During our first week within our optional module of expressive arts and culture, we were instructed to bring along an evocative object which would form the basis of our workshop. An evocative object is something that evokes significant emotion and memories surrounding the item. We were asked to discuss with the group why we chose this object and the meaning behind it. It became clear to me after listening to my peers that any object had potential to spark emotion and bring back memories for people. The class brought in a wide range of items including jewellery, ornaments, teddies and instruments to name a few. Everyone described their own object using a variety of different expressions, feelings and memories which brought each item to life and made each of them unique to each person.

Turkle (2011) claims “thinking about the uncanny, about thresholds and boundaries helps us understand these objects with their universal powers of evocation”. This shows that after hearing the stories behind every object, it gives us a deeper understanding of the meaning behind each of these and how every item can become evocative when there is a context behind it.

My evocative object was my Pandora bracelet. I wear this everyday and each charm reminds me of a different memory associated to it. I have a sister charm from my little brother, an Eeyore charm as we visited Disney in 2010, an amethyst charm as this is my birthstone and a Minnie Mouse charm which both me and my Mum have matching ones.

Evocative objects allow us to have a focus for memories including people, events etc giving us the chance to enjoy life with an object in which we can reflect upon and think back to another time in our life just by looking at it. These objects are crucial to our experiences as it is important we feel all of these emotions, whether they may be sad, happy, funny or even life changing. These experiences help shape who we are as a person allowing us to positively look at the world. No matter what we have been through our evocative objects will always give us something to help remember all the positive experiences in our life.

References

Turkle, S. (2011). Evocative objects. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press