Consuming Signs

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Consuming Signs Lecture 1 Consumption as
Manipulation? Lesley Scott Andrea Peach
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consuming involves the using or using-up of
something
browsing
listening
time
shopping
touching
owning
acquiring
eating
looking
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The act of consuming expresses (consciously or
unconsciously) a wider set of cultural and
ideological systems
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Consuming within a free market place is about
personal choice
access to goods is limited only by the
consumers ability to pay for them
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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
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Tracey Emin Ive got it all 2000
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Consuming Signs
Consumption becomes the leading device through
which individuals construct their identities
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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?
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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
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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
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A key feature of the culture industrys products
is standardisation coupled with a
pseudo-individualisation
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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
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The culture industry makes people aspire to the
false fulfillment of wish dreams such as wealth,
adventure, passion, love, power and sensationalism
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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
doesnt understand and doesnt want to understand
(popular culture)
Does not allow for any critical engagement or
debate with cultural consumption
which brings us on to Baudrillard