THING AS A CULTURAL MEDIATOR

Abstract

In cultural history, relationships between people and things are based on ontological interdependence, symbolic exchange and complementarity. The cultural process of human interaction with the objective world appears in the form of social drama and the experience of overcoming, which are accompanied by any kinds of tests, manipulations, reincarnations, losses and achievements. The objective world of culture is as diverse as history itself — in it one can discern symbols, signs, hints, narratives, and events. And this is seen as another cognitive signifi cance of the thing as a kind of material carrier of historical memory, a custodian of social knowledge and an exponent of cultural change. There are other reasons to consider things as important and informative material for cultural studies. Every thing expresses a specifi c set of human activity capabilities, in other words, it appears in the form of a certain model of culture, tied to a specifi c creator, place and time. Things act in culture as mediators in the relationship of individual with two worlds — social and natural. The world of objects, due to its originally given functionality, is completely dialogic, that is, it is covered by a dense communicative network that connects material objects with their carriers and creators. In this position, each thing appears as a participant in a conversation about the latest demands of existence, unfolding in culture, since any artifact is created to solve some urgent problem, to fi ll what is missing and what people need. Items of use become mediators between human being and object, and between other people. The dialogue of the past with the present, person and thing requires a kind of “reboot of forms”, and not blind repetition, copying and imitation. A thing in interaction with people is not so simple and not at all harmless. A one-dimensional person creates one-dimensional things, it is easier, more convenient and understandable for him with them. While a creative person usually creates original objects and tries to surround himself with something unusual, non-standard. The thing is not indiff erent and, in turn, clones the qualities of its creator embedded in it. A faceless thing often predisposes to disordered thoughts, a monotonous way of life. A creative person tries to change things, a one-dimensional person becomes its hostage. The meaning of the development of culture is to create a second nature for human being through penetration into it, to domesticate the surrounding world. This is also way to reconcile people with nature, if we speak in mythological language, were once expelled from it. Individual has ceased to be a part of nature, making nature only a part of himself. It is impossible to return human being to nature without culture. The problem is that culture can be both dungeons and doors and even gates to life. Where there is monotony, there is imprisonment. Opening the gates of culture and reconciling it with nature becomes possible only through the diversity of everything that culture creates, including the material world of people. There is nothing further from nature than formlessness and monotony. A thing does not arise by itself — it is the result of purposeful eff orts, the product of taming formless physical reality. At the same time, the process of making a thing presupposes three necessary conditions for the successful transformation of matter: mood, construction, and, in fact, structure. Mood is a combination of thought and feeling. Thought sets feelings in motion and encourages creation. Every creation is the construction (construction) of a certain given order (structure). A correctly given order is embodied in the structure (form), i. e., in the thing itself. Consequently, a thing as a result of the objective transformation of matter combines thought, feeling, structure and form. This article describes some aspects of cultural manipulations in the dialogue between individual and thing.