Re: [microsound] a primer in marxist asthetics

[Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Kim Cascone wrote:
> a .pdf of the first chapter only
> was uploaded to the repository
> in the reading dir.

Thanks for that Kim.

This makes me think about the "creative industry" - design, advertising, 
and film and television production. Given as how almost all manufacturing 
work now happens overseas, it could be argued that these are becoming the 
most economically important forces in the Western world.

Now, I work in this industry (with a small company that makes interactive 
museum installations), and having spoken to the owners of several of the 
most successful companies here in Wellington, New Zealand, it strikes me 
that one of the things that they all have in common is an interest in art. 
This makes a lot of sense - advertisers are often looking for different 
ways of enticing people to experience their ads, and artists are often 
trying to create works that allow listeners or viewers to experience 
something new or different, or at least in a different way.

Whether or not advertising is art is a separate matter and one I'm not 
really interested in, but my point is that if advertising is an important 
economic force (which it is), and if advertisers are interested in art 
(which they appear to be), then art does have an effect on the economy. 
Even if it's indirect, it's there. The wild-eyed free-jazz cats put on a 
gig, someone from the audience goes home later that night and composes some 
electronica in response; he plays it to his buddy who writes soundtracks 
for Saatchi & Saatchi, his buddy goes off later that week and writes some 
new music for the ad he's working on, having drawn inspiration from his 
mate's electronica, 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.

--
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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