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In his
essay The Author as Producer (1934) Walter Benjamin argued
that new technologies of reproduction could be implemented
in a politically progressive manner and are inherently more
democratic. As social relations are determined by the relations
of production, these could be revolutionised by artists to
disrupt the traditional link of authority and authenticity
in the artwork, and the authoritarian figure of the artist/author.
At the heart of the essay proclaiming politicised art was
a call to dissolve the distinction between author/recipient.
A theme that would reoccur in Roland Barthes From Work to
Text (1977), or, in a more general relation to technology,
to Hypertext. Since then the transientness of distinctions
such as author/recipient within cultural production have become
commonplace (interactive computer art, weblogs,games). More
significantly, the foundations of the capitalist landscape,
mass-production and consumption, have been transformed by
new technologies.
Flexible
manufacturing systems, for example, allow the consumer economically
to economically build unique design decisions into very small
batches - or even individual products, and it is his participation
in this mass-customisation, and also his personal investment
in virtual marketplaces such as eBay, which has shifted the
boundary between consumption and production. This evolution
of design has become possible through the exclusive use of
computers, not only in the design process but also in the
implementation of the design at the point where concept is
transformed into material.
eBay between information and reality
Virtual
marketplaces such as eBay are symptomatic of the tendencies
of innovative consumer involvement in the determination of
the product within the wider current consumption landscape.
Established as the alternative marketplace worldwide eBay
created a new exchange process. Similar to catalogue purchasing
systems goods can only be evaluated through information /documentation
provided by the seller. Actual physical contact with the object
is deferred until the point of delivery. The crucial difference
is that, rather than the standardised, objectified information
provided by most consumer spaces, such as supermarkets or
catalogues, the shelves of eBay have been reclaimed by the
language and imagery of the individual. Products here are
photographed from within and bare the trace of home environments
of mini-entrepreneurs and living-room niche-service industries.
Significantly evaluation of the offered product relies more
on the imagination of buyers evaluating the symbolic information
provided and therefore on pre-existing knowledge rather than
physical contact with the objects at the time.
Data-objects
A similar
fluctuation of the space between symbolic, imaginary and real
can be traced in design processes. With products crafted using
simulation in Computer aided design (CAD) 3D software packages
where the computer is used to create precise models and specfications
of the product, which can then be turned into a prototype,
a complete change of the material object itself when changing
the design is no longer necessary. In addition using information
technologies, product and material behaviours can now be simulated
using Finite element analysis (FEA) cost-effectively eliminating
unnecessary materialisation and testing. And thus material
properties and behaviour can be evaluated as information being
before the product is ever actually materialized. Traditionally,
design processes were closely linked to the material of the
trade: the final product was only realized through working
within material. However in contemporary design practice material
characteristics are rendered into manipulable transitory information
items, as the transformation of information into material
is deferred until the last moment. While previously the object
had represented itself rather than being a vessel of information,
the data object "exists" as a "light" information item as
noted by Welsch (1991), before being reified, enscribed into
a variety of materials. In order to materialize it the prototyping
of the model can be executed with Computer controlled rapid
prototyping. Rather than waiting a week or more for the labour
intensive production of prototypes of the design, these can
be turned out in hours and allow designers to check the accurateness
of their data-objects more rapidly.
The potential
of data-objects is most prominently used in intelligence products.
Multifunctionality and intelligence that are built into our
music systems, intelligent clothing and mobile phones. The
nature of information and its physical equivalent, the computer
chip are again transforming material objects as functions
can be used indepently of the product as they hae become portable
using chips. This gives rise to products which offer a myriad
of functions from a single, modular homogeneous interface,
plug&playing heterogeneous services as scalable commodities.
On the other hand while the object used to represent it's
specific function this is no longer the case with devices
such as the interpersonal communication product. Intrinsic
functionality can no longer determine the geometry or physical
apperance of the product. New archetypical forms arise with
designs that are no longer necessarily indicative of their
functions.
As the
weight of "data-objects" shifts from material to concept and
information, the perspective of the "data-objects" is desireless,
empty. This is also expressed by Hal Foster's general "mediation
of the economy" (2002) that has become central to current
design practice. "I mean by this term more than "the culture
of marketing" and "the marketing of culture" I mean a retooling
of the economy around digitizing and computing, in which the
product is no longer thought of as an object to be produced
so much as a datum to be manipulated - that is, to be designed
and redesigned, consumed and re-consumed."
Mass
customization: Security + Luxury
Flexible
Manufacturing Systems (FMS) allow the fabrication of many
variations of a "core" model. FMS uses machining centers,
numerically controlled (flexible) networked machines, robots,
and automated material handling systems to create a highly
automated factory. It is combined with Computer-Aided Design
(CAD), to create a system which can quickly go from a new
design to a finished item. The flexibility can be used to
maintain competitiveness even when products have short life
cycles. The tools and workflow of this modular, adaptable
factory can easily be modified and reassembled to manufacture
a different version of a car or a different formula plastic.
While the mass-produced product guaranteed sustained quality
as well as equality of products conquering a previously craft-based
market that was waiting for standardization, the basis of
industries relying on mass-customization has not yet been
fully explored. Naturally consumer production palettes, such
as Nike's 'create you personal training shoe' website combine
the security and reliability of the mass-produced training
shoe with the illusion of creative enagement of the consumer
in the creation of their product. With a masterstroke this
links the values of mass-production with the uniqueness of
craft-luxury in the creation of original product currency.
With increasing
intimacy of consumers and product specification, a contemporary
expression of Benjamin's transition of author/recipient, then
placed in a different cultural climate could be suggested.
Shopping
as noted by Kolhaas has become deeply embedded into every
public space from aiports to museums. Artistic expression
necessarily has to follow, and needs to be re-incorporated
into shopping through the transition from /consumer /to /designer/.
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