Living Minimal - Excerpt

Living Minimal

1. Introduction

This dissertation will aim to discuss the relationship between objects and how they might hide, displace, and sublimate emotion and crystalize the symptoms of emotion. I will explore this by delving into the touched, untouched material surfaces that deal with the effects of human interaction, and also materials, which become transient and durable in response to ritualistic and functional interaction. I will aim to do this by referencing popular culture, art practice and contemporary living. Using minimalism as a period of art making to discuss ideas, I will be able to discuss this term on several levels. Primarily, I will use Minimalism as it is defined in the Oxford Dictionary, but also as a symptom of an obsessive culture and ritual.

"A movement in sculpture and painting which arose in the 1950's, characterized by the use of simple, massive forms. Deliberate lack of decoration or adornment in style or design: his living room was a testament to minimalism"

Aside from this quite restricted definition, I will establish my concern of both objects of art and design and their placement in relation to minimalism referencing both the home and the art gallery. I am confident that minimalism is an interchangeable term, which shifts between psychological and physical states, sustaining a position of flux. By utilizing this circumstance as a way to delve into anecdotal, cultural observations, I can line up several ideas, for example: minimalism as a cultural phenomenon, as a symptom of emotion, and also as a symptom of the obsessive compulsive culture we live in.

The evidence of human touch, whether physical or physiological can obliterate or exaggerate the emotional content of a material and/or object. By wandering through the human senses, we are able to consider the effects of human interaction, and what it might mean to be touched, or to be in the company of the touched/untouched object. Thinking about touch as a trace of the maker, we can start to unpack the object's transition from studio to gallery, or production line to home. We can then consider the effect this has on how we relate to an object and how its context can change that relationship.

I will reference product catalogues as a way to explore our hidden desires, as we admire and foresee a minimal future. Selecting, curating, and displaying objects that are extensions of us, as our attempt to contain or release emotion will be discussed in relation to object function. Can we wash our clothes without thinking of the death of bacteria or do we concentrate on the sweet smell of the aftermath?

2. Living Minimal

I was ten years of age when my mother finally purchased me a gift that I had been talking and wishing about for many years. A gift that, for me, alluded to qualities I was so desperate to acquire; power, creativeness, and confidence. I was anticipating the best, a total feeling of elation, so I closed my eyes to increase the excitement. I stepped from the hallway into the adjoining garage, with only a small inkling as to what I was going to find. There stood what can only be described as the most poorly gift-wrapped drum kit I could have ever seen. The polished metal of the unwrapped cymbal stood out in stark contrast to the rest of this tackily wrapped gift, the naked cymbal acting as an unmistakable sign to the rest of the wrapped up object. All emotion was now firmly mutated into disappointment and anger, as I regretted my foolish anticipation. As I recall this, it makes me wonder if there's some resentment here. That it's more than just the gift that has gotten to me. If you pardon the pun - the wrapped drums were a symbol for a larger matter at play.

On reflection, I consider the reverse. The opportunity of thinking the opposite is an insightful way to negotiate the inner self. The situation I have explained affected my thoughts surrounding objects today and it seems that the left brain/unconscious is in action here, and I have begun to digest what has happened. When experiencing a moment in the present, it feels a little like proximity - seeing a tree really close up, and that the right hand side of the brain/unconscious comes in to play in the post and now, in my mid- twenties, I am able to see the whole woodland, or the entire situation at hand.

Like many homes with young families, I suspect the Argos catalogue 'Toys' section has inscribed on my childhood its values and ideals. My siblings and I would sit, circling, initialing, and securing objects like small predators, and our names would litter each page that we sense (as that's all it can be at that time) which items are worthy of our judgment. We imagined these seen objects within our anticipation of reality; in this case, from image on the page to physical presence, in our home. Like family photographs idealise the past, we could argue that the Argos catalogue is an idealisation of the future. Here, at this stage, the rawness of desire and emotive connections are brewed. These connections would end up being situated firmly in the adult memory and depict or symbolise our relationship with the past through objects.

Certainly, we can consider that imagination has a significant place within the anticipated realisation of these images and therefore, perhaps, the rawness and emotive connection which I speak of is likely to seem unjustified or even foolish, given that by definition, imagination forms images or concepts, not yet present to the senses.

Quickly, the conclusion is that of self-sacrifice: a moment of willingly walking into the dark. Here, I should possibly confess my regret at desiring a drum kit for such a long period of time. I was firmly in the dark, and when I came out, it was not how I had anticipated. Somehow, reality looked better rendered in the printed book in which I had invested my emotions. Reality is best experienced within the confines of my imagination as depicted on a glossy page. Anticipating the promises made by the image, we should recognize these promises as inspirational. Humans invest in materials, which allow us to aspire for better. Aspiration is a staple of our time, and is a social discourse for many people (See image 1).

Concealing or revealing these aspirations can say a lot about the person who withholds or releases them into the world, through processes such as displaying, collecting, storing, or discarding. Imagination allows us to create our environments both privately or publically. Each year, a certain house on the road will light up its façade with Christmas lights, showing the neighbourhood the results of imagination, whilst, another conceals a delicate tree scattered with small, dainty white lights for the benefit of immediate family and friends who visit that home (see image 2). With this image as a starting point, we can discuss ideas surrounding mental and physical space, and how objects and materials can speak louder than our own voices.