Lexandra S.

Abdon

Art Stud 191

2011 78824

From Superflat Windows to Facebook Walls: Mobility and Multiplicity of an Animated Shopping Gaze
by Li Jinying

Li Jinying talks about the aesthetic quality called the superflat in the essay From Superflat
Windows to Facebook Walls: Mobility and Multiplicity of an Animated Shopping Gaze. Superflat art is
defined as being deliberately flat, depthless and floating, as famously defined and promoted by Takashi
Murakami.
The author begins to illustrate the concept of superflat by juxtaposing two seemingly unrelated
examples: the video collaboration of French luxury designer Louis Vuitton and Japanese artist Takashi
Murakami titled Superflat First Love and the social networking site called Facebook, specifically the
Facebook wall.
The narrative of Superflat First Love consists of a young girl passing by a Louis Vuitton store
who encounters an eccentric yet endearing bear. The young girl is then devoured by the weird creature;
transported into a dream-like sequence where she is led to an alternate universe and meets young Louis
Vuitton, whom she falls in love with. The video ends with the girl meeting young Louis Vuitton again
after being brought back to reality, outside the Louis Vuitton store where the video started. First, it
showcases superflatness through the use of what Thomas Lamarre calls superplanar imagery; usually
found in Japanese animation or anime characterized by its lack of a unified linear perspective. Second
is the way anime exemplifies lateral movement by flattening movements and moving visions within the
surface of a two-dimensional space (207). These two characteristics make superflat art the direct opposite
of live-action cinema and conventions of Renaissance art, for it provides a new avenue of perceiving and
observing through multiple perspectives. As a result, the gaze becomes highly mobilized.
Moreover, the essay dabbles with the concept of identity and globalization by mentioning the
Japanese origins of superflat art; citing the ukiyo paintings in the Edo era as an example. It is also
mentioned that superflatness has always been attributed to Japanese culture because it constantly
challenges Western conventions in art. However, the notion of superflat is not exclusively Japanese; it has
made its way into Hollywood science fiction films where it is called array aesthetics coined by Deborah

Tudor. The idea of superflat is becoming, if it has not yet become, a global trend. How did superflat
become global? In the essay, technological advances have played a major part in this globalization, since
every piece of information is being reduced, or being flattened to data. The Renaissance metaphor of
the window, with its single-point perspective; has now evolved into the fractured and multiplied vision
of the Windows computer system created by technological giant Microsoft. Because of this, the viewers
have also transformed into users due to their gazes being mobilized by technology.
It is also mentioned that superflat has a postmodern touch, characterized by its overt emphasis on
the surface and depthlessness that are similar to postmodern discourses; namely Baudrillards superficial
simulacra, Derridas decentered subject, and Jamesons new depthlessness with the disappearance of
history. But is the superflat vision a symptom of the postmodern condition? The author challenges this
belief by presenting the idea that this superflat vision is not just a symptom, but may also be a
contributing cause of this so-called postmodern condition. But labeling superflat as a postmodern concept
may be problematic; the term itself is problematic on its own because it means after-modern but is
actually characterized by the loss of history, and it is a term that is overused according to Anne Friedberg.
Nevertheless, the postmodern condition plays a part in the superflat aesthetic: as a result of the increasing
cultural centrality of the mobilized virtual gaze through visual media such as television and film, with the
power of commodity experience defined by the desire to shop and consume.
The concept of the mobilized gaze is further explored by citing one of Takashi Murakamis
artwork titled Eye Love Superflat, where floating, staring and weightless eyes are integrated into the
Louis Vuitton pattern; multicolored monograms that are equally afloat and weightless. By the title itself,
the pun eye as I, marks the gaze as a decentralized subject. Moreover, the gaze of the viewer becomes
distorted, as the eyes in the artwork are the ones staring at the viewer: it stares back. The looker becomes
the looked at, the consumer becomes the consumed. This distortion of the gaze is exemplified in social
networking sites: every time we surf the Internet, we are unaware that we are actually window shopping.
Our consumption of the Internet; every page we visit, every piece of information we share, is encrypted,
flattened, databased. In turn, that data is delivered back to us by personal marketing: any products
related to our interests are explicitly presented and motivates us to consume even more. In Facebook, we
present our databased selves which are actually valuable commodities, capable of being traded in the freemarket economy, operating through a very appropriate metaphor: the wall. In that sense, the Facebook
wall becomes a complete superflat construction of consumerism: it is weightless, timeless and depthless.
The author concludes the essay by citing another example from the Takashi Murakami-Louis
Vuitton collaboration, the prequel of Superflat First Love titled Superflat Monogram. The narrative of

Monogram is almost the same with First Love; a young girl passes by a Louis Vuitton store and
encounters a strange bear, which then consumes her and she is transported into an alternate universe
consisting of floating monograms that constitute the signature Louis Vuitton pattern. In the end, she
retrieves her lost phone and returns to her reality. The bear symbolizes the brand; and the way it devours
the girl represents how we, as consumers, becomes consumed by the product. In the dream-like
sequence, it appears as if the girl is transported into this place of freedom, but in reality she is
trapped; literally trapped in the brand. We, as viewers, believe that by looking through the superflat
virtual windows, we are finally free from the governance of Renaissance perspective that has controlled
our vision before. But are we truly free? In reality, we are still trapped, captured by the structure of the
shopping window.
The concept of the superflat deals with technological advancement and consumerism: two
concepts that are relevant in the contemporary setting. In this digital age, us users sometimes value our
online identities more than our actual identities; the line between virtual and reality is further blurred and
distorted. The transition of the discussion in the article from the literal superflatness in art to its contextual
implications made sense and is explained clearly by the author. Moreover, the concepts presented in the
article exposes what we dont see or what we take for granted in this digital age: as the products we
consume are physically flattened, we, as consumers, are unaware that our identity, personality and
humanity are being flattened as well. The whole flattening aspect in consumerism is more of a cycle than
a process, since at first; the product is being consumed by the consumers, for example, a user browses
the social networking site Facebook. After that, the whole situation turns around as the product; in this
case, Facebook, encrypts the information from our consumption, thus making the product knowledgeable
and informed on the users preferences. The next time we consume or browse the pages of the networking
site, we are motivated to consume even more because the experience is tailor-made for us. And thus the
cycle continues.