From our discussion, it’s become clear to me that how something comes to be aggrandized is debatable; however, what seems to be concrete is that the methods by which something becomes aggrandized are various, and many. Objects (both tangible and intangible) can become aggrandized by scale, position, and even the amount of attention paid to it—to name a scant few of the possibilities…
What has also become clear to me is how undeveloped and far too general my concepts for this project are: I haven’t tapped into the multitude of directions that exists in the simple button; I haven’t researched the history and current usage of the button, nor have I ventured past the metaphor of connection and explored other analogies that can be made as well…
One thought that’s popped into my head is how so much of life is simply aggrandizement; there are so many facets of our culture, worldwide culture, that isn’t essential to survival, but is aggrandized to seem as though it is necessity. Take mass consumption, for example—since the 50’s, we’ve all been taught—in some form or another—to seek to and want to buy the newest, biggest, most technologically advanced products out there. Even though most of these things are not necessary, and in some ways may be harmful by bringing a sort of intellectual stagnation that distracts us from the things of actual necessity, we’re imbued with a perceived need for consumption.
I don’t want to get stuck on just the idea of consumerism, however: there are plenty of other facets of everyday life that serve as examples of aggrandizement—not just American or industrialized…
An example that I believe holds true for all human history is myth and religion. For these systems of beliefs to function, the subjects that deal with—good, evil, saints, God, gods—must be raised above the mundane and everyday. It’s not as though we can find entertainment in a mythic character that isn’t extraordinary in some way, or worship some saint that perform some phenomenal act, or actions; no, we worship or at least pay ample attention to myth and religion, because their subjects surpass the everyday man and woman…
When you think about it, aggrandizement is really a tool for societal cohesion and hierarchy. In order for societies to exist, there needs to be this general sense of what is important—basically, what is right and wrong. I believe you can trace so many behaviors such as fashion and etiquette to learned behavior that became engrained in our genes; in other words, although wearing what celebrity trendsetters are wearing isn’t essential to our own, immediate survival, the desire to do so is—or at least once was.
One has to wonder if groupthink is as important as it once was, when humans were far fewer, and day-to-day survival was a much more precarious thing; in turn, one has to wonder if aggrandizement is as important as in previous times, or just a learned behavior that’s as useful as our appendix.