Steven Williams, University of Southern Indiana

1. Pretty Plastic Packages:
The Aesthetics of Extinction
STEVEN D. WILLIAMS
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN INDIANA

2. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
by Walter Benjamin (1935)
 In Walter Benjamin’s influential essay on the changing nature of art, he
makes what seems a bit of a departure in his concluding remarks.
 Previously concentrating on the rise of reproduced (e.g. prints) and
inherently reproducible (e.g. film) art forms he then speaks to the issue of
human self- alienation:
 “Mankind, which in Homer’s time was an object of contemplation for the
Olympian gods, now is one for itself. Its self-alienation has reached such a
degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure
of the first order. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering
aesthetic. Communism responds by politicizing art.”

3. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
by Walter Benjamin (1935)
 Benjamin and his Frankfurt School colleagues certainly understood the
danger in centralized control of mass media, watching it play out in the
consolidation of Nazi fascism.
 Leni Riefenstahl’s disturbingly brilliant work of propaganda, Triumph of the
Will was released the same year.

4. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
by Walter Benjamin (1935)
 There is something insidiously seductive about the war machine and
Benjamin was profoundly suspicious of aesthetic politics.

5. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
by Walter Benjamin (1935)
 So when fascism makes politics artistic, communism must respond by
making art political.

6. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”
by Walter Benjamin (1935)
 Boys in particular are socialized into seeing the war machine as beautiful;
even sexual.

7. The Avro Arrow
 For a generation of Canadians, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow, or simply
the “Avro Arrow” is a bittersweet chapter in political and military history.
 Arguably the most advanced interceptor jet in the world, it was scrapped
with all existing planes destroyed just before entering service in 1959.

8. The Avro Arrow
 It has inspired novels, movies, and a legend about how one was saved and
hidden somewhere.
 Engineers from the scrapped program were hired by NASA to work on the
American space program.

9. The Avro Arrow
 As a child, I had the model.
 I was always sad and angry about the fate of the Arrow. But why? Why
should I care about the discontinuation of what is simply a weapon of war?

10.  Experiencing of own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure is about more
than cool jets and phallic rifles.
 The self-alienation that Benjamin spoke of allows us to disconnect from
the consequences of our actions, particularly in the quintessentially
American activity of consumption.

11. The Bugatti Veyron is beautiful and ridiculous.
Cost: $1.7-3.0 million
Fuel economy: 7 MPG city

12. An Alaska cruise is a beautiful experience. Cruise ships dumped
more than three million pounds of trash in Juneau alone in 2019.
The global impact of cruise ships is tremendous.

13. We live in “the now of the commodity.”
Where things come from before we consume them and where they
go when we are done with them is virtually invisible.

14. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful restaurant meal.
We do not see the ugliness of factory farming.

15. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful lights of the city.
We do not see the ugliness of strip mining coal.

16. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful suburban house.
We do not see the ugliness of deforestation.

17. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful clothing.
We do not see the ugliness of sweat shop labor.

18. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful smart phone.
We do not see the ugliness of African coltan mining.

19. The Now of the Commodity
We see the beautiful plastic packages.
But we can no longer ignore the consequences.

20. The Now of the Commodity
What is killing us has been made beautiful.
Only our ability to rise above our own self-alienation can save us.

21. “If they can dye it green for St. Patrick’s Day why can’t they
dye it blue the rest of the year?”