I’m looking for examples of narratives built through objects and interactions between objects. Museum exhibits, board games and miniatures games, analog simulations, models for Scientific demonstrations are all ways to build stories or tell stories through actual, physical objects. Thoughts, references and examples about this would be most appreciated.
Maybe Kendal Walton's Mimesis as make-believe would give something http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674576032
About objects and narration you can find interesting things in liturgical semiotics. Basically, ritual objects can in some situations be perceived as narrative objects for what they denote symbolically or iconically is often associated to a story to be told. For instance, the very organization of many churches can be considered as a parallel for the passion of the christ. The central nef will often be decorated, from the entrance to the transept, with iconic representations of the different stations of the Christ. The ritual of communion is a reenactment of the story, as people have to cross the central nef very slowly - with time to contemplate the stations - to receive the "body of the Christ," the host bread, an object used for narrative purpose through a ritual to symbolize the sacrifice of jesus, under an actual iconic representation of the crucifixion. The ritual itself, the interaction with the object, the act of eating the host, serves as a symbolic representation of the community sharing the sacrifice. However the whole organization of the space will have implications about hierarchy and submission to the Christ. The paintings in the central nef, the statue of the christ, the architecture, the pace of the ritual, and the ritual objects all serve the narrative reenactment of the passion which itself serves as a rhetoric discourse.
I don't have a lot of references in mind right now but you may look at this for instance :
Lukken, G. Searl, M. Semiotics and Church Architecture: Applying the Semiotics of A.J. Greimas and the Paris School to the analysis of church buildings. Kampen, The Netherlands: Kok Pharos Publishing House, 1993.
Dear Professor
I wrote an article about object semiotization and the role of object conversion to sign in the developing of drama and a kind of telling the story, I would be happy if you look at the abstract.
http://javm.iribu.ac.ir/article_102499.html
Best
Thank you for the reference. Sorry I could not read the whole article, but the abstract raises extremely interesting questions. I do not know the "Green House" series, but The Big Bang Theory certainly has some wonderful (and hilarious) instances of objects that tell stories. My favorite (as an anthropologist...) is the episode dealing with reciprocity in gift-giving... in which Penny gives Sheldon a handkerchief autographed (and used...) by Leonard Nimoy. The ultimate gift that cannot be reciprocated! All told around a simple piece of cloth. Thank you sharing your article.
Dear Professor
It is an honor that you have read the abstract. Thank you so much. The main text of the paper is written in Persian language and it is in the pre-print state. I really like the topic of "Telling stories through objects". Also, I was eager to see the episode you mentioned again. Thanks for the discussion.
Best regards,
Poya
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