Alyssa's Automist Exercise

Alyssa Olson

Response 7&8

All of the squares relate to each other because they are all very simple and straight to the point. I believe that most people would be able to identify the exercise in each square without any previous knowledge. The content of the squares relate to each other because they can all be represented in a visual manner. For example if someone said “banana” you would be able to draw a shape to represent this. Also for the opposite, if someone drew a banana-like shape you would be able to infer that that person wanted you to think of a banana. The theme between each square is very repetitive because regardless if it is a square of shapes or a square of words, they all can be easily represented in both fashions. It is interesting to see that our brains don’t even need all of the information to be able to accurately process what is happening within each square. This is probably due to the large amount of stimulus from the media and other outlets. The aggregate effect of all of these elements is that, as humans living in our current society we only need small amounts of information to form narratives. This may be helpful at times, but also displays the control that the media has on us all.

I could say that majority of the four squares has been influenced by consumerism. A large reason why our society is able to associate words with single images or vice versa is because of consumerism. Advertisers and companies purposely use devices to make us, as the consumer, to recognize their products and brands instantaneously. This seeps into our daily life and as in this exercise when you drew something similar to a Christmas tree, majority of us wrote Christmas as the first word that came to mind. Advertisers bombard us daily with posters, fliers, and commercials, branding almost everywhere we look. Even if we are not consciously paying attention to all of the signals advertisers are putting out there, we still are subconsciously absorbing them. This exercise displayed that what advertisers are doing is working. Even though most of the images or words that we were prompted with for this exercise had no tie to consumerism, we still were able to instantly associate them with something else. This is why when we walk into a store we don’t always buy the least expensive product, but usually the product we want to be associated with because we know that everyone has judgments and pre-disposition towards certain objects and images. This skill-set is directly related to the adverse effect that advertising has on us as a society and there for relates to consumerism.

The only shapes that make direct connections to consumerism or production would be the shape of the two arrows, one pointing up as the other points to the right. This is reminiscent of a financial graph. As the buying and production go steady then the profits go up. The shape that looks like a banana relates to consumerism because we have to go to the store to buy a banana, which directly supports the consumerist society in which we live. Lastly the shape in the bottom right corner that resembles a large pill has a direct connection to consumerism. Our health care system alone is a large supporter of the consumer system and also helps production of medical supplies and prescriptions to thrive. The pill-like shape in its massive size accurately displays the dependency we have on prescription drugs and quick fixes. Majority of our society wants a pill to fix all of their problems and doctors are willing to prescribe this because they not only get perks from the drug companies but then the drug companies thrive giving them a larger profit. This all directly affects the consumerist society in which we live.