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year, the consumers go into a frenzy. Otl Aicher, founder of the Ulm
Accademy of Design, found the irrationality of rituals and their
articulation in design objects highly annoying:
“The ritual consecrates just about anything, from nonsense to
even inhumanity.” 526
For Aicher, objects that lose their functional properties in favour
of heightened symbolic communication are merely ritual adjuncts.
They should rather be for sacrificial purposes than for everyday use.
Design theorist Michael Erlhoff asked whether it is the designer or the
artist who should design the ritual object for liturgical (sacrificial) use.
And his solution is surprisingly not the artist, but the designer. 527 The
answer to the question whether the object acquires its aura by its use
or by materiality can be found in Walter Benjamin, who describes
the origin of art in the context of the ritual. The aura of a piece of art
is always connected to its ritual function, 528 and the use value of art
comes from its ritual use. This was before art liberated itself of its
parasitical dependence on the ritual through technical reproduction. 529
Erlhoff reasons his insight by explaning that the artist thinks from the
point of view of material and form, while the designer, with his social
knowledge, develops the idea in view of symbolic communication
and the ritual. But designers often forget that myths are not narrated
by authors, but by storytellers. New burial rituals that introduce a
symbolic language not shared by the community would fail in this
endeavour. They would cause a ritual crisis, as described by Clifford
Geertz in a report about a burial in Java. 530 The corpse could not be
buried because no one could be found to perform the right rituals in
time. And what right rituals are is not a singular idea (of the designer),
but a notion commonly shared by a group of people. The official in
Java said that he had no knowledge of the ritual that had to be
performed for this particular cultural group. The mastery of the
rituals for the seasonal sale is possessed by the fashion industry.
Its agents are the retailers. When the burial of the past collection
is prepared, all the customers are invited to participate in the
ceremony. The reaction of the fashion consumer is quite similar to
the reaction that accompanies a death. The recurrent death of fashion
collections triggers reactions that are mediated by the ritualisation of
526 Aicher (1992:117)*.
527 Erlhoff (1998:54).
528 Benjamin (2003:256).
529 Ibid., p, 256.
530 Geertz (1973:142-169).
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