Artifact Analysis

For my artifact analysis, I have chosen to focus on four different but complimentary methodologies propsed by E. McClung Fleming, Grant McCracken, Jean-Claude Dupont, and Betsy Cullum-Swan & Peter K. Manning. In isolation, none of these author propose models which sufficiently address the particularities of pointe shoes. However, by combining their theories and methods, I have been able to ask a number of questions about my objects that I would otherwise have over-looked. I have attempted to apply these methodologies systematically and have provided explanations in instances where aspects of the proposed model fell short of what I needed when addressing the object of pointe shoes.

Cullum-Swan, Betsy, and Peter K. Manning."What is a T-Shirt? Codes, Chronotypes, and Everyday Objects." The Socialness of Things: Essays on the Socio-Semiotics of Objects, editor Stephen Harold Riggins. New York: Nouton de Gruyter, (1994), pp. 415-33.

Dupont, Jean-Claude. "The Meaning of Objects: The Poker." Living in a Material World: Canadian and American Approaches to Material Culture, editor Gerald L. Pocius. St. John's: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, (1982), pp. 1-18.

Fleming, McClung E. "Artifact Study: A Proposed Model." Winterthur Portfolio 9 (1974): pp. 153-173.

McCracken, Grant. "Clothing as Language: An Object Lesson in the Study of the Expressive Properties of Material Culture." Culture and Consumption. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, (1988), pp. 57-70.