This thought sprung from a recent discussion with some friends, which further brought about an awareness of the consumption we undergo daily. This concept starts with ourselves as a vessel for this ‘consumption’.
There’s many ways of viewing what this consumption can be, and many more discussion on if it’s really a good thing, or a bit too much, depending on the nature of what is being consumed. But there is something peculiar about this time we live in – particularly the amount we experience daily. For example, with shopping.
The shops are, in a way, an overload to the senses. A sensory emporium that has something for every individual, every consumer, every buyer of a product or of anything in the shop. But, doesn’t the consuming start before we’ve even entered the building? I mean, our eyesight itself allows for a ceaseless portal into the world of images.
So, can we actively filter what we see around us, or is the action of seeing itself involuntary? And, if we do choose to see such things, how great can the impact be; are we buying into something or consuming it just because we can see it? I guess, at least to a certain degree, those things we see all influence (or affluence?) us and our own thoughts, choices, beliefs and so on. I think the difference here is in the material or immaterial nature of whatever is being processed, for we know the effects of eating something and the choices that inform that, and the particular consequences it brings.
When we look at someone, we see their essential characteristics: the material body, the features, and some stand-out uniqueness that is simply individual. And all this comes just from seeing, and we consume it idly, without really thinking about it. Images flood into us autonomously…unless we close our eyes, right? I think the biggest difference between seeing and actually consuming in the literal and actual sense is that while a person and food itself is consumed on a visual level, the food is consumed whole, the raw material and essence of the object combine with our own. However, they both offer experiences, so they are of an experiential nature.
Consuming doesn’t stop there, for when we look to the synthetic and industrial world, the idea of consumption is like a foundry that never sleeps. A notable place that combines the three largest things we engage with – people, food/shopping, and images – is found in a place that exacts this intention of consumption to an immense height.
I think of Times Square as the largest accumulation of a consumption-utopia in the world…or at least fairly close, and the most notable. But, I’d like to know what your particular thoughts are on this? Consumption as a totality, in a way, that we almost blindly accept, and find hard to escape. Good or bad? Is it a concerning factor or a blessing that we have so many options to experience and things to consume? What action do we take?
His Empty Space 