The knowledge in objects

Many authors have described the role of asomatic knowledge, two that come to mind are Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Tim Ingold. On the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC the director of the British Museum has been talking about the BBC's "History of the World" exhibition, which depicts the history of our world through 100 objects. I have not had a chance to listen to any of the shows yet (they are doing one object per day, so perhaps I will catch one). It seems to me that in our everyday life we do not look at the objects we use as "full of knowledge". From the intention in their design, to the way objects are produced; we forget that we are interacting with historic creations and the knowledge that they embody. We forget that we change the objects and the objects change us.

In looking at whole environments do we stop to see the objects they contain?

Link to the "History of the World" exhibit at the British Museum