Monday, 5 November 2012

This Week's Seminar: Week 9

So, the theme for this week's seminar was Activism Alternatives.  I enjoyed it, but they opened with a statement that I didn't quite agree with. They stated that consuming was an inherent part of human nature. If you look into the history of advertising, that is actually not true! What is natural to humans is greed, not consumerism. Before the 1600's, advertising was done through posts on notice boards, free samples and personal promotion, largely. But in order to promote foreign goods such as coffee and spices, advertising techniques such as saying nobles consume it or that people that consume it have good things happen to them were developed to encourage adoption by the public.

And after the Industrial revolution in Britain, less workers were needed to create more goods due to technological advancement and demand for these goods had to be fostered. In the late 1800's brands of items began to emerge and advertising was their path to the public. By trying to invoke the right images, they attempted to appeal to the desires of their markets.

That's why her hair is so big, it's full of freedom.
My point is that we were taught to consume, and perhaps we have been taught it is a part of our nature. It may be part of our nature to sometimes be greedy and envious, but consumerism is the vehicle that magnifies its effects.

Anyway, I started blabbing on about an article I saw in Canadian Grocer while I was on break when I worked this weekend. It's a magazine about the grocery industry aimed at franchisees and store owners. Anyway, the article was focused on the problem of waste generated by grocery stores and by people throwing away perfectly good food. She named dropped a documentary coming out soon called Just Eat It,  designed to raise awareness on how much edible food we waste by focusing on a couple that decided to go "freegan" for a while. Even if they had to test everything they gathered before eating, they were never left wanting.

Anyway, the main reason stores stock so much is to give the illusion of plenty as it helps consumer confidence. Waste-reducing initiatives were at the forefront of the article, she made sure to stress the economical and environmental benefits. The writer encouraged store owners to try to help reduce waste both at the store and in their customer's households by developing new systems concerning and educating their customers about best before dates, since there's a lot of confusion concerning when food actually goes bad. Also, she encouraged changing the layouts of stores to change emphasis away from the illusion of plenty. That way less is ordered, and less is ultimately wasted.

Baby carrots are actually chopped up adults!
Also, baby carrots were created because a carrot farmer was sick and tired of throwing away perfectly good carrots that just happened to look deformed. I did not know that!

Also, in the Adbusters magazines they handed out yesterday in seminar, there was a photo of an art piece by Takashi Murakami. Now, Murakami is famous for starting a post-modernist art movement called "Superflat". Style-wise, it is exemplified by flat colours, 2D forms and glossy textures. This is a homage to pre-WWII Japanese art as well as to emphasize "fake-ness" or emptiness. Thematically, Superflat art usually critiques consumer culture and the media. This is done through disturbing forms, black humour and sexual innuendo. Murakami himself tends to focus on the exploitation of things such as human sexuality (especially that of "otaku", a Japanese subculture similar to geek subculture) by corporate bodies, and the distortion of what would ordinarily would be cute mascot characters. One of his aims is to combine "high art" (traditional techniques) and "low art" (popular culture).

Oh my sweet Jesus.
In the early 90's, Japan suffered a long recession after a period of economic prosperity. The consumer culture they adopted from the US what was once celebrated began to be looked at with a critical eye. Murakami speaks about the situation in this article from artnet.com: (Warning, some images on the site are NSFW)

"The Japanese people get fed TV and media for 24 hours a day. Now, we have a chance to think, 'what is my life?'" Consumer culture looks only one direction, not evolved. In the '80s, Japanese people didn't think about the meaning of life because of the strong consumer culture. Now, people are realizing there is an end. They have to think about it more than in the past. Young people are looking outside of consumer culture and asking, 'What is life?'"

Kick this ancient imperial emblem into the dirt! Only $400!


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