Object agency
Agency = the power to act and to
affect others
• Look in your pockets/bag for an object that
you have with you
• Take a moment to consider if the object
has agency. If so, how does it have
agency?
Extended agency
• Objects as an extension of human
capacity (tools), so humans have agency
and objects enhance it
Material agency
• Alfred Gell, recognised the ‘affective
power’ of things as a means of enhancing
the fame/prestige of the maker/owner
• But agents only in so much as they
provide a derivative or extended form of
human agency (secondary agency)
Malangan carving of Papua New
Guinea
•During mortuary ceremonies of
important people are carved and
painted
•Imbued with life, and with the
effective power of the deceased
•Displayed for a few hours during
the ceremony then ‘killed’ with a
gift of shell money
•Once ‘killed’ no longer exist, as the gift entitles the donor to
‘remember’ the deceased
•During the ceremony the carving objectifies social
relationship and past networks/exchanges, and social power.
Objects (and people) as actants
• Objects and people both have agency –
the interaction between them forms
networks
• Objects have their own agency, they
structure your actions
Objects with memories
• Objects do not contain memory but
provide the ground for humans to
experience memory
• Through a physical semiotics, they cite
and index activities, people emotions