Book Review The politics of cultural work. Mark Banks. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. 228pp. Hardcover, £74.00. ISBN: 978-0-230-01921-8 Mark Banks is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. Before, he was Reader in Sociology at The Open University and Senior Lecture in Cultural Studies and Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University (University of Leicester, n.d.). With academic background both in sociology and cultural studies, Banks has been mainly focused on the relationship between culture and economy. His recent publications include both close empirical studies and theoretical explorations on the value and exchange of cultural work, the practice of cultural workers and the inequalities and divisions in the creative industries. In The Political of Cultural Work (2007), Banks joins the debate on the ‘art-commerce’ relation by focusing on cultural work in the micro-level and addressing the importance of space and place, explores the possibility of alternatives creativity under the capitalist context, and further suggests to considering the political and social implication of cultural work. Based on an examination of three traditional as well as fundamental theses, the book provides critical insight into the future of creative and cultural work. In the Chapter 2, Banks …show more content…
He poses the vulnerability of ‘alternatives’ under the established global capitalism and carries on discussing the potential and uncertainty of alternative currencies and gift-giving as tools of cultural products exchange as well as the digital democracy. At last, he proposes the transformational potential of cultural work and emphases that the prospect of these potential initiatives and the impulses of transformations are ‘yet-to-be-specified’ (ibid.,
In the article “The Neoliberal Arts: How college sold its soul to the market,” William Deresiewicz describes how our modern day era of neoliberalism has impacted education. William Deresiewicz makes many valid points about our current education system. For example, he states how a larger percent of students are now majoring in fields that provide you with financial stability compared to that of fifty years ago. In this article there are some ideas I agree with and some I don’t.
In Mary Oliver’s “Of Power and Time,” she shows us a more efficient way of becoming a creative and extraordinary worker. In her work, she shares many examples and ideas to help display her message that creative work should be done by dedicating large amounts of time, and giving it all your effort to make it truly extraordinary. Oliver demonstrates the main idea of that creative work requires more attention as it does not make the world go around, but forwards. Oliver uses curious word choice, asserting ideas, illustration of examples, and strong points, to give her audience of creative workers seeking for improvement a better understanding of how creative and extraordinary work can be done.
What does the work consist of? Who authored it, and how? What is it based on, and how does it relate? What is it, and what will become of it? The answers to these questions, collectively, form an important response to a bigger question: What is art? What does it mean to describe a piece as “a work of art”?
Hall, S. (1992) ‘The question of cultural identity’, in Hall, S., Held, D. and McGrew, T. (eds) Modernity and Its Futures, Cambridge, Polity/ The Open University.
Connor is concerned with how Sound Art is a vehicle for change in the gallery, in particular how sound can extend beyond the walls of the gallery to ventilate it with the sounds of what lies outside it, or to temporalise place. Connor discusses The Sonic Boom Exhibition held in London in 2000 which featured 23 sound artists who exhibited at The Hayward Gallery. The show featured an emphasis on sculptures or objects that produced sound. David Toop, the curator for the Sonic Boom Exhibition was faced with ‘a positively suburban problem of sound pollution’ says Connor. When one enters the exhibition one is immediately overwhelmed by a dense cloud of noise and sounds. How many sounding objects can one put into one space? David Toop defends his approach with the help of a w...
Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. 310-378.
The most influential cultural practice of our time is the culture of capitalism, as it is the dominant form of economic organization across the globe (Anderson 2010). Capitalism takes and makes places throughout the globe, leaving traces that affect the commodities we buy, the livings earned, the methods and motives for travelling, and the meanings associated with them (Anderson 2010). The culture of capitalism is based upon trading products, experiences, and services, at all different scales - locally, nationally, or globally. Those who successfully trade products and services, and those who are limited to selling their labour to help other manufacture and provide the desired product often define capitalism. The process of making more money is a key defining element of the culture of capitalism (Anderson 2010).
Art and literature work independently of each other, however, they can be linked together to help a reader or observer understand in new ways and create new possibilities. Within this context, the perspective of Jacob Lawrence and the authors address that it takes work to build the ideal society and family. However, the authors give the stark reality of both society and family demonstrating that our reality is nothing like the ideal.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
Throughout this paper I will be discuss and describe these three articles about Stuart Hall cultural studies theory the Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms from Media, Culture and Society, then the Cultural Studies in the Future tense and Sexing the Self: Gendered Positions in Cultural Studies theory.
Bertolt Brecht asserted, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Art, encompassing all popular culture artifacts, both reflects the society that creates it and is itself an agent capable of changing social reality. Popular culture artifacts, like the Harry Potter series discussed in Nexon and Neumann’s work, Harry Potter and International Relations, exert agency, or causal power over the meaning and interpretation of cultural elements, by influencing the way ideas and values are constructed in everyday life. This paper will demonstrate that popular culture artifacts construct meanings and influence interpretations of reality.
Hartley, John (2002), Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, London, Routledge, pp. 19-21.
Living in a modern time, our lives can hardly be separated from creativity and culture. Creative industries have increasingly influenced our daily lives, not just the products we use, but also the money we make. According to DCMS (2014), creative industries in Britain are worth more than £70 billion to its economy every year, not to mention creative industries in other countries. In the following, the seven economic properties as stated in Caves (2000) will be applied to the creative industry, ‘New Media’. ‘New Media’ is one of the nine creative industries proposed in the UNCTAD’s
Contemporary art is produced at the present period in time, which it mainly refers to the meaning of the spirit, and have a modern art Modern language. When people are faced with a work of art, there is a complex judgment or intuition feeling which to consider about it has artistic value or not. Exposure of today's artists and cultural environment and in the face of today's reality, their work will inevitably reflect the characteristics of today. “A work of art is a tautology in that it is a presentation of the artist’s intention, that is, he is saying that a particular work of art is art, which means, is a definition of art” (Diarmuid Costello, Jonathan Vickery, pg.22, 2007). Artistic inheritance is a historical necessity of any art is constantly successor of the previous generation of art. Development of contemporary art can be said to follow the human development and growth. Of course, no matter what kind of art form, and they reflect the performance of all modern social changes which to bring the social and psychological characteristics to show the artist's exploration of artistic expression.
The purpose of this essay is to firstly explain what John Fiske means by ‘popular culture lies not in the production of commodities so much as the productive use of industrial commodities’ (Fiske, J. 1990 p.28). Secondly this essay will go on to compare Fiske’s interpretation of popular culture to MacDonald’s theory of mass culture.