DON'T STEAL THE KIL (2017)

DON'T STEAL THE KIL

(2017)

If a piece of wood functioning as doorstopper keeps disappearing in one particular place, how long will it take before the place keeper will react to it, and how will they react? Do they keep replacing the doorstopper, or will they immediately start to ‘authorize’ the object with distinctive markings and inscriptions? What will this object agency in this context look like? It seems to me that, in the moment a human actant, marks the non-human actant, the doorstopper, with their name or sentence to prevent it from getting stolen or disappearing, perhaps he/she is attempting to regain power over this object. The doorstopper in particular inspires me to study power relations and power (re)negotiations that happen daily among humans and nonhumans in an institutional setting. The doorstopper is a very powerful object precisely for its ability to misbehave, and for its easiness in disappearing and being misplaced.