I Am a Material Boy

Responses:

1. “RELAX lost its way when it overindulged in all things slow life and green because I was looking to it for cultural coverage, which pretty much fell by the wayside.”

   But wasn’t the point of the Momus article to show that slow life, green, etc is the new cultural force, and that it is simply covering the new cultural popular zeitgeist? Culture continually evolves, and (thankfully) consumer materialistic culture is fading. This has been prevalent in Japan for some time, and I see that it will continue to evolve. Green is the new black!

   08.01.15 23:55

   Posted by Pete

2. But it’s a false one. Green is not the new black. Sure, there’s a growing interest/movement in all things green, but there’s no way you can convince me that the Japanese youth culture of today has suddenly grown an eco conscience. Case in point: RELAX went all-green, and it died.

   Momus is always like that, he sees something he likes that pops up in a few places, and then quickly makes up a new movement/zeigeist out of it.

   08.01.16 0:51

   Posted by Jean Snow

3. I think doing fashion shoots in a forest is still cultural coverage and it’s still consumerism. The choice is not between consuming and not consuming, or being materialist or non-materialist (we all have material needs, and hence the need to consume). Rather, it’s between ethical consumption and the futility I described in the piece with the phrase “the hedonic treadmill” — the idea that however much we earn, our aspirations will rise at the same level as our purchasing power, leaving us no more satisfied.

   I think that once you put the “hedonic treadmill effect” next to ecological crisis, you get a new set of priorities for design. This is something almost all the design sites you enthusiastically link are dealing with, Jean, so I don’t know why you seem to be so negative about it. It’s more than a trend — I think it’s going to define, increasingly, what design this century is for. It’ll be part of the way designers and design commentators frame design problems. Design isn’t just about bling, it’s about ethics and vision.

   08.01.16 8:34

   Posted by Momus

4. If you purport to love bling… you’d better try harder than Â¥3000 Graniph t-shirts or whatever (笑)

   08.01.17 21:11

   Posted by Josef G

5. What’s the Kanji for “ZING!” ?

   08.01.18 8:54

   Posted by Shaun

6. ‘Design isn’t just about bling, it’s about ethics and vision.’

   Couldn’t agree more, and many designers/manufacturers are also getting to grips with it - in fact I’m working with a few on making it the core of their design process. Toyota became the biggest carmaker in the world by employing ethics and vision, while Patagonia and similar companies are setting the benchmark for ecologically sound business practices. Green isn’t the new black, and I think that’s a good thing - the last thing we want is for this to be a fad.

   It’s certainly not a new thing - the hedonic treadmill emerged in the early 1970s, for example - but it certainly does seem to be gaining more and more ground. Japanese youth may not have become eco-conscious all of a sudden, but many of the companies producing the things they consume are finding that being eco-friendly is more than just good PR. Even one of the main themes for Tokyo Designer’s Week last year was ecologically sound design.

   08.01.18 17:44

   Posted by Richard K

7. jean and the unbearable lightness of bling

   08.01.20 7:42

   Posted by abc

8. Endorsing ‘bling’ (whatever that really means) in 2008 is as anachronistic as the blazer and combat pants combo sported by Tyler Brule in the month’s idea magazine…

   We’re supposed to take these people seriously as arbiters of style?

   08.01.20 13:56

   Posted by Bryan