Theoretical Framework
"No Ideas But in Things"
-William Carlos Williams
The foundation for this group effort dedicated to the materiality of the gas mask and its historical, cultural, and personal narratives is built upon Nathaniel Rivers’ “Problems in Rhetoric: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.” The critical element of analysis, Rivers argues, is what an object does. This, he says, is not the same as asking what an object means or represents:
“Doing allows us to focus on objects as ongoing events. In short, doing allows us to focus not simply on what an object is (its being) but also on what it will be (its becoming). In focusing on doing, we can see both how objects transform over time and how they interact with other objects.”
Focusing on the gas mask's doing, according to Rivers, requires us to examine its Seven Rhetorical Processes: its composition, its production, its distribution, its assemblage, its circulation, its transformation, & (finally) its consequentiality.
According to Rivers, composition is the design of an object. Because there can be an overlap between the Seven Rhetorical Processes, Rivers notes that the composition of a nonhuman object can be distributed across time, space, and even other objects. An object’s composition can be designed by a person or an animal acting as an agent. Composition, however, also depends upon the cooperation of other agents and/or materials working together.
According to Rivers, production is the actual labor required to create or bring an object into existence. Production can describe the processes, people, tools, infrastructure, and bureaucracy necessary to produce an object. (We see this happening in various ways with gas masks throughout this project.) Production can overlap with other processes, including composition and assemblage.
Distribution includes the ways in which objects get where the designer wants them to go. How does the object intentionally get to its final destination (how do gas masks reach people in need of (re)purposing them?) Who and what is involved in this process?
Assemblage, according to Rivers, is the way in which an object brings other objects and people together. To analyze assemblage, one must examine what else is connected to the object itself (what else is connected to the mask). This can include other objects/masks ( their parts, surfaces, and interactions with other technological masks, both non-fictional and not.)
Circulation is defined as how the object moves about once in its final destination (in this case of gas masks, how do they travel from the inventions of Garrett Morgan to various sites Overseas?)
Transformation overlaps many of the other processes Rivers outlines for us. The important thing to remember about transformation is that it focuses on the ways objects are changed by and through the processes of distribution, circulation, and assemblage. With something as technologically "breathable" as a gas mask, there are multiple ways it can be transformed (pun intended).
The final process Rivers discusses is Consequentiality, or how an object transforms other objects and people. At this point, we review how the gas masks impact the ways in which other masks circulate. How does the gas mask affect how other masks relate to each other?
In the collection that follows, the gas mask will be disassembled by each of this essay's contributors. The individual masks will again be separated, scattered about, and pieced back together to create entirely artifacts. The questions, however, remain the same: Just what is the mask? And what is behind it? And how is the g-mask, itself, an object of interest beyond the desire to get beyond it?
The foundation for this group effort dedicated to the materiality of the gas mask and its historical, cultural, and personal narratives is built upon Nathaniel Rivers’ “Problems in Rhetoric: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.” The critical element of analysis, Rivers argues, is what an object does. This, he says, is not the same as asking what an object means or represents:
“Doing allows us to focus on objects as ongoing events. In short, doing allows us to focus not simply on what an object is (its being) but also on what it will be (its becoming). In focusing on doing, we can see both how objects transform over time and how they interact with other objects.”
Focusing on the gas mask's doing, according to Rivers, requires us to examine its Seven Rhetorical Processes: its composition, its production, its distribution, its assemblage, its circulation, its transformation, & (finally) its consequentiality.
According to Rivers, composition is the design of an object. Because there can be an overlap between the Seven Rhetorical Processes, Rivers notes that the composition of a nonhuman object can be distributed across time, space, and even other objects. An object’s composition can be designed by a person or an animal acting as an agent. Composition, however, also depends upon the cooperation of other agents and/or materials working together.
According to Rivers, production is the actual labor required to create or bring an object into existence. Production can describe the processes, people, tools, infrastructure, and bureaucracy necessary to produce an object. (We see this happening in various ways with gas masks throughout this project.) Production can overlap with other processes, including composition and assemblage.
Distribution includes the ways in which objects get where the designer wants them to go. How does the object intentionally get to its final destination (how do gas masks reach people in need of (re)purposing them?) Who and what is involved in this process?
Assemblage, according to Rivers, is the way in which an object brings other objects and people together. To analyze assemblage, one must examine what else is connected to the object itself (what else is connected to the mask). This can include other objects/masks ( their parts, surfaces, and interactions with other technological masks, both non-fictional and not.)
Circulation is defined as how the object moves about once in its final destination (in this case of gas masks, how do they travel from the inventions of Garrett Morgan to various sites Overseas?)
Transformation overlaps many of the other processes Rivers outlines for us. The important thing to remember about transformation is that it focuses on the ways objects are changed by and through the processes of distribution, circulation, and assemblage. With something as technologically "breathable" as a gas mask, there are multiple ways it can be transformed (pun intended).
The final process Rivers discusses is Consequentiality, or how an object transforms other objects and people. At this point, we review how the gas masks impact the ways in which other masks circulate. How does the gas mask affect how other masks relate to each other?
In the collection that follows, the gas mask will be disassembled by each of this essay's contributors. The individual masks will again be separated, scattered about, and pieced back together to create entirely artifacts. The questions, however, remain the same: Just what is the mask? And what is behind it? And how is the g-mask, itself, an object of interest beyond the desire to get beyond it?