Prompt Number Five
BLOG PROMPT FIVE: Subverting Commercial Design
Havidol (2007) by Justine Cooper and WiFi-SM: Feel the Spectacle of Pain (2003) by Christophe Bruno
PLEASE ANSWER BY POSTING COMMENTS.
What are these artist's critiquing, and why do you think they attempt to make their products appear real?
Havidol by Justine Cooper: http://havidol.com
WiFi-SM: Feel the Spectacle of Pain by Christophe Bruno: http://www.unbehagen.com/wifism
Australian artist Justine Cooper investigates "the intersections between culture, science and medicine."
French net artist Christophe Bruno examines "network phenomena and globalization." Wifi-SM was created in 2003, so the design may feel dated. As explained by the artist, "You have the impression that the disasters of the world do not touch you anymore? You feel vaguely sorry for other people’s misfortunes but you don’t feel the inner urge which used to make you help your neighbor? WiFi-SM is the solution!"
What are these artist's critiquing, and why do you think they attempt to make their products appear real?
ReplyDeleteI believe Justine Cooper, artist of Havidol, is critiquing the fact that humans like to fix or solve everything with medicine; and most of the time prescriptions have a lot of different side effects. I think he is also criquting the fact that our society wants fast answers and solutions. We are not wanting to critically look at the situation/slow down. We just want the problem solved in three seconds. I think he attempted to make the product real to show that even marketers know this. That they are designing products to quickly provide solutions to every problem. Secondly, he wants the audience to realize and internalize this as a true, real, current situation; as he see's it is! In the end, I think he believes this is going to create chaos in the long run.
As for Christophe Bruno, artist of WiFi-SM, I feel as if he is critiquing society's emotionless, unsympathetic, divided outlook on politics. For instance, that device is to be bought to provide a physical object to allow humans to feel hot topic social justice issues like death, murder, rape, war, etc. INSTEAD of just stopping and internalizing other people's feelings or opinions. He wanted his website to look real as well, because soon enough I think he believes we will all stop thinking / feeling emotions by ourselves.
INSTEAD of just individually, stopping and internalizing ... without the help of a device.*
ReplyDeleteI think the Havidol website is critiquing the pharmaceutical industry and the way certain drugs are advertised. Some are seen as quick ways to fix all your problems with no serious side effects. I also think she was trying to critique how drug companies want to make sure that people continue to use and buy their medication. For example even if you scored low on the self assessment, it tells you to make sure you are being truthful; it tells you that everyone needs "help" and therefore this medication. This website was extremely realistic, down to the "Prescribing Information" which was very detailed information about the chemistry of the drug. I think this was meant to look very similar to actual drug advertisements.
ReplyDeleteWifi-SM is critiquing the way that people have become numb to the tragedies of the world because of how often they happen. People are disconnected and emotionless towards the things happening and Wifi-SM is claiming to give people pain in order to make them feel something. It is a way to make people feel compassion towards others. The artist made this site realistic, even including customer reviews, which show that people might be misusing the product as well.
Havidol discusses the possibility of a medicine that can be used to eliminate depression and social anxiety. This critiques the way that medicine is used on all people that are not "normal". This can be grouped into ADHD medication, for example. People will pay to be this unrealistic "normal", and no cost is too much for some. The realism of the website was meant to show a parallelism to real "problem-fixing" drugs.
ReplyDeleteWifi-SM criticizes how people always want to be connected to the internet and their favorite news outlets, so much so the consumer needs to know all the new news. This can also be criticizing the person being hypnotized to believing they should always watch the news. The product looks real to display that it could be a real product
I think Havidol is critiquing the problem we have today of overuse of medication. American’s in particular tend to turn to drugs and medication to help cure them of their problems. This is a major issue, and is a cause of misuse and addiction of medication. Many people suffer with depression and anxiety and many of them turn to heavy medication to help them cope with their problems. Some believe that we rely too heavily on medication, and could actually be hurting us instead of helping.
ReplyDeleteI think Wifi-SM is critiquing the problem of technology and humans adaptability. Everyday our technology continues to grow but at what cost? We constantly hear terrible things happening around us, but many of us don’t do anything to stop it. We don’t do anything because it’s not affecting our day to day. But with the wifi-SM you can feel better about yourself by electrically shocking you. You get to feel the pain they feel, and you no longer feel guilty or accountable.
Cooper created both a mock disease and cure. I feel Havidol is a satire critique on drug agencies and their marketing. These marketing campaigns are designed to target as many people as possible in order to sell the maximum amount of product. When medications are advertised directly to the public, they target a wide variety of people through common symptoms. Many of these 'symptoms' are usually normal to feel and can be coped with naturally. They are also hard to associate to a specific disorder which leads to an increase in self-misdiagnoses. People often take unnecessary medicines unknowingly. These medicines are also typically temporary solutions to a permanent problem which forms dependency on their product.
ReplyDeleteThe Wifi-Sm product is critiquing how some people only help for their own personal reasons; such as to feel better about themselves. By paying for this service, you are not helping the cause in anyway, but rather paying to 'lower your guilt complex'.
Cooper's take on the world appears to derive from our dependency on outside substances or materialistic things. It seems everyone now-a-days takes some sort of drug whether prescribed or recreational and I think Cooper created a fake disease as a satirical critique of the world we currently live in. He appears to play on typical advertising techniques as marketers tend to try and reach a broad audience and find ways to market their product so that it appears anyone and everyone can benefit from it. Cooper left the disorder he created very open ended much like how pharmaceutical/drug companies leave theirs open ended so more people will take their drug or seek a diagnosis for the disease/disorder it treats.
ReplyDeleteThe Wifi-SM product appears to be a Satirical critique as well that discusses how today's society has become so desensitized to sad or traumatic event. I believe it also could be playing on the mentality that a lot of people hold where if it isn't happening to you. I think it's product to demonstrate the idea that we should be more empathetic to the tragedies that plague our world today.
Both of these are extremely interesting pieces. To me Havidol is a critique on both our need to be better than what we are and also the over medication in our society. It seems like we have a pill for everything, so why not make a pill that offers you the ability to become more than what you are.
ReplyDeleteWiFi-SM to me is a critique on the desensitization of the modern person. The piece is critiquing the fact that we have been so over exposed to various emotions because of technology that we no longer associate emotions properly.
I think Havidol is a satire critique of the problem we have today of the overuse of medication. Over use of Medication is a problem that can cause misuse and addiction of certain medications. Some people depend on medication to solve all their problem and others get hooked on the feeing that the medication causes for them and Havidol does a good job showing that.
ReplyDeleteI think Wifi-SM is critiquing the problem of too much technology in todays society. Everyday our technology continues to grow, but we as a society are getting lazier and less apathetic to whats happening around us.
The artist that created the Havidol website is critiquing both our overuse of medication and the ambition of some people in today's society. Its normal to want to succeed, but many people don't understand that you can succeed without being the best. The artist that made the Wifism webpage is making a critique of the desensitization people face due to exposure to too much information. Even if this product were to exist we would probably even get desensitized to the pain we receive from it.
ReplyDelete