Feb 5 / The Cult of Less
The Cult of Less
Feb 5 / Review of Day 5!
More of a lifestyle choice than a cult, NYC-based web developer Kelly Sutton calls his installation The Cult of Less: How to Get Rid of Everything, for the purpose of presentation. Everything Sutton owns can be stuffed into 3 modestly sized pieces of luggage, meaning the entire contents of his life is on display in transmediale’s Open Zone, at the Currency of the Commons workstation.
Sutton decided to downsize his life when he moved from Los Angeles to New York City, but the idea initially came to him in the summer of 2009 after living in Berlin and realizing the weightlessness of a few choices items. It’s not the most novel idea for an ‘art piece’ so to speak – because really, many of us have lived out of boxes and backpacks for months on end – but it’s definitely a step towards thinking before you purchase and eliminating the stress of where to put and how to transport dust-collecting ‘things’ that are ultimately useless. “If I can’t remember what I own, then I should not own it,” says Sutton, implying that he has no need to consume physical tokens of memory – he’s got a brain for that. “The things that people are sentimental about are the times in their lives and the experiences that they’ve had,” he continues “and not necessarily something that they own.”
Most of Sutton’s possessions are clothes, with one DVD (The Edukators, bought for him as a gift), a copy of McLuhan’s Counterblast (which he purchased at the HKW bookstore), a laptop and a few other media devices. And therein lies the correlation to transmediale. For Sutton, his simple lifestyle is relative to the festival in that “it’s a good example of what you can do with the opportunities that digital technology allows you to do.” Meaning that the physicality of Sutton’s life can be digitized and condensed, shrinking most things he occupies his time with down to mere files – music, movies, pictures, even his work as a code programmer – so that life is mobile.
Sutton says he does cheat a little, however, because he lives in an apartment. But furnishing is minimal with only a desk, a chair, and a bed – all rented along with the apartment itself.
Although he’s not necessarily encouraging others to follow his lifestyle choices, Sutton says he hopes they at least consider it. “I realize this lifestyle is not for everyone,” he says. “It’s much easier in certain cities than in others, like in Europe, or New York City. It’s difficult in Los Angeles because you need a car.”
When asked if Sutton has to exert conscious effort towards not purchasing ‘stuff’, he seems pretty confident in warding off advertising and resisting a gluttonous, drooling consumer persona. The last thing he purchased (besides the McLuhan manifesto) was a pair of jeans. And he’s not shy about admitting that he’ll spend a fair amount on quality items – things that last – so he doesn’t have to re-buy them. Necessities like food, for example, go unquestioned. And, of course, experiences like culture, concerts and travel. But for all the material items he does purchase, Sutton logs them in a neat chart.
He says about half of his friends understand his minimal choices, but his family is a little more weary… especially when it turns gift-giving season.
transmediale Blog
by Melanie Sevcenko