Life-Style and Consumerism
yasraf amir piliang
Consumption is a process of appropriating or annihilating the value of an object or commodity (function, use, utility).
Consumption is material and functional in its nature: to destroy the material or to use its function.
Consumption (1)
Carl Gardner Consuming Passion, Unwin & Hyman, 1989
Consumption is the totality of all objects and
messages
Consumption . . .is a systematic act of the manipulation of signs.
What is consumed are not objects but the relation—signified and absent, included and excluded at the same time.
Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, Verso, 1989
Consumption (2)
Goods is a medium in which cultural meaning can be variously manipulated.
Goods allow meaning to be made visible. Culture use objects to
convince.
The commodity becomes an object of passion, a source of
potential distinctiveness.
Grant M. Craken, Culture and Consumption, Indiana University Press, 1990Alan Tomlinson, Consumption, Identity & Style, Routledge, 1991
Goods & Consumption
Manipulation of the behaviour of consumers, through every
aspect of marketing and communication, from pricing to packaging, from sale presentation to advertising
Cosumption is both symbolic and material, which express a person’s place in the world, his or her core identity
Consumption is a manipulation of sign to mark social difference (status, class, prestige)
Consumerism
Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society Verso, 1990
The conditioning of needs (particularly through advertising) has become the favorite theme in the discourse on
consumer society.
Consumer society is a society in which the manipulation of sign, communication and codes of commodities is the very essence of society,
Consumer Society
Jean Baudrillard, Consumer Society Verso, 1990
Need and Want
Need is more material and biological in its
character, where its fulfillment nullifies the need.
Want is more psychological (unconscious) in its basis, which can not be fulfilled. The fulfillment of a desire produce another
desire (desiring machine).
Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, VikingPress, 1990
Value
Use Value is grounded in the possibility of the object satisfying some identifiable human need or desire.
Exchange value is a value generated when different sorts of commodities (with different use value) are exchanged, expressed in price.
Sign Value is an abstract value generated through the manipulation of signs, codes and meaning in the commodities.
Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Telos Press, 1981
EV UV
Sr Sd
=
EV = Exchange ValueUV = Use ValueSr = SignifierSd = Signified
Sign Value
The Role of Advertisement
Advertisement have a central role in constructing various
illusions through rhetoric.
It is a form of seduction, to influence consumer’s behavior, want and perception
Advertisement changes want to become need
Judith Williamson, Consuming Passion, 1985
The object takes on the value of a sign. Exp: washing machine serves as equipment and play as an element of comfort, or of prestige.
In the logic of sign, objects are no longer tied to a function
or to a defined need, but to to a social logic, or to a logic of desire.
And this desire, which can never be satisfied, signifies itself
locally in a succession of objects and . . .differential meanings.
Logic of Sign
Signs of Lifestyle
Body Signs
Oral Signs
Audio Signs
Object Signs
Spatial Signs
Odorous Signs
Gesture
Visual Signs
Flavor Signs
Written Signs
musik
fashion
asesoribody adorn
tattofiercing
mobil
hp
makanan
minuman
parfum
jamnovel
buku
filem
koranmajalah
ucapan rumahmall
kantor
Logic of Seduction
Symbols are employed to depict that buying is something easy, enjoyable, fun, and limitless
The is a kind of manipulation at the level of
perception and consciousness, that force or stimulate one to buy
A system of seduction is used to control
consumer’s preferences
Logic of Illusion
Consumerism is a condition in which one buys illusion rather than merely product
Products are encoded by various forms of sign in order to
manipulate consumer’s perception and
consciousness.
Illusions of ‘whiteness’, ‘manliness’, ‘freshness’, ‘naturalness’ is a way of manipulating consciousness
Logic of Desire
Consumption is a form of the desiring machine.
Through consumption, desire is canalized but at the same time is
produced
Logic of need is replaced by the logic of desire
Penutup