Nice analysis of monochrom’s Soviet Unterzoegersdorf Cheetos campaign.
Monochrom went on to have various installations such as the
Unterzoegersdorf computer (which ran on a coal furnace one had to shovel
continuously in order for another person to be able to play Tetris) as
well as various Unterzoegersdorf installations. There was one
especially interesting moment when they were kicked out of a computer
convention as the Unterzoegersdorf representative with the
Unterzoegersdorf camera man was borderline-trolling party-goers, perhaps
offensive to Disney officials running the convention. The
Unterzoegersdorf representative also, for purposes of art, had the wild
experience of eating a glob of wasabe ‘not knowing what wasabe is… and
deciding that it was capitalist posion’. Of course, one assumes the
Unterzoegersdorf camera man was using a modern camera, something the
Unterzoegersdorf representative did not even seem to notice as being
astounding.One particular event they did was particular applicable to this
discussion. The website boing boing hired Monochrom to do a viral video
for Cheetos, paying them a sum of a few thousand dollars. Monochrom
saw a prime opportunity to further explore capitalist relationships with
their very anti-capitalist characters. The results are below. I
invite you to take the time to watch all 6 segments. It is delightful.Unterzoegersdorf/Cheetos Campaign
While amusing, one cannot help but think that the compete rage of the
Soviet Unterzoegersdorf characters, in part jest, at being ‘tricked’
and ‘used’ to promote a very Capitalist-foodstuff but in part
seriousness — for Unterzoegersdorf-ians to find their livelihood but a
‘colony’ of the Global Economy. While Cheetos is featured heavily in
the dialogue as the center of conflict, the nature of the Monochrom’s
tension is more on the side of Unterzoegersdorf-ians trying to figure
out what to make of the raw junk of Capitalism. It may benefit Cheetos
only to be repeatedly mentioned and pondered — we laugh because the
weird orange coloring DOES smear all over our hands. In fact, we are
reminded of Cheetos and that may be enough to make our mouth water (or
wince) in association. Larger questions remain largely unexamined What
should we make of our own economic proliferation? How should we come to
terms with ourselves? In an exploration of Unterzoegersdorf we come to
face ourselves as Other — perhaps in what only great works of Art do —
reflected back to ourselves our own values in negativity, as dissymmetry
and excess, the best non-linguistic analysis of all, something even
Emmanuel Levinas refuses to see — when he preaches of the acceptance of
the Other but cannot accept those ‘asiatic hordes’ which surround
Israel… and refuses to deal with them as citizens of humanity…