The Bleeding Edge of Utilitarian Marketing.
Duchamp vulgarized the world of art with his famous showpiece named Fountain in the summer of 1917. Inspired by Duchamp’s audacious creation, Piero Manzoni decided to enumerate one hundred cans of feces for his masterpiece Artist’s Shit in 1961. Then, Tracey Emin presented her disheveled bed as a work of art in 1998 naming it My Bed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of hours were being dedicated to the pursuit of mastery of techniques, the study of the female anatomy, lighting and the expression of human emotions. Clay sculptures, urinals, landscapes, cans of excrement, symphonies, unmade beds, a little more of the same; art. Just that some, more audacious, visionaries and “disruptive” than the rest. Right? How can we not dare to compare the statue of David, sculpted by hand by Michelangelo out of a solid piece of marble and one hundred cans of excrement? Or how can we not equally admire a urinal signed with R. Mutt and The Death of Socrates painted by Jaques-Louis David, detailing agony, shame and courage.
We have to ask ourselves: What makes Duchamp, Manzoni, Emin and the likes different from Picasso, Mozart, Van Gogh or Monet? Their inability to see, feel or understand the beauty in the world that surrounded them imprisoned them in an unshakable frustration that seems to have matured into a sort of rage. Instead of coming to terms with their shortcomings they self identified as audacious pioneers in the world of art and raised their voice in order to be heard, rather than learning how to perceive beauty.
Beauty has no place in a world that only values the utilitarian and rejects all which it does not understand or which requires patience. Pages in magazines, hours of videos on Youtube, photos on social media, and entire websites demonstrate how their products work for us in our daily lives. In his 2009 documentary film, Roger Scruton, a philosopher, questions what the use is for a friendship? What is the use of an engaging conversation? You’re not going to use it for an end, but a certain warmth that radiates from the love, the beauty of empathy and compassion envelops you. What is the use of music? Why do we feel overwhelmed with emotions whenever we hear a piano sonata or a violin suite?
We have lived a life deprived from the freedom to search out beauty, markets are inundated with utilitarian products and services. We find ourselves in a world that lacks compassion, where our channels of communication are saturated with solutions to evermore complex problems that originate from deeper needs. A world without beauty is a world that is ill.
In our modern day hyper-connectivity, we are bestowed with greater access to more resources with shorter waiting periods; nevertheless, it is increasingly more difficult to find the opportunity to connect with our emotions, and when it does happen it is such a paranormal experience that it evokes a flight response. Confined in their golden cage of technology and utilitarian products, consumers have started to become aware of an absence in their lives; that same feeling that you get when you walk into room and are received by a cold, sterile air that invokes you to pull your arms to your side, lift your shoulders and your eyes to dart around looking for something comforting.
The COVID-19 pandemic has set the spotlight on the gaping holes that exist in our hearts; we yearn to feel, live, love, admire, marvel. Utilitarian messages do not nurture our human nature; our marketing campaigns must evolve and cease to position products in the lives of our consumers, but rather place them in their hearts through beauty.
