Material Theories : Locating Artefacts and People in Gottfried Semper's Writings

Material Theories takes a radically new approach to well-established thinking on nineteenth-century architecture and design by investigating Gottfried Semper’s classic ideas about dressing, metamorphosis of material, and cultural development, culminating in his two-volume publication Style . This book demonstrates how Semper’s theories crystallised among his encounters with material things of the late 1840s and early 1850s. It examines several discursive frameworks and phenomena which shaped the attitude to artefacts in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, and which were specifically pertinent to Semper’s evolution: archaeology and antiquarianism, the domestic interior, print media, collections, and the embodied relationship between the designer and their work. For the first time, this book examines the construction of a design theory not only as an intellectual endeavour but also as a process of confrontation with material things. It employs recent approaches to material culture, in particular Thing Theory, in order to show that Semper’s artefact references constituted his ideas, rather than simply giving impetus to them. It will be an important investigation for academics and researchers interested in interior design history, as well as scholars of material culture and history of design theory. Intro -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Biographical background -- Outline of the book -- Notes -- 1. Analysis and experience: Artefacts in archaeology and cultural history -- Archaeological hermeneutics and Karl Otfried Müller -- Cultural history and Arnold Heeren -- Notes -- 2. Artefacts and reconstructions of the past -- Assyria in text -- Semper's reconstructions -- Manners and customs -- Object lessons -- Notes -- 3. Domestic space and the theory of decorative things -- Origins of architecture in domestic space -- Assyrian palaces and sensual luxury -- Homology between the house and the city -- Symbolic capacity of the domestic interior -- Textile origin of the wall -- Notes -- 4. Interiors and the education of taste -- Education of taste -- Taste and the interior -- Collections and interiors -- Catalogue of metalwork -- Notes -- 5. Commodity and the Great Exhibition -- Semper at the Crystal Palace -- Global culture and material flows -- Babylonian confusion -- The Kunstformenlehre manuscript -- The whole and the parts -- Notes -- 6. Artefacts and bodies -- Ceramics as national fossils -- Animated appendages -- Decorations of the body -- Notes -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Historical publications and archival sources -- Scholarly literature -- Index Material Theories takes a radically new approach to well-established thinking on nineteenth-century architecture and design by investigating Gottfried Semper's classic ideas about dressing, metamorphosis of material, and cultural development, culminating in his two-volume publication 'Style'.0This book demonstrates how Semper's theories crystallised among his encounters with material things of the late 1840s and early 1850s. It examines several discursive frameworks and phenomena which shaped the attitude to artefacts in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, and which were specifically pertinent to Semper's evolution: archaeology and antiquarianism, the domestic interior, print media, collections, and the embodied relationship between the designer and their work. For the first time, this book examines the construction of a design theory not only as an intellectual endeavour but also as a process of confrontation with material things. It employs recent approaches to material culture, in particular Thing Theory, in order to show that Semper's artefact references constituted his ideas, rather than simply giving impetus to them.0It will be an important investigation for academics and researchers interested in interior design history, as well as scholars of material culture and history of design theory "Material Theories takes a radically new approach to well-established thinking on nineteenth-century architecture and design by investigating Gottfried Semper's classic ideas about dressing, metamorphosis of material, and cultural development, culminating in his two-volume publication Style. This book demonstrates how Semper's theories crystallized among his encounters with material things of the late 1840s and early 1850s. It examines several discursive frameworks and phenomena which shaped the attitude to artefacts in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, and which were specifically pertinent to Semper's evolution: archaeology and antiquarianism, the domestic interior, print media, collections, and the embodied relationship between the designer and their work. For the first time, this book examines the construction of a design theory not only as an intellectual endeavour by also as a process of confrontation with material things. It employs recent approaches to material culture in order to show that Semper's artefact references constituted his ideas, rather than simply giving impetus to them. It will be an important investigation for academics and researchers interested in interior design history"-- Provided by publisher Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 Acknowledgements 15 Introduction 18 1 Analysis and experience: Artefacts in archaeology and cultural history 33 2 Artefacts and reconstructions of the past 50 3 Domestic space and the theory of decorative things 82 4 Interiors and the education of taste 109 5 Commodity and the Great Exhibition 139 6 Artefacts and bodies 174 Epilogue 198 Bibliography 208 Index 225