In 1956, beverage manufacturer Coca-Cola employed the slogan “Coca-Cola makes good things taste better.” This was a marketing strategy that could also be detected as a corporate system code. This overarching system, or entity, is the organizer of all beings, the organic social structure we all live in and its multifarious codes we are controlled by. Among other meanings the term ‘code’ is borrowed from computer science terminology, and is a system of language for expressing information and instructions in a form that can be understood by computers. Codes duplicate themselves constantly, and are imbedded in all operations (of The System). Meanwhile, The System ceaselessly reproduces itself and proliferates more coding. “Making Good Things Go Better” continuously produces new expectations and demands as it offers a temporary sense of security and a fleeting pleasure. Eventually this becomes status quo, standardized into a natural part of the system, and the system becomes stabilized in new levels. How the System’s codes and sub-systems relate and cross breed is endless and ever changing. Different areas in society have their sub-systems that produce their own codes. For instance, a school is a sub-system, as well as a company like Coca-Cola. Jiu Jiu hints at the concept of Foucault’s ‘Institution’ but avoids applying any direct philosophical relationship to it in his description of the work. In our social reality codes are a set of rules, overt and covert, about how people should behave or how something has to be done. “Making Good Things Go Better” is one of those codes, which reveals a system’s intention to change, to become “better.” But the paradox lies in what the word “better” actually means. Does it mean more efficient, faster, or stronger? Or does it mean something else, something that differs from individual to individual and therefore would be impossible to define?
Jiu Jiu offers no clear-cut definition of “Making Good Things Go Better” and he does not encourage an ‘understanding’ of his work to begin and end with the aforementioned “Systems and Codes.” “Making Good Things Go Better” is a breach in the dam that exposes the code and offers those who want to interact with it a deeper experience, not just to confront it. Making Good Things Go Better is the ‘space’ between all of these concepts; a space for vagueness and openness.
Jiu Jiu offers no clear-cut definition of “Making Good Things Go Better” and he does not encourage an ‘understanding’ of his work to begin and end with the aforementioned “Systems and Codes.” “Making Good Things Go Better” is a breach in the dam that exposes the code and offers those who want to interact with it a deeper experience, not just to confront it. Making Good Things Go Better is the ‘space’ between all of these concepts; a space for vagueness and openness.