A casualty of an apparent spring cleaning, the final Consumed column ran in the New York Times Magazine three weekends ago. The author, Rob Walker, wrote a quiet goodbye at the end of an essay which discussed the popularity of websites featuring random stuff that's been arranged, organized and tidily documented.
Walker's column debuted in 2004 and focused on the cultural context in which specific trends, objects and behavior exist in (mainly) the US. Unlike some design analysis, objects were never lauded for aesthetics alone; instead Walker studied the way things evolved or interacted once out in the world, for better and worse. I was working on my MFA thesis on design and politics when I started reading Consumed and the column ended up in my bibliography. For me, it exemplified well-researched, insightful and accessible writing on topics I felt were relevant to my studies, and I have continued to faithfully read it through the years (it's turned up in this blog, too).
For any fellow Rob Walker fans out there, you can keep up-to-date on his projects and photo collections via his website and his goings-on via his blog Murketing.com and/or his Facebook page. He is also one of the more articulate commentators in the documentary Objectified, which I highly recommend.
While I was surprised and sorry to say goodbye to Consumed, I look forward to whatever Walker does next.
Further Reading
— Walker on "scalies" the little model people incorporated into architectural renderings
— Walker on the cult of sugar based Mexican Coca-Cola
" — Walker on Crocs (circa 2007)
Image via