Mystery Objects | MUSEUM FATIGUE

Mystery Object #19: Breasts and Personal Technology

May 31, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Subject to continual upgrade cycles and constant and dependable obsolesce, our personal technology resist the attachment and love that we develop for them. While we take them everywhere and learn to depend on them for communication, entertainment and even to find a bite to eat—the technology pushes back and resists our advances—never retaining the object-histories that might give them human meaning over time. With no history our personal technology never develop the patinas of value that speak to their interaction […]

Categories: Bodies, Gender, Mystery Objects, Technology • Tags: accessories, affection, breasts, crack chic, iPhone, mouse pad, personal technology, puni puni, steampunk

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Mystery Object #18: Foreigner Costume

May 30, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

“Hi, I’m a foreigner.” Over twenty years ago, while shopping at a store in Japan I came across a party novelty “foreigner” (gaijin) costume set–for dressing as a foreigner at parties. In this case it meant a specific kind of foreigner. The set came complete with a large white nose and two tape-on blue eyes. I immediately bought the kit figuring that I would use it in a future anthropology class. Unfortunately the costume got lost in some move or […]

Categories: Bodies, Mystery Objects, Race, Representation, Toys • Tags: blue eyes, costume, gaijin, nose

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Mystery Object #17: The Walking Taco

May 4, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

This weekend while at the Comic Con in Minneapolis I happened upon the most fascinating food abomination—The Walking Taco. It is basically a bag of Doritos sliced along one side with a scoop of meat, topped with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, cheese and a dollop of sour cream. While I was happy to see that the food didn’t generate tons of trash by using disposable styrofoam and plastic, that joy was tempered by the fact that the “food” was basically […]

Categories: Food, Mystery Objects • Tags: Doritos, fast food, Walking Taco

Mystery Object #16: Chocolate Cross for Easter

April 13, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

While at the checkout counter at a local grocery store last week I noticed a chocolate cross for sale as Easter candy. Made by a well-known local chocolatier, Abdallah, it immediately it struck me as curious. I suppose the sweet object could be interpreted as a creative extension of the chocolate Easter bunny into the realm of religious observance. As religious icon the cross is a powerful religious symbol—indeed evoking the death and ascendence of a God—the cornerstone of […]

Categories: Mystery Objects • Tags: Abdallah Chocolates, chocolate, cross, Easter, holiday, Sidney Mintz, sugar

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Mystery Object #15: The Spider-Man Fes in Fes

December 29, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Today, while walking in the old city of Fes, I happened upon a person selling fine festival clothing–including some fezzes. I don’t know why I have been so interested in finding a fes in Fes, but I imagine it has something to do with going to the Shriner’s Circus as a kid. The fes and the Shriners, are well-known symbols of 19th century American Orientalism–the Orientalism of male secret societies with exotic clothing, rituals, cloaks and hats. It is an […]

Categories: Mystery Objects • Tags: Fes, festival, Fez, Marvel Comics, Morocco, Orientalism, Spiderman

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Mystery Object #14: Seahorses for Tooth Health

December 25, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

This Christmas will be memorable for an unusual gift I found in my stocking—seahorse shaped tooth cleaning brushes. Made in Taiwan and sold in a set of three, the the brushes have a bristly action-end and a tail for picking. Creamy brown color, complete with painted-on eyes, the seahorses are truly unique. I’m not really sure how Santa delivered these to me, but they are certainly a mystery object. I’m not sure how to even begin interpreting this. Is there […]

Categories: Mystery Objects • Tags: dental health, seahorses, Taiwan, teeth cleaner

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Mystery Object #13: Everyday Face Mask

October 31, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

The air pollution in Beijing regularly approaches apocalyptic levels many times those considered healthy by the WHO. The other day a cloud of smog so huge that it could be seen from space, blanketed the entire area. With the PM 2.5 count pushing 500, it was shocking to observe sunset conditions in the middle of the afternoon. Even the extraordinary, however, can become normalized and marketized. Case in point, the 7-11 around the corner from my hotel had a whole […]

Categories: End of Times, Environment, Everyday Things, Mystery Objects • Tags: 7-11, Beijing, face mask, pollution, smog

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Marking Value with a Foreign Language Tattoo

September 23, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Something interesting happens when the linguistic sign gets the added value of being in another language. Language isn’t just the signifier/signified relationship of the word’s meaning, but also contains the added social value of the foreign language as it is read by others—no doubt indexing the owner’s global cosmopolitanism. Why tattoo “love” on your arm when you can tattoo amour or 愛? Love isn’t just the boring old “love” of English, but acquires the added bonus valence of French or the “artistic beauty” of the ideographic […]

Categories: Bodies, China, Language, Mystery Objects, Value • Tags: Chinese Character Tattoos, Chinese Tattoo, cosmopolitanism, foreign language, tattoos

Mystery Object #12: Flesh Crayon

September 21, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Antique stores are useful repositories for objects that evoke memories of the past. Nearly every time I visit an antique store I am confronted with a few objects that evoke things long forgotten. Sometimes I find objects from a time before I was born that confound me with their alien common-sense assumptions. About a week before fall semester started, on the way back from a canoe trip, we stopped in an antique store in Lindstrom, Minnesota. While looking through the […]

Categories: Antiques, Mystery Objects, Nostalgia, Play, Race • Tags: antiques, Crayola, Crayons, flesh crayon

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Protection in the Nuclear Age

September 7, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

“In this uneasy age in which we live, strife abounds in many troubled parts of the world. The weapons of modern warfare have become increasingly powerful and numerous…In the face of this threat, a strong civil defense is needed not only throughout government, but on the part of the individual and the family.” In the final throes of preparing for this semester, while digging though some readings for a class, I came across a small booklet that I collected a […]

Categories: Books, End of Times, Gear, Memory, Mystery Objects, Retro • Tags: Civil Defense, civil preparedness, Department of Defense, fallout shelter, Fallout Shelter Design, Nuclear Age, Nuclear Attack, Survival