Kitsch

So I have read up quite a bit on Apple's new announcements yesterday- the new iLife '05, iWork, the iPod Shuffle, and the Mini Mac. All very cool and covetable. But the thing that struck me the most was how iLife and iWork give the tools to people to make the most god awful media. Next Christmas, instead of home photoshopped Christmas cards and newsletters, I expect to start getting home made DVD's with soundtracks and video montages.



This is not a happy thought.



in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera defined Kitsch as "an absolute denial of shit." Other theorists have defined Kitsch as "seeking to make something of beauty, rather then something of truth." or "Art of totalitarianism- the supremacy of rules over ideas." In general they are getting at the idea that when art becomes a commercial commodity, a product, it becomes refined to the point that it satisfies the marketplaces tastes and no longer challenges. That is kitsch



If it looks like art, then it must be kitsch.



Anyway, I bring this up, because Apple is democratisizing kitsch production... Just look at the themes offered in the new Pages WP application, or in Keynote, or even iMovie. Now anyone who buys into the apple 'lifestyle' can buy a Mac and a black mock turtleneck, and start making stuff that 'looks like' art.