Scrawled in Wax

Yes, “form over function” - but it’s more complicated than just ‘people are superficial’.

So, it’s one of those days today - when the entire internet may as well have an ‘i’ in front of it or, to be less polite, when Steve Jobs receives one long, collective blow job. While iTunes HD rentals may be the announcement that has the most significant long-term effect, unsurprisingly it is the razor-thin Macbook Air that is getting the lion’s share of attention. The response has been interestingly mixed - even Gizmodo seems conflicted, with one post showcasing their trademark technofetishism (translation? “ooh, it’s so damn pretty”) while another condemns the Air for its lack of a replaceable battery or upgradability, calling them ‘fatal flaws’.

But the most interesting - and incendiary - post has come from Devin Coldewey at Techcrunch who has called the Macbook Air “basically useless“. The writer goes through a series of very practical criticisms - the proprietary ports, the lack of an optical drive and the slow CPU etc - and they are all very valid critiques. Trouble is, he totally misses the point. Coldewey is trying to suggest that people buy consumer goods like iPods and Macbooks purely out of a need for how they are used; they do not. It is precisely the ’sexiness’ of the device - i.e. the desire it elicits in us - that creates its success. When Coldewey asks “What is losing that last half an inch doing aside from attracting stares?” what he refuses to understand is that the stares are the important thing. This is not about how ‘people are shallow’ - it is the difference between use value and exchange value. In most circumstances, there is in fact less use value to a Macbook Air than a regular Macbook - it can do less. But its exchange value - i.e. its worth to us as a cultural item rather than just a practical tool - is far higher, precisely because it “looks so damn cool”, because our friends want one and because owning one will be a marker of not only our savviness but also of our success.

Finally, if you want absolute confirmation that this is about so much more than just ‘technology’, just look at the Apple page for the Air. In reference to the development of the Air it says, and I quote, that “you don’t lose pounds and inches overnight”. They are, in effect, employing a contemporary discourse that links thinness to self-improvement to market the desirability of the Mac. And we want that right? I wanna’ be thin and constantly improving - who doesn’t? It’s brilliant - and, to me anyway, totally insidious and off-putting. It is, however, a perfect moment for understanding how contemporary culture fetishes technology and, in a way that is far more complex than it sounds, puts form in front of function.