Ontology

Abstract

This chapter explores the nature of a collection as an entity and as a definitional process. It opens its account of ontological approaches to the question “what is a collection?” with a consideration of the even more basic question “what is a thing?” Rehearsing a wide range of concepts surrounding the conception of things and collections by thing theorists (Martin Heidegger, Bill Brown, Elaine Freedgood), institutional art critics (Arthur C. Danto, George Pierce), and advocates of object-oriented ontologies (Ian Bogost, Levy R. Bryant) among others, the chapter resolves on the value of a Hegelian dialectic of perceived determinateness for the study of assemblages of things. Collection is discussed as an idea and as a unit defined by original order, transformation, circulation, and subsequent orders that have been imposed upon it by individuals and institutions. The chapter approaches a collection as something held and distributed for and across a network, a centralized and cataloged assemblage in material or virtual space, and as a boundary object (comprised of objects) with discernible form.