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The Voices of Things: Learning to Pay Attention to the Little Objects
The MAG 11/22
EDITORIAL by Cristina Morozzi
When observing the world around us and the things that surround us, all we have to do is know how to listen to them and see them.
Alberto Savinio, which was the pseudonym used by Andrea De Chirico (1891-1952), the younger brother of the painter Giorgio De Chirico, describes in his 1945 collection of short stories Tutta la vita (A Whole Life) the “strange stifled voices” that astonish the protagonist Candido Bove upon his return from vacation, in the dimly lit living room with furniture still draped in the white cloths which were used to protect furniture from dust and sunlight.
He urges us to pay attention to the most subtle and hidden aspects of our surroundings, as he says that people don’t know how to listen to the “voices of things, which in people’s ignorance they believe to be mute, and do not know how to see the landscapes in the air, which in their indifference people believe to be empty.”
When observing the world around us and the things that surround us, all we have to do is know how to listen to them and see them. If we let them, these things in turn tell us about the material they were made from, their function, and when they were made. And not only should we listen to those more valuable and imposing objects that surround us, but also the most humble and everyday ones we use without caring much about their aesthetic appearance, so as to understand their purpose and just how much they aid us in our everyday lives.
