I was very impressed when I visited last month at Paris' Pompidou Centre the
exhibition on the life and works of the French-born artist
Arman. What I liked best and found most inspiring were Arman's
accumulations of consumer objects -- mostly
wastes which he turned into invaluable artworks. I suppose Arman wanted to point a finger at how unfaithful we are to objects we seem to cherish but nevertheless throw away very fast, like disposable lovers. And as I was walking through Arman's accumulations created in the 1960s and very early 1970s, I remember asking myself what it would be like if he had made them now, in the age of electronic junk.
The accumulation of electronic junk is the subject of Annie Leonard's new webfilm
The Story of Electronics. After
The Story of Stuff on the impact of consumerism (not only to the environment and the economy but also to our brains and souls), with
The Story of Electronics, Annie makes us
stop and think again at objects that are so common to us that we rarely think where they come from and where they go.
PS: The accumulation on the armchair on the photo is not Arman's. I just did it in the living room at home. I better clean up that mess before my wife gets home.
