The Absurdity of Consuming

a music video and an artistic critique towards consumerism

Concept

The Absurdity of Consuming is a music video based on one of my songs that has the theme of consumerism. Getting my inspiration from reading Marx’s critique of capitalism, I tried to explore human’s relationship with objects and how we tend to associate the term “value” with monetary definitions instead of valuing things inherently.

In the music video, I used the film languages of surrealism and symbolism to externalize and exaggerate human emotions. I put masks on actors to personify the commodities we are facing in everyday life, and I tried to imitate human beings’ internal struggle with them. To me, the absurdity of consuming comes from this: on one hand, we try to free ourselves from the trap of “things” and wish to value them without society’s definitions; but on the other hand, it is quite inevitable that our desires are naturally driven by them, and that when we consume, we somehow feel happy. The larger theme is that it is difficult for human beings to eventually escape society’s constructs.