The Uncommon Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the Everyday
What makes us love our things? Why do we attach certain sentiments to certain items? How is it that sometimes objects can tell stories more eloquently than people? These are questions explored and answered in The Uncommon Life of Common Objects. Author Akiko Busch devotes a chapter to each of 12 common objects, and discusses her and others' experiences that give everyday things their significance. Through her examination of: a video camera, a cellular phone, a vegetable peeler, a snowboard, a baby carriage, a chair, a refrigerator, a mailbox, a medicine cabinet, a cereal box, a backpack and a desk, Busch illuminates the social and personal issues that shape our lives and the ownership of our things. Lovingly illustrated, always touching, sometimes nostalgic and often hilarious, The Uncommon Life of Common Objects, is a topical reader that is at once a personal manifesto, a look at how design influences and responds to our changing lives, and a study of society and its values and the infusion of meaning into inanimate objects. Each of the 12 chapters is accompanied by a four-color drawing.
ISBN/UPC:
9781933045061
Product:
Book, Hardcover
Title:
The Uncommon Life of Common Objects: Essays on Design and the Everyday
Contributors
- Artist: George Skelcher
- Editor: Diana Murphy
- Text by (Art/Photo Books): Akiko Busch
Publisher:
Pages:
160
Language:
English
Specification:
8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches, 1 pounds

Acceptable: | Fairly worn but fully readable and intact. Pages may include notes, highlighting, or minor water damage. Dust jacket, CDs, product codes, or other inclusions may be missing or expired. |
Good: | Shows signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes or highlighting. Dust jacket, CDs, product codes, or other inclusions may be missing or expired. |
Very Good: | Item has seen limited use and has minimal signs of wear. Pages are clean without markings. Dust jacket, CDs, product codes, or other inclusions may be missing or expired. |
Like New: | Shows little to no signs of wear. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean without markings. CDs, product codes, or other inclusions may be missing or expired. |