Useful, useless and usefulness of the useless. The souvenir as a Marginal object between Art and Design

• Main Authors: C. Andrés Petit-Laurent, Eugenio Bargueño
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Complutense de Madrid 2017-02-01
• Series: Arte, Individuo y Sociedad
• Subjects: Objetos marginales; diseño, souvenir; símbolo
• Online Access: http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ARIS/article/view/52302

<p>The approach of this article focuses on a conceptual analysis about the objects souvenirs and their dimensions, both practical and technological along with their phenomenological dimension. We starting from a reflection of the importance that context has on the phenomenon of the meaning of the objects and the relationship established with the user, beyond rationality and how they acquire a symbolic character from the context. Because of this reason, we make an analysis from the semiotic point of view and then we aim to examine an object in particular, inherent to the contemporaneous culture that responds from its ambiguity to the categories of the marginal objects defined by Baudrillard. We refer to souvenir object, which makes us analyze the concepts of memory, nostalgia and authenticity as articulators of senses for objects apparently considered as “useless” yet contemporaneously necessary.</p>