Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

Objects in Flux
12/ Similar practices to the Match-
box car modification can be found
on the Diecast Car Collectors Zone
website, http://gallery.diecast.org/
Custom-Diecast accessed 2 July 2010.
Extensive examples of IKEA furniture
modification can be found on the
IKEAhacker blog, http://ikeahacker.
blogspot.com/ accessed 2 July 2010.
The lamp modification has its like-
ness in the ‘hacking’ and ‘modding’
of consumer goods, practices that
take existing products and introduce
alternative electronic components with
new functionality.
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uration. The experience of object modification is given in this destabi-
lising movement from object to thing.
3.5 Conclusion
The FIX project produced a rarefied environment for the modification
of objects, a ‘professional’ domain deployed through ‘artistic acts’ and
‘academic research’. Practices of object modification are, however,
clearly not limited to such domains: everyday life is teeming with
examples of object misuse, of ‘fetishistic overvaluation and misappropriation’.
It is interesting to note that, although I didn’t realise at
the time, each of the FIX modifications presented here – the Matchbox
car, IKEA footstool, and lamp – has a likeness in contemporary
consumer practices. 12
The research will now turn its attention to these diverse activities,
establishing a broad overview of practices of object modification and
finding historical precedents for current trends within these practices.