In Spectres of Marx (1993),
Jacques Derrida suggests that after the end of history, society will orient
itself towards ideas and aesthetics that are thought of as
‘rustic,’ ‘old-timey,’ or
‘quaint’—towards the “ghost” of the past. It is
my belief that this turn towards a ‘rustic’ past, or nostalgia, has
‘now’ reached a heightened momentum in which consumer culture has
become a static re-shuffling of mass, dominant, ‘pop’ culture.
The politics of nostalgia are
repeatedly written off as slight and fundamentally conservative in its praxis
because it aims to keep things as they were or as they are imagined to have
been. Rather, my research questions how the nostalgic mode is manipulated to
inform collective cultural memory through the branding of capitalist
corporations and large art institutions fed by consumer society and the
experience driven economy.
More prevalent in recent years
is the urge for authenticity and how the aesthetics of “authentic”
goods packaged as “organic, free-range, natural, green, local”
reinforce a perceived reality that dominates society. How do these images and
slogans such as, Keep Calm and Carry On (originally designed in 1939), become
re-filtered and mass-produced years later? In times of crisis, be it war or
financial downfall, nostalgia consumes our cannibalistic culture.
Since Crown Copyright expires
on artistic works created by the UK government after 50 years, the image is now
in the public domain.
lanamullen@gmail.com
Nostalgic Mode
In Spectres of Marx (1993), Jacques Derrida suggests that after the end of history, society will orient itself towards ideas and aesthetics that are thought of as ‘rustic,’ ‘old-timey,’ or ‘quaint’—towards the “ghost” of the past. It is my belief that this turn towards a ‘rustic’ past, or nostalgia, has ‘now’ reached a heightened momentum in which consumer culture has become a static re-shuffling of mass, dominant, ‘pop’ culture.
The politics of nostalgia are repeatedly written off as slight and fundamentally conservative in its praxis because it aims to keep things as they were or as they are imagined to have been. Rather, my research questions how the nostalgic mode is manipulated to inform collective cultural memory through the branding of capitalist corporations and large art institutions fed by consumer society and the experience driven economy.
More prevalent in recent years is the urge for authenticity and how the aesthetics of “authentic” goods packaged as “organic, free-range, natural, green, local” reinforce a perceived reality that dominates society. How do these images and slogans such as, Keep Calm and Carry On (originally designed in 1939), become re-filtered and mass-produced years later? In times of crisis, be it war or financial downfall, nostalgia consumes our cannibalistic culture.
Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the UK government after 50 years, the image is now in the public domain.