Design, material culture and the fetishism of objects

Abstract

This essay seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the role of the designer in late industrial society through an assessment of how the field of design relates to the broader category of material culture. Following a brief historical account of the development of the latter term, it is suggested that the activities encompassed within design can be understood as part of a broader process of investing objects with meanings; and this process, it is further argued, can be described as a species of ‘fetishism of objects’. Through an examination of the etymological origins of the word ‘fetishism’ - looking at its shifting uses in anthropology, economics and psychoanalysis - the essay demonstrates that this concept can be a useful category in thinking about the ways in which artifacts are manufactured and invested with meanings. Finally, it is argued that designers need to rethink their approach to the designed object, in light of such conceptual categories, as a means of dealing with the professional and ideological dilemmas generated by the decline of Modernist dogmas over the past twenty years and the parallel rise of computer technologies.