Re: [microsound] the culture industry

[Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

john saylor wrote:

> comic books, cds, dvds, calendars, lunch boxes: products.
> what's the service?

A comic book is an object through which a comic is distributed. The 
comic itself is a distinct object from the book. The purpose of the 
comic is to cause a collection of mental events in the reader. In an 
important sense the comic is the mental events.

My point is clearer with a CD. When I buy a CD I'm not buying it because 
it's a shiny plastic disc, I'm buying it because it lets me arrange the 
air molecules in front of my speakers (or headphones) in particular ways 
that I like. The 'fan' aspect (the desire to hold the object and read 
the liner notes) aside, I'm buying a service, not a product.

Calenders and lunch boxes are less 'cultural artifacts' than they are 
are functional items, so the point is weaker. But they also aren't 
'cultural antifacts' in the interesting way that CDs or DVDs are.

> > The last hundred years blip of culture as recorded medium is a blip, and
> > will end soon.
>
> how do you know this?

I don't /know/ it, I just believe it, strongly. I hold a mostly circular 
view of history, and a whole bunch of instincts, not to mention my 
ethical sense and the perceived ethical sense of most of my peers, lead 
me to this belief.

--
Damian Stewart
+64 27 305 4107

f r e y
live music with machines
http://www.frey.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/freyed

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