Ewoud Bakker

Statement:

The Sign of the Times 

The current pandemic throws us for a loop. With the self-isolation and lack of proper communication networks in place, we communicate a lot less, or at least a lot less thorough. This means a lack of production and performativity of narrative and discourse. This lack of discourse undermines the established discourse of ‘things’, opening up leeway for a new. Due to the de-commodification of the symbolic signs, by switching states, we lost meaning in the consumption context, and society is looking for new meaning. Our system of cultural signs is not supplying any new signifiers in the current semiotic order, resulting in a state of shock. It does, however, help to reevaluate the ‘lost’ things and their affect. Now that we learn what we are missing, we start to appreciate one over the other, in an effort to re/signify the sign of the times.