WALKMAN

The Walk­man hit like a bomb. It was the object of desire for an entire gen­er­a­tion. The iPhone of the early 80s was called – Walk­man. And if you could afford it, it was of course by Sony. I know the whole story of the Walk­man very well, because there was a strong con­nec­tion to Sony. But what truly cre­ates the fas­ci­na­tion is the con­flict the Walk­man trig­gered. Because as much as it con­quered the hearts of the younger gen­er­a­tion, it was reject­ed by the older one. The Walk­man was a vis­i­ble line of sep­a­ra­tion from the par­ents’ gen­er­a­tion. It was a sign of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion for a new gen­er­a­tion. One that no longer wanted to listen. No longer wanted to obey. With a Walk­man on your ears, you stepped out of the world of par­ents and elders – which drove them absolute­ly mad.

So the Walk­man is more than just a prod­uct. It is iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and sep­a­ra­tion between gen­er­a­tions. It draws a pre­cise line between future and past. Often it was simply worn. Dis­played. Taken along. I remem­ber that it often didn’t even fulfil its actual pur­pose of play­ing music.

With the Walk­man, Sony unin­ten­tion­al­ly cre­at­ed a musi­cal com­pan­ion on the path away from the con­ser­v­a­tive and towards the pro­gres­sive. Wear­ing a Walk­man in public was a vis­i­ble state­ment. There was some­thing provoca­tive in it. Some­thing mild. Some­thing that was not con­sid­ered appro­pri­ate. Until it arrived in the middle of soci­ety. Then the magic was gone. Then it lost that spe­cial posi­tion in public.

It was the portable pio­neer and trail­blaz­er for every­thing that followed.
The art­work “Walk­man” is part of the art series on pos­i­tive memory cul­ture of the 70s, 80s and 90s – the Boomer gen­er­a­tion. And the series is also ded­i­cat­ed to all those who wor­ship the 80s. Many of these objects of desire from that time are depict­ed in the series. You can put togeth­er your own selec­tion the­mat­i­cal­ly accord­ing to your pref­er­ences, inter­ests and incli­na­tions. This series radi­ates its pos­i­tive energy just as much in pri­vate spaces as in pro­fes­sion­al envi­ron­ments, or in hotels, gas­tron­o­my, restau­rants, law firms and all other rooms where people like to sur­round them­selves with pos­i­tive impulses.

Canon Fine-Art inkjet print on pre­mi­um Hah­nemüh­le Photo Rag 308 gsm paper. Art­work size freely selec­table: from at least 20 × 20 cm up to 120 × 120 cm. Mount­ed on 2 mm alu­minum Dibond with a white wooden shadow-gap frame. Pricing/quote on request, depend­ing on size and quantity.