For certain individuals Ebay has become a lifestyle, an extreme use of the service where people are a slave to their auctions, so dependent on checking up that it interferes with daily functioning. According the DSM-IV, the manual for diagnosing psychological disorders, this would be a criterion for a type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. Commodiphilia, diagnosed as assigning value to valueless objects in the off chance that it may be worth something to another disparate individual, is an artist coined term that references both the commodity, and the sexual perversion of pedophilia. Obay.info critiques the mega-consumerist culture that surrounds Ebay, and is both a visual pun and a cautionary piece that succeeds when the user questions why they are so involved with buying and selling of the most mundane possessions.
Artist talk and exhibition catalog at Pace University, New York, curated by Jillian Mcdonald May, 2004
http://csis.pace.edu/digitalgallery/ebay/ebaycover.html
November 22, 2006 ...
Full Description
For certain individuals Ebay has become a lifestyle, an extreme use of the service where people are a slave to their auctions, so dependent on checking up that it interferes with daily functioning. According the DSM-IV, the manual for diagnosing psychological disorders, this would be a criterion for a type of obsessive-compulsive behavior. Commodiphilia, diagnosed as assigning value to valueless objects in the off chance that it may be worth something to another disparate individual, is an artist coined term that references both the commodity, and the sexual perversion of pedophilia. Obay.info critiques the mega-consumerist culture that surrounds Ebay, and is both a visual pun and a cautionary piece that succeeds when the user questions why they are so involved with buying and selling of the most mundane possessions.
Artist talk and exhibition catalog at Pace University, New York, curated by Jillian Mcdonald May, 2004
http://csis.pace.edu/digitalgallery/ebay/ebaycover.html
November 22, 2006 contacted by Intellectual Property Counsel eBay Inc. to disable links and disclaim affiliation between Obay and eBay
December 2006 changes instituted to the satisfaction of Counsel.
January 2008 discovered citation to the artist coined term "commodophilia" (sic) in an exhibition catalog of artist residencies (Nicky Bird) Stills Edinburgh 2004 written by Iliyana Nedkova. http://www.stills.org/
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2003
- Submitted to ArtBase: Tuesday Feb 5th, 2008
- Original Url: http://obay.info
- Permalink: http://obay.info
-
Work Credits:
- Pete Ippel, creator
Take full advantage of the ArtBase by Becoming a Member