Plato ’s dilemma

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There are several interesting claims made in this very widely read, greatlyadmired, and much cited poem. The most obvious is an assumption that theobjects in the exhibition from around the world could evoke similar responsesfrom people of very different origins, nationalities, ethnicities, or classes.Whoever they are, wherever they come from, however ‘uncouth their name’,all were similarly touched by what they saw here. This is itself an interestingclaim. Let us consider not so much whether the claim is true or false – onthe face of it, it seems unlikely to be true, and there is enough documentaryevidence that many were bewildered by so many bizarre things – but ratherwe might consider wh y it might have been important to make such claims, andwhy would it have been necessary or desirable to believe this. Who benefitsfrom such a belief? And what exactly does such a belief imply? Is this simplya question of creating larger markets for the objects on view? Let us consider,then, what it means for an understanding of the relationships between subjectsand objects.For one thing, the claims suggest that objects have certain inherent proper-ties or qualities, which form the basis of a common response. It also presup-poses that there are certain aesthetic responses, perhaps a certain ‘taste’, whichis generally shared by people regardless of their backgrounds. (This was a veryKantian poem.) An appreciation of fine art, and of well-designed and craftedartefacts, is assumed to be widespread, and it is further implied that it is a goodthing to exhibit one’s good taste in things.But why should one want to exhibit good taste or be au courant with thelatest fashions? Why should one appreciate what arbiters of taste considergood design? What benefits accrue to those who show good taste or areknowledgeable about the direction of fashion, to those who appreciate artand are (ac)cultur(at)ed? What does it benefit a society to have its citizensinterested in knowing about style, taste, art, or fashion? Is this more thana stunningly effective means for providing citizens with a kind of cultural livelihood ; a rationale for contributing to the common good by being a goodcustomer or consumer? Does being a good consumer equate to being a goodcitizen? Is the modern metamorphosis of doing good works (in a religioussense) now to be that of doing (or delighting in) good work?There was perhaps no more brilliant stage upon which the ideas I havebeen mentioning were demonstrated and realized than the Great Exhibitionat the Crystal Palace. 3 This most radically transparent of nineteenth-centuryconstructions may well have been modernity’s most unsurpassable social andcultural artefact; a kind of Grand Opera of art and architecture; a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk in its combination of so many technologies, themes, modes ofarticulation and presentation. It was the lucent embodiment and semiological summa of the principle of modern order itself. This was a building that wasinfinitely more than a building: infinitely expandable, scale-less, anonymous;transparently and stylelessly abstract. It was the first monument to the idea andpractice of globalization.