Meaning in design

This paper explores the transition of an historical artefact from personal possession to museum exhibit. The starting point is a Victorian ewer, bowl and chamber-pot set, encountered displayed in a small Yorkshire Museum. The story of this set is the framework for an exploration of literature on how we invest personal, domestic possessions with meaning. In particular, the paper focuses on the relationship between the physical and material properties of the artefact, and its meaning.

Before starting its life in the museum, the jug, bowl and chamber pot set belonged to Mary, the secretary of the museum board. It was gifted to her by a friend four or five years ago, and she kept it in her bathroom filled with potpourri, dried flowers and soaps. When she had her bathroom replaced, there was no longer enough space to display the set. She moved it into storage in the shed, where she kept it on view to remind her that it needed a new home. Then she thought of putting it on display in the new museum toilet, on an old wooden cabinet she had in her conservatory. Her decision to move it out of her home and into the museum toilet was a creative and caring one, which triggered the washstand set’s transformation from a personal possession, into a public historical artefact.

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Effect of storytelling in cinema and the meaning that was made in
the story for audience is a fact that cannot be denied. However, making
meaning through storytelling has rules of its own. Every narrative
storytelling processes by following one of or some the rules. The
meaning that is made in sense of these rules in storytelling is provided
by fluidity is hard for the audience. Even though it seems hard at first,
it is important to know components of the practices of storytelling.
Knowing that components of narrative and use it on storytelling also
shapes how the audience perceives the film. (Chatman, 2009:137)
So that to make a meaning, one should be a good narrator. N arrator
intercedes between the film’s characters and the audience. (Todorov,
2001:75)
In filmic narration, there are two types of narrator. First of two
types is the narrator in the film’s story. This narrator is one of the main
characters of the film. According to Chatman, “in filmic narration, the
story goes on its subjectivity. The second narrative type is the one that
does not included in filmic narration. In this type the narrator is not
included in the story arc and they mostly transfer the information
about the story arc and the story’s characters by external sound”.
Chatman exemplifies to this with the movie produced in 2001, Amelie.
Other than these types, there is also a narrative type called cinematic
discourse. The difference from the previous narrative structure is the
components that form the filmic narrative discourse in cinema which
has audio-visual type. These components are camera, light, color,
editing, sound etc. (Chatman, 1990:134)
Because of that, in the filmic narration, the narrator directs how
a filmic narration can be percieved by the audience. One of the mains
to direct the narrative is the film’s director. The director of the film
designs the narrative with their mind and narrates the movie by using
cinematic discourse elements. According to Bordwell and Thompson,
these elements are created by using point of view, focus and narrative
discourse. Point of View Shot is a shot taken with the camera placed
approximately where the character’s eyes would be by the director,
showing what the character would see. (Bordwell ve Thompson,
2009:477) In the filmic narration, the focus is used to highlight the
characters’ state of emotion, so that the attention of the audience is
focused on the characters. This element is included in a impressive tone
in filmic narration. In this study, one of the three important elements
of the cinematic discourse was discussed on the narrative discourse of
the filmic narration.