Such *convertibility* between these various systems of communication and
exchange is necessary; freeways, malls, and television are not merely
simliar in form, they are systems constructed to interact in mutually
reinforcing ways. Each institution is a kind of socio-cultural
distribution and feedback system for the others: Television (most
obviously as mass-audience network broadcasts) serves as the nationwide
distribution system for symbols in anticipation and reinforcement of a
national culture presented not only as desirable but as already realized
somewhere else. The mall is a displacement and the enclosure of a
walkable street and a collective site in which to cash in on the
promises of the commodities seen on television. The freeway is the
manifestation of personal mobility at its most literal, its radius a
lifeline that makes the consumption style of suburban living and
shopping economically feasible as well as logistically possible. The
auto on the freeway is a juncture between television and mall, a "home"
and commodity fetish on wheels. Convertibility between systems means
that values can be exchanged whether they are expressed as commodity
objects or images, in two or three dimensions, or in gigantic or
miniature scale.
--Margaret Morse
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