This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

In His Basement, the Bowery

"Adam Woodwards's house on Elizabeth Street contains nearly two decades' worth of salvaged material from old buildings on the Bowery."

Adam Woodward's home is something of a museum with a collection of 19th century Bowery Street artifacts and more. What was left behind in the old buildings of Bowery became coveted pieces for Mr. Woodward's growing collection. As he mentioned in the article, "the stuff I'm interested in is more rare than it is valuable." His dream is to open up a museum to exhibit the pieces and share a part of Bowery Street's 19th century history.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/garden/in-his-basement-the-bowery.html?ref=garden#

-Nova

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