3 documents
# 74
What if There’s No Next Big Thing?
Douglas Coupland
What if, in the tech world, there is no next big thing? First we had fire, then came the wheel, and the PC, then the internet and then Google and then the iPhone and then … that’s it. There’s nothing more left to come. We’re waiiiiiiting —but no, we’ve received all there’s going to be and tech’s broad strokes have all happened. Does this sound scary, or kind of sad? We can laugh at such a proposition because we know it’s not going to happen. We might dream of a year when people would just…
e-flux Journal
Posted: June 1, 2016
Category
Technology, Contemporary Art, Economy
Subjects
Art Market, Money & Finance
# 67
Stuffed: How Hoarding and Collecting Is the Stuff of Life and Death
Douglas Coupland
One of comedian George Carlin’s (1937–2008) seminal monologues was his 1986 riff on stuff : “That’s all the meaning of life is: trying to find a place to put your stuff. That’s all your house is, is a pile of stuff with a cover on it.” And to paraphrase: “Someone else’s stuff is actually shit, whereas your own shit isn’t shit at all, it’s stuff .” I’m made aware of this every time family members visit my house and see the art I collect. I see those very words etched onto their retinas, and…
e-flux Journal
Posted: November 1, 2015
Category
Capitalism
Subjects
Art Collecting , Commodification, Art Market, Trauma, Everyday Life
# 65
Shiny
Douglas Coupland
In early December of 2012 I was in the middle of a severe seasonal depression, a condition I’m more than familiar with. On December 6 I needed to fly to Stockholm, and I was distressed at the prospect of having to do so while depressed. To be honest, I didn’t think it was even going to be possible. In a last-minute act of desperation, on December 2 I bought a light box for $199 at a local drugstore—150 bright, light blue LEDs arranged in a grid. I plugged it in, looked at it for three…
e-flux Journal
Posted: May 1, 2015
Category
Contemporary Art, Aesthetics
Subjects
Tourism, Art Market