Event overview
Dr Russell Belk, Professor at York University (Canada) and Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK)
Abstract: Socio-technological changes are liquifying once solid material consumption by making it increasingly ephemeral, access-based, and dematerialized. This has significant implications for our existing notions of ownership and possession. A bellwether field first detecting these changes is art. As illustrated by non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the art market has innovated in ways that suggest a new consumption, possession, and ownership paradigm where property rights like exclusivity and conditions like rivalry do not apply. We draw upon the conceptual art premise of art as idea to formulate a new concept of psychological possession, an experience that is non-rivalrous and without exclusivity. In developing our concept of psychological possession, we examine minimalism, including allied notions: dematerialization, virtualization, fractionalization, and ephemeralization. These processes all point to a drive toward nothingness. Rather than a nihilistic death drive, we show how this trend is toward essence, purity, and minimalism. This is ideal for a brand image as well. We also contribute by enmeshing theoretical threads from consumer research, the philosophy of art, and aesthetics, using examples pertaining to NFTs, music, brands, and the metaverse, with implications for a new type of possession that explains three new forms of consumption: the streaming economy, the sharing economy, and the subscription economy. Together they comprise the developing post-ownership society. Zooming out even further we can see that the experience economy and the service economy are the milieu in which experiences become possessions and in which we continue to push toward nothingness.
This is a hybrid event. Join online at https://msteams.link/WK5V.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Nov 2024 | 1:00pm - 2:00pm |
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