Openning the eyes
Migration City and Climate, 2020
Commercialism greatly impacted our lives. Even though we might not have realized it, we are gradually changed by the commercialism at a subconscious level. It is a form of brainwashing and imposing a brand image in people’s mind. I bought so many unnecessary things, even though I am against extravagant lifestyles. Hence I chose to focus on the effect of commercialism for my final project. I name this project: Opening the Eyes because I want to reveal the backsides and negative impacts of consumer-centered ideology, which is often neglected. Luxury products often require offshore labor. In this piece, I plan to reveal what is not seen in luxury products: fur poaching, exploitation of human labor, extreme work condition, and inequality issue.
"Advertising enjoins everyone to consume, while the economy prohibits the vast majority of humanity from doing so...This world, which puts on a banquet for all, then
slams the door in the noses of so many, it is simultaneously equalizing and unequal: equalizing in the ideas and habits it imposes and unequal in the opportunities it offers."
–––––Eduardo Galeano
Another effect of consumerism is overconsumption. It is not hard to imagine, the negative impact of overconsumption. consumers are not buying products they need, but the product they want or desire. Within a few years...even a few months or a few days, these products will be thrown away. The more desire the consumers have, the more production required to satisfy the desire. The purchased products will then become a mass amount of wastes.
One of the impacts of overproduction is resource exploitation. Not only natural resources are exploited but also human capital. To produce the amount of product requires huge investments and exploitation of both natural and human resources. The following gif focuses on the problem of rubber. In order to provide for the mass demand for vehicles, mass quantities of rubber tires are required. As a result, thousands of acres of tropical forests are replaced by rubber plantations. Deforestation is not the only problem but the lives of indigenous people who are dependent on the forest also face survival issues.
