The inaugural International Conference of Material Culture (ICMC) 2021 aims to provide a better understanding of past and present societies through objects that are no longer used or whose "life" is endangered by new modern lifestyles. We also aim to reconstruct the vision and perception of time through the use of objects, that is: routines; the idea of rapid or progressive obsolescence; phenomena such as "ageing" or travelling things; the different life cycles from the making to the "death" of objects (manufacturing, use/reuse, meaning in society, destruction etc.); the crystallisation and therefore immortalisation of some objects in the memory of some individuals through emotions and feelings. Due to uncertainties determined by the COVID-19 pandemic, ICMC 2021 will be organised as an online conference. The language of the conference is English.