Does what you own own you?

[Darcie]

Limited Edition Print

Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica, debuted his second feature film, Objectified, last week at the SXSW Film festival.

Objectified is a documentary in interview form with 30+ product designers. Each telling how they came up with their idea and little appreciations of those products that we commoners may have never noticed. From the rubber gripped potato peeler to the first laptop and onto the iPhone.

Just having had a conversation with someone about materialism before I read about this film, timing couldn’t have been better. As technology and even household items are becoming more advanced, surely people are going to have a closer attachment to their belongings, causing some to worry they’re becoming too materialistic.

Does Objectaphilia (a person who is sexually attracted to objects) really exist? An episode of Boston Legal shows a woman who leaves the man she is dating for an iPhone. Jokes were of course made that I would do the same. With mobile phones & laptops now becoming a common extension of ourselves, would we really want to let them go?

The film isn’t about people in this day and age being too materialistic, but rather it’s about the appreciation for the products we love and why we love them.

The question I’m putting forward to you is the same asked at one point in the film: The hurricane is coming. You have 20 minutes to grab the objects in your house that are most important to you. What do you reach for first?


For screenings check here

[Damien Smith]

Nice poster graphics... c/o Michael C Place @ Build.

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Yes sleeve notes produced very happy memmeories, not much value as they are Uk compilations but what they did do for me was open my eyes to technology change. After the Chicago trip I went to Detroit to write about Techno and shared an apartment with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson who were both obsessesed with technology and studying elecrtonic media at Eastern Michigan University. True web 2.0 musicians before the term was coined.

[Anne Bonnar]

[Dave Brown | cross-platform director/producer]

Rare vinyl?

Just had a quick look through my collection, and didn’t find much other than these [probably not very valuable] compilations with descriptive commentary by Mr Stuart Cosgrove:

[Stuart Cosgrove]

Vinyl surely - rare records first especially if they are worth more than the house. itunes you can crank up the next day from a web-cafe

[Matt Johnston]

Much simpler - list the objects you carry right now.
Now, cross off any objects that, if you left them behind when you left for work one morning, you would go back for.
The remainder? Throw them away. You don't need them.

[Darcie]

I would find it very hard to leave without my iphone, cat & external HD. The husband can fend for himself!

[Lesley Keen]

This reminds me of a series of vox pop interviews I did for a project a few years back. Same question: what would you run into your burning house to save. Best (and most intriguing) answer by far was - 'my diary, and my meta diary...'. That kind of personal relationship to an object is surely a good and human thing.