Annotated bibliography
From my own study
- Zhang, C. and Tan, T., 2020. The Impact of Big Data Analysis on Consumer Behavior. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1544(1), p.012165.
This article analyses the characteristic of big data, as well as the characteristics of consumer behavior, in the context of big data analysis technologies. With the development of big data, e-commerce are collecting personalized information of consumers, and consumers are under the attraction of the “tailor-made” promotion thus stimulates consumer’s interest and even change consumers’ demand preferences, thus leading them to fall into the trap of consumerism. This enhances my understanding of consumerism. In my video work, I wanted to criticize how the big data are mentally manipulating and control consumers by using abstraction of graphic components to show the messy consumption environment as well as the information overload thus stimulate and numb the consuming behavior. I also want to reflect on this consumerist society.
- Leach, W., 2011. Land of Desire. New York: Random House US.
This book illustrated the production of mass consumer culture and the development of consumer capitalism in the United States from 1890-1932. I was surprised by the author’s picture of universal participation in creating a consumerist atmosphere is happening around us, except the United States was mainly focus on the department stores at that time. Nowadays, we are surrounded by all different shopping apps, websites, shopping lives, that every day is shopping festivals. Almost every industry is working to make users desperately shop and consume. Therefore, in my works, I want people to get out of the noisy consumption atmosphere, to seriously examine the disadvantages brought by this atmosphere, and remind people not to become the puppet who work for consumption.
Projects
- Warhol, A., 1962. Campbell’s Soup Cans. [Synthetic polymer paint on canvases].
In Andy Warhol’s work, he illustrated consumerism and mass production and connected them with mundane objects. This series of work was under lots of controversy because of their vulgarity at that time. However, Warhol knows deeply about the mass media operation mode that the more controversy, the greater the propaganda. Looking back at its background, in the post-industrial era, consumerism prevails, and the emptiness brought about by the emphasis on speed and efficiency. Similar to now, where we are living in the fast pace society and the mass production is the key to consumerism. Referencing this, I decided to use riso printing to represent the mass production and the vibrant colors revels the flourishing but empty society. In my final video work, I used different blending mode to create illusions and illustrate the idea of mass production and the consumption society.
- Gursky, A., 2016. Mediamarkt. [Photography].
Gursky uses his unique photography style to reflect globalization, consumerism and other important social issues. In Mediamarkt, Gursky used a bird’s-eye view to shoot the electronic retail store in Germany. Every detail in the work is equally clear and sharp, it shows these endless shelves and goods from a calm onlooker’s perspective. The dense array of products underscores the status quo of excess, creating an impressive portrait of the consumer society. This inspired me in a way that the growing image technology stimulates everyone’s desire to consume, and the prosperity of consumption in turn spawns more images. As a result, I layered multiple footages in my video to express this idea and how it is reflecting this consumerism society. Also, the production of images and consumerism are both mutually reinforcing relationships. There are also economic problems behind the flood of images, and consumerism is an important part of it.
From reading list
- ARANDA, J., WOOD, B. and VIDOKLE, A., 2016. Introduction. In: The Internet Does Not Exist. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp.5-9.
While I was working on my video, I asked myself, what is the trap of consumerism? I found my answer in this chapter where the author in this article states that internet is just a name that describes everything and nothing at the same time but we are still trying to be part of it. Similar to consumerism, it is also vague, blur, and trying to harvest consumers’ eye ball and mind in order to lead them into the trap of consumerism. Big data also lives on the infrastructural base of internet. It absorbs information through internet and apply its trick to consumers to control consumers’ behavior and shopping habit. The article also mentioned about how the digital aesthetics are shifting from depth to surface due to the development of internet. This inspired me to create the poster that is bold, noisy and uses the simplest graphic language since in the consumerism aspect, because of information overload on internet and the fast pace life style, merchants must produce advertisement that are shallow and easy to understand in order to be catchy.
- GALLOWAY, A. and THACKER, E., 2004. Protocol, Control and Network. In: Grey Room, 17. pp.6-29.
Nowadays, people are enticing to believe that everything can be protected by the interconnection. However, I believe the interconnection can also be the protocol to control us, for example big data. Due to the development of big data, everything we do are under surveillance, and to some extent can manipulate users’ behavior without user noticing. Just like the authors states in the article, technological network is protocol, and the misuse of it can lead to political fissures in network. Therefore, I wanted to critics the over use of the network protocol and how it is affecting the consumerism society. The reading also inspired me in a way that it talked about the graph theory in the control society, which we are all unconsciously involved. As a result, I implanted the graph theory and created the responsive graphic element in my video to criticize this idea.
Extended critical analysis
- Leach, W., 2011. Land of Desire. New York: Random House US.
Consumerism is a macro-vocabulary. Some people say that the birth of consumerism has led to uncontrolled lending and the outflow of financial capital, creating false economic prosperity and eventually forming an economic bubble. The country and the people would eventually be suffered the consequences. But if there is no consumerism, the public will not have the motivation to work, the technological and economic development will stop. The people are the primary productive force, and desire is the primary driving force.
As the book was portraying the image of people from all industries are committed to making people fall in love with shopping, that includes business owners, mall managers, bankers, investors, artists, advertisers, curators, designers and so on. Artists and designers use their artistic expertise to make the shopping mall magnificent and colorful. Bankers and financial institutions see business opportunities, making it extremely convenient for people to spend overdrafts. From seats, menus, decorations, to buildings, stained glass, curtain, walls. Every detail is to make shopping more comfortable. However, the cognition of consumerism should be objective, and consumerism should be limited to the basis of not over drafting the future, rather than quickly solving consumer desires by overdraw. As practitioners in the design industry, how to have a positive impact on consumerism is a topic we need to study.
With the advancement of technology and economy, most areas in the world have solved the most basic needs of the people, except for the extremely poor areas, but a variety of consumption choices have been derived. Seizing the minds of consumers become the first step in market competition. Traditional media, new media, and digital media publicity are the first way to reach consumers, and graphic design is inseparable from this approach. It is equivalent to opening the door to consumers’ minds. The methods and content of graphic design can convey different messages to consumers which can cause either blind consumption that can have a negative impact on consumerism or rational consumption that will have a positive impact. Graphic design is also a mind game. Therefore, from the current market environment, graphic design is an indispensable part of influencing people’s consumerism ideology.
According to the book, merchants learn from artists and designers to launch many new advertising operation methods, and use pictures to convey product information, also decorate the windows in an artistic way, so as to continuously create new fashion trends. As for now, graphic design is continuingly serving for business and it can manipulate the collective consensus and drive people’s desire.
Moreover, there’s a growing popularity of products/design that are “form over content”. A notebook with some designs and brand effect can sell for over a hundred pounds, and a small portion of home-cooked food may become a Michelin star dish in a decorative plate. Merchants realized early on that design was very important to the success of mass production, and that many items were based on their appearance and shape, rather than their internal structure or function. However, as designers, we should reflect on the consumerist society, analyze how the thinking of the supremacy of consumption affects our thinking, and raise people’s awareness using the tools of graphic design.
- Warhol, A., 1962. Campbell’s Soup Cans. [Synthetic polymer paint on canvases].
In 1962, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, shown in Los Angeles, consisted of 32 canvases, each painted with a Campbell’s Soup Can, done using a semi-mechanical screen-printing technique. This work, which is now regarded as Warhol’s representative work, was very mediocre at the time. On the contrary, this exhibition sparked discussions on whether Warhol was an artist, and whether “Campbell’s Soup Cans have artistic value”, which made Warhol, who had little influence at the time, become a conversation topic in the art world. Warhol believes that the commercial society has accelerated the homogenization of consumer goods, and it has also smoothed out class. And pop culture is the most magical thing in consumerism society, and it is all-pervasive.
Also, this work is specifically prepared for the exhibition, which accentuate the commercial appearance of the pre-selected subjects. At a glance, the entire piece appears to be the shelves of a supermarket. The canvases are placed next to each other, like a parody of a gallery. In the gallery, normally each piece its name and description, but in his work the corresponding ones are pork, turkey, tomatoes, peas, asparagus and so on. Warhol also admitted that he chose a subject that seemed so banal, such as the boxed soup, and the reason for choosing it was simply because Warhol was used to eating boxed soup: “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years.” Similar to the today’s consumerism society, many luxury brands are launching mundane objects but sells for hundreds or even thousands of ponds just because their brand recognition. One of the best examples can be the brick from Supreme.
Of course, Warhol’s cans are symbols of commercial production which also embody his critique of this fetishism. Warhol blends pop culture and creates artistic ambiguity by breaking the traditional rules of the game to creates the irony. But, at the same time the image of the soup cans can also bring back the memory of taste. This shows that the correct use of graphic design can resonate with the viewers and deliver the messages through direct or indirect imagery, typography, composition, colors and so on.
Warhol knows how to package himself and understands the preferences of the market. He cleverly applies the concept of advertising to his art form, using consumer goods, celebrities, news stories and repetitive images to highlight the concept of “mass production”. I believe in the graphic communication design industry, this is also a very important way of creating designs because graphic designs are for the people, and the main point is how to catch viewers’ attention and deliver the messages you want to portray in your work.
Another feature of Campbell’s Soup Can is that its image most intuitively represents the object of mass consumption. Image production and consumerism have always been mutually reinforcing. There are also economic problems behind the flood of images, and consumerism is an important part of it.