Erase (the Value of Objects)

Jeffrey Ludwigsen is posing questions about taste. It is common today to let a homestaging company increase the value of your home by, in a tasteful way, rearranging, adding and taking away objects. The viewers obviously don't know how this censorship changed the home or even that it occurred. That is the point of censorship––it makes things disappear without a trace, like they never existed. Ludwigsen is pointing this out by making the censorship visible.

In his study he has taken photographs of his friend's homes and then asked homestaging companies to tell what they would take away. Instead of taking the objects away he has in an obvious way just censored them so the viewer can tell that there is something missing.

Studies* show that we value information that is inaccessible higher than information that is easy to get.

Could the visible censorship add value to the objects and therefore the home as a whole? Would that value remain just as long as the objects are censored?

* Ashmore, Ramchandra & Jones, 1971; Wicklund & Brehm, 1974; Worchel & Arnold, 1973; Worchel, Arnold & Baker, 1975; Worchel 1992

jeffrey.ludwigsen@konstfack.info

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Photographer: Andreas Nyquist