The question of culture

An interesting thought came to me during yesterday's class, and I'd like to explore it in more depth. The concept of "transubstantiation of goods" introduced by Brooks in Paradise Drive presents us with the disquieting notion that our spiritual yearnings are consummated through our various acts of consumption. I find this disquieting because it paints the picture that we essentially define ourselves by our material strivings (which is probably more or less accurate, albeit a little cynical).

In any case, there is an undeniable element of truth in this vision, and to the extent that our social class is a strong indicator of the material goods we are likely to seek out, we have to look at what our material possessions say about us.

An interesting notion that was introduced in class that I had not yet heard is "masstige", a notion that product designers would refer to as the "democratization of design". A great example of this is the line of housewares designed for Target by architect Michael Graves. The top left image is a kettle Graves designed for the mass retailer, while the image on the bottom right is a kettle he designed as part of a series of now iconic products for famed Italian firm Alessi. I never really thought of this trend as something that could be called "masstige". By and large, any industry predicated on luxury will, inevitably it seems, find its way down to the masses, albeit in a bastardized form.