Shawn is painted with his DVDs, video-games and devices, objects of memorabilia and fandom, boxing gloves, and a pillow. His objects are a symbolic time machine drawing him back to his childhood.
The pillow in, Shawn’s, lap has “sentimental value… [it was] my pillow when I was a kid. The story behind the pillow relates to my father who died when I was 11 … it was his pillow and I would steal it from him due to its comfort. I could not sleep without my pillow ... I kept the pillow until I was 26 years old when I got a new one… that felt the exact same and was able to get sleep even after the pillow was gone.”
Transitional objects are kept into adulthood. Meaning changes to remind one of the important memories, stories, and events in childhood. Objects are extensions of the self. After tragedies these objects comfort. Tactile moments or familiar smells trigger emotional memories and remind us of those lost.
Ontological security established in childhood provides a comforting faith in a shared framework of reality supporting self-continuity.
Video games and pop-media create imagined worlds that, especially when revisited, provide ontological comfort. Young people, in moments of transition, growth, or struggle find familiarity and meaning in movies, books, video-games, and TV. Objects of fandom are symbolic repositories storing remedies for turbulent life and existential threats, re-constructing a feeling of home.
Objects find new meaning as we do. Popular media, like world history, affixes to our real-life, biography, and our narrative view of it, autobiography.
Shawn’s clothes reflect his, “Tastes [and]… love for horror movies… my grandma was the one who got me into them by showing me movies like Pet Cemetery and Child's Play.” “I would wear jeans, a printed t-shirt… a custom made ball cap featuring an abstract piece of art from the video game street fighter, and a pair of limited run Freddy Krueger Reebok shoes.”
Real and virtual worlds evolve together. Hardware, like controllers, consoles, and disks, become aesthetic objects of one’s lived past, remembered fondly.
Shawn said the “video-games I mentioned…[have] stories surrounding them, like my father yelling and being angry because I was better than him at Mario, or learning to control my temper at video-games because I was breaking too many controllers.”
Video-games and pop-culture commodify memorabilia for niche tastes. Physical merchandise yields passions and actions material consequences. You can touch, feel, and own, part of a game. We live with reminders of favourite games and franchises. Plastic, rubber, synthetic, and bright physical objects cannot be deleted.
Gaming collections are observed, displayed, and preserved, and also played. A uniquely interactive shrine to one’s past.