Week Three Readings

Ellen Durham-Jones - Temporary Contracts
Gail Faurshou - Obsolescence and Desire

Temporary Contracts deals with the idea that our culture of consumerism has lead to a non-committal attitude. We have a large industry that thrives on the purchase-use-discard-repurchase cycle, mainly the large corporations like Wal-Mart. Our interest in technology perpetuates this phenomena by releasing a "new" version of software or hardware and by cross-pollinating gadgets to make hybrid gadgets thus creating a multitude of product. This strategy has been allowed to blossom due to the heavier weighing on reception of product rather than production. We are lead to believe that we need a newer, upgraded version of something everyday. Is this a phenomena that will die as fast as it's "old" versions of product? Or do we foresee as even higher turnover rate? The major issue that should be a key to the answers to the questions is the fact that the temporary contract has seeped into our relationships and families. We now dispose of spouses and friends at a greater rate, we see people as commodities...when is this okay, if ever?

Obsolescence and Desire uncovers fashion as a commodity and its ramifications. Fashion is forever recycling images from the past and reconstituting them in a mix of history and commentary. Fashion presents history in a watered-down way by emulating previous styles. In this way it is the pastiche of Jameson's postmodern analysis.

The ideas presented by Baudrillard provide a clear idea of the symbolic. It is interesting that the gift morphs from an arbitrary object to a definition of a relationship to a symbol and finally to a confirmation of the uniqueness of the exchange....from arbitrary to identifiable.

How do we react to a culture we partake of that values a commodification of everything? Is it another waxing and waning, do we wait for it to pass? If a little shop closes in a small town, and Wal-Mart is to blame and we do nothing is that wrong?