Harun Farocki

Shopping is an everyday cultural activity; taken for granted, unavoidable. Entry into the world of shopping, the malls, can become a Dantian journey to Hell or a redeeming last supper. Everyone is familiar with this experience and malls are an all pervasive sight. This self evidence is the end result of an extremely complex process. The design of a mall is created by planners, managers, and scientists: there are consultancy firms, re-launch analysts, a central organization, mall newspapers, an annual congress in Las Vegas with 6,000 participants, and laboratories where tests are conducted to see where customers direct their gaze or how a “spontaneous” purchase can be induced. Farocki’s film, The Creators of the Shopping Worlds, tries to draw a picture of all that— and give a magic charge to our everyday images. (Antje Ehmann)