Mark Batty Publisher presents: "Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism"

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: Coined Consumerism is an entertaining and informative package - it even comes with your own cardboard fold-out Motomachi mini you can make yourself.