In the life of the object two territories can be mapped out, that of production and of consumption. In the industrialized object these territories meet at the cash register. Here, the authorized checkpoint between zones, the object crosses from the realm of production to that of consumption.
However outside this limited view of production and consumption is the possibility of production through use. Consider the productive act of hunting for clothes in an op-shop; expand this thought and purchasing, arranging, compiling, using, indeed any act of engagement with the object can be seen as productive and actively producing the object. In such a reading consumption becomes production through a shift in perspective. This rewriting of the consumer as producer is a rewriting of the power relations at work within and around industrialized production. The consumer may be empowered by this shift but to claim a certain equality within the consumer-producer dynamic, as is often claimed when consumer choice is equated with democracy (as if we can simply shop our way to democracy), would misrepresent the complexity of the forces at play. There is a struggle underway within object production, and this struggle has casualties.
One such casualty, Sydney retailer Eddy Stevens, was successfully prosecuted by Sony corporation for selling computer chips (mod chips) that would allow consumers to play non-authorized CD’s (i.e. copied CD’s or CD’s originating from a restricted country region) on the Sony PlayStation games console. Sony has brought similar legal action against parties in the UK and other games manufacturers are equally vigilant when it comes to defending their consoles from consumer modification. In 2002 Microsoft, makers of xBox, shut down Hong Kong-based trader Lik Sang for distributing xBox mod chips. Lik Sang is now back on line, however there is no sign of any mod chips on the web site. This is not to suggest that mod chips have disappeared, even PlayStation mod chips are readily available on the internet, but it does give an indication of the lengths to which companies will go to maintain control over the use of their products. In an interesting twist mod chip developer ozXodus has recently implemented their own security measures in an effort to stop the use of their software with third party, clone chips.
It’s easy to see Sony and Microsoft’s desire to restrict customer access to the illegally copied games market as a simple revenue protection measure, however their efforts to prevent customers from loading alternate operating systems onto their games consoles suggests there are also broader motivations at work. Such efforts can be seen as an attempt to maintain control over the production of the object, to secure the objects identity as they, or specifically as their marketing strategy, defines it. The use of security style screws and fasteners, the restricted circulation of service manuals, the destruction of promotional material, can all be seen as actions which seek to defend the objects identity from customer intrusion.
There is a common logic that suggests that once a customer has purchased an object then they are free to do with that object as they wish. However to believe such logic is to misapprehend the social (and legal) contracts at work within consumer society. Ownership has never been limited to a straight forward act of exchange, it is always an ongoing process of negotiation. This negotiation plays out within the consumer-producer dynamic, writing and rewriting the identity of objects as producers act to maintain a coherent presence for their product and consumers seek to engage the product in a meaningful and empowering way. The consumer-producer dynamic is not however always in a state of opposition and there can be significant benefits for both consumers and producers when a collaborative relationship is developed. Such a relationship can be seen in the emergence of the Hot-Rod and (more recently) the Case-Mod.
In the 1940’s hot-rodders took the automobile, an object which was at the time defined by its role as transportation and redefined it as anything and everything other than a form of transportation; the Hot-Rod has nothing to do with transportation. In a similar way case-modders of the 90’s took the ubiquitous beige boxes designed to conceal the inner workings of the PC and blend inoffensively into the background and remade them as objects of fixation, a celebration of cables and components. These acts of modification permanently changed the material and social nature of the objects involved and opened out previously non-existent marketplaces to producers. It can be argued that it is only though such activities, when consumers take object production into their own hands, that the full potential of the object is explored.
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