The Lava Lamp, neither lava nor a lamp. Well as far as a lamp is concerned it certainly sexualizes settings, however they're not practical lighting especially for lost and founds or librarys. There is a stigma attached to the lamp, where upon entering a room one's preconceived notions and stereotypes rise like the lava. Whether or not the owner upholds these intentions or stereotypes is irrelevant, because inevitably the you feel a sense of warmth, a romantic aura, and an intoxicating transcendence into the 60's.
Invented in 1963 by Edward Craven Walker an English accountant. The devise is simply a mixture of wax and water, that upon heating generates movement. So simple yet so sensual. Little did Walker and his business associates know instrumental their innovative invention would be in the act of conceiving. Hitting the market just in time for the Summer of Love, the lava lamp provided the mood lighting for Generation X's psychedelic mind expansion and sexual exploration. Never had there been a light so directly responsible for human reproduction. As lava continues to bellow from Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands one can only think of the magnitude and amazingness of this vast world. Like the lava lamps role in fornications, volcanos are essentially mother earth's version of lovemaking. Like sex, volcanos are hot, dangerous, passionate, and sometime painful when in the line of fire. It is crazing to think volcanic eruptions have plagued this planet since it's existence, where the ancient Roman town of Pompeii was wiped out when Mount Vesuvius killed 18,000 in 79AD, while not too long ago the 1812 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia killed over 30 million. The earth's development is contingent upon volcanos and natural disasters, the only thing we can do is monitor them. Unfortunately we can't monitor all of mankind and their mistakes, such as Pillip Quinn who was killed after heating a lava lamp on the stove and was impaled his heart by the glass after it exploded. Although sad, Quinn is the recipient of a Darwin Award. It is procreation that keeps the lava flowing, even with ament death and destruction
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LAJ
100 Objects of Popular and Material Culture is an blog exploring the manifestations of human consumption and commodity-ization. The purpose of this experiment is to explore material and popular culture in contemporary society by using objects and concepts to prompt wider questions and reflections. So by emulating The British Museum's and Neil MacGregor's format of A History of the World in 100 Objects I plan to satirically analyze and reinterpreted 100 material culture objects over the course of 2014. Material Culture is the study of our culture's consumption of stuff; namely the manifestation of culture through material productions where people's perceptions of objects is socially and culturally dependent. With this, objects reflect conscious and unconscious beliefs on the the individuals who fabricated, purchased, or used them, and by extension the society where they live. So examining materiality, cultural truths and societal assumptions may be discovered. As anthropologist Arjun Appaduai states "in any society the individual is often caught between the cultural structure of commodity-ization and his own personal attempts to bring a value and order to the universe of things." Objects and commodities make up a much larger symbolic system consisting of want and need, socio-economic status, fashion, etc. Often times form follows function whether the commodity, market, and or consumer forever evolve around one-another. Philosopher Pierre Bourdieu's theories of capital flow full circle; where regardless if you are a minimalist or a hoarder the world is made up of things and everyone will leave their footprint on the earth. So by humorously analyzing marketed objects and concepts, hopefully this blog will provide further incite into ideas of over-consumption, a disposable society, consumerism vs. anti-consumers, planned obsolescence vs. sustainability, as well as the greater good of mankind and future generations. Archives
March 2015
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