Thanks. Should also have sent along the companion piece, articulating a "right to create" in the face of changing conditions. You'll find that text here: http://people.tamu.edu/~braman/bramanpdfs/013_create.pdf.
On Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 10:31 AM bronac ferran <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Sandra > That is a fascinating read and very much on topic. > > B > > On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 at 15:37, Sandra Braman <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> This piece from 1996 on art and various forms of capital in the digital >> world has some things to say that are pertinent to this interesting >> conversation. You'll see some theorists not as present in ongoing >> conversation these days as they were then, but I stand on the piece. >> >> "Art in the Information Economy" >> http://people.tamu.edu/~braman/bramanpdfs/011_art.pdf >> >> Sandra Braman >> >> On Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Send nettime-l mailing list submissions to >>> [email protected] >>> >>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >>> http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >>> [email protected] >>> >>> You can reach the person managing the list at >>> [email protected] >>> >>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >>> than "Re: Contents of nettime-l digest..." >>> >>> >>> Today's Topics: >>> >>> 1. Re: what does monetary value indicate? (Molly Hankwitz) >>> 2. Re: what does monetary value indicate? (Brian Holmes) >>> >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> Message: 1 >>> Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2021 18:50:30 -0700 >>> From: Molly Hankwitz <[email protected]> >>> To: Michael Goldhaber <[email protected]> >>> Cc: [email protected] >>> Subject: Re: <nettime> what does monetary value indicate? >>> Message-ID: >>> <CAH5TXpxUg4Lor3z=BLftTdqghDAk= >>> [email protected]> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >>> >>> Hi Michael, >>> >>> Or, maybe, originality has been all along, a fictional history, and a >>> signifier for fictional social relations in much art history, if only to >>> justify value through ?scarcity? (genius and originality are rare) or >>> create its justification (there is only one original) and to obscure >>> modes >>> of artistic production not about ?sole? authorship and individual >>> creativity? Somewhere along the line, ?originality? was seen to be a >>> valuable asset in art making, taught, told, produced, encouraged, and >>> then >>> it died many deaths as a concept; as something to strive for or achieve >>> or >>> practice or expect? ?Death of the author?, digital reproducibility, >>> post-medium conditions, AI Art, all seemingly question or consider at >>> least >>> art without ?originality?. >>> We have replaced this expectation instead with collectivity, >>> collaboration, >>> stakeholders, or, much more importantly, maybe, the artist as an >>> ?original? >>> interpreter of systems. So, I?m thinking that the new artist might be >>> more >>> akin to an economist who comprehends the communication of value or an >>> artist who digs deeply into AI enough to transform it...originally. This >>> appears to me by way of Paglen, Steryel, and others to be a trend. Artist >>> as ?administrative author? or initiator of a system, through which >>> communities can act, somewhat recursively to establish value, and/or >>> prosper via, for instance, a shared currency? >>> >>> (Fresh from MoneyLab events) >>> >>> Molly >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 4:02 PM Michael Goldhaber <[email protected] >>> > >>> wrote: >>> >>> > On Mar 27, 2021, at 1:27 PM, Molly Hankwitz <[email protected]> >>> > wrote: >>> > >>> > >>> > ..how original is original when originality died long ago ? >>> > >>> > >>> > Yes, originality died with the second cave painting, but has been >>> reborn >>> > many times since, even if only evident to new generations. Depending >>> on >>> > the fineness of your mesh, it is always relatively rare, and thus, >>> with so >>> > many trying for it today, perhaps easily not seen. But I bet still >>> around. >>> > >>> > >>> > Best, >>> > >>> > Michael >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > -- >>> >>> >>> molly hankwitz - she/her >>> http://bivoulab.org >>> -------------- next part -------------- >>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >>> URL: < >>> http://mx.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/attachments/20210327/1483fa99/attachment-0001.html >>> > >>> >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>> Message: 2 >>> Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2021 23:28:14 -0500 >>> From: Brian Holmes <[email protected]> >>> To: Molly Hankwitz <[email protected]> >>> Cc: a moderated mailing list for net criticism >>> <[email protected]> >>> Subject: Re: <nettime> what does monetary value indicate? >>> Message-ID: >>> < >>> canuitgwqjvwcrzinuz6z51jyrwwzng0jw-gxohdbtstzmev...@mail.gmail.com> >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >>> >>> On Sat, Mar 27, 2021 at 8:51 PM Molly Hankwitz <[email protected]> >>> asked: >>> >>> Artist as ?administrative author? or initiator of a system, through which >>> > communities can act, somewhat recursively to establish value, and/or >>> > prosper via, for instance, a shared currency? >>> > >>> >>> I am fascinated by the concept of the artist as "initiator of a system," >>> it's the most profound and still-relevant notion of art to come out of >>> the >>> late 20th century. To initiate a system is to open up the field in which >>> something like orientation or valuation can take place. Exactly what the >>> orientations and values must be is not initially prescribed, but still, >>> the >>> coordinates and the terms of measure are made available and shared, as we >>> all know from software and activist movements and even love (let's think >>> co-initiators). >>> >>> But the demon of contradiction wants me to take something so admirable >>> into >>> a more troubling direction, which could have some bearing on Felix's >>> question of NFT motivations. >>> >>> There were these two dudes, I happen to know their story, Leo Melamed, >>> the >>> star trader of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Milton Friedman - >>> well, >>> you get the picture. Leo went to listen in on the classes given by ol' >>> Milt >>> at the University of Chicago, notably because of the idea that in a world >>> of floating currency values, futures markets would easily emerge. Money >>> could be made from the possible future values of money - it fired >>> Melamed's >>> imagination. When Nixon suspended the Bretton Woods treaties and opened >>> up >>> the floating world, Leo commissioned Milt to write an authoritative >>> paper, >>> and the two co-initiators went to Washington to institute a new world >>> order. Legal to boot. Friedman rang the bell at the opening of the >>> International Monetary Market on May 16, 1972. It opened up the entire >>> computational space of financial derivatives. You can read Melamed's >>> prose >>> if you're curious, but you gotta see the look on Friedman's face: >>> https://bit.ly/3rvC1t8 >>> >>> NFTs are gesturing toward a new market, a hitherto unknown territory of >>> abstraction. For a financier this would be the equivalent of the voyages >>> of >>> discovery - Christopher Columbus. The everyday lives will get colonized >>> later on. Right now these people have the sense of establishing, not just >>> an asset class, but something new under the sun. They feel like world >>> movers. >>> >>> The weird thing is that I think many of us can imagine it, at least a >>> little bit. Do you remember what it was like, co-initiating >>> social-computational systems? Maybe you still do it? >>> >>> Around that time back in the early 70s, the conceptual artist Marcel >>> Broodthaers was ironically exploring what he called "the conquest of >>> space." It was about Columbus and the art market and the Apollo Program. >>> Certainly with the symbolic space they opened up - now the Globex trading >>> platform - Friedman and Melamed oriented the whole neoliberal period. >>> They >>> discovered a new America. They created and administrated what you might >>> call an effective abstraction, which has not yet ceased to govern the >>> vast >>> lifeworlds of just-in-time production and distribution. This is the >>> terrifying other side of initiating systems. >>> >>> NFTs are not going to rule the world. This is an attempted conquest of >>> art-market space. But the desire it attempts to symbolize is significant. >>> What kind of currency would a computational oligarchy need for the era of >>> accelerated technological change and asymptotically granular population >>> control that is emerging as a possibility right now, through the >>> ubiquitous >>> applications of AI? In the best of cases this would have to be a truly >>> common currency, enabling resilience, adaptation, transformation for the >>> future 9 billions of human earthlings - and infinite other species. In >>> the >>> worst of cases, it would be the currency of a veritable state-financial >>> nexus, the kind David Harvey talks about, where privatized monetary >>> creation is the enabler of hyper flexible bureaucratic control. >>> >>> Frankly, just reading the newspapers, I see a huge struggle going on over >>> the initiation of systems. Either you get eco-socialism, or you get the >>> nexus. >>> >>> Meanwhile I see lots of artists trying to invent new blockchain >>> currencies. >>> But who is the Marcel Broodthaers of the onrushing AI era? And how would >>> *they* express themselves? >>> >>> curiously, Brian >>> -------------- next part -------------- >>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >>> URL: < >>> http://mx.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/attachments/20210327/c99ca3c7/attachment-0001.html >>> > >>> >>> ------------------------------ >>> >>> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission >>> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, >>> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets >>> # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >>> >>> End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 162, Issue 33 >>> ****************************************** >>> >> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission >> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, >> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets >> # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >> # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] >> # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > > > > -- > Bronaċ > > >
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