What is the value cultural production?

Knowledge Collection People & Projects
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I met Ela in Berlin when I attended one of the Free Culture Incubator events that she organises on a regular basis. It was the first time I was at a “culture “ event that explicitly asked and attempted to find answers to the questions about the price and value of freelance creative work and I really liked the approach. So I suggested a collaboration around a project exploring the consequences of decentralisation of manufacturing on the way organise the production of goods and services. In the course of working together in a loosely coordinated form we became friends and have been supportive of one another’s work ever since.

    “Where there is no tension between supply and demand, there can be no market and no capital accumulation.” Michel Bauens

A lot of people are engaged in producing, remixing  and spreading culture. The creative economy is a big deal. However, other than by directly generating sales of cultural products or merchandising, it is very hard to make use of the cultural value that's trapped in there. Creative producers are struggling and keep finding closed doors. So how do we get acknowledgement for the value of cultural production?

This is a conversation taking place on Edgeryders. If you want to be a part of it just leave a comment  on Ela’s post here (you need to be signed in).

Or you could just send us an email at: egderyders@gmail.com.

 
 
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True culture should not be confused with its products

I have seen creative producers struggle for 2 decades. I tried twice to make a cultural production­. I was elected president of the organization representing the rights of artists of my country. It was even more daunting in this position, because I had an overview of the struggles of creators. I saw them going in circles, decade after decade, and felt discouraged. I did not wish to have the same fate.

Philosopher Théodor Adorno (1903-1969) said that “We must not confuse culture and products of the culture industry.”

The role of true culture (what is called “art”) is to dissect mechanics, it is supposed to be an invitation to think, to act, and to get away from consumerism.

However, the cultural industry does not tend to an emancipation or liberation of the individual. But rather, it is considered to be a standardization of lifestyle with the dominance of economic logic and an authoritarian power. Is there a fundamental difference between propaganda and cultural industries? One could draw a parallel between the cultural and youth. There are similarities in the dominance of a model which occupies all the space and must be respected.

For Adorno, the cultural industry degrades the human being: it is the making of a consent, a sort of advertisement for the world, as it is and should remain (ie a standard). Adorno also warned that the investment in the cultural industry are rarely the best paths to be taken. The effect of the culture industry on consumer consciousness should not be minimized: it broadcasts mass values ​​of the dominant thought, according to Adorno.

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the evolution of species

Lyne, your post set me thinking. Almost 70 years have passed since Adorno wrote about cultural and creative industries. Certainly also today these industries continue to broadcast mass values​​, but according to you today aren’t we better prepared and more critical? Aren’t we already using those same tools and thus cultural products  to disseminate other values​​?

with very hard work, but I believe this is happening!

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I see change as taking place at a deeper level

Euh… it is hard to explain…

Evolutional change is happening. But it taking place at a much deeper level than just a change of values. The evolution through which the embodied self becomes aware of higher possibilities is a transmutation of the whole personality, in all aspects. This requires a complete overhaul and restructuring of the human machine (reengineering of the human DNA). There is no scientific data yet to prove that this evolution is happening now. But groups are mobilizing to create databases that will be used for scientific research, to demonstrate that evolution is underway. (I am an active member of this movement.)

Those who understand this are not artists, but mystics. Or perhaps a new breed of scientists.

The human species stands at the end of a cycle. The decay of society, and threatened extinction of our race, appear to me as more likely protagonists than culture or cultural industries.

There are (positive) forces at work, empowering evolution, that appear to be far more powerful than culture. But of course everyone is free to believe and to think what he/she wants.

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A Deeper Level

Oh, Lyne, voici quelque chose non pas d’inattendu mais très courageux de ta part car peu de gens acceptent de se poser la question de la refondation de l’humain à part Ray Kurzweil Ray Kurzweil - Wikipedia  et son projet de transhumanisme Transhumanism - Wikipedia

Je te soutiens. Michel

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Transhumanisme, l’idee la plus dangereuse?

Je vois que le transhumanisme a recu la critique “une des idees les plus dangereuses”. Je dois etre pas mal dangereuse, alors :). TREMBLEZ! Je ne comprends pas, il n’y a pas eu de commentaire a monrapport de mission sur l’AADRAV alors que Alessia m’avait invitee a en faire une histoire. J’ai du faire des recherches sur les textes de loi de l’epoque et rescusciter des souvenirs enterres depuis 20 ans. J’ai ecrit en anglais pour qu’elle comprenne. Peut-etre que Tiago et Alessia sont pris ailleurs… Tout le monde a une vie…

Merci pour ton soutien, Michel.

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Idées dangereuses

Qu’on ose qualifier d’“idée dangereuse” le transhumanisme, me laisse pantois, alors qualifions de “dangereuse” toute spéculation sur ce que peut être l’humain, tant l’humain en réseau, l’humain de l’intelligence collective, etc.

Je rappelerai au(x) censeur(s) que Ray Kurzweil est l’inventeur d’un modèle de cerveau IA (Intelligence artificielle) le plus abouti avec celui d’Alain Cardon. Et les deux sont des modèles “très humains”. De plus Kurzweil assure la promotion, le développement de son Homme “transhumain” en tant que futur Homme capable de développer une nouvelle civilisation, de produire de nouvelles ressources, etc.

Voir http://singularityu.org/

Courage Lyne

Michel

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Présage des possibilités latentes de tous les humains

Les “idées dangereuses” sont rejetées par des scientifiques et décideurs emprisonnés dans une perception séparée, engendrée par l’égoisme et d’autres comportements non altruistes.

De nombreux mystiques ont néanmoins compris, depuis longtemps (par exemple, Bouddha et Jésus), que se mettre en réseaux, faire appel à l’intelligence collective, conduirait probablement à de meilleures réussites.

Voici une très belle prédiction de Baird Thomas Spalding, qui peut s’appliquer au phénomène de bouillonnement d’activité accrue dans les médias sociaux (mais qui faisait cependant référence à l’Homme kundalinien): “On ne tardera pas à découvrir que l’unité des mobiles et des efforts constitue le plus puissant moyen d’atteindre le but désiré. Alors les innombrables individus, qui dispersent leurs pensées dans toutes les directions et tirent à hue et à dia, ne penseront plus que comme un seul et les hommes connaîtront la signification d’un effort vigoureux, continue, et commun. Quand ils seront mus par une volonté unique, toutes choses leur seront possibles.”

Et encore:

“Quand l’homme s’est dérobé à ce plan de coopération parfaite, il a déséquilibré le monde et a provoqué la destruction. La pensée parfaite d’amour, coopérant dans le coeur des hommes avec l’équilibre et le pouvoir, maintient la stabilité de la terre. Quand les hommes dispersent cette force en pensées de péché et de luxure, le monde fut tellement désorienté que l’humanité détruisit presque tout le fruit de ses travaux.”

(Spalding, écrivain américain, a vécu de 1872 à 1953. Il a écrit un ouvrage relatant des voyages durant lequel il aurait rencontré des êtres aux pouvoirs étonnants.)

Par conséquent, comme je l’ai indiqué un peu plus tôt quelque part dans ce fil de discussion, les artistes — qui sont des créateurs, qui ont la plupart du temps recours à l’inspiration (leur provenant d’une force située à l’intérieur d’eux et étant plus grande qu’eux) — contribuent effectivement à pousser les humains vers de plus hauts sommets. Mais ils n’ont pas la connaissance, pour la plupart d’entre eux, de plus grandes possibilités pour l’humain.

Il est des hommes qui suivent avec persévérance un véritable idéal de vie (le plan de la nature). Ceux-là ont fait de grands progrès. S’il souhaite éviter la destruction, le monde sera bientôt obligé d’accepter les leçons de ces hommes, dont la vie laisse présager les possibilités latentes de tous les humains.

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Au bord de la destruction. Augmentation de la démence

Certains individus peuvent voir dans le futur, une aptitude essentielle pour la survie de notre espèce à l’ère nucléaire. Cela permettrait à l’humanité de se déjouer des pièges qui ont le potentiel de la conduire tout droit à la catastrophe.

Aucune semaine ne passe sans que nous n’apprenions pas la nouvelle d’une autre grave crise, souvent causée par des erreurs commises par les dirigeants politiques. Bien qu’ils tentent de considérer tous les facteurs et qu’ils s’efforcent de peser les conséquences de chacune de leurs alternatives, les événements sui s’ensuivent prouvent que leur jugement était souvent mauvais, parce que c’est seulement la lumière intérieure qui peut guider le monde en toute sécurité à travers les menaces de destruction.

Ce canal, cependant, n’est pas destiné à prédire la montée ou la chute des marchés boursiers ou pour d’autres raisons banales. Ce canal est destiné à guider la course de l’humanité. C’est pourquoi celles et ceux qui se sont éveillés à ce pouvoir — d’une manière saine — deviennent presque immédiatement plus préoccupés par le bien-être de l’humanité que de leurs désirs personnels et leurs propres problèmes.

Si la menace de destruction par l’armement nucléaire ne vous est pas suffisante comme preuve de dégénérescence de notre race, j’ai appris aujourd’hui que l’Organisation mondiale de la santé prévoit trois fois plus de cas de démence d’ici 2050. À défaut d’avoir un individu fou qui appuira sur le bouton du nucléaire et s’appropriera ainsi le pouvoir de destruction, nous sombrons graduellement dans la démence.

«Avec plus de 115 millions de cas attendus de démence (un syndrome - affectant de manière généralement chronique, la mémoire et le raisonnement, le comportement et l’aptitude à réaliser des tâches quotidiennes) à l’horizon d’ici 2050 selon un récent rapport de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, ces cas sont en passe de devenir un véritable fléau. Or le problème dans bien des pays, est encore trop souvent négligé souligne l’OMS. Seuls huit pays possèdent un programme national de lutte contre la démence.» (ref, Trois fois plus de cas de démence d’ici 2050).

Seulement quatre pays européens se sont dotés d’un tel plan: France, Norvège, Pays-Bas et Royaume-Uni.

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Priceless gem of life lost in the dark of ignorance

"The difficulty, faced by ancien seers

To bring conviction home to their compeers,

Crops up as people cannot see the way

How this mysterious soul-uplifting ray

Of Cosmic Consciousness can bring about

So marvelous a change, remove all doubt

About Divinity, transform a man

Into a gifted seer, with power to scan

The complex problems which confront mankind,

At times too mixed up for a normal mind;

But clear as crystal to an illuminated sage,

Ordained to expose the errors of his age.

From war to peace, barbarism to the height

Of culture, to ideals and visions bright,

Man is ascending step by step without

The least idea what all this is about,

Why the bewildering life, why peace and war,

Why love and hate and why these problems bar

The understanding of what brought him here

To think and wonder, to run here and there

To meet his pressing needs, to have a weight

Around his neck, tied hard by cruel Fate.

All this alarm of war and threat of guns,

Of frightful missiles and dread megatons

Is nature’s warning of a faulty trend

Which makes material goals the aim and end

Of  life, for man comes not to act a farce,

To be a well-led, brightly harnessed horse,

Who makes his round of duties with his eyes

Only half open to the earth and skies,

Oblivious to his glorious destiny,

From what he is now what he has to be.

Man does not know that he has woken up

To earthly life to sip the ambrosial cup

Of Life Sublime, to realize that he,

Free from the earth belongs to Eternity:

The cream of earth, the bright Immortal Spark,

The priceless Gem of Life, lost in the dark

Of ignorance, the Glory of the Sun

And stars, the countless host contained in One."

(Gopi Krishna, The shape of events to come, 1968)

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New systems design, imagination, creativity and democracy

I asked to philosopher Michel Filippi (and Edgeryders participant) what he thinks about Adorno, and he replied “he is still good to read”. (Ref here)

He added: “La plupart des industries culturelles actuelles ne produisent aucune innovation. Elles se parent des plumes des innovateurs du XIXe et début-milieu XXe siècle. Elles imitent et déploient toutes les ressources de l’imitation sans rien concevoir de neuf.” Translation: “Most industries do not produce any current cultural innovation. They adorn themselves with feathers of innovators of the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth century. They imitate and deploy all the resources of imitation without designing anything new.” (ref here, here and here).

And @Bourjoi (Montreal Canadian visual artist since 1968, with a Masters from UQAM, specialized in multimedia, teaching in high school) added: “Il n’est pas naturel de créer le culturel. L’imagination sert à représenter le réel dans l’irréel intérieur pour survivre.;-)” Translation: “It is not natural to create the cultural. Imagination is used to represent the real in the unreal, in order to survive inside”. (ref here)

“Comprendre et faire usage de l’imagination n’est qu’opération mentale consistant à remémorer en croyant que c’est penser.”, concluded @Bourjoi. Translation: “Understanding and making use of the imagination is an operation consisting of a mental recall, presuming that it is a thought”. (ref here)

Therefore, with this explanation, I feel that @Bourjoi goes in the same direction pointed by the “mystics”.…

Moreover, Michel Filippi also added: "La créativité est une façon d’invoquer de nouveau le Génie. donc la main cachée des dieux. Pas bon pour la démocratie ;-((  "  Translation: “Creativity is a way to re-invoke the Genius. Therefore, the hidden hand of the Gods. Not good for democracy.” (ref here)

About systems design, which would be exploratory and democratic, Michel Filippi gave me this link to the book “LES NOUVEAUX RÉGIMES DE LA CONCEPTION”, curated by Armand HATCHUEL, in collaboration with Christophe MIDLER, Georges AMAR, Philippe BOUDON, Anne-Marie BOUTIN, Philippe DOUBLET, Michel FILIPPI, Anne-françoise GARÇON, Pascal LE MASSON, Anne-françoise SCHMID, Blanche SEGRESTIN, Hélène VERIN.

(Note from translator: I translated “régimes de la conception” by “systems design”, but I am not sure it is the most appropriate expression. And “raison conceptrice” by conceptive reasoning. A professional advice would be required here.)

(My translation of this book’s resume) “The fate of contemporary society is inseparable from design activities: that is to say, collective efforts to create objects, techniques or new social systems. However, design activity is poorly studied. Its history is less known than the labor of workers, and often remains isolated within each industry (architects, engineers, designers, ergonomists, etc.). This collective work will restore a universal approach to design activities and meet the philosophical, scientific and management challenges that they raise. After resuming the major historical changes which occured in design, this book explores the theoretical and practical foundations of a new ”conceptive reasoning“ (raison conceptrice) that seem to invite to think about the unknown, to cause surprise and the unexpected, always striving to give meaning and shape adapted to our values​​. Finally, the book explores new group planning design that would be both more exploratory democratic.”

Michel Filippi concluded: “Les régimes de conception émanent de gens qui observent la nature, qui observent les innovateurs “sauvages” pour en tirer des méthodologies ancrées dans les sciences, psychologie, neuropsychologie, et cogntivisme”. Traduction: “Systems design emanates from people who observe nature, who observe the “wild” innovators, to derive methodologies rooted in science, psychology, neuropsychology, and cogntivism.” (ref here and here)

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En réponse à Lyne

J’ai écrit un papier séparé qui reprend ce que tu dis et j’ai rajouté qu’à la différence de l’innovateur “sauvage” un processus de conception efficace permet de produire à chaque fois qu’on le joue plus d’une innovation et souvent la famille de chaque innovation (c’est-à-dire sa lignée et ses variétés).

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imiter les créateurs sauvages. the cultural value

imiter les créateurs sauvages… I like it!

I don’t know if creativity and wild creatures are linked to the Genius, probably sometimes, but when I wrote that I believe in a new way to use the cultural products to disseminate other values​​, I thought exactly to some wild creatures…

like an italian group of art and performing arts workers who are occuping and are refurbishing theatres end exhibition spaces to save them from the closure and to open them to the community making the culture as commons; I thought to my friends Giuseppe and Claudio who opened a “run artist space” called BOCS in a very dangerous neighborhood of Catania to work with the citizens; I thought to Malastrada.film and the docufilm “13 variations on a baroque theme” etc.

these are for me forms of cultural value, from and for the society.

On the other hand I thought also to the tools for capture of the immaterial creative value in the so called “knowledge-based economy” and I ask myself: why the most part of who produces this value lives in a precarious way? at the end who benefits from this creative/cultural value?

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The RCAAQ network

The network formed by theartist-run centers of Quebec artists (RCAAQ) is probably the best organized and strongest in the world (with their colleagues from Canada). (ref) Many years ago, I was elected president of the AADRAV artists organization, I worked for the RCAAQ for five years. I was also vice-president of the RAAV. And I worked at CMAQ for 2 years. I have seen plenty of artist-run centers and I also saw the financial struggle of hundreds of professional artists.

To be very honest with you, I see no significant improvement, over the past 25 years.

Despite efforts to improve financial equipment for programs of financial assistance to artist-run centers, these organizations do not have yet the most basic equipment needed to work properly in production and dissemination, explains a report by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Another report warns that “many artists note a drop in their income year after year and an increase of their debt level.”

Furthermore, there is a “dictatorship of project and the short-term vision”. The current public funding programs support research and creation, whose realization must often be part of a period not exceeding one year. But such short term projects are rare in practice, and often have little significance, and therefore, cannot have a significant impact on society.

Chain creation / production / distribution / marketing is considered in Quebec not to be a desirable responsibility, because the artist is not an entrepreneur or nor a self-employed worker, but is primarily a person who undertook a research and creation, according to the Bilan du Forum des arts visuels du Québec.

Although these artist-run centers are one of the best networks in the world, I don’t believe they are doing a significant change in society. They have a significant role, no doubt about it. But they barely survive. And their situation is apparently getting grimmer.

Why the most part of who produces this value lives in a precarious way? I don’t know… I have been asking myself the same question, for the past 25 years. Good question! :slight_smile:

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join us!

Ehy Lyne, look at this group created in these days by Tiago and me.

http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/acknowledgement-social-value

We are beginning to work to collect materials. I’m translating the first two interviews I did in the theaters occupied in Italy.

I’d like to know more about your experiences with the artist-run centers of Quebec and as president of the AADRAV artists organization. Would you like to tell us this piece of your story?

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The story of AADRAV

Alessia, Tiago, thanks for your interest in AADRAV, Association des artistes du domaine réputé des arts visuels du Québec, and RCAAQ, le Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec.

It’s a really good story: a lesson about how a state failed to give legal weight to social impact created by artists and their organization. Artists from Quebec fought for many years in courts against the state, to challenge a (bad) law. A terrible combat of the innovators against the obsolete took place, and artists felt that cheating triumphed. The innovators were defeated in Superior court. This fight happened many years ago. If judges and policy makers had accepted DIVERSITY, rather than impose a single ideology — not even based on aesthetics but on numbers —, it would probably have propelled the artist-run centers network to a spectacular development. Instead, bad laws and bad decisions limited evolution of an entire cultural sector. (There really is no way to measure this, but I believe that it must have slowed advancement of a society. We will never know, for sure.) I will try to summarize the story of AADRAV in the new mission.

I will have to dig in my archives, that collect dust in a corner of my basement. I intentionally forgot that story - to heal a wounded heart - as one forgets a past life.

We wanted so much that the state recognize our value that we had built a large wooden box in which we had shipped all the network’s projects to Quebec’s Department of Culture. (It’s me, on the right.)

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Ship that sank

I feel like the old lady of the Titanic, who was asked to tell the story of a big ship that sank to the seabed!

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Where do we post in the new group?

Euh, besides joining the new group, what are we supposed to do? There is no ‘post a comment’ or ‘do this mission now’. I finished writing my piece on AADRAV’s ‘case study’, but don’t know where to post it…

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Lyne, thank you so much for your kindness and willingness to tell this story so important for you. I can’t wait to read it!

We have some problems with the group. Sorry! I hope that we can solve them as soon as possible. I’ll write you just you can post the mission.

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On the ice for now

OK. I will put my story on the ice for now.

I had not thought of this story for many years, and the Edgeryders circumstances pushed me to inquire and try to understand where the visual arts sector was at now. What a surprise to see the impact of the poor legislation! Instead of moving forward, they seem to have declined.

This makes me even more strongly believe in the diversification approach or strategy. Imposed unique ideology does not produce good results. We have talked about this it in Jamel Benguerba’s mission report, ‘Moi, l’Algérie, et le développement durable’.