Embodied Artifacts: Memory, Nostalgia and Mid-Century Objects

"The aim of this paper and its accompanying documentary video is to contemplate the value that we place on objects from the past, specifically the mid-century period from 1946 to 1964. This value, I will argue, comes from a combination of subjective, sensorial contemplation, nostalgic yearning, and a reaction to the spatial fragmentation and temporal acceleration of contemporary North American life. In order to bridge the gap between academic discourse and personal narrative, I will apply the theories on memory by Pierre Nora and Andreas Huyssen and on nostalgia by Svetlana Boym to the conversations in the video component of my project about the current fascination with mid-century objects. While the style of the 1950's and 60's could simply be an aesthetic trend, moving to other periods in a few years, perhaps the narratives that surround the mid-century period speak to busy, young people today because of a deeper cultural yearning for postwar ideals like quality and domesticity."--Introduction.