From Sketchbook to Collection:
Object-ifying the Artist’s Sketchbook and Social Media
Nina Simon opens the fourth chapter in her book The Participatory Museum with a
compelling statement: “Imagine looking at an object not for its artistic or historical significance
but for its ability to spark conversation.”1 This is a bold idea. Arguably, every person owns
artifacts that spark conversation, and if the ability to spark conversation lies in every quotidian
object then what is the point of a museum or art gallery collection when one needs only to look
at the objects around him or her? A number of artists tend to amass quotidian objects in a kind
of three dimensional sketchbook that someday might serve as inspiration for a body of work. By
object-ifying the concept of the artist’s sketchbook, one can look not only at the paper pages of
an artist’s sketchbook for insight but also at the objects amassed by the individual. This rich
mass of material was the starting point for the online exhibition @theobjectproject, where 60
objects, ranging from newspaper clippings to a porcelain cockatiel, were selected from three
artists’ object sketchbooks for their ability to spark conversation. By removing the connection to
a specific function, the objects shift from props in an object sketchbook to active possessions,
forming part of a collection that entices viewers to enter into a temporal shift between past,
present and future.2
What is an object and how does one begin to develop connections beyond its function?
These are some of the questions Jean Baudrillard attempts to answer in his 1968 essay, “The
System of Collecting.”3 Baudrillard’s definitions for a collection, the object, as well as his
description of the process of possession are relevant today and clarify the current muddied
conceptions of what constitutes a collection or an accumulation/hoard.4 Baudrillard points out
that the concept of collecting is derived from the latin word colligere, which means to select and
assemble.5 Collecting is different than accumulating which Baudrillard describes as an inferior
stage of collecting, and can involve the piling up of old papers or the stock piling of food items.
The intermediary stage between accumulation and collecting involves the accumulation of
identical objects. Collecting can be identified when the accumulation is aligned with the cultural:
it “discriminates between objects, privileging those which have some exchange value or which
are also ‘objects’ of conversation [the author’s emphasis], of commerce, of social ritual, of
display – possibly which are even a source of profit.”6
The objects pulled from the studios and homes of the artists Dave Kemp, Neil Klassen
and Kim Neudorf illustrate Baudrillard’s notion of the collection and the object-ified sketchbook.
Kemp’s pieces were the only ones amassed as a distinct group from his other belongings before
the onset of this project: “My particular collection started as an idea for an artwork that never
really fully resolved itself - strangely in this context [@theobjectproject] it seems to finally sort of
make sense.”7 For Klassen, the objects were not considered a collection before
@theobjectproject’s activities: “I don’t think I would have considered it a collection prior to the
project because there wasn’t a common distinction between the objects, besides that they were
mine. I saw them existing independently of each other. However, now that they’re together for
this project, they do operate more as a collection.”8 When asked if he could considered the
group of objects to be something like a sketch book, he replied, “I could see them operating as a
sketchbook prior to the project.”9 Therefore, even though @theobjectproject is made up of
objects collected by artists, many of the objects were culled from the artists’ metaphorical
object-ified sketchbooks rather than from distinct, Baudrillardian collections. In order to create
an exhibition where the visitors can begin to engage with the processes of possession, further
grouping, sorting, discussion and removal from their current context/function was necessary.
Baudrillard explains that objects encountered in one’s life are very different than the
implements used every day. Objects relate to subjectivity, they are a reflection of oneself and
are part of a system that a person uses in order to piece together his or her own personal
microcosm.10 In order for an implement to become a collected, possessed object, it must be
“divested of its function and made relative to a subject.”11 By photographing the objects, it
completely divorces them from their physicality and function, allowing the artists and visitors of
@theobjectproject to impart their own meanings on the images, and hence, gain a sense of
possession of the object. This interactivity is a vital component of the exhibition. Baudrillard
states “Once the object stops being defined by its function, its meaning is entirely up to the
subject. The result is that all objects in a collection become equivalent, thanks to that process of
passionate abstraction we call possession.”12 This active, participatory approach to
understanding an object is rooted in exploring how a sense of possession can be gained on the
internet and also how ideas are disseminated. In “The Centaur and the Hummingbird”, Ed
Halter explains that “The Internet has altered how we relate to ideas—how we discover them,
how we distribute them, how they circulate through society, how they are hidden or revealed.”13
@theobjectproject is designed, through its venue selection and use of social media, to explore
how ideas and a sense of possession are discovered, distributed and circulated through society.
The internet is also an ideal venue for exploring the temporal shift between past, present
and future experienced when engaging with collections and archives.14 Winzen states, “There
is concern about past losses, and also about future uncertainties. The systematic accumulation
of objects is, among other things, always intended to secure the symbolic continuity of the
collecting subject in the future.”15 As the visitor engages with the objects and gains a sense of
possession, he or she also connects to his or her past, present and future. User yoyolli
describes the experience of coming across Pepsi Cap with Cork Liner Found in the Ceiling of an
art gallery:
I was really excited after seeing the image of Mary in the cork. I'm not a religious
person and I am not trying to make fun of anyone's religion. I truly do see her likeness
in the stains in the cork. This revelation made me think of all the other instances where
people have seen either Mary or Jesus in something. I know that whenever I will come
across another story about an appearing holy figure, I will think of the Pepsi cap and if
I should ever find a cap with cork on the underside, I will definitely keep it because it
will remind me of that instant when I saw Mary. 16
Yoyolli’s experience with the cap made her think of the past, present and even what she will do
in the future.
For Baudrillard, the very act of setting up a collection displaces real time, “collecting
simply abolishes time...by establishing a fixed repertory of temporal references that can be
replayed at will, in reverse order if need be, collecting represents the perpetual fresh beginning
of a controlled cycle.”17 Therefore, it is through the process of possessing an object that a
collection is formed, and collecting abolishes time, sending the collector into a temporal shift
between past, present and future. @theobjectproject encourages visitors to enter into a
temporal shift, to sift through their collection of memories and to begin the process of
possessing an object by associating those memories with an object.
Participation is a key component to any memorable exhibition experience. It is also a
democratizing activity because it allows visitors to value their own experiences. Simon states
that in contrast to a museum setting, “delivering the same content to everyone, a participatory
institution collects and shares diverse, personalized, and changing content co-produced with
visitors. It invites visitors to respond and add to cultural artifacts, scientific evidence, and
historical records on display. It showcases the diverse creations and opinions of non-experts.”18
@theobjectproject on Flickr, which is arguably a participatory institution in itself, encourages
participation in order to spark conversation. By object-ifying the artist’s sketchbook and social
media, @theobjectproject aims to give agency to the viewer through the act of possessing an
object, collecting and entering a temporal shift between past, present and future.
1
Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum (Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0, 2010),
http://www.participatorymuseum.org/chapter4/ (accessed April 1, 2011).
2
Entering a temporal shift involves enticing the viewer to participate and engage with the images of the objects in
the form of commenting, tagging and copying and pasting the images into various other social media
venues.
3
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 7-24.
4
One need only to ask what’s the difference between a hoarder, as currently popularized on television networks
such as TLC, and some of the vaults of large government-run institutions? These are also packed floor to ceiling,
some have rodent problems, and many do not have proper acquisition records detailing the current holdings of
their collection. In addition, Matthias Winzen complicates the definition further by claiming that there is a type of
collecting practiced by artists - see Matthias Winzen, “Collecting – so normal, so paradoxical,” in Deep Storage:
Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in Art, eds. Ingrid Schaffner and Matthias Winzen (Munich: Prestel, 1998), 22-31.
The author of this paper is highly sceptical of this assertion, and senses that this logic has been set up in order to
justify projecting artistic agency onto the amassed objects in the possession of some artists. Not everything owned
or organized on a shelf in Picasso’s house constitutes a collection. However, a comparison of Winzen and
Baudrillard is beyond the scope of this paper.
5
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 22.
6
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 22.
7
Email interview with Dave Kemp, March 24, 2011.
8
Email interview with Neil Klassen, March 25, 2011.
9
Email interview with Neil Klassen, March 25, 2011.
10
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 7.
11
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 7-8.
12
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 8.
13
Ed Halter, “The Centaur and the Hummingbird,” in Free (New Museum, October 20, 2010 – January 23, 2011),
http://www.newmuseum.org/free/#essays (accessed April 3, 2011).
14
For more information on the archive and its relation to memory and the internet, see Geoffrey Batchen, “The Art
of Archiving,” in Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing and Archiving in Art, eds. Ingrid Schaffner and Matthias Winzen
(Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1998), 46-49.
15
Matthias Winzen, “Collecting – so normal, so paradoxical,” in Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in
Art, eds. Ingrid Schaffner and Matthias Winzen (Munich: Prestel, 1998), 22.
16
E-mail interview with Yolande Krueger, the author’s sister, on March 31, 2011.
17
Jean Baudrillard, “The System of Collecting,” in The Cultures of Collecting, eds. John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
(London: Reaktion Books, 1994), 16.
18
Nina Simon, The Participatory Museum (Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0, 2010),
http://www.participatorymuseum.org/preface/ (accessed April 1, 2011).