The Legacy of Transgressive Objects

The Legacy of Transgressive Objects traces the afterlife and historicization of the concept of transgression in the art, architecture, technology, music and psychedelic practices of 1968 and its legacy, by looking at the objects, materials and images that originally shaped these ideas. These decades saw the fertile cross-pollination of rebellious political and artistic energies: radical architecture suggested a whole new organization of society, artistic practices enthusiastically dissolved boundaries between art and life, and music festivals staged gleeful opportunities for transgression.

The material heritage of this historical moment is ambivalent--though often ephemeral and deteriorating, the objects associated with these ideas still function as repositories of time and as evocative physical objects. Against this background, this book traces the historical index of these objects that promised to change the world and now open up to the future horizons of the recent past.