I found this piece on questioning the manner in which we classify by Borges particularly relevant to this direction of thinking. He looked at how a Chinese encyclopaedia classified animals under a series of adjectival headings such as “those that tremble as if they were mad, innumerable ones and those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush” and how this is seen as being ineffective from the view of a western society. He takes this opportunity to highlight the limitations of our own classificatory system, by which we do not think of an alternative (Gottdiener, Boklund-Lagopoulou and Lagopoulos, 2003).
This work was said to have 'shattered' all familiar landmarks of thought for Foucault; a highlighted influence in his work.
Going back to week 4's reading, Stevens deconstruction of the empty milk carton covers all assessable bases that would come to mind in the context of our modern disposable society, however not so much for criteria outside of this, such as that described in the piece above.
For future reference: (a) belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies. In 'The analytical language of John Wilkins', Borges assesses the differing possibilities of categorisation, giving my research a whole new window of inspiration.
After additional reading up of the below sources I have a few new considerations to get down; that 'things' become so embedded in everyday life that they become an unrealised part of our lives, commodification also is a factor: becoming a commodity, 'favourite things', what excels an element above all the categories into this elite area and why do these things often disregard societal judgement and celebrities as they become an item for consumption by the public, all thoughts I wanted to get down somewhere. This last note on celebrities could also be extended to animal, once objectified for mass consumption they both can surpass humanisation to optimize their purpose, process.
From Giorgio Agambens reading: "Objects that refuse to behave predictably in the manner they are designed to become irritating and inconvenient." A note on functionality.
Resources considered:
Burrell, G. (1988). Modernism, post modernism and organizational analysis 2: The contribution of Michel Foucault. Organization studies, 9(2), pp.221--235.
Connor, Steven (2011) “Batteries” in Paraphernalia: the Curious Lives of Magical Things. London: Profile Books, pp. 23-25
Foucault, M. and Faubion, J. (1998). Aesthetics, method, and epistemology. 1st ed. New York: New Press.
Gottdiener, M., Boklund-Lagopoulou, K. and Lagopoulos, A. (2003). Semiotics. 1st ed. London: Sage Publications.
Hernadi, P. (1989). The Rhetoric of interpretation and the interpretation of rhetoric. 1st ed. Durham: Duke University Press.
Kimball, R. (1993). The perversions of M. Foucault. The New Criterion. [online] Available at: http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-perversions-of-M--Foucault-4714 [Accessed 7 Aug. 2014].
Macey, D. (2004). Michel Foucault. 1st ed. London: Reaktion.
Panneerselvam, s. (2000). A Critique Of Foucault's Power and Knowledge. Indian Philosophical Quaterly, XXVII(1 & 2).
Smith, B. (1988). Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. 1st ed. Harvard University Press.
Wang, G. (2013). Study on Contemporary Emotional Experience Product Design Based on Iphone. Springer, pp.719--724.
