Economising Culture (Data Browser)

Great mix of contributors including Esther Leslie Cutting-edge critical theory - includes an analysis of the film 'The Yes Men' Explores how & why new technologies - like the internet - have changed the relationship between mass culture and high art Focuses on the economics of cultural production - the power relation between producers and consumers The interaction between culture and economy was famously explored by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. They coined 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 continues to be relevant, 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. 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.

Geoff Cox is an artist, teacher and Senior Lecturer in Computing at U. of Plymouth in the UK. He co-curated the touring exhibition Generator (2002-3) with Spacex Gallery and, with a grant from the Arts Council of England, has been working on a project about artificial life. He is also a trustee of the UK Museum of Ordure and Kahve-Society.

Joasia Krysa is a researcher and curator at i-DAT (Institute of Digital Art and Technology) and Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at the School of Computing, Communication and Electronics, U. of Plymouth in the UK. She coordinates the Curatorial Network with Arts Council England South West. She also curates conferences, including Hybrid Discourse, anti-globalika: tensions in the new global disorder and Artist as Engineer.