ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the importance of design and tactility to the production and maintenance of celebrity culture. In the circuit of celebrity affect, texturality refers to the fine-grain nature of the design work that goes into creating celebrity experiences. The chapter draws on design theory, consumption politics and celebrity waterphilia to show how important texturality is to the twin engines of production and consumption. It explores how the design textures found in celebrity culture activate the senses, create the conditions for an embodied type of possessive individualism and ultimately find its primary substance in wetted spectacle. Celebrity culture seduces and represses, admits and expels: although its embodied dream networks suggest only the former. The supposed democracy of celebrity culture is suggested by both its ubiquity – it seems to be everywhere and potentially 'in' everyone – and interactivity: one can actively participate in its affective streams.
