12. SUBTLE GLAMOUR!
In westernized culture, to be perceived as being glamorous is
to be beautiful, rich, and famous: a vision of perfection which we all imitate
to attempt to attain the social or economic status of the people who
embody glamour (Gundle, 2009). This typical perception of glamour entails
a spectacular bedazzlement of sparkly jewels, ruby-red lipstick, and
endless flashes of a camera’s bulb.
My experiment, Subtle Glamour, pushes the boundaries of
the idea of being visibly glamorous by introducing the idea of an exclusive
form of glamour.
To be subtly glamorous is to be almost everything a typically
glamorous is not, attaining a visibly unremarkable status, nearly
indistinguishable from society, to all but those of similar aristocratic stature
who are able to appreciate such obscure representations of glamour. With
this ‘hidden’ knowledge, implications of socio-economic class are elicited
and a hierarchy in social status is introduced.
The idea of being exclusively glamorous is obtained by being
educated. Only people with similar education and knowledge can
recognise this type of glamour. Any other people they’re surrounded by in
their society do not concern them, as they are perceived as being of a
lower socio-economic class.
Rationale!
13. SUBTLE GLAMOUR!
Attfield (2000) aptly describes this theory as an “‘aristocracy
of culture’ in which only those educated enough would recognise the
subtle difference between a ‘good’ and a ‘poor’ [object].”
Subtle Glamour applies this theory to my action: reading a
book. By informing the test subject that the book they were to read was
the last of a series of five books of which four were destroyed, Subtle
Glamour introduces a ‘hidden’ knowledge. With this, they subconsciously
accept that the book they hold has become much more valuable because
it is the last of its kind.
As Williams (1961) said about the idea of ‘structures of
feeling’, “the new generation responds in its own ways to the unique world
it is inheriting, taking up many continuities,” implying that our
commonalities in which our societies perceive this ‘subtle glamour’ would
indefinitely differ between socio-economic classes. Our social status is
correlated to the nature of these classes, and this influences what we
prioritise in our lives.
Using the idea of being educated with exclusive ‘hidden’
knowledge, my experiment, Subtle Glamour, successfully redesigns the
experience of reading a book in a way that evokes a sense of exclusive
glamour. This can also be interpreted as a metaphor demonstrating
differences in ‘structures of feeling’ across social and economic classes.
Rationale!
14. SUBTLE GLAMOUR!
Gundle, S. (2009). Glamour: A History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press.
Attfield, J. (2000). Wild Things. London, UK: Berg.
Williams, R. (1961). The Long Revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Black, A. (n.d.). Cave of the Sibyl – Antro Della Sibilla. Retrieved from
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/antro-della-sibilla-cave-sibyl
Sources!
