Session 3. Our logos

In order to better grasp what is at stake in the practice of packaging and the growing importance it has assumed, the third session of the seminar starts from the premise that the container is not a neutral parameter in our relationship to objects. Not only does the box mediate the first contact with an artifact, it is also at the heart of the emotional, economic and social relationships we forge through the consumption or conservation of things.

Taking a historical and comparative anthropological approach, we will follow this hypothesis through three themes. The first will concern marriage: from Renaissance cassoni to jewelry boxes and dowry caskets, we’ll be showing how such containers were able to materialize family alliances, domestic relationships and intergenerational transmissions.

A second theme will focus on food and medical packaging, and how their materiality and decoration have conveyed industrial, colonial and, now, ecological imaginations. A third theme will focus on design and fashion, from Vuitton’s travel trunks to the optimized cases used in pastry shops.

With

Samir Boumediene, Researcher, IHRIM-MUCEM: “Pandorama. Boîtes, consommations, attachments”
Françoise Dallemagne, Collections and Research Officer, Mucem: “Boîtes à bijoux, boîtes à secrets?”
Anne-Valérie Dulac, Senior Lecturer in Elizabethan Studies – Sorbonne University: “‘Biscuits for travelling: the decorated boxes of Huntley & Palmers” (to be confirmed)
Anne-Céline Callens, Senior Lecturer, University of Saint-Étienne: “Créatifs anonymes et formes minorées de la publicité. À propos de quelques emballages du début du XXe siècle”
Mikaela Le Meur, Chargée de recherche en anthropologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles: “Regard critique sur les matières plastiques: passés, présents, futurs?”