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Man-made objects produced for acquisition depend on the ability to carry an image of style. The consumer is persuaded that ownership will enable them to inherit this style transforming their lives into perfect, happy reflections of the people featured in advertisements. These objects can be applied to any aspect of life as a fast answer to the question of style. The media promotes and reflects the current mainstream culture's standards for life style, class and importance of appearance.
The media uses images of thin, beautiful women in well kept stylish homes and links these images to other symbols of prestige, happiness, love and success for women. Repeated exposure to this ideal via the various media can lead to the internalization of this ideal. It also renders these images achievable and real. By targeting advertisements at set demographic groups, the choice of how to split responsibility for domestic chores is taken away. Instead we are presented with a list of acceptable social rules that are different for each gender. An example would be Fairy washing up liquid, in the advertisements we always see a mother doing dishes, with her child somewhere near by.
This is communicating a message that washing up is a women's work and worse still a feminine thing to do, as if to say a man who washes up risks losing part of his masculinity. When considered it seems ridiculous that we would let the media keep such sexist themes alive but the sad fact is that the majority are so conditioned to this train of thought, in order to preserve our gender identities, we must conform. Objects therefore not only posses the power to add style to our lives but to delegate our 'lots' in life. And that will in turn certify our masculine or feminine personalities.
The result of this media hierarchy is that many women approach life with anxiety. "There's so little time left to get our bodies in shape for summer! Bathing suits, shorts and dresses. And it's not only our physical appearance that is causing us stress; it's also our minds. It's hard to escape drab repetitive chores and the children need constant attention. I wonder if my husband will get around to decorating the bedroom this spring?" These anxieties are results of the battle to achieve then maintain cultural standards, set by upper middle class media in order to cash in on consumerism. What we are talking about is a form of language, the language of style.
In Stuart Ewen's text "Marketing Dreams: the political elements of style. " The ways style is used to communicate are outlined. Ewen says, "Style is a way of stating who one is: politically, sexually, in terms of status and class. Style is a device of conformity, or of opposition. Style conveys mood.
Style is a device by which we judge - and are judged by others. " In this way we accept the medias standards for living without question, as Ewen also says, "As a form of information style discourages thought." Fact: 90 % of all girls' ages 3 - 11 have a Barbie doll, an early role model with a figure that is unattainable in real life (Silverstein, Peterson, Perdue & Kelly, 1986). Fact: 69 % of female television characters are thin, only 5 % are overweight (Silverstein, Peterson, Perdue & Kelly, 1986). Fact: The average person sees between 400 and 600 ads PER DAY-that is 40 million to 50 million by the time s / he is 60 years old. One of every 11 commercials has a direct message about personal appearance - this isn't counting the indirect ones - (Bernard, D).
Fact: Richins (1991) found that exposure to idealized images lowered subjects's atis faction with their own lives. Objects therefore offer our conditioned minds statements of importance. The way we translate the language of style, changes the way we view the possessor and ourselves. An idea which could offer a way to re-write this language may be found in 'Object Trouve' which describes an object found by an artist and displayed with no, or minimal, alteration as a work of art, it may be a natural object, such as a pebble, a shell, or in this case a man-made object such as a piece of clothing, house hold object or machinery. The essence of the matter is that the finder-artist recognizes the item as a chance find a 'aesthetic object' and displays it for appreciation by others as he would a work of art. By subjecting objects to a complete dislocation from their normal function and material context we are forced to consider them in a new way.
The search for a replacement for the existing dictatorial "meanings" in this, an artistic movement, is achieved by viewing objects not as useful items with a purpose (for the purpose is the problem) instead view the object for what it is... an object. A master at this technique Marcel Duchamp once said in his talk delivered to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 19 th October 1961, "Imagine taking a Rembrandt and using it as an ironing board. " In 1914 Duchamp had signed his name to a bottle rack in effect creating the first in what was to be a series of ready-made's. Ready-made's are objects that are signed and titled becoming more an object of observation rather than a functional one. The ready-made's were an attack on traditional western art. Duchamp felt that any man-made object was a work of art therefore treating them as such by signing his name on them and displaying these objects.
This type of art was an instrumental part of the artistic movement known as Dada, which Duchamp was a main contributor to. In addition to Bottle Rack, Marcel Duchamp produced controversy with his other ready-made's. Two of the better well know ready-made's were 'In Advance of the Broken Arm' and 'Fountain'. 'In Advance of the Broken Arm' was the first American ready-made. This work of art was a shovel, bought in a Columbus Avenue hardware store, which had been signed and hung from the ceiling. In 1917 'Fountain' was scheduled for display at an art show put on by a group in which Duchamp helped found, The Society of Independent Artists. Although the showing was supposedly to have no restrictions on content the committee refused to show Fountain, which was simply a urinal, signed under the name of "R.
Mutt." 'Why Not Sneeze' was a birdcage filled with pieces of white marble. This marble was frequently mistaken for lumps of sugar. Works like these were designed to get people to view objects in a different way in effect creating a type of new or revolutionary thought. Duchamp described these as not objects, only in the physical sense but also as mental objects or as brain facts.
Duchamp also pioneered another form of art known as kinetic art. In 1913 Duchamp employed the front wheel from a bicycle in a type of sculpture. He mounted the wheel to a kitchen stool in effect making the first mobile sculpture. These simple sculptures named mobiles and ready-made's were designed to make people think, to use their mind to understand art instead of only using their eyes.
As Duchamp said in his talk delivered to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, 19 th October 1961, "A point which I want very much to establish is that the choice of these "ready-made's" was never dictated by aesthetic delectation. This choice was based on a reaction of visual indifference with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste... in fact a complete anaesthesia. " I feel it necessary (for my own reparation) to briefly mention that although the nihilistic-ironic tone of Duchamp's actions was a needed wake-up call for the art world. The reaction it created was a disaster. Duchamp and the Dadaists's are became the only legitimate kind of art; all art made before 1916 - 17 became loathsome because it was made for patrons (be it the church, traders, bankers, kings and aristocrats or the bourgeoisie). But the main problem is that much art since has become a recycled run-down lifeless ugly mutation of one work: the urinal by Duchamp (1917).
The artists of the following (last) 8 decades claimed to be "exploring the boundaries of art", seeing just how far they could "undress" it. This is a cop out, they do not have to strain themselves and strive for originality, and their conformism is made to look bold, rebellious and avant-garde by the echo of the rebelliousness in Duchamp's action. Regretfully, it seems that art was skinned and was left a bare skeleton. This skeleton, which could not stand with its own strength, had to be supported by texts, and had to have texts cover its nudity. Taking ordinary objects in this way and placing them so that there useful significance disappeared under a new title and point of view creates a new thought for the object. We select items for their style and beauty, Duchamp's ready-made's were chosen to be devoid of these qualities so they are viewed not as items of aesthetic appeal but simply as forms with no use other than as objects and in this way they create new meaning.
When Duchamp signs a mass-produced object... and sends them to art exhibits, he counteracts the category of individual production. The signature is inscribed on a randomly chosen mass-produced product in order to mock individual creativity. Duchamp's ready-made's not only questions the meaning of an object out of context... it also questions the very principle of art in bourgeois society according to which the individual is considered the creator of the work of art. In this way Duchamp's ready-made's are not works of art but manifestations.
Duchamp's concept of ready-made's can be used as a tool. A method of seeing something for what it is. Duchamp used this technique to question art, to make us consider what art is and how we look at it, to use our minds instead of our eyes. If we can find it within our selves to look at objects, products stylish items we really believe can improve our lives it is just a case of applying the same recipe. For instance look at a new sofa in a shop window now forget its advertising style and price, refuse to listen to the cocky sales person and think. Look at it for what it is, an object, with one use and one use only to sit on.
Obsession with possessions is everyone's burden the key is in realising we are all involved in a universal scam. Instead of accepting things as they are presented, take them out of context and produce a new meaning. Once this new meaning has been regarded something of the original meaning is lost forever and in this way we can liberate ourselves. Using these ideas as a tool to reject the regimes that the media present, to re-write the language of style.
Many people have used an expression as a defining point of their admiration for Marcel Duchamp's ideals "life should be lived, not painted." 'Fountain' (1917) by Marcel Duchamp
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