New Aesthetic New Anxieties - Institute for the Unstable Media

objects that keep a referent outside the sphere of art. Jungen’s objects, like Parker’sguns, are hyphenated and accumulative objects and are always-already literate in thestrange sociality of things.In 'The fetishism of commodities and the secret thereof', Marx shows howcommodities seem to capture social relations in their very essence:A commodity appears, a first sight, a very trivial thing, and easilyunderstood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing,abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties. So far as itis a value in use, there is nothing mysterious about it, whether we considerit from the point of view that by its properties it is capable of satisfyinghuman wants, or from the point that those properties are the product ofhuman labor. It is as clear as noonday that man, by his industry, changesthe forms of the materials furnished by Nature, in such a way as to makethem useful to him. The form of wood for instance, is altered by making atable out of it. Yet, for all that, the table continues to be that common,everyday thing, wood. But, so soon as it steps forth as a commodity, it ischanged into something transcendent. It not only stands with its feet onthe ground, but, in relation to all other commodities, it stands on its head,and evolves out of its wooden brain grotesque ideas, far more wonderfulthan “table-turning” ever was. (2007: 83)It is this uncanniness that art works exacerbate and that curators choose how to dealwith critically (this decision not fixed in advance) quite differently to designers,especially in display decisions. Design tends towards flatter dynamics of utility, beautyand branding that seem still able to travel well once the object is turned into arepresentation only. Whether the commodification process collapses into a flatrepresentation online, or is halted, such as in Bridle's mood board or Parker's gunscaptured by it, the different suspensions of this drama accentuate the commoditystatus of the thing, fixed into surface. Critical artists differently take account of theseuncanny dynamics of commodification in their individual works. Unlike the first image inBridle’s collection, the photo of the art work Embryo Firearms cannot be reduced to aflat image since the artwork actually physically exists, or "stands on the ground" inMarx's terms (2007: 83). Its documentation on a webpage works on a different visualand interpretative register than the physical object itself. Here it does matter whetheryou are looking at a jpg file on the screen or encountering Embryo Firearms spatially,because the difference creates very different perceptions of aesthetic encounter inthe viewer. Indeed there is limited to no "encounter" with Embryo Firearms uponflattening. The conditions of presentation (e.g., gallery, museum, or studio) and howthe work is contextualised, installed and framed in relation to its surroundings altersour reading and experience of the work. To stage it in space is to take in to accountthe embodied and perceptual experience of its imaging and how it impresses on thebody as a proximate material-semiotic thing.In contrast to the first image in Bridle’s collection, which seems to be able to existsolely on the webpage because it is already a transcendental commodity, EmbryoFirearms as documentation therefore feels like it is floating in space, excised from alarger picture, decontextualized, and even bulky in comparison with the other images,30