather stitched through o Tin glazed earthenware placed in vertical format as print culture decoration - above fireplaces etc

Luxuries: • Even greater room specialisation, more expensive materials and workmanship, limited function, excess quantity • Upscaling your set of ceramics from Staffordshire to an imported, personalised set of porcelain from Jingdezhen • Upscaling chests for storage to cabinets or desk and bookcase combinations, using imported mahogany, concern with 'locking' things, so adding locks and hidden compartments - facilitating privacy. Taking cabinets and adding veneers and compartments

•

Seating: • Often we assume things, but seating is culturally constructed • We often signal things from our sitting behaviour - but it’s a construct, squatting is preferred in China, or sitting on bolsters and carpets on benches in the Levant • Images show British officials adapting to sitting behaviour of the country they are in We are comfortable in different ways, and thus our view of chairs as a patriarchal symbol of authority (armchair) or hierarchy (mother and father have a specific chair, smaller ones for the children) is different....