Transcript Document
Consuming Signs Lecture 1 Consumption as Manipulation? Lesley Scott Andrea Peach consuming involves the using or using-up of something browsing touching listening time shopping owning acquiring eating looking The act of consuming expresses (consciously or unconsciously) a wider set of cultural and ideological systems Consuming within a free market place is about personal choice … … access to goods is limited only by the consumer’s ability to pay for them … Consumer culture is based on a constant expansion of demand Western economy is fuelled by insatiable desire to produce more wealth, acquire more power and consume more goods Tracey Emin I’ve got it all 2000 Consuming Signs Consumption becomes the leading device through which individuals construct their identities Cultural Consumption as Manipulation? If consuming requires making individual choices … Is consumption an expression of personal freedom and individualism? …. Or is it a manipulation of needs and wants by dominant institutions? Are we Passive or Active consumers? Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) The Frankfurt School The Culture Industry Adorno believed that consumption was being used as a vehicle for pacification, coercion and manipulation of the masses As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished, or forgotten. In light of music [popular music], once the trained ear has heard the first notes of the hit song, it can guess what is coming and feel flattered when it does come. Theodor Adorno Dialectic of Enlightenment 1947 A key feature of the culture industry’s products is standardisation coupled with a pseudo-individualisation The Culture Industry is a product of capitalism generates false needs. These needs work as a means of social control. This is because work under capitalism is dull and boring, leaving little energy or imagination for real escape The culture industry makes people aspire to the false fulfillment of wish dreams such as wealth, adventure, passion, love, power and sensationalism Problems with Adorno? Presumes consumer to be a ‘cultural dope’ a mindless victim of the consumer industry Imposes his own ‘elitist tastes’ on a culture he doesn’t understand and doesn’t want to understand (popular culture) Does not allow for any critical engagement or debate with cultural consumption … which brings us on to Baudrillard …