Behaviour/Experience

This chapter explores in depth the way in which the affordances of artefacts constrain or enable specific uses and/or experiences. In the first half of the chapter, we will consider a range of objects and materials from this perspective. We have seen from the previous chapter that evaluating use and behaviour from artefact affordances is not always a straightforward process. Affordances may suit a range of functions. Apparently functional features of artefacts may become redundant as the use of the artefact changes. Use of functional features can change even though the features themselves remain the same—for instance if they afford a range of functions. Aspects of artefact form may relate to task efficiency, rather than whether or not a task can be performed, and so may be ignored when quality of performance is less important. Any attempt to study behaviour through artefact design must engage with these issues, and I have chosen to do this mainly through careful selection of objects. Firstly, we can choose artefacts that performonly a very narrow range of functions in normative use, and in which system function uses may be identifiable through wear marks or changes to the artefact. Secondly, artefact forms can be selected that constrain or enforce particular behaviour, or affect experience in a predictable way. Evidence of affordances will also be studied alongside other types of evidence such as visual sources or contextual information. The objects chosen for investigation in this chapter are cone cups, drinking horns, spoons, strigils, styli, locks and keys (including key finger-rings), and dice. Most of these are artefacts that also exist in modern or more recent historical material culture, and while the benefits of this are obvious in terms of comparisons and an understanding of artefact features through direct experience of similar modern items, we will also need to be aware of any assumptions about the performance of artefacts that may be conditioned by modern perceptions of what an artefact is for, and how it can or should be used.