Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects

by Glenn Adamson

Overview

From the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, a timely and passionate case for the role of the well-designed object in the digital age.

Curator and scholar Glenn Adamson opens Fewer, Better Things by contrasting his beloved childhood teddy bear to the smartphones and digital tablets children have today. He laments that many children and adults are losing touch with the material objects that have nurtured human development for thousands of years. The objects are still here, but we seem to care less and know less about them.

In his presentations to groups, he often asks an audience member what he or she knows about the chair the person is sitting in. Few people know much more than whether it's made of wood, plastic, or metal. If we know little about how things are made, it's hard to remain connected to the world around us.

Fewer, Better Things explores the history of craft in its many forms, explaining how raw materials, tools, design, and technique come together to produce beauty and utility in handmade or manufactured items. Whether describing the implements used in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, the use of woodworking tools, or the use of new fabrication technologies, Adamson writes expertly and lovingly about the aesthetics of objects, and the care and attention that goes into producing them. Reading this wise and elegant book is a truly transformative experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632869647
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	469,314
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Glenn Adamson is a senior scholar at the Yale Center for British Art and works across the fields of design, craft, and contemporary art. Until March 2016 he was the director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and has been head of research at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. His books include Art in the Making (coauthored with Julia Bryan-Wilson) and The Craft Reader, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Engaging with the Objects Around Us 1

1 Life on Pumpkin Creek 11

2 A Few Words on Craft 15

3 The Paper Challenge 19

4 Being "Hands On" 27

5 Tricks of the Trade 31

6 Tooling Up 34

7 Learning by Doing 46

8 Prototyping 52

9 One Thing for Another 57

10 Face to Face 65

11 Communities of Respect 73

12 Finding Our Way 76

13 The Contact Zone 81

14 The Paradise of Touch 90

15 The View from the Hardware Store 95

16 Time to Pay Attention 99

17 The Myth of the Dumb Object 104

18 Going Deep 109

19 The Way of Tea 114

20 All That Is Left 119

21 Small Worlds 126

22 Fewer, Better Things 136

23 To Have and to Hold 143

24 Thinking Things Through 151

25 Material Science 157

26 Handle … with Care 162

27 Anchor Points 174

28 The View from Tucumcari 178

29 Thinking Inside the Box 185

30 Material Histories 191

31 The Itinerary of Plastic 197

32 A Book of Secrets 202

33 Facts, Not Opinions 210

34 Two Castes, One People? 217

Epilogue: The Virtues of Things 221

Acknowledgments 229

Notes 233

Index 249

Editorial Reviews

04/09/2018
Adamson, the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and author of The Craft Reader, challenges readers to reconsider the nature of physical objects in this dry treatise on material culture. He asserts that mass production eroded the understanding of craftsmanship and that reconnecting with processes and materials increases one’s overall quality of life. The book is most successful when drawing on everyday items, like a chair. Instead of just something to sit on, he asks readers to consider the wood, the techniques binding it together, and the cultural significance of its design. Adamson writes enthusiastically of how the aesthetics of Japanese tea ceremonies reveal other elements of society (the texture of the clay tea bowl, for example, denotes its provenance). Although almost all readers will find value in some of these anecdotes, Adamson too often veers into academic territory, such as his extended discussion of museum theory. While some examples are more illuminating than others, the book will awaken those who have tuned out from their surroundings. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Inspiring . . . Fewer, Better Things is deeply personal, full of stories about Adamson’s family that are by turns funny, eye-opening, and moving . . . Adamson invites readers to follow along on a series of thought experiments about the objects in our lives, our relationships to them, what they mean, and how we might go about distilling them so that our material footprint is greatly reduced. And this isn’t just an exercise—the future of humanity might depend on it." - Architectural Digest

"[Adamson] makes a powerful case for limiting our purchases to things (including food) that we find to be beautiful, meaningful, or useful." - Psychology Today

"A powerful and personal account of the meaning and wonder of craft by one of its leading voices. Through a compelling mix of family lore and cultural history, Adamson explores the practice and purpose of craft with elegance and insight. As craft enjoys a well earned renaissance, this work explains why it matters and why more of us are realising it matters." - Tristram Hunt, Director, Victoria and Albert Museum

"Genial and elegant writing . . . Combining elements of memoir, reportage, material history, and curatorial studies, Fewer, Better Things is an erudite but accessible global survey of the contemporary material landscape and how we can be better informed to shape it . . . For the design-inclined, Fewer, Better Things will sharpen the way you think about the world around you." - Modern Magazine

"If we are to navigate out of our cluttered and over-accessorized worlds, we need the kind of critical thinking that Fewer, Better Things beautifully and succinctly delivers. Reflecting a lifetime of study on material intelligence, Glenn Adamson’s remarkable book asks us to radically reconsider the objects we choose to surround ourselves with. I thoroughly enjoyed it and can see it becoming a manifesto for modern living." - Alexander Langlands, author of CROEFT: AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINS AND TRUE MEANING OF TRADITIONAL CRAFTS

"Rich with examples and stories of objects and their makers . . . Adamson’s crafty enthusiasm is infectious." - Kirkus Reviews

"Adamson, a former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and author of several books on craft, views the suffering of the natural world through the prism of our increasingly tortured relationship with it." - New York Review of Books

"In Fewer, Better Things, scholar and former museum curator Glenn Adamson inspires readers to reflect on the physical items they encounter . . . Adamson argues that objects cross cultural barriers . . . and provide a shared understanding of culture and history. By creating meaningful connections to objects, we can move towards a sustainable world where we surround ourselves with fewer, but better, things." - Shelf Awareness

"[Adamson’s] book will awaken those who have tuned out from their surroundings." - Publishers Weekly

"This new attention to craft, to work done through some close contact between hand and thing, has been enriched by the publication of The Craft Reader . . . Even readers who think they're not interested in craft will be more engaged than they expected, if they give the anthology half a chance." - Barry Schwabsky, The Nation on THE CRAFT READER

"At a time when technical skill has been widely dismissed or outsourced in the production of art, Glenn Adamson crucially adds an entire spectrum of hand-crafted objects to the creative history of the post-war era." - Thomas Crow, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University on THINKING THROUGH CRAFT

"[Adamson] is the best writer on craft since Peter Dormer . . . From the politics of labour to the intricacies of lacemaking, this is a superb book that covers a huge territory and is stuffed full of ideas and unexpected associations." - Edwin Heathcote, Icon Magazine on THE INVENTION OF CRAFT

From the Publisher

2018-05-23
The impact and significance of the objects we shape and live with.Adamson (Senior Scholar/Yale Center for British Art; The Invention of Craft, 2013, etc.) writes that "we are in danger of falling out of touch, not only with objects, but with the intelligence they embody: the empathy that is bound up in tangible things." He takes us on a winding, personal tour of material intelligence, the world of things; sadly, "our collective material intelligence has steadily plummeted." The author seeks to paint a "full, kaleidoscopic picture of material experience. Making things, using them, and learning about them." The book is rich with examples and stories of objects and their makers. Early on, Adamson invites us to take the "Paper Challenge": What is the best way to evenly divide a piece of paper? He also asks why the materiality of stuffed animals is significant, and he writes in awe about how experts split diamonds and the importance of tools. A fretsaw, a laser cutter, a Jacquard loom—all are "repositories of accumulated material intelligence." Adamson discusses the importance of touch in making and appreciating things. A visit to Brussels Musical Instruments Museum teaches us how to navigate the displays with our ears as well as our eyes. The author also provides brief history lessons on plywood, aluminum, vulcanized rubber, linoleum, and how a material "rises into fashion, falls out of fashion, then rises again." He introduces us to many fascinating people and their achievements: "one of America's greatest basket makers" Dorothy Gill Barnes; master woodcarver David Esterly; Ian Hutchings, who's "interested in what happens when things rub up against one another;" Murage Ngani Ngatho, master coconut carver; and Constance Adams, a "space architect" for NASA. Interested in footwear? Belgian design researcher Catherine Willems combines "ancient wisdom with new technologies" studying sandals made with reindeer, buffalo, and antelope skin.Although a bit dry in spots, Adamson's crafty enthusiasm is infectious.

Kirkus Reviews