The Unlovely
Suzanne, Debo, Sioned and Ailsa reveal to Matthew Sweet unwanted gifts, things they bought for reasons that now seem obscure and stuff they just plain hate.
This is the story of how the things we accumulate around us say more than we might imagine about who we are.
"The fate of the object," said the French thinker Jean Baudrillard, "has been claimed by no-one." Unless, of course, the object in question is the Mona Lisa or the Albert Jewel. In these programmes, Matthew Sweet will be looking at the other stuff. The cups. The spoons. The knick-knacks. The things we might keep, even if we don't quite have the room for them.
Through the prism of what people have in their homes, Objects of Desire explores the work of sociologists and anthropologists like Pierre Bourdieu and Mary Douglas, and philosopher Gaston Bachelard, in order to understand the curious mixture of display, memory, emotion and chance that informs the objects we surround ourselves with.
Episode Four - The Unlovely. In which Suzanne, Debo, Sioned and Ailsa reveal to Matthew unwanted gifts, things they bought for reasons that now seem obscure, and stuff they just plain hate; and sociologist Rachel Hurdley reflects on the moral economy at the heart of sending unwanted objects to the charity shop.
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Suzanne’s mother gave her these pictures.
Suzanne liked the blackbird.
...and a whole flock followed.
Broadcast
- Thu 13 Oct 2016 12:04Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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