Projects 2014 > Trove > Journal
The idea of objects as keepsakes is probably has old as humanity.
Things, objects, 'stuff' holds and embody memories, ideas and feelings, they give us a physical, touchable contact to more abstract notions. We need them.
While material culture is of obvious importance to the arts (even music), there is a growing school of thought in the cognitive sciences, and ideas of mind, that things, objects and stuff are key to shaping our mind, they help mould our thoughts, they are even ways through which we can extend the human body itself. Objects are intellectual and emotional companions that we carry with us, that act to anchor memory, sustain relationships and provoke new ideas.
At a time when we are excited by the virtual and the power of the digital, living much of our lives in front of screens, it is perhaps even more important to remind ourselves how significant things are to us, in grounding our lives, and in giving us something to hang on to (indeed the screen itself maybe such an object!).
The role such objects play in the lives of children is especially potent given the power of the young imagination. For those who have very little in the way of material possessions or who have shifting family relationships, the importance of a stick, a sock, a playing card or a lock of hair can by tangibly linking us to the past, be beyond the value of gold.
Posted by Debbie Watson
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This post was written by Simon Shaw-Miller
Posted by Debbie Watson | 15 Jan 2015 at 21.02