Customization
is a major component of first-world consumption and modern marketing approaches.
We seek to align our internal vision of ourselves with an external set of
symbols and objects in order to tell the world our (idealized) story. This is
nothing new- many a major archeological or anthropological revelation reveals
adornment and enhancement of the body. What has changed is just how truly
personal or "custom" those adornments and enhancements are. For one,
in contemporary life, the need for adornment and personalization extends well
beyond the body. It occupies square feet in the hundreds or thousands, in acres
and estates. We wish to have ourselves reflected out into vehicles, properties
and lifestyles. While designers and product development teams compile focus
groups and paint philosophies upon consumer objects, their attempts to feed the
public exactly the flavor it wants remains evasive and uncommon.
The
popularity and ubiquity of iPhone cases underscores the reality that even among
the most sophisticated and hermetically sealed objects there remains the urge
to customize. When objects are mass produced the familiarity of the object can
become loathesome, the act of selecting a singular good from a crowd of others being
insufficient to distinguish oneself. From this springs up the marketplace of
adornment for products, jewelry for technology. We extend our projected self
through the wall of the laptop screen, offering up the gaze of our personality via
stickers or brand to the strangers we are partitioned from.
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| Google Image results for iPhone case |
Much of
the customization in the United States remains an act of consumption, merely
layering one bought and sold bit of plastic on top of another. As the number of
variables in the layered consumption goes up, the likelihood of confronting a perfect
clone out in the world goes down. We can preserve the sense of ourselves as
truly unique without parallel peers while still existing within the scope of
common aesthetic standards. Creative rather
than consumptive customization does not mesh so neatly with the surface
finishes of mass produced goods. It isn't always a piece of plastic mated perfectly
to another. It often sticks out, being made in another way with alternative
intent. This often elicits a negative reaction to something jarringly 'out of place' but is simply at peace with
existing on its own terms as a specific
object unblended with the expectations of its surroundings.
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| Custom built pheasant coop |
The idiosyncratic self reflected
publicly is met as a step too far, an uncomfortable intrusion of sincerity, a
vulgarity of the individual self confronting the collective public. It is the sore thumb
sticking in a sore eye that infringes the aesthetic standards of neighbors
and stimulates gossip. The truly bespoke is not embraced by the customary, but instead exists as a
small but meaningful violation of standards.
