branded memory

Branded memory.

It's the most powerful thing to come from our consumer culture. Our past is remembered through objects from our adolescence. Those objects were toys.

Today, we engage in that childhood conceit, those moments when we'd invite our friend over and keep him or her at arm's length while we dive into our toy chest and literally bury ourselves in toys and bask in the giddy joy of being watched enjoying ourselves.

That's the only attainable zenith behind the promise of toys, and it occurs within the frame of being a consumer amidst them. What characteristically is this zenith? Outside of enjoying ourselves with toys alone we force others to bear witness in order to validate that experience. In that way, our enjoyment eclipses other's self interest if only momentarily.

Branded memory is this toy chest moment, writ in so many software 'app' permutations of being together yet alone and with ample opportunities for display tied to software that can allows massive scale. We're all famous, because in our branded memory moment we slip into the skin of these consensually held fantasies and wear the mask of childhood nostalgia. The only value in these acquisitive contexts rests upon the number and rarity of the things acquired.And number and rarity in a consumer context serve only to mythologize the object in question and to drive its acquisition.