Aesthetic Capitalism:A Contemporary Reflection On Consumer Culture

With the emergence of the experiential economy and the cultural and creative industries,aesthetics and capital are gradually moving from opposition to integration.Aesthetics became the new driving force of capital’s development,and aesthetic value became the third independent category of value for commodities after use-value and exchange value,and many scholars have named this new variation of the economic model as aesthetic capitalism.This aesthetic capital has not only driven growth in economic indicators,but it has also changed the way consumers perceive themselves,and people’s consumption patterns and behaviors have changed dramatically.This paper takes the concept of aesthetic capitalism as the object of research and places it in the context of contemporary consumer society,and explores its connotations and extensions on this basis.Connotation is the identity of the concept and the core theory involved,and extension is the vehicle through which it operates at the practical level,focusing on what new changes have occurred in the original cultural economy and what new contradictions and crises have arisen since the advent of the era of aesthetic capitalism.This article is divided into three parts.The first part focuses on the theoretical context and background of the emergence of aesthetic capitalism as a new context,trying to proceed from the relationship between aesthetics and capital,and sorting out the prerequisites for the distinction between aesthetics and capital from collusion,sorting out the process of aesthetic and capital from distinction to complicity.In addition,starting from the symbolic logic system of the consumer society,examine the possibility of aesthetic capital as a new coding rule,so as to incorporate this problem into the problem domain where consumerism and perceived desire intersect,and in this process,the role played by consumers.The second part is based on the context of the first part,further elaborating the characteristics and carriers of aesthetic capital,and pay attention to the characteristics of aesthetic capitalism in the cultural context of late capitalism.At the same time,the game between capital,consumers and aesthetic taste in the dynamic process of aesthetic and capital integration is explored,and the experience economy is used as a concrete example.Based on the foundation of the previous two chapters,the third part focuses on the aesthetic contradiction in the era of aesthetic capitalism.In the broader context of consumer society,aesthetic capitalism,as a new manifestation and in relation to issues of taste pluralism and class divisions,loss of aesthetic autonomy and emancipation of individual sensibilities,has had a wide and profound impact.