Object Implosion

Please note that this assignment description was updated after class on Tuesday, Oct 3rd.

In order to get our heads around the various tentacular connections between an object and it's culture, history, and society, we're going to do an excercise originally developed by Donna Haraway, called Object Implosion.

First, let's talk about the process for imploding an object:

The goal is to examine the object, and try to tease apart all the threads, CHARACTERS, FLOWS, PEOPLE, CULTURES (refer to concepts discussed in class on Tuesday) that interacted and resulted in this object.

The process of implosion is like peeling an onion layer by layer.

This is similar to the thinking process we did in class on Tuesday. This practice is about posing questions, creating a definitions, checking those definitions on examples, and trying to finding counter examples.... etc. What other questions originate (FLOW) logically from your initial questions? How can you get further in thinking by keeping up this kind of inquiry?

You don't need to build these back into a story just yet. Building back is a form of creating a (new) narrative of the object. The practice of questioning is a solid part of art/design and a necessary component of Speculative Fiction. 

So, please grab an object (perhaps the one that you brought to class today?) and begin. 

Professor Muren recorded an extra video explaining the connection between the Flows lecture from Tuesday the 3rd and the process of investigating implosions of objects. It might help some of you as you work on your own.

Submit in PDF format (250-350 words, please name your file FirstName_LastName_ObjectImplosion.pdf) on Th, 10/5 at 11:59pm. Please include links and images where useful.

Here are some pretty universal questions you can start with, and then do some research and thinking and go further!

• Why "is" this object? This class of questions deals with trying to imagine or discover the factors that caused the object to be the specific material/shape/color/configuration/function that it is. Questions in this category sound like
  • Why was this material used?
  • What is the history of this material? Why was it able to be used at this time/place?
  • Why this shape? Is it purely functional, utilitarian? Somehow aesthetic?
  • Where did the aesthetics that govern this object originate? Are they new? From a long history? Were they developed by the people who made the object? Or co-opted (diverted) from another source?
  • How does this material/object work within the society? What functions do they fulfill? What existing infrastructure or technologies does it need to work?
• What does the object "do"? This class of questions deals with ways that the object acts externally on its environment, and on the groups of people who built/use it. Questions in this category sound like:
  • What functions and goals within society does the object enable, planned or unplanned?
  • What cultural/behavioral/socio-economic aspects of the society are enabled by the object?
  • Is the object political? If yes, what behaviors, ideologies are possible with the object?
• Who does the object involve? This class of questions deals with ways that the object acts on individual people or non-human characters (Plants, Animals, Fungi) in the environment. Questions in this category sound like:
  • Who are the "caretakers" of the object? Who is responsible for the object while it is being used? When it is no longer needed?
  • Who (if anyone; Human or not) is benefited by the creation of the object?
  • Who (if anyone; Human or not) is harmed by the creation of the object? Who bears the side effects of the object when it is created, used, or disposed of?