Well, how did I get here?
Every product, printed word and image comes from somewhere, and perhaps more importantly, from someone (or many someones). There are myriad reasons why things are made, including necessity, profit-seeking and self-expression. Since an object’s history isn’t usually visible, it’s easy to take the things surrounding us at face value, without giving much thought to how and why they arrived in our orbit, or what will happen to them down the track. But sometimes we want to look a little bit more purposefully.
Last year, we developed a set of questions to help us think about the objects, words and images we interact with every day. We initially published these questions in the “object” part of our 2023 Print Object — a pocket-sized folded concertina of “How did this get here” questions. In this blog post, we’re sharing these questions because we think they’re a really useful tool.
To get started, find an object, an image or some writing you’re interested in thinking about. If it’s a tangible object (a ball, a phone, a length of wire), ask the questions in the “things” list below. If it’s a visual or written thing (the writing on a shampoo bottle, the ad text on a billboard, or an AI-generated image on your computer screen) use the “images/text” questions to guide your investigation. As for what to do with the answers to your questions – that’s up to you. Maybe you’ll be more appreciative of the object than you were previously. Maybe you’ll recoil in horror. Maybe you’ll have more questions…
Things
Who decided the thing should be made?
Who decided its form and appearance? Who gave input?
What materials were needed to make it? Where did they come from?
Who made it? Did they have help from machines? Where was it made?
Did the end product travel on a plane? In a truck? On a boat?
Where will the materials end up in 100 years time?
Words/images
Who decided this should be made?
Who came up with the concept?
What was it made for and what was it hoping to achieve?
Who made this? Did they get help? From who/what?
Who got paid for their work? (either for the end product or components)
What will happen to the piece in the long term?
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Image note: the header image collage includes (L-R) a photo of Kelly’s temporary rubber band wallet, Anna’s “tomato” low-tech insulated cooker, a beer can from the film Repo Man, and a reusable shopping bag printed with an AI-generated image, spotted at Anna’s local supermarket. The background texture is from the 1981 music video for Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime.