Economising Culture

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.