Personal Identity and Consumerism

I chose to write my four dimensional image evaluation on Scott Blake and Nathan Halabuda’s work “Every Barcode.” These artists are conceptual artists, a type of art that I studied and wrote about in my first image evaluation. In “Every Barcode,” ten barcodes are flashed every second, starting with 0 and ending with 99,999,999,999. This essentially is every product made. Fascinatingly enough, this will take approximately 317 years.

I discovered this piece on Rhizome and found to be particularly interesting because it uses state of the art technology to give the viewer a sense of motion. This vertical sense of motion was intense to watch, and I was afraid to blink for fear of missing something important. Even though it was only the right side of the piece that was constantly moving, it almost made a ripple effect through the entire barcode. This ripple effect or “ebb and flow” of the barcodes also correlates with the “ebb and flow” of supply and demand in our market.

I also liked the fact that there was no sound. Just watching the barcodes continuously transform was enjoyable. This piece leaves sound to the imagination. I feel if the viewer relaxes their eyes, and takes in the piece as a whole, they can almost hear in their head a ticking noise of rapidly changing barcodes.

When I saw this work, I immediately thought of how many products every single individual in our world consumes on a day to day basis. This work is similar to “My House and Me” and “The Corporation” for it also reiterates our theme of the semester: over consumption and the environment. After these products are used, where are they discarded? Are they recycled or just thrown away? After one use, it’s gone…just like its barcode that was flashed in front of my eyes.

I even felt as if I was part of the piece of art, for as different barcodes flashed up onto my screen, there would also be a manufacturer’s name. I had even bought something from that manufacturer! This piece is fascinating, and I almost wish there was a comment page to see other responses. Hopefully they will add one in the next three hundred years.

Link: http://www.barcodeart.com/every_barcode.html