I had a tutorial with Matt yesterday which has started to inform pretty well…
The main bullets that arose are:
- Look for how constructions of belief are brought about by objects
This is pretty obvious with things like scientology which i have been looking at for a while, whereby the e meter coupled with the book/person talking to you provides a basis for a set of beliefs, and it starts to work in quite a manipulative way.
However there are less obvious things like how the apple in the story of Adam and Eve becomes an object not necessarily where a belief is formed but a set of morals and thoughts about the human race. I’m not so sure of this and i don’t think it works in as obvious or as interesting ways as machines that are literally the underpinnings for religious beliefs. The apple is just acting as a metaphor.
In other systems of belief, perhaps in capitalism whereby money is the object; though this is a concept rather than a specific object… perhaps the object and the physical form of money is something that acts as a manipulator for belief in this system. The materiality definitely acts to promote this as a system, and the kind of grandeur, form and imagery that is used in money.
- Move into new forms of belief- not just religion
I think religion has started to take over; i guess this is obvious, seeing as I started from ’savior’, however I think I have moved from this into belief’s and how object fabricate beliefs.
I think yesterday helped a lot in terms of talking about how design has the potential to manipulate futures, opinions, the world, and obviously beliefs, however I am finding it pretty hard to get to a point where i can see objects that directly inform and create a belief system; they tend to be accompanied, by thoughts, writings, and so on, rather than acting by themselves.
We also talked about extending to other forms of belief:
- Modernism
- Communism
- Science
etc etc..
We also talked about how belief is demanded by objects; I think that this comes down to how artifacts are accepted and used, in that an object has to have an element of belief in order for it to work. I was thinking about the car, and how the object required a complex set of beliefs in order for it to be accepted and used. People had to be convinced that it was safe, or that their lives could be improved and made easier by having one of these objects. I guess this was done with complex advertising, and it took a fairly long time for the car to be as accepted as it is now.
In the same way Modernism was a belief in the future which was demanded by a series of beliefs in objects; the idea of stacking people in buildings, came from a belief in this as a lifestyle. Matt talked about this with the elevator, whereby it was demonstrated to be safe and useable; and thus was accepted by the masses, which then started to inform a movement and belief.
It seems that every object that becomes accepted has a conceptual layer surrounding it, which means there is a promise of a savior or greater good that acts upon the objects and the potential consumers. In the same way the religion, or utopian visions of the future, promise of a greater good, higher power, or savior in the future, objects have to have this too; ‘this object will make you’re life better’.
I guess this is starting to relate to what Baudrilliard said that “Postmodernism is a nihilistic epoch”, I take this to mean that, with these advances there comes a pessimism about the future; whereby modernism has failed, and perhaps the belief in these objects is either in ruins or is perhaps just dismissed as it is no longer exciting. I mean it’s obvious to say there isn’t a ‘belief’ in Postmodernism, like with modernism; people don’t think that technology can be a savior, and that everything will be OK the more stuff we make (though I think there is obviously still an element of this, there is now far more pessimism). In the same way that religion promises of problems being solved and of utopia when you are dead, modernism promised to solve problems using technology and objects in the future. Again, Communism promised of a utopian future by using a political system to reach this end goal. I think science is probably in the same vain; the more we find out the better it will be; curing disease and so on. Thus beliefs are established, whereby critical questions about these subjects are dismissed (obviously: belief inherently lacks reason) for example, if we cure all the diseases what will happen? and is this even a good thing?
I guess I as a thing to do i need to go and see a little bit of how objects are made into religious artifacts; Matt gave a great example of a piece that has a little holder and a magnifying glass; you place a piece of bread or the wafer in the holder and the magnifying glass projects a beam of light from the sun onto it… Thus making the bread into the flesh of Christ.
It sounds like an interesting object not leaat because it doesn’t use any technology; but uses another thing that is not understood and is worshipped; the sun to turn the bread into flesh.
Another aspect I need to research a little further is the idea of the con-man; as i was realising with my drawings it is not necessarily the machine or object that constricts belief, but the context and thoughts that are built around it perhaps by a third party. I think I’m going to go get a Hustle box set….
Territories presentation on Monday…Awesome