Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The CATALOGUE / classification

The CATALOGUE

A list, register, enumeration; systematic or methodical arrangement

To make a catalogue or list of


To CLASSIFY

To arrange in or analyze into classes according to shared qualities or characteristics; to make a formal or systematic classification of

To assign to a position within a formal system of classification

(Alternate usage: To designate as officially secret)


CLASSIC

Archetypal; typical of its kind; representative


HYBRID

A conceptual whole made up of complicated and related parts


REPURPOSE

To use or convert for use in another format or product


NOSTALGIA

A yearning for the past, often in idealized form

The pain or ache to return home

Homesickness

Described as a medical condition, a type of melancholy, in the Early Modern period

The good old days, viewed through an idyllic lens

A longing to go back to a particular period of time

Creating an idealized form from memory


UNCANNY

Das unheimliche; literally, un-home-ly; idiomatically scary, creepy

Something familiar yet foreign, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange

Because the uncanny is familiar yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted and repulsed at the same time; this often leads to outright rejection, as one would rather reject than rationalize.

When the familiar is no longer that; when home is no longer home


Exploring use / repurposing of the catalogue, the human desire to classify / catalogue.

Something catalogued is at once itself and something not itself; it becomes an element in a system, an object with markers, viewed as a collection of characteristics rather than a whole.

Cataloguing / classifying as a way to understand a thing; achieve distance from it; perspective; separation.


Examples of repurposing of the catalogue:

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton

Fight Club / IKEA catalog scene

Artists' approach to cataloguing:

http://www.pahomann.com/jd/jd.php

http://jennyodell.wordpress.com/parking-lots-and-overpasses/

http://mixedgreens.com/artist/Coke-Wisdom-ONeal-16/work/Stranger-Face-718.html

http://everypersoninnewyork.blogspot.com/

http://katebingamanburt.com/

1 comment:

  1. Also: exploring social media (facebook, twitter) as system of cataloguing / classification

    ReplyDelete