CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Material Culture Studies

Organiser: Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen

van der Hoorn, Mélanie (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) EXORCIZING STONES. THE CIRCULATION OF ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS
The destiny of built objects is often at the core of important events like wars or revolutions. The eventual elimination of undesired buildings is not the simple reflection of a crisis in the larger context, but a means to articulate this crisis by projecting very concrete claims, conflicts, frustrations or questions on a public and visible three-dimensional object. Within an investigation into the forms and meanings of undesired architecture ­ title: "Indispensable eyesores" ­ special attention must be paid to what people do with the remains of destroyed buildings. Examples like the Berlin wall or the national-socialist seaside resort Prora auf Rügen will illustrate the importance of these remains, even when they consist of almost unrecognizable pieces of rock. This paper will explore how the circulation of these objects ­ as souvenirs, talismans, relics ­ is an effective means and a quasi-religious ritual to share, and come to terms with traumatic experiences.

Clarke, Alison J. (Royal College of Arts, United Kingdom) THE PRACTICE OF THE NORMATIVE: COMING OF AGE IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
An established and growing academic literature addresses the proliferation and commercialisation of children's material worlds and the proliferation of child-focused goods and toys. Typically these accounts offer a critique of such material culture's detrimental effects on the imaginary and creative aspects of childhood or, in a more liberal approach, consider the consumption of such goods as a useful aspect of socialisation. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in north London, England, this paper explores how the ephemeral worlds of children's goods are used, not just as a means of socialisation, but as a crucial means of seeking the normative in
contemporary culture. The selection of the 'appropriate' gift by an adult, from a bewildering array of goods honed to the rapidly changing sensibilities of the 'modern' child, exists in the context of a more general practice of normativity in which the constant pressure of acceptability and power relations between individuals, parents, mothers and children informs everyday cultural practice. Material culture, will be shown to play an active, rather than merely reflective, role in this process.

Suominen-Kokkonen, Renja (University of Helsinki, Finland) A MODERNIZATION OF MATERIAL CULTURE IN FINLAND? - ARTEK IN THE 1930S
Although design research has traditionally taken the author as the starting point and has focused on showcase piece, it can be claimed that objects themselves define surrounding culture to the same degree as done by ideology. It is therefore useful to approach Artek, one of the most canonistic firms in the domain of Finnish architecture and design, from a non-traditional perspective. In its founding stages, Artek had close links with the utopian ideologies of modernism. In viewing the world of objects and artefacts produced and distributed by Artek, its early collections and series of products, it can be asked how, in fact, they defined the culture of homes and dwellings, and how they were expected to represent modernism.

Keller, Margit and Vihalemm, Triin (University of Tartu, Estonia) THE ROLE OF CONSUMER CULTURE IN CONSTRUCTING "WESTERN-NESS" IN ESTONIA
The main issue of this paper is: how consumers in post-communist Estonia use "western-ness" as a socio-cultural reference point in constructing their collective and individual identity. The empirical material comprises 71 qualitatively analysed student essays and 25 in-depth interviews. The paper sets the exploration onto two main axes. These are the temporal one of before (the Soviet time) versus the present and the spatial one of east (the memory of Soviet Union) versus west. We argue that decoding western consumer culture and commodities is ambivalent for the Estonian consumer. Location on the map of these two axes is constantly sought both for one's individual as well as the Estonian collective identity. Parallel processes are at work: strong distancing oneself from the Soviet heritage and representing "western-ness" as the only alternative at the same time trying to "outsmart" the western consumer (often stereotyped as "over-spending", "mindless") using the resources of the Soviet experience.

Lehtonen, Turo-Kimmo (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Nieminen-Sundell, Riitta (University of Art and Design, Finland) DOMESTICATING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES: A STUDY ON THE INTERTWINED BIOGRAPHIES OF THINGS AND PEOPLE
We present a study on the adoption of digital technology in the households. Our material consists of qualitative interviews of 14 people with widely different backgrounds; they are interviewed recurrently during three years' time (the first interviews were conducted in winter 2000). The aim of the on-going study is to map changes in the technoscape of the home, the parallel 'biographies' of things and people, and to explore the construction of 'needs'. In this paper our primary focus is on how and why new technologies are acquired. However, we claim that to gain an appropriate understanding of this one also needs to analyse the use and the storage of gadgets, their relationship to other furniture and technology at home ­ and how and why they are finally abandoned.