Location: Canada
Member Since:
June 22, 2011
Sultan Somjee
Biography
After I completed my first degree in Product Design my interest shifted from designing products to what stories were told in products - about people’s lives and how they reflected on the individuals, their families, cultural or faith groups and in general on the human society, values and culture. Hence my MA and PhD lead me into the study of art and material culture. I see material culture traversing over almost all social disciplines. In short material culture is the prevalence of the presence of the object in fashioning our social and art world.
After graduation I continued in the same line from 1972 to 2002. learning, researching, teaching, publishing and curating exhibitions on material culture. The objects projected many contexts: culture, history, identity, art and craft, migration and settlement, religion and oral traditions, dialogue and community building and even peace and conflict resolution traditions. For almost ten years I worked on community participatory exhibitions so the owners of the artifacts were also co-curators of the exhibitions with me. My inspirations came from ethnographic and folk museums where I saw the sights and heard the sounds in objects of daily use of ordinary folk’s lives.
Things made my life: My career, tastes in clothing and furnishing, my life style and I think even my world view has been molded by things. I came to realize that Material Culture, a discipline in the Social Sciences, draws on artifacts to tell stories combining facts with myths, geography with history, art with politics, poetry with traditions across generations and cultures turning stories into legends. The ten steps in Stories from Things are written out of this experience.
After graduation I continued in the same line from 1972 to 2002. learning, researching, teaching, publishing and curating exhibitions on material culture. The objects projected many contexts: culture, history, identity, art and craft, migration and settlement, religion and oral traditions, dialogue and community building and even peace and conflict resolution traditions. For almost ten years I worked on community participatory exhibitions so the owners of the artifacts were also co-curators of the exhibitions with me. My inspirations came from ethnographic and folk museums where I saw the sights and heard the sounds in objects of daily use of ordinary folk’s lives.
Things made my life: My career, tastes in clothing and furnishing, my life style and I think even my world view has been molded by things. I came to realize that Material Culture, a discipline in the Social Sciences, draws on artifacts to tell stories combining facts with myths, geography with history, art with politics, poetry with traditions across generations and cultures turning stories into legends. The ten steps in Stories from Things are written out of this experience.
Where to find Sultan Somjee online
Books
Stories from Things
by Sultan Somjee
Price:
$4.99 USD.
Words: 22,350.
Language:
English.
Published: August 2, 2011
.
Categories:
Nonfiction » Reference » Personal & Practical Guides
This book shows the reader how to write his or her memoir in 10 simply described steps. It is about how to show and tell your story from that jumble of things that has been around you during your lifetime. Your things have stories to tell beyond the family photo album and the family tree. These items have stories and bring memories of family, travel, history, homes, holidays, and your journey.