Andrea Wong's profile

The Work of Art in the Age of Etsy, a Critical Essay

Project
Essay examining a marketing campaign for the e-commerce website Etsy.

About
 
Contributions
Critical analysis and writing.
 
Tools
'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin, which was first published in French in 1936.
Summary
This critical essay about the e‑commerce website Etsy is based on a presentation I previously gave in a critical theory seminar at the University of Victoria. It was published in the Warren Undergraduate Review, 'an open concept literary journal publishing the creative works of undergraduates at the University of Victoria'. Every website on the Internet has an agenda when it comes to visitors; each aims for some kind of conversion, whether motivated by sales or some other desired result. Marketing and design attempt to drive site users to take certain actions by appealing to and cultivating certain personas/identities. In Etsy's case, marketing rhetoric paradoxically motivates the capitalist buy‑and‑sell actions enabled by the website by wrapping this agenda in a myth that downplays if not outright denies this intent of the website in order to make these actions more palatable to the identified user group.
The Work of Art in the Age of Etsy, a Critical Essay
Published:

The Work of Art in the Age of Etsy, a Critical Essay

Critical essay examining a marketing campaign for the e-commerce website Etsy. Published in the Warren Undergraduate Review in Spring 2010.

Published:

Creative Fields