Blandness and the digital sublime in Takashi Murakami’s designs for Louis Vuitton

Abstract

New media and cyberculture have become watchwords for the new millennium and the visual arts as field is undergoing revision and redefinition. Design history may in some instances be marginalized in the history of art, however it seems that such distinctions are no longer valid. With digital technology comes not only changes in visual media and changes in the manner we receive visual culture. Different cultures of viewing and receiving visual information also develop. In the collaborative designs of Takashi Murakami and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, “high art” blends with consumer culture and design through the popular mass imagery of anime and manga (Brehm 2002: 34-40). This paper argues that the effect of Japanese popular culture on mass culture may be likened to the dialectical way that digital media is often interpreted in the West. Technological progress has been seen either as an ultimate goal of civilization, as the downfall of civilization. This dualistic manner of interpreting the effects of technological progress on society and visual culture as either good or evil is inadequate. The significance of digital culture has yet to be liberated from this debate. Insight into the proliferation of Japanese popular culture may be a significant contributing force into redirecting the interpretation of digital culture and furthering critical engagement with design as production of visual culture.

EENSELIGHEID EN DIE DIGITALE SUBLIEME IN DIE ONTWERPE VAN TAHASHI MURIKAMI EN LOUIS VUITON. Die visuele kunste ondergaan tans ‘n proses van hersiening en her-definieering binne die konteks van nuwe media en kuberkultuur, terme wat wagwoorde geword het in die nuwe millennium. Die geskiedenis van ontwerp mag in sekere gevalle gemarginaliseer word binne die konteks van kunsgeskiedenis, maar dit blyk dat hierdie onderskeid nie meer geld nie. Met die opkoms van digitale tegnologie kom verandering in visuele media voor. Vervolgens ontwikkel nuwe maniere van interpretasie van visuele kultuur asook nuwe kulture van kyk, en resepsie van visuele inligting. In die gesamentlike ontwerpe van Takashi Murakami en Marc Jacobs vir Louis Vuitton vermeng “fyn kuns” met verbruikerskultuur en ontwerperskuns deur middel van die populêre massa beelde van anime en manga (Brehm 2002: 34-40). Hierdie artikel stel voor dat die soms dialektiese interpretasie van digitale media in die Weste kan vergelyk word met die effek van Japanese populêre kultuur op globale massa kultuur. Hierdie dualistiese opvatting sien tegnologiese vooruitgang as die uiteindelike doel van die samelewing, of as die ondergang van die samelewing. So ‘n siening is eensydig en kuberkultuur moet nog bevry word uit die greep van hierdie debat. Ondersoek na die vooruitgang van Japanese populêre kultuur mag die klemverskuiwing in die interpretasie van digitale kultuur en die kritiese omgang met ontwerp as visuele kultuur aanhelp.