Materiality, for Kant, was distinguishable from substance as it sought to explain more than just an object’s appearance. It is the symbolic meaning of a material that is important rather than its physicality. I believe that a material thing can be considered a material even without it being physically present. Marshall McLuhan’s example of media can be difficult to locate as a physical object but it can be defined as a material which is an “extension of man”. Similarly, electricity can be labeled a material even though it is without a form. It is only the content and purpose of a material that helps to identify it instead of its shape, size, or another physical characteristic.
In UCLA’s Special Collection my group and I handled a box containing random selections of newspaper clippings and pictures of what appeared to be George P. Johnson’s family. They were also quite a bit of pictures that showed the filming of some of the movies he had worked on. These photos were distinguishable from his family pictures because they were much clearer and looked professionally taken. Johnson actually refers to a lot of these pictures in the transcribed interview. Some of the pictures were from Johnson’s newspaper which he talks about in the transcribed interview. As he mentioned in the interview, it was the only newspaper at the time which was published throughout the entire United States of America that helped people hear about Oklahoma. This newspaper was called the “Tulsa Guide”. Some of the newspaper clippings were of the actual first issue of the “Negro News” newspaper Johnson went on to establish in the 1920s. It was pretty cool to hold an actual physical copy of that first issue in my hand. One of the pictures that struck me was a picture of the Griffith observatory from 1940s or so. It was eerie to see what the observatory looked like almost a hundred years ago.
In addition to Johnson’s collection, I couldn’t help but notice on the back of newspaper clippings stories of Martin Luther King Jr’s protests and the interpretation of journalists in regards to the civil right movement. There was a particular article which read that MLK is not surprised by the smear campaign orchestrated by the FBI against him. Looking at some of these articles had me feeling like I was back in time in the 50’s and 60’s. After reading an article on the struggle for human rights and the fight for civil rights lead by MLK, I couldn’t help but feel like we are dealing with the same issue even today and its relevancy to current times. What we see today with the black lives matter movement, it appears to be a legacy of the same struggle.
I definitely agree that actually handling the physical photographs, especially those that showed locations and streets in our own city (like Griffith Observatory), was a very strange feeling! It’s interesting to hold these objects and imagine what life was like, what the world was like, and how Johnson interpreted the world around him. I think the biggest question that came up for me while viewing the collection, was wondering how we could relay this same feeling to the visitors of our exhibit, who will not be able to handle the materials the same way that we did.
I really like your connection between MLK’s generation of civil rights activism to today’s BLM movement! Although I guess this story was not in the collection intentionally, it gives us context to the backdrop of these early African American films that George P. Johnson was trying to preserve. I also completely agree with how cool it is to hold the actual newspaper clippings from that era! Just the physical contact makes you feel more connected with history since that clipping is part of history.
I had the same experience as you when looking at the items from Special Collections. It gives so much more life to the items to see them in person, and even more to be able to hold them and almost feel transported back in time. The items in your box sound really interesting; I always enjoy looking at old photos. It’s also neat that you noticed what was on the back of the clippings as well, I never would have thought to do that!
Thanks for sharing! I was thinking about Johnson on the MLK day as well. And I would never relate to that reflection without studying his deeds. The context offered by the collection surely delivers not only the simple awareness of a history, but also the sense of involvement with the struggle of ethnic groups. In this way, I would argue that the physical collections has created another reality for the viewers.