Ep. 184 "Collection Culture" Pt. 1




The Bellingham Podcast show

Summary: The “Collector’s gene” and the types of Collections:<br><br>* Because of the gotta-have-it (FOMO)<br> * The flip side of this : Hoarding or the fear of being without it (FOBW)<br>* Functionality (gear, tools, etc) <br>* Nostalgia <br>* Investment (CP - It might be worth a lot someday? I can sell it someday for more money than I paid for it?)<br>* Scholarship/skills <br> * this is where ‘memorabilia’ tends to kick in “objects kept or collected because of their historical interest, especially those associated with memorable people or events.”<br>* Time/Place (travel or to be worldly) (CP - Attempting to garner admiration from friends or acquaintances for how exciting and adventurous a life you’ve led. See Instagram.)<br><br><br><br>PAST: Background and History<br><br>History: First known ‘collections’ beyond hunting and gathering <br>Collecting is a practice with a very old cultural history. In Mesopotamia (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia)" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia)</a>, collecting practices have been noted among royalty and elites as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE.[5] (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting#cite_note-5)" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting#cite_note-5)</a> <br><br>Now out of this I think this is were we start to see the curiosity shops, and bringing that home to the curio cabinet. And in scholarship the concept of the museum<br><br>* “*The world’s first public museum, the **Ashmolean* (<a href="https://www.ashmolean.org/article/the-story-of-the-worlds-first-public-museum)" rel="noopener">https://www.ashmolean.org/article/the-story-of-the-worlds-first-public-museum)</a>* in Oxford” *<br><br>Now out of collectors comes community around collections; we see this in all things. <br><br>Collecting “The hobby of *collecting* includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realized a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.” <br><br><br>NOW a tangent; Collecting and Hobby (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby)" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby)</a> go hand in hand so ‘get off your collecting high horse?“:<br><br>In the 16th century, the term "hobyn" had the meaning of "small horse and pony". The term "hobby horse (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_horse_(toy))" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_horse_(toy))</a>" ...<br><br>As we talk about next episode; is digital and FOMO feeding the darker side of ‘collecting’<br>“Collecting for most people is a choice, but for some it can be a compulsion, sharing characteristics with obsessive hoarding (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding)" rel="noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding)</a>. ...<br><br>Reggie Jackson<br><a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml" rel="noopener">https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml</a>