Media and Objects of the Home

Histories of the modern home can be written through the transformations of its material components: architectural elements, such as the door, the window or the chimney, but also furniture, like desks and sofas, appliances and electronics from sinks to televisions, and even specific items of clothing, like aprons and pyjamas, specifically designed, appropriated or reinvented for domestic use. At the same time, since the rise of mass production and consumption, the increased availability of such domestic objects has also determined the appearance of specific forms of mass media, like retailers’ catalogues, home magazines, guidebooks, commercial advertisements, cookbooks, fashion magazines, which have circulated, facilitated and codified their economic, cultural and social commodification. Through processes of mediatisation, it has been possible to suggest and enforce living habits, gender roles, spatial layouts, social codes, economic status and cultural paradigms that, at least to some degree, are still operative today. 

By examining objects and media simultaneously and their spatial and reciprocal relations, the EAHN (European Architectural History Network) Interest Group ‘Building Word Image’, chaired by Rebecca Carrai and Gregorio Astengo, contributes to the ongoing revision of modern histories of architecture. It addresses questions of modernity and modernization by exploring lesser-known narratives surrounding objects and media that can shed light on various domestic issues, from gender roles and family values to broader topics such as citizenship and urban life. In recent years, objects and media have attracted the attention of several scholars in various ways, from the Provocative Objects Blog and talk series promoted by the Design History Society, to the recently-established “Coded Objects” Lise Meitner group at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. From design product inquiries to more materialistic perspectives, from fashion to art history studies, objects and the way they are manifested, perceived, or adjusted within their surroundings have increasingly taken centre stage as a way to reconsider historiographies of architecture and art. Drawing from these ongoing initiatives, the EAHN Interest Group ‘Building Word Image’ provides a novel perspective by focusing on the reciprocities between domestic objects and their media, with a fascination for their synchronic and spatial dimensions.