Essay on Applying Nato Thompson’s Participatory Theatre: Whole Foods
In his 2017 text, Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life, Nato Thompson discusses how the visual design (particularly of corporate spaces) can create an atmosphere where aesthetics draw consumers into a “participatory theatre” (210). He argues,
[i]n developing the formal aspects of spaces that produce social relationships, these retail outlets push the selling of goods and services far past the limits of a simple commodity exchange. They dictate and commodify the terms on which we do what we do best: exist in the world as social creatures. These sites are major places where people encounter each other, and thus they are a large part of what constitutes the contemporary concept and reality of the civic. (209)
Working with Thompson’s argument, consider this notion and how it might apply to another specific example of your choice. As you write your own short essay response, go in depth on a particular corporate space and the ways visual rhetoric and design could be producing certain effects/affects for consumers when they’re in that space. Be sure to do something other than the examples Thompson already mentioned.
Taking an Approach
As you write, try to model the writing style of Thompson. The tone and style of analysis is something you can emulate in your response. If it helps, imagine that you’re adding an additional section to his chapter by extending his argument to another example (something else beyond IKEA, Apple, and Starbucks).
Working with the Text
Along the way, make sure to introduce Thompson’s concepts to your readers. Instead of making this move in the intro, try to integrate the Thompson text into the body of your response. As we’ve been practicing, offer your readers a brief, overall summary of the text as you start to integrate the first quote. Likewise, any quoted material should be framed with a full “citation sandwich” which moves readers into the quote and, after the quote, explains and analyzes the implications of the quote. Those moves help your readers clearly see what ideas you are bringing in from the source and what leaps you are taking on your own to add to the claims/analysis Thompson started.
Writing from Experience
Use your own experience and observation to go in depth on your chosen example. After you read (and perhaps re-read) Thompson, you might go out and do a bit of fieldwork to see another “corporate space.” Consider how they have designed a visual rhetoric and a certain aesthetic to illicit certain feelings and behaviors for customers. In addition to the products or services, what else are they marketing? Try to look for some of the things Thompson talks about in his chapter. In that spirit, push your own analysis to extend beyond what the text already said. Additionally, if you find aspects related to COVID protocols that have since complicated or enhanced some of the aspects Thompson mentions, feel free to discuss them.
Note: Certainly keep in mind all COVID protocols as you do this assignment. Don’t put your health at risk. You should be able to do this “fieldwork” in spaces that are not indoor, as well. Please let me know if there are any circumstances that require alternate accommodations to this assignment.
Nato Thompson in Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life discussed heavily what it meant to understand the customers to lure them into a particular store. This was framed under the guise of “participatory theatre,” suggesting that consumers seek out products and services whereby they can partake in the process. This approach was applied thoroughly to the case of IKEA, Apple, and Starbucks – companies that heavily invest in being able to connect with their customers at a much deeper scale. Albeit some of the observations are rather superficial and sometimes minimal, their impact on the customer can be staggering as they play with the signals that are otherwise looked over by others. A company that also displays the same mentality when it comes to their brick and mortar stores would be Whole Foods.
