A Touch of History

             Mark Smith's book Sensing the Past was our reading for this past week. In Sensing the Past, Smith examines how the senses such as; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are all important pieces of history that tend to be overlooked. Prior to reading this book, I never thought about how one can experience history through senses. However, Smith makes a point that the use of sense gives an important insight into history that can easily be overlooked. We tend to experience some of these senses collectively and naturally assume that they go hand in hand. One could argue that the sense of seeing and touching are very similar, however sight and touch are two different things. In Smith’s chapter about touching he speaks about the handshake and how important handshakes are in our society. There is a history being a strong handshake, however as our society has developed the concept of a strong handshake the sense of touch is used to develop this history.

             In addition to the chapter that delved into the sense of touch, I also found the chapter that examined the sense of hearing to be interesting. Smith stated that the sense of hearing was used to bridge together sight and other weaker sense such as taste. Naturally when we think about the concept of sound we think of some sort of noise. However, Smith states that during the slavery period many slaves used the concept of silence, no sound, as a way to stand their ground and disobey their masters. The slaves were able to control when and where they sang songs from their culture, it was one of the only things that the slaves were able to control. One could imagine how important the sense of sound was to the history of slavery in the country.

            The overall theme of Smith’s book was that we as the culture have the ability to look at history not only through the sense of sight, however we can use the sense of hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching to further our understanding of history.  This overall theme made me think about my Trousseau dress in a different light. How would the dress feel on the individuals skin? Was the silk smooth as we believe?  Would the dress naturally generate a certain noise as the young woman walked around in it? These are all questions that involve the concept of sense and would give us a more in depth understanding of our objects. 

Legs vs. Arms? Is one more important than the other?

            Prosthetic Impulse was an enjoyable and interesting read that addressed the concept of prosthetics and there use in society. The book contained numerous articles that looked at different aspects associated with prosthetics however I believed that the overall theme from the book was how prosthetics were used to create a sense of normalcy for the individual that is missing a limb. While living out in California and training at the Olympic Training Center I was fortunate enough to get to know some of our Paralympic athletes. Some of these athletes are missing their limbs and use prosthetic's to run and compete. These athletes do not view themselves as abnormal and their prosthetic have made them become normal. I agree with the argument that prosthetic's allow an individual to live a normal day to day life by giving an individual the ability to walk or run. Additionally, I do not believe that these prosthetic make the individual any less human or un-natural they simply aid an individual in maintaining a normal life style.

            Out of all of the chapters, I found chapter 1 to be interesting because the author went through her own experience of having a prosthetic leg. Sobchack stated that within the world of arms and hands have been granted agency compared to legs. I found this to be very interesting observation because how our entertainment world grants agency one could state that it is just as normal to have a prosthetic arm or hand instead of a leg. The importance of agency has been created based on what society finds and values as more interesting and appealing. Does this mean that as a society we value our arms over our legs? I have difficulty understanding why we have placed value on a part of our body however we didn’t carry it over to another section of the body.  I feel that how we socially construct the thought of being disabled it what allows us to place value and agency on one part of the body over another. Does it come back to some level of sexual attraction/fetish that is associated with the prosthetic?

            Referencing back to my friends that live in California and are Paralympic athletes, these individuals felt that prosthetics had a negative connotation when our society places a negative connotation on them via through language. When we use phrases such as disabled or handicap, many individuals feel that they are not handicapped they are simply just missing a limb and the prosthetic is there in place for what naturally should be there. Unfortunately, I had difficulties relating the book to my article of clothing but none the less I found the book to be very interesting. 

Jeans are everyone's best friend :)

Blue Jeans: The Art of The Ordinary written by Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward was an ethnographic study on the journey of the blue jeans. I found Miller and Woodward’s approach to blue jeans to be interesting because Miller and Woodward argued that blue jeans have continued to be a part of our culture due to the aspects and feelings that have been associated with the jean pants, and argued that these thoughts and feelings associated with blue jeans is why we continue to see the blue jeans generation after generation.  I found this aspect of feelings that clothes give us to be interesting because at the beginning of class when I first saw my dress my first question was how could this be comfortable for a woman to wear? I believe that Miller and Woodward believed that blue jeans became a corner stone in fashion because of the comfortable feeling that was associated with the jeans. Earlier in the semester we spoke about fashion and how fashion was not associated with feelings such as being comfortable. However, Miller and Woodward make the argument that jeans became and held being popular because the jeans are comfortable which would make blue jeans truly extraordinary yet blue jeans themselves are ordinary and worn day to day which is why many have fallen in love with them. There are not many similarities that are associated with the book and my object, however I do believe that blue jeans are truly an iconic fashion symbol in our society thus doing an ethnographic study is valuable and interesting. Everyone has a favorite pair of jeans; male/female, old/young jeans can be found in generation after generation. 

A picture is worth a thousand words- but we need to only use 50 :)

Object Exercise #4: Captions

Caption #1: Bustle Period Theme- Historical (Word Count: 85)

This 1888 Wedding Trousseau dress was a result of the Bustle Period which was a period of fashion that emphasized the curves of the female. Viewed as scandalous from those conservative and rooted in the past. This dress was a part of the 3^rd phase which emphasized the posterior of the female yet it was not overly extravagant or large.  The dress kept it shape by the hoops and padding that was worn underneath which helped aid in giving shape to females who needed it.

    Phase 1                            Phase  2

 - Photos would not load on the blogger :(

Caption # 2:  Numerous Changes of Outfits (hinting at class) - Evening Dress (Word Count: 74)

This 1888 Wedding Trousseau dress was one that would have been worn in the afternoon. With the shorter sleeves and the cut of the dress lowering in the front, it was acceptable of women in this time to show more skin as the day went on. Thus, a female found herself changing into multiple different outfits through the day; starting with being covered up completely and finishing the day revealing cleavage, shoulders, and arms.

Caption # 3: What is Trousseau Dress? (Word Count: 75)

A Trousseau Dress (1888) was purchased for the bride to be worn during her honeymoon and newlywed phase. The newlywed was expected to where the Trousseau dress as a status symbol and it was tradition for her to wear the dress the first time she and her husband entertained guests in their new home. This Trousseau dress is lavished with lace and the owner traveled to Paris to have the dress made custom for her.

Explanation

            Writing these captions was more difficult than I thought it would be. The issue that I ran into was attempting to get my point across in an effective and interesting manner however attempting to try to meet the word limit. The third caption theme which looked at the explanation of the dress is the one that I am leaning towards. I believe that it is important to understand what exactly a Trousseau dress is because we do not have this kind of fashion still present in our society. Our current understanding of a Trousseau dress is a wedding gown, which was not the case back in the late 19^th century.  It is hard though for me to not look at the historical background of the bustle period as well and how the back of the dress was emphasized the 3^rd bustle phase. However, I have realized that it will be difficult for the audience to understand the 3 phases when only the 3^rd phase is being displayed. Therefore, I thought that I could provide a sketch for the progression of the phases to help the audience member understand the shift in fashion.  I attached some photos and I am sure I would have to discuss this idea with Clare if I choose to go in this direction of caption to complement the overall theme of the exhibit.

            Overall, I had fun being creative with 3 different captions. I believe that whatever theme I go with will be dependent upon the fact of the overall theme of the exhibit. The captions are meant to complement the overall theme and goal of the exhibit. Once we speak with Clare and have a better understanding with the direction Clare is going in, which will allow all of us to fine tune our captions so that there is an underlying connecting theme found in all of our captions.