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Objects of Desire

Objects of Desire: Such Stuff

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Such Stuff

10/10/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Objects of Desire, Such Stuff

Matthew Sweet explores the philosophical background to our relationship with things.

Matthew Sweet explores the philosophical and anthropological background to our relationship with things with academics Bill Brown and Daniel Miller.

This is the story of how the things we accumulate around us say more than we might imagine about who we are. 

"The fate of the object," said the French thinker Jean Baudrillard, "has been claimed by no-one." Unless, of course, the object in question is the Mona Lisa or the Alfred Jewel. In these programmes, Matthew Sweet will be looking at the other stuff. The cups. The spoons. The knick-knacks. The things we might keep, even if we don't quite have the room for them.

Through the prism of what people have in their homes, Objects of Desire explores the work of sociologists and anthropologists like Pierre Bourdieu and Mary Douglas, and philosopher Gaston Bachelard, in order to understand the curious mixture of display, memory, emotion and chance that informs the objects we surround ourselves with.

Episode One: Such Stuff. In which Matthew Sweet talks to Sioned (who has lots of stuff) and to Jordan (who has much less) and explores the philosophical and anthropological background to our relationship with things with academics Bill Brown and Daniel Miller.

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Matthew Sweet explores how the things people accumulate reflect who they are.

Matthew Sweet explores how the things people accumulate say more than expected about who they are.

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