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MBP Presents: “Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism”
March 4, 2010
Contact: Adri Cowan
Telephone: 347-830-6270
New York, NY – March 4, 2010 – We’ve all slipped quarters into vending machines for one thing or another: a can of soda, a bag of chips, candy. Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism documents the very devices that supply us with these goods, and oh so many more. Author Christopher D Salyers chronicles the journey vending machines have made from technologically humble beginnings to the flashy consumer environments of today. With photographs from all over the world, an essay framed in the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and Philip K, Dick and interviews with Art-o-mat inventor Clark Whittington and consumer trend expert Michael Keferl, Salyers tracks the evolution of vending machines, providing an intriguing visual point of reference for every consumer on the go.
There is no doubt that the Japanese lead the way when it comes to vending machines, which sell everything from the expected (hot tea, food, candy) to the surprising (umbrellas, underwear, cars, liquor, porn). But the ever-growing desire to remove human interaction from consumer equations has caught on across the globe. In airports, iPods and other gadgets are sold in vending machines; in Italy a vending machine will make you a pizza; artists from London to Buenos Aires have converted cigarette vending machines to sell art; in Amsterdam kiosks provide “fresh food” for late-night snackers via, you guessed it, vending machines.
“The vending machine, in its truest form, represents an overhaul of the psychology of consumerism – there is no human element to interfere with the advertisements or the medium,” says Salyers. “And now that technology’s capacity is apace with imaginative capacity in ways that are both affordable and arresting, it seems we’re at another turning point of vending machine experimentation.”
With sections like “Weird World,” “Capsules, Claws and Candy Machines,” and “Retro Vending,” Vending Machines is an entertaining and informative package – it even comes with your own cardboard fold-out Motomachi mini you can make yourself.
About Christopher D Salyers
Christopher D Salyers is a Brooklyn-based writer and book designer. He is also the author of Mark Batty Publisher’s Face Food and its sequel, Face Food Recipes.
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Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism
By Christopher D Salyers
Page Count: 128 page
Size: 7 x 9 inches (17.7 x 22.8 cm)
Format: Color throughout; Casebound w/dust jacket
Publication Date: March 2010
Price: US $27.95 UK £20 CA $37.50
ISBN: 9780981960012
For a review copy, more information, or to schedule an interview with Christopher D Salyers, contact Adri Cowan, +1 347.830.6271, adri@markbattypublisher.com.
