Description

Economising Culture
Data Browser 01
On the (Digital) Culture Industry
Geoff Cox, Joasia Krysa & Anya Lewin

The interaction between culture and economy was famously explored by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer by the term ‘Kulturindustrie’ (The Culture Industry) to describe the production of mass culture and power relations between capitalist producers and mass consumers. Their account is a bleak one, but one that appears to hold continuing relevance, despite being written in 1944. Today, the pervasiveness of network technologies has contributed to the further erosion of the rigid boundaries between high art, mass culture and the economy, resulting in new kinds of cultural production charged with contradictions. On the one hand, the culture industry appears to allow for resistant strategies using digital technologies, but on the other it operates in the service of capital in ever more complex ways. This publication, the fi rst in the DATA browser series, uses the concept of the culture industry as a point of departure, and tests its currency under new conditions. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO ‘THE (DIGITAL) CULTURE INDUSTRY’ – Geoff Cox, Joasia Krysa & Anya Lewin THE FLEXIBLE PERSONALITY: FOR A NEW CULTURAL CRITIQUE – Brian Holmes HERITAGE – The Yes Men THE MOOD OF NETWORKING CULTURE – Jeremy Valentine AN ECONOMY OF LOVE – Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings GLOBALICA: COMMUNISM, CULTURE AND THE COMMODITY – Esther Leslie Re-Code.com – Carbon Defense League & Conglomco Media Conglomeration TRIP THE LOOP, MAKE YOUR SWITCH, CONSUME THE NET – Julian Priest & James Stevens SOCIETY IN AD-HOC MODE: DECENTRALISED, SELF-ORGANISING, MOBILE – Armin Medosch SIGHTINGS – Raqs Media Collective FLEXIBLE COLONISATION – Marina Grzinic LOWTECH MUSIC FOR HIGHTECH PEOPLE – Gameboyzz Orchestra HOMEWORK: THE EXTENSION OF THE CULTURE INDUSTRY – Mirko Tobias Schäfer THE PRESIDENT@WHITEHOUSE.GOV SHOOTER – Margarete Jahrmann ON WARFARE AND REPRESENTATION – Jordan Crandall THE SPECTACLE: GLOBAL AND PARTICULAR – Adam J. Chmielewski NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS For more information see www.data-browser The DATA browser series presents critical texts that explore issues at the intersection of culture and technology. The editorial group are Geoff Cox, Joasia Krysa, Anya Lewin, Malcolm Miles, Mike Punt & Hugo de Rijke DATA browser. This volume is produced in association with i-DAT.