Fieldnote #4: The Price of Taste

To make an item of acquired and delicate taste requires a degree of love and care so formidable that it would be a crime to sell. Purchasable taste is rare for this reason. Moreover, the item in question will naturally suit its maker in perception and wear, making the act of selling sting like a bittersweet breakup. The cost for the acquirer is therefore commensurate with feel rather than analysis. The high cost is additive, not subtractive to the experiential valence of the ceremony of purchase. One feels the same sting in the blasé and all too simple nature of the transaction, that pulls painfully from one's pockets and flaunts meekly on the counter or clinically beeps from one's plastic. This feeling shares the same root and creates an invisible but oh so beautifully intangible connection between the acquirer and the creator.