Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Do Artifacts Have Politics?

Do Artifacts Have Politics? Winner, L. (1986)
This article tries to persuade that some objects, no matter how big, small, old or new, are invented for political reasons. I think that there is no doubt that some things are put out into the world with the intention of spreading a political message, but to say that it is the object that wants to spread the message is hard for me to understand, It is never the object that has a political meaning, it is the person who has developed it who has the political meaning behind the object.
The bridges that the article spoke of in New York are there because one man was a racist, because he built them with the intention of what is essentially segregation. But it is only because he designed the bridges like that, that his ambitions where realised. The meaning of the bridges may have some political legacy, but it is the legacy of Robert Moses, the bridges may be used by current black people to make people aware of the extreme prejudice that American society used to have against their people, but it is still the prejudices of the society they where built in and not the prejudices of the bridges themselves.
Without people, politics wouldn't exist, without people, objects still could exist, but it is only because people exist and know of the politics behind the object that the two can be related.

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