The ObjectsNarratedProject aims to understand how women create a meaningful totality by keeping and cherishing certain objects in their homes. In order to make this phenomenon public, the project team interviewed with 6 women until now and made video records of them in their domestic environments. The narrativisation of objects which is suggested within the framework of this project is based on the idea that the self and the object are the same unified narrative and “the way people talk about their objects (i)s a way of talking about their lives, selves and experiences.” (1) Spoken accounts of connected events offer us a possibility to understand how the objects are perceived by their users or keepers, and what they might mean to them. “Like narratives, objects have a power in social settings: they offer interpretation of the story of their existence: they give back echoes of their past.” Here, within the framework of ObjectNarratedProject, an approach considering objects as forms of text is pursued which "allows the 'reader' to interpret within their own frames of reference. (2)

15.1.11

THE BOX


Gizem, the youngest of the overall participants, is the owner of a ‘memory box’ in which several photographs, a piece of hair, stones, letters and notes are placed. A very special gift, two wooden figures symbolizing her (the shorter) and her boyfriend (the longer) came inside of this box as a birthday gift from her boyfriend. The wooden figures in a dancing position are now displayed in her living room and the box serves as a special container of everything related with her boyfriend and the love in between them. She says that “after I got the box, I started to collect everything he gave to me.” On the top of the box, which actually is a shoe box, there is a photograph of these figures glued to it and this makes the box itself something unique and valuable for her.
“In many instances, smaller items are nested within special containers, which are often keepsakes in themselves but which also contain other valued possessions.” (Cairns & Silverman, XIV) Here, Gizem’s box is valuable for her because, on one hand, it was the container of her most praised object (the wooden figures) and, on the other hand, it is now the container of other valuable objects.

Gönderen objects narrated project zaman: 08:55