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Re: [microsound] a primer in marxist asthetics
john saylor wrote:
ok- sure. that argument is very sensible.
maybe i missed something- but why do we care that advertisers are
interested in art [as another means to manipulate consumers]: is that
how we measure art? economically?
First of all - for anyone going 'oh sigh, Marxism', Marxism actually has
little to do with self-righteous middle-class student protestors, or the
Soviet Union, and a lot to do with a pretty solid framework for
understanding how an industrial or post-industrial economy (ie ours)
operates. For an updated version of Marxism that takes the IT industry into
account I can thoroughly recommend "A Hacker Manifesto" by McKenzie Wark.
It paints possibly the best picture of what the employer/employee
relationship feels like if you're an IT professional, while (from memory,
it's been a while since I read it) taking into account the open source
movement and other interesting bits of digital culture that have emerged
recently.
Having got that out of the way, if you read the primer on Marxist
aesthetics that Kim posted on the website (under .microsound
repository/miscellaneous/Reading), one of the questions raised was how to
interpret a particular paragraph on the place of art in the world. Two
possible interpretations are outlined (on Page 10). One interpretation puts
art as something that arises wholly from the economic/material world, thus
irreducible to the economic/material world, and thus not important in
influencing those who currently hold power in our world. The other
interpretation puts art in a position where it is capable of influencing
the economic/material world, and thus capable of affecting change in 'the
real world'.
to some people, everything in their lives is valued according to its
worth in a currency. but isn't there so much more to being alive than
collecting money? esp. for 'creative' people.
Yes, but that's not my point. Here's an analogy: one of the strongest (IMO)
ways of making the environmental movement a more powerful force for
affecting change is by adopting the language of accounting and then turning
it back on itself. If you can put a dollar value on a cubic metre of clean
air, then you can put a dollar cost on polluting that cubic metre of clean
air, and thus you can write environmental costs into accounting sheets in
ways that businesspeople understand how to deal with. Or take this example
here: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003255.html .
I'm not saying that art has to have an impact on the economy, or that it
should be valued by its worth in currency - I'm just saying that it *can*,
and such an analysis if performed could prove hugely useful in, for
example, convincing rich people to fund art projects.
The wild-eyed free-jazz cats put on a gig,
[deletions]
and next thing you know something of the essence of the
wild-eyed free-jazz music (mutated and translated but still there)
shows up
on prime-time television selling toothpaste.
sure- to grab the glitchy audience ...
No, not at all.
Go listen to 'Don't Tell Me' by Madonna. Notice how enormously it features
the glitchy cut-up guitar. But this is not a glitchy work, and not designed
to 'grab the glitchy audience' - rather, the producers of the track chose
that one particular aesthetic as a way of hooking in the straight pop
audience to a fresh sound.
Do you think the producers of 'Don't Tell Me' would've dared do this had
there not been a significant body of pre-existing glitch work, that
doubtless they or some of their more out-there music-geek friends played
them at some stage? It's all networking.
is this artistic sucess? does it mean microsound music has 'arrived'
once it's used as a soundtrack for a television advertisement?
I think microsound on a television ad would be a good /indication/ that
microsound had 'arrived', yes. Ads tend to be quite conservative. But I
don't think that placement on a television advertisement could ever in
itself bring about the 'arrival' of microsound.
your wild-eyed free-jazz cat is still dumpster diving for dinner ...
Do we care more that the wild-eyed free-jazz cat is rewarded for his
efforts, or that his efforts reach the rest of the world and affect change?
I think the latter.
Besides, I currently earn a very enormous hourly wage for my design job,
and I still dumpster dive for my dinner sometimes.
--
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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