“These wild objects, stemming from indecipherable pasts, are for us the equivalent of what the gods of antiquity were, the ‘spirits’ of the place. Like their divine ancestors, these objects play roles of actors in the city, not because of what they do or say but because their strangeness is silent, as well as their existence, concealed from actuality. Their withdrawal makes people speak—it generates narratives—and allows action; through its ambiguity, it ‘authorizes’ spaces of operations.” —Michel de Certeau, “Ghosts […]

Categories: Antiques, Collecting, Consumption, Material Culture, Nostalgia, Photo Essays, Value • Tags: carnivalesque, commodity chain, flâneur, global commodity, Junk Bonanza, maker culture, memory, Michel de Certeau, nostalgia, patina, practice, Shakopee, shopping, souvenir, vintage, warm objects