If post-war social change and the globalisation of culture gave birth to the teenager, then the rise of mass media between the 1980s and the Y2K was where this cultural innovation came of age. Through mass media and popular culture, ideas of self-transformation and optimisation became globally imaginable. For the first time, millions of people could not only witness extraordinary lives but imagine themselves living them.
This premise has never simply been “believe and you’ll become a star”, it is “believe, work, preserve and your dreams can come true”. This is more than the notion in James 2:17 of “faith without works is dead. It is the teenage dream: a globalised mutation of the American Dream, which through mass media, popular culture and celebrity has produced a new modern secular gospel.
teenage dream: The First Wall brought to by The Void Incorporated was an immersion into the fantasy itself. It entertained delusion, excess and the intoxicating promise that through belief, ambition and performance one could become the greatest thing since Sliced Bread. It inhabited the teenage dream without yet asking where it came from.
If post-war social change and the globalisation of culture gave birth to the teenager, then the rise of mass media between the 1980s and the Y2K was where this cultural innovation came of age. Through mass media and popular culture, ideas of self-transformation and optimisation became globally imaginable. For the first time, millions of people could not only witness extraordinary lives but imagine themselves living them.
This premise has never simply been “believe and you’ll become a star”, it is “believe, work, preserve and your dreams can come true”. This is more than the notion in James 2:17 of “faith without works is dead. It is the teenage dream: a globalised mutation of the American Dream, which through mass media, popular culture and celebrity has produced a new modern secular gospel.
If the First Wall was about entertaining delusion and excess - the teenage dream at its most absurd - the Second Wall explores the afterlife of the teenage dream, where delusion reforms into deconstruction.
Through bringing to life the SAINT Network (available at www.saintadamson.com), Sliced Bread writes The New New Testament: a digital network documenting pop culture as HIStory. Through the moniker of Stuart’s Baby, Rupert’s Maybe, we explore the Teenage Dream through archive and history.
teenage dream: The First Wall brought to by The Void Incorporated was an immersion into the fantasy itself. It entertained delusion, excess and the intoxicating promise that through belief, ambition and performance one could become the greatest thing since Sliced Bread. It inhabited the teenage dream without yet asking where it came from.
If the First Wall was about entertaining delusion and excess - the teenage dream at its most absurd - the Second Wall explores the afterlife of the teenage dream, where delusion reforms into deconstruction.
Bringing to life the SAINT Network (available at www.saintadamson.com), Sliced Bread Writes The New New Testament is a digital network documenting pop culture as HIStory. Through the moniker of Stuart’s Baby, Rupert’s Maybe, we explore the teenage dream through archive and history.