The event took place last Black Friday at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, New York. For all of you that are not familiar with this US tradition, let me explain that it is a well-know custom here that the day after thanksgiving every department store, shop, mall and pretty much every retail store out there offers BIG SALES and huge discounts for everybody. This causes a shopping spree all around the country with people gathering (and literally camping) outside stores, in parking lots and at the doors of supermarkets and spending hours (sometimes even the whole night) to get inside early and get the best discounts.
All of this shopping mayhem already makes me a little nauseated. To think that this "unique discount opportunity" is only a mere technique that stores use to literally throw away brand new, fully functional and perfectly useful products (which also includes packaging, production energy waste and so on) for the sake of making space for new "updated" and oh-so-pretty artifacts (along with brand-new energy waste, resource abuse and garbage production) that will fill the shelves the incoming year. But going beyond the environmental side of the matter, just the fact that people would leave early from their thanksgiving dinners with their families and friends to go stand in line only to get a new flat screen, the latest iPod or that fancy Channel handbag should be activating some alarms in our conscience.
Unfortunately last year in Long Island, the problem went far beyond the mere "objects above people" situation. The reckless shopping crave got way out of control, to the point that someone's life was spared for the sake of consumption! 34 year old Jdimytai Damour, a temporary worker at the Wal-Mart store, was overwhelmed by the crowd and killed in the midst of the shopping frenzy. An unbelievable but very real event that brings out the unavoidable truth: we are a bunch of reckless and violent consumption junkies!!! Clearly our relationship with objects is so strong that we have lost control over it. We've become so blinded by our desire for the "new" that we do not take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Under this unfortunate circumstances we cannot avoid to wonder who's to blame? Is it Wal-Mart's fault for not being well prepared for such an "important" event? Is it the people's fault for not noticing a man lying on the floor? Is it the society's fault for encouraging such behaviors? Honestly I don't have a concrete answer for this. In my opinion everyone is equally guilty, but I can only speak from my own perspective, so I will.
We, designers, are guilty as charged. Yes, it is true we were not there to "not notice" a man in danger. Yes, we also did not planned such an event so wrongly, and certainly we did not step over that man's body ourselves. But we are guilty nonetheless. To further explain my statement I'll use the "junky" analogy. You see, an addict is not born an addict, people become addicts. Someone provides the substance and "plants" the addiction. More importantly, someone keeps on feeding that addiction by encouraging the behavior and providing the drug, someone we commonly call the dealer. Well, we designers are dealers! We not only come up with a new, more powerful ("updated") fix every now and then, but we also put our best effort to convince people that they need to get it. We do more than encouraging violent, mindless consumerism; we feed it, and nurture it and profit from it. Does that make us evil? Well, I cannot make a statement out of that since fundamentally we are just doing our job; but the way I see it, for this particular situation it makes us murderers. Can't help to notice that the term "killer design" seems so appropriate now.
I am fully aware that my allegations to our practice are very crude and harsh, but let me assure you that by no means I intent to create controversy and diminish the importance and value of what we do. I decided to talk about this awful situation in such a critical way as an attempt to encourage awareness and create solutions. I believe in balance and respect. I strongly believe our economic and industrial system has got plenty of errors to fix, and I also believe that it is us, designers, who have the power and ability to change that. If we can come up with mind-blowing ideas that create such strong bonds between people and objects that they really not need; we certainly can come up with a more balanced and responsible market system, that will change the behavior of the people and the industry for their own benefit.
It is not an easy task, I acknowledge that, but I believe it is our responsibility. We are so used to think about our work as a finished product (whether be a car, a phone or an ad campaign) that we fail to notice that we do much more than producing objects or images, we create needs and behavior patterns that affect how people think and live, not to mention the environment itself. It seems only fair to design responsibly by considering the possible consequences during the creative process. To design with the people in mind, more so than the product.
I know the event under discussion is a little outdated, but I still consider it extremely relevant; so if you wish to further read on the matter I suggest the following links:
I will close the subject now by throwing a couple of questions in the air: Is this why we work so hard? Is this what we use our talent for?
Think about it, everybody wants to change the world... you might have a real chance to.
Have a nice day and remember,
design makes the world go 'round... (or nuts, or sane, you decide)
DesignWheel: Ximena
