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Re: [microsound] artificats?



On 12/4/06, Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I think we've got multiple different meanings of the word 'cultural
> artifact' here. A CD or DVD is a different kind of cultural artifact to
> a lunchbox, or a book, or a 78 RPM single. On a lower level you've got
> the item of culture (cultural artifact 0) that the physical object
> encloses or represents. Then you've got the physical object itself
> (cultural artifact 1).
>
> A compact disc containing a recording of a piano concerto is not a piano
> concerto. Is the piano concerto the cultural artifact? the CD? both? As
> cultural practitioners, which one do we care about more? I'd argue that
> the CD is a function of the particular material emphasis of our current
> times, and that we care much more about the piano concerto itself than
> about the shiny plastic disc.
>


I believe this question has to do with the industrialisation of culture.
This makes it hard to conceive of cultural products that are not
commodified. But it also means that a whole new fields of interesting
contradictions of being inside and outside of the commodity exchange system
at the same time. Those contradictions can be used as raw material for
cultural practices.

benedikt