Modern society has benefited from material civilization, and has allowed for rich and prosperous lives. Wide variety of consumer choices and diversity in cultural and leisure activities have also led to increasingly interesting and exciting lifestyles... Modern society has benefited from material civilization, and has allowed for rich and prosperous lives. Wide variety of consumer choices and diversity in cultural and leisure activities have also led to increasingly interesting and exciting lifestyles. However material civilization has simultaneously come to dominate society. This era of materialism that rose from mass product production has heralded the consumer society, and in the process, material objects have continued to see rising importance. An individual’s value and class are now determined by what he or she consumes, and relationship dynamics are deeply influenced by the flow of money. Personal character is considered to be tied directly to material wealth, and this has caused the illusion that interpersonal relationships are based fundamentally on material relationships. In such a society, material objects have absolute control over people’s perceptions and actions. In short, physical objects define human existence. This has caused commodity fetishism, or the deification and worship of material objects, and such perception has conversely led to the reification of human beings. While benefiting from material civilization, our society has ultimately come to be ruled under the dominance of materialism. Through the keywords “Fetishism” and “Reification”, this study explores the reification of human values as a form of transvaluation of values. “Fetishism” fundamentally means the deification of material objects, and is exhibited by the worship of objects and currency in modern society. Jean Baudrillard claimed that consumerism in modern society is in fact a worship of values. That is, people worship the values obtained by the object, rather than the object itself. Add to that commodity aesthetics, or the growing fantasy and mysticism of objects, and objects reach the status of a cult or religion, having a wide effect not only on individual lifestyles but also on the universal way of thinking. Such fetishism naturally leads to reification of people. “Reification” in its narrow meaning is the thingification of humans. Also, as humans become dominated by objects or such abstractions, it also means the blurring or reversal of human nature. Materialism confuses interpersonal relationships as inter-object relationships, and bureaucratic organizations that proclaim to be “efficient” essentially quantify and standardize human behavior and completely neglect individuality and personality. Furthermore, as systems and institutions created by logic (especially the system of power and money) grow larger, the motivation for human behavior becomes increasingly material-focused, and in such a system, humans, and all inter-human interactions, end up becoming objects, or things, themselves. Such reification is deepening even more as we enter the age of neoliberalism. From the emergence of neoliberalism, all value is now being associated with money. Anything that can be considered supply of something (including people) are being categorized as products, and labeled with a currency price. Since society has set ‘money’ as the basis of value, fetishism of money has become inextricably bound with the fetishism of objects. This has led to the logic of treating humans and objects as equal, and attempts to trade human values with objects. Furthermore, this leads to the indifference and even contempt of life and others. This study uses the visual expression technique of “Deconstruction” and “Repetition” based on “Archiving”, and in the form of digital media. This begins with the collection of various commercial examples of objectification, and with the basic intent of restoring humanity. Also, through “Deconstruction” that seems like a haphazard reconstruction of what has been decomposed, this study visually expresses the destruction of humanity and fragmented values. In addition, through the “Repetition” of duplicate symbols and images, this study shows the conformity and quantification, as well as the fading and disappearance, of human nature. Through the digital medium of video and online websites, this work will show the “process” of reification. Digital media such as stimulating billboards, TV, and the internet is the most typical and prevalent form of aggravating reification. Such media grab people’s attention and intoxicate them, to the point where they cannot escape the fantasy world that they themselves created. By utilizing media, the author aims to reveal the dehumanization, and the process and cause of reification. This study provides for the opportunity to reassess the reification of modern society and human values through visual expression. In modern society, such reification works so naturally and inconspicuously that most people participate in it without realization. Also, it is almost impossible to think or behave completely detached from such reification. The author admits that it is also impossible for one person to block the motion of the entire system alone. Therefore, rather than attempt to propose how to overcome this or to pass judgment of values, the author intends to observe reality in a distant and objective position. Capitalism does come with its issues of dehumanization, but is a system that has its own merits and worthiness of such sacrifice. Therefore, instead of arguing for unconditional criticism of capitalism, this study rather focuses on the required attention to the problems and dehumanization that can arise from it. In conclusion, this study researches the visualization method to look back on the dissolving meaning, and reification, of human values arising from fetishism through the design techniques of Archiving, Deconstruction, and Repetition. By focusing attention on the reality of dehumanization, this study aims to help discover the ways to minimize or neutralize such phenomenon.
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