Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

Objects in Flux
10/ In interpreting practices of ob-
ject modification through a ‘field of
relations’ care must be taken not to
position the individual as distinct from
the field. The modifier does not simply
trace a path within a field (as a figure
walks a ground). Rather the individual
constitutes (and is constituted by) the
field; the path of modification arises
from the field of relations rather than
being inscribed in it from ‘outside’.
The modification process is both a
function of the field and a transforma-
tion of it.
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project, we can begin by acknowledging the various conditions that
contributed to its remaking as a parabolic microphone. These include:
• a discrete number of components and fittings
• a language of use that includes reflection, direction and spatial
positioning
• cultural value established through historic narrative
• personal familiarity and appreciation.
These conditions both assist and limit the act of modification. The
existing lamp components provided opportunities for the mounting
of new hardware (specifically, locating the volume control and
headphone jack) and the lamp’s language of use effectively supported
its new role as parabolic microphone. In contrast, the lamp’s cultural
value, coupled with my own personal appreciation for the lamp,
served to block any significant alterations to the lamp’s physical form.
The above conditions may be abstracted into the following general
categories:
• material constraints and affordances
• language of use
• cultural narrative
• personal history.
Taken together, these categories begin to define a field of relations
specific to practices of object modification. As with the lamp modification,
the features of this field may be rendered as either obstacles
to be circumvented or, alternatively, opportunities that offer passage
through the field. The specific topology of this field – the collection
of obstacles and passages – will inform the various paths the modification
process may take. 10 The emergent quality of this path suggests
a process-orientated practice determined through engagement within
a field rather than the deployment of a strategy or plan. This is not
to say that practices of object modification do not pursue goals, but
rather that these goals are negotiated through the act of making. If
this claim is true then the products of these practices – the stories,
material artefacts, and the participants themselves – should present
evidence of this negotiated, transformative journey; we may expect
to find an adaptive, opportunistic practice that exhibits themes of
exploration and invention.