Reading material culture: An analysis of design as cultural form

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the possibilities of how the product form conveys meaning, and then how this meaning can be the bearer of any kind of cultural information or inscription upon the object. The reading of the object is discussed within the framework that can be named as the ‘material culture of the everyday.’ Situating and defining design as a product of modernity, specific categories of objects and related theories about the possibility of the modern subject and his subjective relation with the world of objects is discussed. Last of all, following the route of identity, the Turkish tea-pot set and water-pipe is chosen for a deeper analysis for demonstrating the mechanisms or forces that shape these objects of cultural rituals within the dynamics of tradition and modernity.