This is part 1 of a series on Enchanted Objects:

Introduction

On a warm April Sunday, my partner of and I decided to do some housecleaning. That we both decided this is kind of a misleading statement ; put more precisely, she accepted to sacrifice some objects to my minimalist sensibilities. Amidst a mess of invitation envelopes, company letters, and Easter decorations, lay a small, unassuming golden monkey photo holder. The monkey had arrived with my partner from Spain when her mother successfully got rid of it.

On a whim, I decided to keep the monkey around for a little bit, and spent the next few days hiding it around the house for her to (un)excitedly discover: the fridge, the toilet paper shelf, her underwear drawer. One of the next days, and as my partner’s patience was running out, I went out running. The monkey was in my thoughts, because it puzzled me why I hadn’t gotten rid of it yet. A sudden thought occurred: What if I could turn this nearly universally disliked object, into something meaningful?

Could I instil meaning into this object? If yes, how?

To answer that question, I needed to start by defining meaningful objects.

Definitions

Meaningful or “Enchanted” objects are in my definition objects which have some property besides their physical characteristics in the perception of one or more people.

These objects share the common fact that there is some special meaning about them. This meaning is unique both to the object and to the beholder(s). Some folks feel the dress Marilyn Monroe wore in her last public appearance is special enough to warrant 4.8 million US Dollars - for others it’s just another sparkly dress.

In the 2003 emotional rollercoaster Jeux D’Enfants (English title: “Love me if you dare”), the protagonists have a music box and an agreement: Whoever holds the box can ask the other to do anything. The box is enchanted to them.

Your wedding ring is enchanted for you and your spouse, but probably not for the jeweler who sold it to you.

Curiously, the same applies to things which are otherwise perceived as fungible - that is they should be completely interchangeable. One such thing is money. Money is something we usually treat as fungible and yet, Scrooge Mc Duck’s most prized possession is one particular penny. In his case, the penny is meaningful to him because it was the first money he ever received as his own. In the physical world every object is unique - and thus every unique object can be enchanted.

There is a wonderful discussion to be had about enchanted locations, anything from the Vatican to the concept of “Fatherland/Motherland” and Odysseus kissing the ground of Ithaca once he’s returned, but in this piece we’ll focus on tangible things, not locations.

When things are beings

On [2023-03-04]] I visited the Stedejlik modern art museum in [Amsterdam that had an exhibition titled: “When things are beings”. Different artists were exploring the concept of objects and spaces which are more than mere objects. There is an interesting related booklet with the text of that exhibition, though sadly not enough pictures of the exceptional works.

Clearly I wasn’t the only one thinking about meaningful objects. Across time, geography, and cultures enchanted objects popped up everywhere.

But why?

As a self-proclaimed minimalist, I’ve struggled to connect with objects for any purpose other than their primary function. When that function ceases to be important, so does the object. However, I see folks around me that have a sentimental attachment to multiple objects, and I’ve struggled with understanding why. The enchanted objects framework allows me to model that relationship in terms that make sense to me.

Yet more than that, I find it fascinating to know how to infuse meaning onto an object. There are so many objects that have a strictly practical function in our lives, like a water heater, or an oven, or your forks. What if you could make those more interesting? You could give them an importance higher than just their strictly practical functions. What if you could give someone a gift that is not only a special object, but it also has meaning attached to it?

Next up: Read about Enchanting Objects, the act of infusing meaning on an object.

TODO:

  • Add a “what is not an enchanted object” section