Listees
In response to Victor's question (I read the digest version, usually a few
days later!), I've just finished a class where a student did a
presentation on the I-Pod & I tried to push him to consider how it is used
and what it means in contemporary society (read the Walkman essay, Digital
Watch as Tribal Bracelet essay). He didn't do a great job but some
interesting discussion arose about the advertisements he showed us - the
gap between the image of the product and its actual use - one in
particular showed people dancing together with their I-Pods on. I pointed
out the irony of them dancing "together" while listening to their own
personal music (expressing their individuality - is that what the "I" is
for?). I see many people on the subway everyday using these products & it
does strike me as rather sad to experience on a mass scale, the devices
seem to function as a personal cocoon to protect people from the outside
world ("I" is for insular? or insulator?). This is perhaps the New York
perspective (it's a paranoid culture) but they seem to be predicated on a
particular idea about the individual (design for the I generation?) that
is specifically not predicated on any concept of community (except
community of I-Pod listeners expressing their individuality, all together
alone). A further perspective on the protection device theme is that a
couple of years ago, the distinctive white headphone design was symbolic
of an expensive item - if I'm a thief, I don't know what's in your
pockets, but I know your I-Pod is worth four hundred bucks (maybe two on
the black market) - for a while on the NY subway, the distinctive design
functioned as a kind of target. Reality in the form of a knife blade or
.45 short circuits the insulator...
Bedtime...
Best
Daniel Huppatz
Pratt Institute
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