With Love, from a Failed Planet
A satirical piece of netart featuring multiple short fictions detailing the failure of well-known, contemporary institutions, primarily corporations such as Apple, IKEA, and CNN, though corporatized political entities (Canada, France, and the White House) and individuals (author Neil Gaiman) are also ribbed. Readers access the prose narratives by hovering over iconographic logos, affixed to a rotating, transparent globe. A minimalist, electronic soundtrack, reminiscent of those used in planetarium productions from the late 1970s and early 1980s, enhances the work's retro-futurist commentary on the factors leading to obsolescence in the capitalist world-system.
In an attempt to regain market share versus manufacturers of furniture designed to last more than two years, IKEA introduced the concept of Houseumglobin. Their idea was for consumers to assemble their own veneer covered, cheap screw fitted houses inside giant IKEA warehouses and then work off the debt as sales staff.
Election and government reforms meant all decisions, every choice made by a public employee, be decided by citizen’s instant daily voting. For example, before a city gardener could plant a tree, or a teacher could change a test question residents would have five minutes to vote. And influential sites like the Daily Kos were replaced by large marketing firms who hired thousands to write hundreds of daily one 144 character pitches, the twitterification of politics ruled.
