Precorporation: the pre-emptive formatting and shaping of desires, aspirations and hops by capitalist culture

It's good to have a word to sum up the effect that capitalism can have on us, especially through pernicious advertising.

The lamp I want is playful. Confident. Carefree yet sophisticated. Qualities I want to embody… but buying the lamp won’t give me those qualities (though I would enjoy looking at it).

Mark Fisher names this ‘precorporation‘: “the pre-emptive formatting and shaping of desires, aspirations and hopes by capitalist culture.” The appearance of consumer products “shore up the consumer’s sense of selfhood and individuality” by allowing us to feel that we are expressing ourselves within the constraints of the capitalist system, writes Daniel Harris. Aesthetics like ‘zaniness’ grant us an outlet for nonconformity instead of us expressing it in a way that might challenge capitalism; we signal alternative ideologies instead of living by them. “The only ambiguity permitted in [consumerism],” writes Cy Canterel, “is the gap between what we have bought and what we could buy. Marketing collapses this gap into identity itself: who we are versus who we could be if only we purchased the missing pieces.”

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There is nothing wrong with wanting to surround ourselves with beautiful spaces. It’s also easy for aesthetics to stand in for our desires, so they are addressed only materially, not emotionally. (This is why I appreciate Ingrid Fettell Lee’s approach to home design — she focuses on the feelings we want to have at home, not how we want our home to look.) Painting our homes a calming color will not make us calm if our schedules are too full. It’s appealing to imagine that if I create the “right” environment(s) in my house — if I can reduce friction for some actions and increase it for others — my counterproductive routines and habits would be easier to change. That instead of doing the work on myself, I can do the work on my home. It’s so tempting to try to buy the new self that we want, but aesthetics alone can’t change our lives.

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Source: tracydurnell.com
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Collection: finds-au723pdfugg