Lyotard, Jean-François. The Inhuman: Reflections on Time. Scapeland.1991.
Baudrillard's writings are interesting and relevant to my project. He talks about the consumer society in which we live in today and how everywhere we go we are surrounded by this relation to 'affluence' and 'material goods'.
"men of wealth are no longer surrounded by other human beings... but by objects". I think this quote is massively important in relation to todays society. It just shows how humans are adapting and responding to consumerism and how it has changed human beings. This value, this importance is given to objects above others. But, in order for that value to be appreciated or worth anything, it needs the adoration of another human being. This is sort of paradoxical in itself - the fact one needs admiration in order to have worth, yet value other people below objects.
"Large department stores with their luxuriant abundance of goods"- talking about the use of display and how this works as magical way to engage with the consumer.
Page 37; "the beauty of the surroundings is the precondition for a happy life". Talking about the importance of beauty to be happy. Do people need to be surrounded by beauty to achieve this happiness? Beauty is what SELLS. For example Jeff Koons and his seductively shiney sculptures.
In the same chapter he explores how this notion of shopping combines aesthetics, efficiency and ease, making the consumer comfortable... it is a leisure activity. The shopping mall is a 'futuristic city'.
Lyotard's 'Scapeland' talks about 'estrangement' and how being outside the usual comfort of surroundings allows for a different perception, a different view of a landscape. "Landscape as a place without destiny...when they are hung in a museum, works of art are stripped of their destination". This made me think of how we interpret art or objects based on their surroundings. If we see them in a gallery, we see them in a way which is estranged from their intension. They are stripped of their destiny. If they are removed from their context, we become more observant of them. I also thought how this was similar to John Berger's 'ways of seeing' who explains how the context in which we see a work of art is different to how we perceive it.
The passage on the 'Uninhabitable' is also relevant. "A palace is not worth living in it if you know it's every room". This could be applied to the shopping mall- it is constantly changing. It is constantly being re-invented to feed the consumers needs, they want to see something new every time they go there, and this is what attracts them. This works on the heightened sense of 'being' in a place. If you loose the sense of the familiar you feel more open to explore the new and notice different things.
My idea of juxtaposing the ordinary with the extra ordinary is relevant here - I am removing something from it's original context and therefore making the object seem estranged... stripped of it's familiarity. This could work to lead the viewer to have a heightened sense of engagement- it's unfamiliar to them, it's new.
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