Aichaku

31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, etymology, love, perception, quotes, senses

“Aichaku is the Japanese term for the sense of attachment one can feel for an artifact. When written by its two kanji characters, you can see that the first character means “love” and the second one means “fit”. “Love-fit” describes a deeper kind of emotional attachment that a person can feel for an object. It is a kind of symbiotic love for an object that deserves affection not for what it does, but for what it is.”

The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

How much is lost in waiting?

31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, minimal, perception, quotes, time

“The average person spends at least an hour a day waiting in line. Add to this the uncountable seconds, minutes, weeks spent waiting for something that might have no line at all.

Some of that waiting is subtle. We wait for water to come out of the faucet when we turn the knob. We wait for water on the stove to boil, and start to feel impatient. We wait for the seasons to change. Some of the waiting we do is less subtle, and can often be tense or annoying: waiting for a Web page to load, waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or waiting for the results of a dreaded medical test.

No one likes to suffer the frustration of waiting. Thus all of us, consumers and companies alike, often try to find ways to beat the ticking hand of time. We go out of our way to find the quickest option or any other means to reduce our frustration.”

The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

Materialism

31 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, consumism, perception, quotes

“The upside of materialism is that the way something we own feels can change how we feel.”

The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

Hypnotisé par la production et le confort

25 July 2010 • out of context
tags: capitalism, civilization, consumism, quotes, situationism, texts

“Une maladie mentale a envahi la planète: la banalisation. Chacun est hypnotisé par la production et le confort — tout-à-l’égoût, ascenseur, salle de bains, machine à laver.”

Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau by Gilles Ivain

Readings

4 June 2010 • readings
tags: aesthetics, articles, brain, consumism, criticism, installations, science, senses, smell, texts

• Sensational technologies [read]
Annet Dekker and Vivian van Saaze. Digital Creativity 2005, Vol. 16, No. 2.

• Speaking of Art as Embodied imagination: A Multisensory Approach to Understanding Aesthetic Experience
Annamma Joy and John F. Sherry, Jr. Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. Vol. 30, September 2003.

• The Aesthetics of Smelly Art
Larry Shiner and Yulia Kriskovets. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65:3 Summer 2007.

• (Re)Confirming the Conventions - An Ontology of the Olfactory [read]
Helen Paris.

Watchings

16 April 2010 • watchings
tags: animals, capitalism, cinema, consumism, documentaries, economy, found footage, humour, nature, politics, television, tv series, vampires, video

• Simplicité volontaire et décroissance (2007) [watch]
Jean-Claude Decourt

• The IT Crowd. Series 1-3 (2006-2008)

• Full Frontal (2002)
Steven Soderbergh

• Innocent Blood (1992)
John Landis

• Footprints (1992)
Bill Morrison

• The Bats (1998)
Jim Trainor

• C’mon Babe (1988)
Sharon Sandusky

• Swamp (1971)
Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson

• Hyas et sténorinques (1927)
Jean Painlevé

• Science Friction (1959)
Stan Vanderbeek

• Historia Naturae (Suita) (1967)
Jan Svankmajer

• Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924)
Adrian Brunel

• Supermâché, aire de pique-nique (2008)
Laurent Sfar & Jean Guillaud

Mental Colonization

21 March 2010 • out of context
tags: capitalism, consumism, documentaries, economy, politics, quotes, video

“La publicité (…) c’est la plus grande entreprise de colonisation mentale.”

Serge Latouche in Simplicité volontaire et décroissance [watch]