The offending post

Warning: Read only if inclined to be subjected to my ill-informed rantings 

In response to Groys on the aesthetics of self design: 


There are many people, celebrities, politicians, and models etcetera, for whom self design is arguably critical to their success in their chosen careers.  However, for the rest of us ‘normal folk’ self design needn’t be of such concern to us and nonetheless... it is.  Unlike the subjects of front page spreads and tabloid headlines, most people are neither subject to the same media scrutiny, nor dependent upon positive reception to such scrutiny, so the question inevitably arises- why do we care so much?


Some people would argue that they don’t care, and they mightn’t care, well at least not as much as they might be willing to admit to.  The reality that I would argue is that we exist in a society that is increasingly dominated by the aesthetics of an individual.  You can choose to have some kind of emotive reaction toward such an idea or not, but it’s here- the notion that only and very specifically celebrity-esque individuals (people who are actually celebrities, people who want to be celebrities, politicians, people attached to political scandal, “A-Lister’s” – people in the social pages and promo girls for the V8's in Hamilton) cared about how they looked, what image they presented to the world is now obsolete. 


In some cases it would be difficult to differentiate the levels of self-design of an ‘ordinary person’ to that of a celebrity-esque individual- the difference being that the celebritised individual is subject to greater exposure.  Everyone is acutely aware of the cultural messages that they emit by opting to wear certain clothes, of certain brands (or fabric or era etc) and style themselves (or not) a certain way.  People recognise that even the seemingly blandest of items, such as the notebook they choose to use in class (moleskine, the obvious choice of the note-taking elite) and the type of pen they choose to write with, send subtle messages to those  who know (and care enough) to recognise and then evaluate such aesthetic choices. 


It is this that I think is probably most interesting about self-design; that self design is dependent upon and created given that a certain kind of understanding between individuals who are mutual “aesthetes” exists.  A secret code if you will. People who are not interested in fashion might think Tavi, the teenage fashion wunder-blogger, is nothing more than a pretentious, pink-haired brat.  Alternatively, those “in the know” believe her to be this fashion savant and send her ridiculously expensive MiuMiu clogs that she will wear to high school.  Within a particular community, there exists an aesthetic synchronicity that allows for the creation, proliferation and understanding of a certain self-designing within that group.  This enables for self-design on not only a visually aesthetic level, which is what is most commonly seen, but also through the evolution of language and thought that is exclusive to that set of people who engage with that aesthetic model .  To use my secret-shame MTV watching as an example, the show ‘The Jersey Shore’ has a specific visually aesthetic image as well as a language (and arguably a life philosophy) that is inherent to the show and that viewers engage in when watching it.  As all good MTV reality shows are, the people of ‘the Shore’ are shameless self-designers, with Mike “The Situation” reportedly having trademarked that moniker (the situation at hand are his abs), while the phrase “GTL” (gym, tan laundry) has been adopted as ‘The Jersey Shore’ manifesto by characters and fans of the show alike. 


I don’t entirely know if the death of the author (or creator) has become the primary alternative to being a plain old bad author just yet, though Groys implies this.  I think everyone’s self-design exists on a much more fluid exchange than maybe has been possible in the past- nobody feels responsible to fulfil just a singular aesthetic reality at the exclusion of other alternatives.   I also don’t think it’s about people being ‘bad authors’ per se, more, I believe that the greater concern is is being bland and boring; if there is so much design available what is the benefit of not designing (self or otherwise)?   In an era where we are able to design ourselves and everything is so designed, a failure to engage in aesthetics and design seems to imply some reluctance to engage with others full stop- if as Baudrillard states, all everything is, is aesthetics, can anyone truly extract themselves from self-design, even through anonymity/death/spontaneous evaporation?  No, I think not.