Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

6. Strategies and tactics
Chapter 6 examines the various forces that shape the consumer
environment and the effect these forces have on practices of object
modification. Through a series of contemporary and historic examples
the text identifies a number of commercial strategies that influence
consumer behaviour. The image that emerges is one of a highly
structured environment where produces dictate the objects proper use
and limit the consumer’s ability to creatively engage with the object.
Despite this high level of control the research finds that consumers
actively resist commercial strategies. Taking a tactical approach,
consumers construct parallel narratives of use and form their own
meaning structures.
Consumer agency and communal action are explored through the
establishment of the iPod Social Outreach Program (iSOP), a free
repair centre for iPods. This project finds that communally generated
consumer-based knowledge is effective in challenging commercial
control mechanisms and destabilizes the manufacturers position of
authority.
7. Conclusion
In conclusion I examine the revolutionary potential of practices of
object modification. A belief in free and open access to information is
seen to be central to these practices and presents a fundamental challenge
to the privatising force of capitalism. Following this logic, the
research asks that the mass-produced object be rethought as a form of
distributed public space. In recognising the space of consumption as
communal and discursive we can begin to acknowledge the freedoms
that have been sacrificed for the sake of commercial gain and the paths
by which these freedoms may be reclaimed.
Introduction
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