[spectre] from media art to open source culture

[Marius Watz]

Armin,

Interesting text. The formulation of a high art version of media art is
particularly relevant at the current moment, as more and more media
artists are trying to cross over into the commercial art world, getting
gallerists and selling their work as commodities.

While I understand your critical view of "high art", I wonder if you
have considered an economic model for artists to survive without some
form of commodification. While Open Source is clearly a viable and
attractive model, most of its proponents live from other means of income
or are supported by academic institutions. At the moment, many media
artists are reliant on the media art "ghetto" of publicly funded
festivals, but it rarely pays enough to support a family or plan a long
life.

I do find it ironic that one has to subscribe to the construction of
value through scarcity, when the digital object is by its nature
infinitely reproducible. But if value cannot be constructed, how are
artists supposed to pay their rent without taking "real" jobs? Even if
YouTube etc. should find a licensing model for paying authors for their
work, I doubt it will put food on the table for most artists.

Or should your text be read as saying that the role of "artist" is
simply redundant , in favor of a more egalitarian model of "culture
producers" not depending on institutions for support?

-marius


Armin Medosch wrote:
> The Next Layer or: The Emergence of Open Source Culture
>
> Draft text for Pixelache publication, Armin Medosch, London/Vienna 2006
> - 2007
>
>
> First we had media art. In the early days of electronic and digital
> culture media art was an important way of considering relationships
> between society and technology, suggesting new practices and cultural
> techniques. It served as an outlet for the critique of the dark side of
> computer culture's roots in the military-industrial complex; and it
> suggested numerous utopian and beautiful ways of engagement with
> technology, new types of interactivity, sensuous interfaces,
> participative media practices, for instance. However, the more critical,
> egalitarian and participative branches of media art tended to be
> overshadowed by the advocacy of a high-tech and high-art version of it.
> This high-media art conceptually merged postmodern media theories with
> the techno-imaginary from computersciences and new wave cybernetics.
> Uncritical towards capitalisms embrace of technology as provider of
> economic growth and a weirdly paradoxical notion of progress, high-media
> art was successful in institutionalizing itself and finding the support
> of the elites but drew a lot of criticism from other quarters of
> society. It stuck to the notion of the artist as a solitary genius who
> creates works of art which exist in an economy of scarcity and for which
> intellectual ownership rights are declared. 
> ...........
>   
-- 
Marius Watz

Work: http://www.unlekker.net/
Blog: http://www.generatorx.no/
Play: http://www.evolutionzone.com/