A night sky is lit up by bright neon lights and video screens displaying products – first a camera, then a car, next a bank logo. The lights form letters and the letters form names of global corporations, two-dimensional images embodying multifaceted ideas, relationships and lives. A side of a building is painted with letters that connect us to an object, something we instinctively, reflexively desire. A square, once skirted by small shops, is now surrounded by big signs, logos, brands, global entities that dominate our public space. It is a city, it is a town, it is any day, and any where in the world. We find ourselves living amongst products, immersed in a world of objects, connected to things that have been animated by other things we call corporations. This shift to a world of objects coincides with a shift from an economy based on the manufacturing of products to an economy based on the manufacturing of brands. This shift in global mode of production has resulted in our immersion in global economic “realities” that seem to lead some toward extreme wealth, others toward extreme poverty, and still others toward life on the treadmill, constantly running to stay ahead in fear of falling into an abyss, but never getting very far.
