Objects as history (1)

I had history as a subject during my higher studies, where we learned a detailed world history, covering all the aspects like human evolution, architecture, religion, social culture, occupations, administration, archaeological findings etc. I always found it interesting. But I wondered what this subject would be comprised of, and what significance it held in designing.The faculty commenced the subject with an explanation for the same.

“What do we mean by objects? I have’nt ever wondered about such a question before, but as we discussed this, I realized that we always have some preconceived definitions in our mind, as all of us had something to add. For me, objects are anything that has volume and can be seen and touched. Some of us said objects have a fixed shape, which I don’t exactly agree with. With this, the topic shifted to what shapes and forms are.

I realized that this was a very important topic to be explored, as even being a very basic concept for us as design students, many are’nt clear about the difference. Again, the discussion brought a lot of different answers which opened my mind, but at the same time, confused me. I realized, in terms of language, shape and form has been used quite vaguely and sometimes interchangeably. There are certain instances in which ‘form’ seems more appropriate, and some in which ‘shape’ does. But in terms of design, shape and form can be defined as 2d and 3d respectively.

We were then shown a video about history, which made the subject matter clearer to me. I realized a fascinating fact that the entire history discovered till now is because of the objects that are found. Thus, its through objects, that we can understand a lot of things, with the help of observing, and finding meaning.