Future Pass: From Asia to the World

(Abbazia di San Gregorio, 7 June 2011)

Consumerism 1.0 is materialism---a short-lived, private enjoyment from using and owning rearranged physical matter. Consumerism 2.0 is a longer-lived and often intrinsically social enjoyment derived from associating with and rearranging the elements of popular culture. Both vintages of consumerism are bolstered by fads. Vintage 2.0 advances the society's interests further than vintage 1.0 does, by bringing more durable gratification, being more social, and less passive. Scarcely mediated by material goods and hence scalable, Consumerism 2.0 creates enough demand for ideas in order to make it rewarding for most to create them.

Thus emerging popular culture, to Generation 1.0, may seem deceptively asexual. Because of Generation 2.0's earlier exposure to sexuality, its adopted symbols seem immature---but are durable. Mediated by these symbols, eternal youth will begin early and last late.

At the Exhibition, while no single work excels, the entire collection conveys a vision. Traditional art observes a gratifying aspect of reality and exaggerates it. By contrast, modern art---when it aims to profit from beauty at all---does not assume that its subjects' plausibility increases enjoyment. Thus the scarcity not only of the physical matter but also of truth is overcome.