Return Policy Project
Encyclopedia
The Return Policy Project was a year-long exploration into consumer dependency on electronic
products, by French artist Thomas Charvériat
in 2000.
The project exemplified Charvériat’s use of present-day technology into his art. Charvériat deployed ISD
Chips, voice recognition, sensor-based automation, tracking devices and cellemetry (telemetry
but with cells) in order to covertly modify the behaviour of common appliances. These were then sold, in stores, to unsuspecting customers.
An example is advancing an alarm clock five or six seconds every day in order to shift a consumer's schedule subtly enough that he or she would not notice.
The concept was to influence a person’s life by adjusting the nature of the products which the life had been based around. The project was a form of culture jamming
and was inspired by the Barbie Liberation Organization
, a group of artist
s who changed the voice box
es between Barbie
and G.I. Joe
dolls to criticize gender stereotypes presented within consumerism.
The project name came from the method of using return policies
to put the products back into circulation once the electronics had been altered. These invisible structural changes could be triggered through the internet by any person visiting the public website once the product was activated in the consumer’s home. Other examples include radios which softly emitted sexual noises or Macintosh
reboot sounds, DVD
players which only showed specific images, microwaves synchronized with coffee machines, and clocks with gradual time alterations.
Charvériat on the Return Policy Project:
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
products, by French artist Thomas Charvériat
Thomas Charvériat
Thomas Charvériat is an artist, curator and art director.- Life :Thomas Charvériat was born in Paris and attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography in 1998, and pursued graduate coursework at Columbia University, receiving a Master of Fine...
in 2000.
The project exemplified Charvériat’s use of present-day technology into his art. Charvériat deployed ISD
ISD
-Schools:* Indiana School for the Deaf, Indianapolis, Indiana* International School of Dakar, Senegal* International School Dhaka, Bangladesh* International School of Düsseldorf, Germany-Other:* Independent school district...
Chips, voice recognition, sensor-based automation, tracking devices and cellemetry (telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
but with cells) in order to covertly modify the behaviour of common appliances. These were then sold, in stores, to unsuspecting customers.
An example is advancing an alarm clock five or six seconds every day in order to shift a consumer's schedule subtly enough that he or she would not notice.
The concept was to influence a person’s life by adjusting the nature of the products which the life had been based around. The project was a form of culture jamming
Culture jamming
Culture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
and was inspired by the Barbie Liberation Organization
Barbie Liberation Organization
The Barbie Liberation Organization or BLO, sponsored by RTMark, are a group of artists and activists involved in culture jamming. They gained notoriety in 1993 by switching the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls...
, a group of artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s who changed the voice box
Voice box
Voice box could mean:* The larynx , colloquially known as the voice box, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the trachea and sound production....
es between Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
and G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier , Action Sailor , Action Pilot , Action Marine and later on, the Action Nurse...
dolls to criticize gender stereotypes presented within consumerism.
The project name came from the method of using return policies
Returning
In retail, returning is the process of a customer taking previously purchased merchandise back to the retailer, and in turn, receiving a cash refund, exchange for another item , or a store credit...
to put the products back into circulation once the electronics had been altered. These invisible structural changes could be triggered through the internet by any person visiting the public website once the product was activated in the consumer’s home. Other examples include radios which softly emitted sexual noises or Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
reboot sounds, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
players which only showed specific images, microwaves synchronized with coffee machines, and clocks with gradual time alterations.
Charvériat on the Return Policy Project:
- The notion of control is deeply rooted in our consumer society and it seems to stem from the need to be in control of our lives. We buy a product which fulfils a particular functionFunction (engineering)In engineering, a function is interpreted as a specific process, action or task that a system is able to perform .-In engineering design:In the lifecycle of engineering projects, there are usually distinguished subsequently: Requirements and Functional specification documents. The Requirements...
, and by doing so we incorporate it into our lives in such a way that we are brought to think we can no longer live without it. Our ability to manipulate it at will contributes to the illusion of having shaped our lives according to our needs, and therefore of being in control. My intention was to alter this perceptionPerceptionPerception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
.