Abstract:

The central idea behind this short ethnographic film is that material objects help us display internalized conceptions of self representing a collapse of the mind-body duality. It proposes to explore the baseline emotional connection that people attach to objects. Each collaborator has been asked to choose a single object, which they feel represents them in some way. Through a series of questions they answer in an interview setting and while reflecting on these specific objects, collaborators attempt to verbalize how they craft their identity in relation to their chosen objects- a process that is usually nonverbal, operating below the level of consciousness. The interview questions are used as a device to elicit visual cues as to the abstract connection between person and thing. The imagery of the film focuses on this behavioral material with embodied communication as its main content along with visual examinations of the objects themselves; in interacting with their objects, collaborators outwardly demonstrate through facial expressions, posture, and tactile interaction with their objects the overlap between their existential concept of self and their objects. Through familiarization with the collaborators’ relation to their objects, the audience will feel the emotional connection between them and reflect on their own relationships to material culture and the wider implications that the tendency of object personification has for our society.

Presented:

Southwestern Anthropological Association Annual Conference 2016
California State University Long Beach Anthropology Graduate Student Association Symposium Fall 2015
Visual Anthropology Showcase Spring 2015