Collected: Project Description

Through collecting, the passionate pursuit of possession finds fulfillment and the everyday prose of objects is transformed into poetry, into a triumphant unconscious discourse. (Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, trans James Benedict (London: Verso, 1996) Part B: Ch. 2: A Marginal System: Collecting)

Collected is a research led project into the cultural phenomenon of collectors, collecting, and collections.

The transgressive act of collecting places the collector between the Curator and the Hoarder, between reason and passion, between scholarship and curiosity: where both roles play/struggle with the articulation of boundaries, the completion of series, and the validation of their efforts.

Through exploring and examining the different modes of the collecting process: acquisition, display, organising, and storage, I hope to better understand the motivations and habits of collectors and the effects of their passions.

Feedback welcomed!