Consume, Consume, Consume!

'Consumption' has now been established as a key word of the 21st century. Whether we like it or not, living under capitalist rule means that we participate in the system it has set in place. Everything around us is a commodity, meaning a basic good that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type. This comes with a wide array of implications, some more problematic than others, but from a cultural perspective, the biggest issue is that art itself has become a commodity, just another product to be consumed along with all the others. But what does the commodification of art entail? And perhaps more importantly, how did this change the production and consumption of art?

Uldus Bakhtiozina, “Three Sisters”, March 2017. Available via Vogue. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Art commodification is the process through which artworks are transformed into marketable goods. Historically, art pieces (I use this in a general sense that includes books, paintings, sculptures, etc.) were assigned a status different from other market goods. This difference came from their cultural capital and intellectual content. Moreover, they were judged, first and foremost, according to their artistic value. Fast forward to the present, the commercial value of artworks has started gaining more and more importance, often surpassing the artistic one. This is not to say that commercial art hasn't existed before; on the contrary, art has been bought and sold and consumed for entertainment purposes for quite some time now, but never to this degree. The commodification of art has become more prominent due to the establishment of a global art market that prioritizes profit, as well as to the advent of social media and other online platforms. As artists become more aware of market dynamics and pressures, the tension between capitalist values and creativity becomes apparent. Art needs to be marketable in order to become successful, but this factor poses the threat of overshadowing artistic integrity as well as the very concept of art as self-expression. Many artists create a brand around themselves or collaborate with big industry names (e.g., Takashi Murakami x Louis Vuitton) in order to increase marketability. Others try to meet market demands by adhering to certain trends or working with popular themes so as to increase their chances of attaining commercial success. After all, how many people can truly afford to be experimental?

In this cultural climate, art consumption is veering towards mass consumption. Now the biggest problem with mass consumption is the fact that it is mindless. Of course, there is something to be said in favor of consuming art with the sole purpose of entertainment, but at the end of the day, art is meant to be and do more than that. It's supposed to confront us; it's supposed to trigger us into thinking more and digging deeper. I can't help but wonder, without this layer, does art lose its meaning? Consuming art in large quantities over a short period of time results in superficial engagement. This doesn’t do any justice to either the artist or the consumer. It doesn’t do justice to the artwork itself. To echo Donna Tartt, it is better to know one piece of art intimately than a thousand superficially. But in this capitalist consumption craze, we have lost sight of this.

The best example that comes to my mind is BookTok. BookTok is a side of TikTok that focuses, as the name suggests, on books, and particularly on fantasy and romance books. It is a space for people to make recommendations, book hauls, present their 'to be read' lists, or discuss the books they have been reading. Book influencers, writers, and publishing companies use it as a marketing tool. The problem is that it is also a space that claims to be devoid of politics. Simply put, it promotes the consumption of countless books, all the while advancing the idea that books and the act of reading are non-political. Literature has always been political because it carries political and philosophical thought. Books are products of their time, which means they reflect societal and cultural structures that are in place at the time of their writing. Fiction has always been a tool for making knowledge more easily accessible. Even fantasy and romance books carry these traits and to choose to ignore this in the name of "reading for pleasure" is not only ignorant but also dangerous in the current political climate.

Social media, of course, plays no small role in the changing attitudes towards art and art consumption. Social media sites commodify experience itself and it's interesting to think about how this has changed cultural landscapes and institutions. The case of the Museum of Ice Cream is relevant in this case.

The pool of sprinkles at the Museum of Ice Cream Singapore. Available via Plural. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Marketed as a museum, with locations in New York City, Chicago, Austin, Boston, Miami, and Singapore, the Museum of Ice Cream welcomes its visitors with interactive playrooms and 'Instagrammable' spots. And in case you were wondering, no, it has nothing to do with the history of ice cream. It does however have various flavors of ice cream that visitors can taste. They have their own brand of ice cream that is also available in Target stores (consumption!). In fact, that is exactly its biggest problem: it is completely devoid of depth, of meaning. It’s nothing more than a place where one can go to create content—content that will end up on social media and thus promote the place to even more people. Is this playing fast and loose with the definition of museums? Ultimately, the very fact that artistic value is in competition with market value is a problem. But the truth is that as long as the current system is in place nothing much can be done to change this. A system that commodifies experience and supports the monetization of hobbies and passions adapts easily and will always find new ways of increasing profit. On an individual level, the one thing that can be done is to be mindful and not lose sight of what art truly is. To treat art as just another product to be consumed is to lose bits of that spark that makes us human.