Subjectification

Subjectification describes a person encountering a thing through their situated perception, memory, language, desire, practical knowledge. The visitor makes some aspect salient, interprets its significance, acts under that description. The term concerns this operation during a particular encounter.

A visitor recognizes the camera as familiar equipment, another associates it with family photographs, another regards it as an unfamiliar mechanism. The material instance remains available for examination while each person develops a different relation. Earlier labels, the room, other guests, the person's immediate purpose affect the encounter.

Staff can ask for an explanation, record a chosen action, compare later revisions. Objectification concerns the subsequent availability of an expressed account to others. Material examination can complicate the visitor's initial projection. A successive exchange includes both directions and the participant's response to the institution's interpretation.