A series of ONeOFF cassettes recorded especially for sale on the electronic opium den; ebay, another on line phenomenon that has taken off in a big way, to the point that most people are aware of it, it is a strangely personal space where shopping can occur covertly from behind a closed door; quite surreptitiously, rather than the more traditional style of being in full public view, like the high street. Such a popular on line channel could be harnessed to fulfil socially productive liasons, helping people invent and develop things, cutting down on waste and helping to sustain repair culture, which is massively in decline, due to the obsession with GDP and economic growth that wants ‘new’ products all the time, rather than old ones getting repaired. Like a peculiar kind of consumer soft porn channel, ebay unites all legal passions and enthusiasts rather effectively, a godsend when you need something but its also obliterating the high street stores and for some it becomes an addiction bidding for things!
Alas, there is no social consciousness any more at the level of government, the idea of public service has morphed into an altogether different institution of political point scoring mentality, rather than actually doing very much that is socially progressive. So the positive potential offered by ebay goes unnoticed. If roads were ‘invented’ today, they would be exclusively used by a few large organisations and anyone who could not afford to drive a luxury high speed vehicle, from a choice of two or three manufacturers, would be completely excluded from travelling on them.
We must however, stop to consider the fact that gambling, self indulgence, greed, obsession these are all fundamental emotions upon which commerce as we know it is based and thus the whole economy depends on vice to function, no one is vice free, no matter what they would like others to think, without these vices no one would purchase any more than they needed and the stock market would collapse on top of itself in a state of permanent recession!
Thus these ONeOFF recordings revel in these same glorious hysterical emotional dynamics, all starting at 99-pence price..
