Wow + Futter
'STACK'
Breathing sculpture & soundtrack of the Schffli machine
Separated by time, ‘things’ are stacked, folded, thrown away, forgotten and rendered obsolete.
The piece plays on ideas relating to the process of control by the ever-decreasing lifespan of objects.
In the 1970s Jean Baudrillard made the observation that ‘we are living the period of the objects: that is, we live by their rhythm, according to their incessant cycles. Today, it is we who are observing their birth, fulfilment, and death; whereas in all previous civilisations, it was the object, instrument, and perennial monument that survived the generations of men.’
One hundred million homes worldwide bought the first PlayStation; its control pad was short-lived, supplanted by the next generation controllers.Last century, over a hundred years ago, the Schiffli machine gave birth to millions of metres of cloth, stitched for the household to consume, handle, care for, iron and wash, this machine was superseded by the technological advancement of computerisation.
In this piece the PlayStation and Schiffli, evoke the rhythm of the consumption that Baudrillard describes but suggest that, rather than see each product’s death in a cycle of consumption, many objects are stranded (stacked) in a no-man’s-land, stored or passed on but not used.
p.29 Jean Baudrillard Selected Writings edited and introduced by Mark Poster, pub polity press 1990