Welcome
The luxury market is in structural collapse. The speculative object has exhausted its credibility. Institutions are under pressure to justify acquisitions not by market velocity, but by meaning, provenance, and longevity. The Objects of Affection Collection was built precisely for this moment.
This overview presents the curatorial, conceptual, and academic foundations of the Objects of Affection Collection — a practice designed for institutions, galleries, and collectors engaged in the future of cultural value.
Founded by the Anthropologist of Luxury and critical theorist Christopher Banks, the Collection introduces a new category of cultural artifact: Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art (PLCFA).
PLCFA Pieces Are Defined By:
Material Singularity: One-of-one phygital artifacts uniting physical objects with immutable digital provenance.
Conceptual Depth: Grounded in a rigorous theoretical architecture spanning over 70 published studies.
Narrative Permanence: Digitally permanent, with immutable narrative provenance anchored against the entropy of the speculative economy. Each artifact invites you—the museum, the gallery, the collector—to move from ownership toward custodianship, reframing acquisition as a long-term cultural responsibility rather than a transactional act.
Each artifact invites museums, galleries, and collectors to move from ownership toward custodianship — reframing acquisition as a long-term cultural responsibility rather than a transactional act.
Founder Biography
Christopher Banks is an Anthropologist of Luxury and a Critical Theorist. In this capacity, he architects the bridge between behavioral psychology, experience design, and market innovation — establishing a new operational paradigm for the luxury sector.
He is the founder of the Objects of Affection Collection (OAC), a seven-figure intellectual house and design ecosystem. The OAC produces Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art (PLCFA) — singular, proprietary objects ranging from bespoke commissions to sonic monuments. By synthesizing physical originals with semantic AI, Banks creates inelastic assets that transcend the trend-driven volatility of the traditional market.
Work currently being codified via the Harvard & Ivey Business Publishing Authorship Track
Leading voice in Regenerative Luxury and member of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)
Research validated by Alice Edgerley (Assemble, Turner Prize)
Research validated by Dr. Gregory Sholette (Queens College, Critical Theorist)
Through the OAC and his research at the American Phygital Association (APA), Banks grounds his practice in a "Custodian's Contract" — moving beyond spectacle to secure long-term atmospheric equity. He transforms functional design into Material Memory, defining a new category of permanent value.
Foundational Research & Publications
The Objects of Affection Collection is underpinned by a structured body of research that forms the intellectual architecture of PLCFA. The objects are the physical outcome; the conceptual system is the medium. The entire framework is supported by over 50 published case studies, critiques, and philosophical explorations.
The PLCFA Knowledge Graph
The following ten studies form the complete Knowledge Graph, progressing from crisis diagnosis to structural defense. Each builds on the last — they are best understood as a single, continuous argument.
The Simulacrum of Luxury: A Guide to Jean Baudrillard's Critique of Consumer Society
The diagnosis: why the luxury object has become a sign without a referent.
The Aesthetics of Endurance: Byung-Chul Han and the Rise of Post-Luxury Conceptual Functional Art
How the "smooth society" demands an object that resists it.
The Missing Mass: Gregory Sholette's 'Dark Matter' and the Political Economy of PLCFA
The invisible labor surplus that PLCFA renders economically visible.
From the Aura to the Simulacrum: Benjamin, Baudrillard, and the Crisis of the Authentic
Tracing the philosophical lineage of auratic loss into the digital era.
Debord's Spectacle Meets Sholette's Missing Mass: How Artisan Activism Forges Moral Capital
Craft as détournement: the artisan as political agent.
Hito Steyerl and the Phygital Counter-Strategy: Why Post-Luxury Value Resists the Poor Image
High-fidelity digital provenance as the antidote to circulationism.
Why the archive kills the object — and how PLCFA keeps it alive.
From 'Quiet Luxury' to Post-Growth Citizen: A PLCFA Perspective on Discerning Consumption
The collector reimagined as a cultural actor, not a market participant.
The Narrative as the Original: AI, Simulation, and the Custodial Strategy of PLCFA
How immutable narrative provenance defeats the AI-generated simulacrum.
The Custodian's Contract: From Institutional Critique to Systemic Stewardship
The legal and philosophical architecture of the custodial mandate.
The Proprietary Metric
This pillar contains the definitive research that operationalizes the philosophical claims of the Knowledge Graph, providing quantified, anti-speculative metrics to bridge theory to market valuation.
The Material as Political Capital: Quantifying Moral Weight in the Anti-Market Materiality of PLCFA
The foundational paper introducing the Moral Weight Per Material (MWPM) metric.
The Anti-Speculative Cost: Why Art Basel Miami Needs the Moral Weight Metric
MWPM applied to the world's most visible speculative art market.
Institutional & Market Intervention Studies
This section contains critical blueprints and empirical case studies applying the MWPM framework to contemporary market failures and institutional structures — evidence essential for curators, program directors, and galleries evaluating PLCFA's placement.
The White Wall Paradox: Quantifying Consumption in the Age of Aesthetic Neutrality
From Function to Fissure: Collectible Design and the Weaponization of Material
Design Miami / MWPM empirical validation.
Tate / Vetter analysis.
Artisan Activism: Why Craft, Materiality, and Protest Define Post-Luxury Value
Jones / Rolón validation.
Newsroom
The Objects of Affection Collection maintains a live newsroom featuring official press statements, institutional announcements, and media coverage.
Why PLCFA Matters to You
PLCFA is designed to operate across a hybrid audience. Its full activation depends on each of these groups engaging together.
For Museums
PLCFA offers a new curatorial language for authenticity, provenance, and stewardship in the 21st century, providing the data (MWPM) to justify complex acquisitions that resist easy financial abstraction.
For Galleries
It introduces a distinct market category — conceptual, narrative-driven, materially singular, and theoretically validated — situated at the intersection of art, research, and cultural innovation.
For Collectors
PLCFA reframes acquisition as participation in a long-term cultural project. Each piece is a singular artifact whose value is built on narrative permanence, authorship, and stewardship. Learn more about commissions.
For Academics
The framework advances contemporary discourse on luxury, value systems, material culture, and the politics of consumption — with a growing body of peer-validated research as its foundation.
The PLCFA Knowledge Graph is complete. The question is no longer whether to engage with the PLCFA artifact — it is whether your institution's operating model is prepared to fulfill the mandate of systemic stewardship: the essential work that defines the institution's purpose in the century ahead.
Curatorial, Academic, and Gallery Inquiries
For all curatorial, academic, and gallery partnership inquiries, please contact: curatorial@objectsofaffectioncollection.com