Assignment 1: The Consumption of Design 1A

For a recent assignment at university we were asked to read chapter 4 of ‘The Culture of Design’ by Guy Julier which i found quite difficult. I began using post it notes to jot things down, but as I began to draw more from the text I decided that since I found MindNode such a useful tool last year that it would make sense to use this to summarise the chapter. However this also proved a little difficult as lots of points were interesting/valuable or key to the chapter and overlapped one another. If I need to look over the chapter again some of the main points will be easily accessible. I have posted my mind map separately. Below are some of my thoughts about points within the chapter.

I found the part about the aesthetic illusion quite interesting. Whilst reading about the extreme view which would ‘consider all things as commodities at all times, that they always are exchangeable and have value as such' I was already thinking not everything can be exchanged. For example personalized or altered things may have no use to anyone else. I was also thinking along the lines of recycling, I suppose all things could perhaps be recycled in some way and therefore have an exchange value. But then as I read further down Corrigan uses the example of a cat as a family pet, really this is not simply a commodity but a member of the family. It cannot be exchanged and have value as such, as it is difficult to assess how valuable a family pet is. Could a cat be re-commodified? It is unlikely because if the cat were to be taken to a rescue centre, re-homed or sold the price of the cat is likely to be very low in comparison to the value of the cat as a family pet. I think that in the case of a cat Igor Kopytoff (1986) is true in saying that 'in fact objects can pass from a commodified to a de-commodified status' they are also not always exchangeable.

Another point that caught my attention was that according to Julier, Haug 'argues that artefacts in the market have to promise a use-value once they are sold: they have to appear to be useful before they actually are'. I think this statement is true and very important to advertisers and also perhaps graphic designers, the packaging and advertisements need to sell the product especially in a recession for example when people will be less willing to part with money. People need to be persuaded that they need a product, it needs to be useful or at least seem like it will be.