People are currently controlled
by fetishism, which can be described as an appearance of excessiveness or the
distortion under the capitalist society. Fetishism towards specific objects
including commodities and virtual images has born a sense of euphoria,
intoxication and possibly madness, which brings people to the surrealistic world.
Involving this governing phenomenon, this notion of fetishism has brought up
significant themes to be considered in contemporary art in terms of dealing
with the superior reality.
This idea will be discussed as
a main focus in the final thesis titled ‘The superior reality generated
by fetishism in contemporary art’. In terms of Marx, the commodity
fetishism evokes the idea of the spectacle and simulacra, and the world itself
is defined as ‘hyperreal’ compared to Disneyland as a typical
simulation by Baudrillard. People were dominated by shopping and imitated
images, which trend reached its peak in 80s.
On the other hand, deriving
from the Freudian fetishism, the concept of ‘desiring-machine’
under capitalism is argued by Deleuze-Guattari. It significantly finds reality
of simulacra, as they describe ‘the objective being of desire is the Real
in and of itself’. That implies people are not fascinated by the
spectacle of commodity (specifically, signs), because the simulated world is no
longer hyperreal, but rather it is an ordinary landscape, where the
substitution of the real by Deleuze-Guattari dwells.
What 9/11 and the current
economic crisis hint are not spectacles, but rather anxiety and hollowness, or
incongruity towards alienation or simulacra, which can be layered to the sense
of the uncanny. It arouses emergent aesthetics hidden under the system of
capitalism involving the metaphor of repetition or doppelganger, and is the
universal longing of people for the unreached ‘real’ which is now
paradoxically uplifted to the realm of ‘hyperreal’, and released
from the dominant by imitations.
Thus unveiling the
hyper-hyperreal could be the formula to investigate the new representation
style of forthcoming contemporary art. This idea will be developed in the exhibition
proposal as well. The title for the exhibition proposal ‘Do Androids
Awaken from Electric Sheep?’ is inspired by the remarkable novel
‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ by Philip K. Dick. The story
investigates the SF world where the boundary between human beings and androids
becomes blurred.
sayoook@googlemail.com
Do Androids Awaken from Dreams?
People are currently controlled by fetishism, which can be described as an appearance of excessiveness or the distortion under the capitalist society. Fetishism towards specific objects including commodities and virtual images has born a sense of euphoria, intoxication and possibly madness, which brings people to the surrealistic world. Involving this governing phenomenon, this notion of fetishism has brought up significant themes to be considered in contemporary art in terms of dealing with the superior reality.
This idea will be discussed as a main focus in the final thesis titled ‘The superior reality generated by fetishism in contemporary art’. In terms of Marx, the commodity fetishism evokes the idea of the spectacle and simulacra, and the world itself is defined as ‘hyperreal’ compared to Disneyland as a typical simulation by Baudrillard. People were dominated by shopping and imitated images, which trend reached its peak in 80s.
On the other hand, deriving from the Freudian fetishism, the concept of ‘desiring-machine’ under capitalism is argued by Deleuze-Guattari. It significantly finds reality of simulacra, as they describe ‘the objective being of desire is the Real in and of itself’. That implies people are not fascinated by the spectacle of commodity (specifically, signs), because the simulated world is no longer hyperreal, but rather it is an ordinary landscape, where the substitution of the real by Deleuze-Guattari dwells.
What 9/11 and the current economic crisis hint are not spectacles, but rather anxiety and hollowness, or incongruity towards alienation or simulacra, which can be layered to the sense of the uncanny. It arouses emergent aesthetics hidden under the system of capitalism involving the metaphor of repetition or doppelganger, and is the universal longing of people for the unreached ‘real’ which is now paradoxically uplifted to the realm of ‘hyperreal’, and released from the dominant by imitations.
Thus unveiling the hyper-hyperreal could be the formula to investigate the new representation style of forthcoming contemporary art. This idea will be developed in the exhibition proposal as well. The title for the exhibition proposal ‘Do Androids Awaken from Electric Sheep?’ is inspired by the remarkable novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ by Philip K. Dick. The story investigates the SF world where the boundary between human beings and androids becomes blurred.
However, as mentioned above, such hyperreal world is nothing but the real for contemporary people, as Deleuze-Guattari insists that ‘the copy ceases to be a copy in order to become the Real and its artifice’. Therefore, the journey to the hyperreal for current people is the one towards ‘the hyper-hyperreal’, and could be found in another concealed dimension. Revealing such unknown pleasure is the positive effort to survive capitalism today, and is the urgent task of artists and curators. photo © Carsten Holler 2007