Invisible Forces of the Public Realm

Victor Gruen saw the dark sides of a culture with more individuality and a growing loss of community and wanted to make a new kind of Public Square. He designed the first modern shopping complex in an attempt to create what he thought could be the missing downtown of the suburb. Later he unfortunately realized that these shopping complexes instead made public life more private. I agree with him that these spaces and the act of shopping lead to more individuality. The shopping malls have streets and meeting places which seem public since a huge amount of the public is hanging out there, but are privately owned. Even though we are surrounded by other people and communicate a lot through our clothes, objects and (restricted) behavior the difference is for example that we lose our freedom to have public discussions, protests, demonstrations or political manifestations there and we have no way to protect ourselves from consumer  advertisement. In my current project I have been exploring the effects on our life, both public and private, from living in a society of expendability. We become more material which increases how life and death are being looked upon as two oppositional enemies instead of a united whole. The idea of death is becoming more of a taboo in our society. I believe organizations like The Life Extension Foundation and anti-aging commercials make it really clear that we don’t accept aging and death. Furthermore I’m wondering to what extent they enhance our fear of death, because of the economical interest for the companies involved. I have found a connection to a bigger picture of subconscious persuasion, the invisible forces that affect us, whilst exploring artificial scent as a tool for consumer stimulus. I’m triggered by the sense of smell, how memories and emotions are connected to it and how undervalued this sense is, which in turn makes it so vulnerable for manipulation. I identify the use of scent as symbol for something we can’t really neither grasp nor see the effects of, much like the other manipulative techniques in use today. The beauty industry, life extension industry, magicians, religion, marketing experts, politics and more are using manipulative tools. I have investigated into these tools, their consequences and methods to resist them. In the library at Midsommargården I’m showing extracts from my research material which include a film from The Life Extension Foundation where they talk about their lifestyle, cryonics services and more. I show a film about the marketing industry’s use of manipulation, an interview between magician Derren Brown and famous atheist Richard Dawkins, a seminar talk with subliminal persuader Dave Lakhani. Also books, articles and different artificial scents, including the scent of death will be available. I want to talk about how marketing and advertising have come to influence, by using manipulation, not only what we buy, but also how we view the world and ourselves. They are trying to determine how to persuade consumers also in whom to trust and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing us in how we choose our leaders. Repetition of a message can lead to people believing it, like the effectiveness of heavily repeated commercials or world leader mantras in media.”When the same persuasion industry is engaged to influence these very different kinds of decision-making, it’s easy for our roles as consumers and our roles as citizens to get blurred. By revealing some of the most effective practices of the persuasion business, we may better understand our choices and perhaps make wiser ones” (Douglas Rushkoff)