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[Histories & Theories] Essay 2: Questioning the Collection

In the Victoria and Albert Museum, there are many collections and galleries displayed together and separately to show the connection between each art work within the area. Out of those collections, the Gilbert Collection was the most interesting collection that came to me. The Gilbert Collection was donated by Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde. They enjoyed collecting 'beautiful things', bringing together many silver and gold artworks that represented beauty of artworks in that period of time. Out of the collection, the object I chose to be most interested was the enamel miniature of Robert Walpole. In the collection, it was displayed along with many other famous portrait miniatures, that were made for different reasons and occasions.

In 17th to 19th century in Europe, portrait miniature was a popular culture collected and made by many artists and people. People mainly used these portrait miniatures for three reasons; personal connections, showing loyalty, and remembering a family. For personal connections, people used these miniatures as gifts to loved ones. Because these portrait miniatures were very small, they were possible to gaze privately and hide it from other's view, making it more secrecy. Miniatures were also used as wedding gifts, so that wives can wear their husband's portrait on their bracelets or necklaces. For loyalty, special portrait miniatures were given by rulers and nobles to people who were in service to them. Anyone who saw that miniature could see the connection of the owner to loyalty. At last, portrait miniature was also made for remembrance of lost family. After a family dies, they were often made into portrait miniatures for memorial, sometimes including some other their hairs.

The portrait miniature of Robert Walpole is a personal collected piece, that shows personal connection between him and his son, Horace Walpole. Horace was a writer and a collector of portrait miniatures, which he owned under hundred of them. Not only he collected many famous faces such as Medusa and Perseus, but also he had a collection of himself and his family members all together in one cabinet, The Walpole Cabinet. By collecting many famous portrait miniatures along with his families, he was able to meet and spend time with his heroes whenever he wanted. Unfortunately, in the museum, there was no specific history details about Robert Walpole's portrait miniature, which made it seem like just one of the other famous people's portrait miniatures. Although he was known as a great politician and Great Britain's first prime minister to most people, the portrait miniature displayed in the collection was in Horace's private collection as his father, not the famous figure. Because there was no further history information about Robert Walpole's miniature, people can misinterpret the art work as a loyal portrait rather than a personal connection culture of portrait miniatures in the 17th to19th century Europe. As V&A presents the Gilbert Collection as the collection of beauty, gold and silver, within the collection, there are many different social, cultural, economic, political and technology meanings for each individual work.

V&A (no date) Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert and their collection. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/rosalinde-and-arthur-gilbert-and-their-collection (Accessed: 2 March 2017).

V&A (no date) Portrait miniatures. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/portrait-miniatures (Accessed: 2 March 2017).

Collections, V. (no date) Miniature. Available at: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O158054/miniature-zincke-christian-friedrich/ (Accessed: 2 March 2017).

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[Histories & Theories] Essay 1

Today, we take our phones with us when we walk out of our houses, meet up with friends, and even when we go to the toilets. Communication has developed further through technology and we use them everyday without recognising this. With our phones, we can contact people around us with messaging, even if they are very distant away. Although there are many functions in cellphones, the most frequently used function is messaging. It is very natural to see people messaging each other for no purpose. We talk to each other everyday on the phone, just to even share a funny picture or gossip about a topic.

The design of the cellphone itself motivates people to bring around their daily life because it is made very small and convenient to use. Unlike a computer, it is easily put in a pocket and mostly comes in one hand, or two. Because of the small and convenient design of the cellphone, people now prefer to contact and communicate with each other with these phones other than other devices such as a computer or a telephone.

Also, many people like messaging because there is a history left of the conversation. After people contact each other by messaging, they are able to see the conversation exactly again by re-entering the message room. Because of this chatroom design, people tend to save important informations and conversations on their cellphones.

However, not only does the chatroom show the past conversation, but it also shows the conversation in a speech bubble design. Because the messaging boxes are presented in speech bubbles, people feel that although they are messaging each other, it seems like they are "speaking" to each other.

In the daily practice of messaging, I think design plays a role in both good and bad. First, if we see the design of the cellphone itself, I think it is a good influence for people to use messaging because the design of the cellphone as compact and light, it makes it easier for people to carry around everywhere. If the cellphones were very big or heavy, less people would have carried them around, decreasing the amount of contact made with cellphones. Second, I think the design of the messaging program, which leaves history to the conversation, is a good influence for messaging because it is a different function we can use to remember important conversations. At last, I think the design of the chatroom plays a bad influence. Although these chatting bubbles make the messaging conversation more friendly, I think that because these conversations are made in speech bubbles, some people think can just message and not speak. After messaging has been very active these days, there are less conversations between friends because they are mostly shared through the cellphones. Although the design of the cellphones and message chatrooms help people contact each other very easily, I think the cellphones are used too much and sometimes should be less used for person to person conversations.