Marc -
Your stuff I can understand. It's full of references to people I've
never heard of, but I can understand it. Keep writing it!
Edward
On 05/03/18 11:39, marc.garrett via NetBehaviour wrote:
Hi Edward,
Fair enough - I wouldn't dare use those words, and i think it makes
the subject less interesting. However, if you fancy a bash at this --
Marc Garrett - Unlocking Proprietorial Art Systems.
It's a sketch at the moment, and will be published in an academic book
after a rigorous peer to peer, critiquing & editing process. It may
even change in front of your very eyes - while reading it ;-)
*
*
*Unlocking Proprietorial Art Systems.*
Marc Garrett - Unlocking Proprietorial Art Systems.
“And assure yourselves, if you pitch not right now upon the right
point of freedome in action, as your Covenant hath it in words, you
will wrap up your children in greater slavery then ever you were
in…”[1] (Winstanley 1649)
*Introduction*
The cultural, political and economic systems in place do not work for
most people. They support a privileged, international class that grows
richer while imposing increasing uncertainty on others, producing
endless wars, and enhancing the conditions of inequality, austerity,
debt, and climate change, in order to own everything under the rule of
neoliberalism. David Harvey argues that the permeation of
neoliberalism exists within every aspect of our lives, and it has been
masked by a repeated rhetoric around “individual freedom, liberty,
personal responsibility and the virtues of privatization, the free
market and free trade”[2] (Harvey 2011) Thus, legitimizing “draconian
policies designed to restore and consolidate capitalistic class
power.”[3] In their essay Manufacturing the Neo-liberal Subject,
Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval say, that we have not yet emerged
from what they call, “the ‘iron cage’ of the capitalist economy to
which Weber referred. Rather, in some respects it would have to be
said that everyone is enjoined to construct their own individual
little ‘iron cage’.”[4] (Dardot & Laval 2011)
If we are, as Dardot & Laval put it co-designing our own iron cages,
how do we find ways to be less dominated by these over powering
infrastructures and systems? How do we build fresh, independent
places, spaces and identities, in relation to our own peer 2 peer,
artistic and cultural practices, individually and collectively – when,
our narratives are dominated by elite groups typically biased towards
isolating and crushing alternatives? Does this mean that critical
thought, artistic and experimental cultural ventures, along with
creatively led technological practices, are all doomed to perpetuate a
state of submission within a proprietorial absolute?
To unpack these questions we look at different types of proprietorial
systems, some locked and unlocked. All examples deal with examining
proprietorial conditions, in life, their creative forms of production
across the fields of the traditional art world, and media art culture.
It looks at how artists are dealing with these issues through their
artistic agency, individually, collaborative, or as part of a group or
collective. This includes looking at the work's intentions, production
and its cultural and societal contexts, where different set of values
and new possibilities are emerging, across the practice of art,
academia, and technology, and thus, the world. The final part of this
text explores how and why my own arts organization Furtherfield, is
moving into practices surrounding the blockchain as a space for
cultural development, and what this means in relation to critiquing
and actively challenging proprietorial domination.
The meanings of the words proprietorial and proprietary are closely
linked. Proprietary is defined as meaning that one possesses, owns, or
holds the exclusive right to something, specifically an object. For
instance, it can be described as something owned by a specific company
or individual. In the computing world, proprietary is often used to
describe software that is not open source or freely licensed. Examples
include operating systems, software programs, and file formats.[5]
Many involved in the Free and Open Source Software movement, share a
set of values built around its beliefs against proprietary control
over our use of technology. Olga Goriunova argues that, software is
not only bound to objects but also includes social relations and it’s
about breaking away from the fetishism of proprietary software
structures, and “commodification of social processes layered into
software production and operation.”[6] (Goriunova 2008)
However, if we consider the definition of proprietorial, in the
Cambridge Dictionary, it is especially poignant when it says “like an
owner: He put a proprietorial arm around her.” This brings us directly
to a biopolitical distinction. The term biopolitics was first coined
by Rudolf Kjellén, (who also coined the term geopolitics)[7] (Markus
2015) and then later expanded upon by Michel Foucault, arguing that
certain styles of government regulate their populations through
biopower. Hardt and Negri developed Foucault’s ideas saying “Biopower
is a form of power that regulates life from its interior, following
it, interpreting it, absorbing it, and rearticulating it.”[8] (Hardt
and Negri 2001) But, as we will discover further into this text the
term also reinforces a deep a psychological bias that asserts the
right of the patriarch to own our personal and social contexts.
https://researchvalues2018.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/unlocking-proprietorial-systems/
References:
[1] Benn, Tony. (2011) A Watch-Word for the City of London. Tony Benn
Presents Gerrard Winstanley: A common Treasury. Verso; Reprint
edition. P.61.
[2] Harvey, D. 2011, The Enigma of Capital and the Crisis of
Capitalism. Profile Books LTD. P.11.
[3] (Ibid)
[4] Dardot, P & Laval, C. 2011, Manufacturing the Neo-liberal Subject.
The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society. Verso Books. P.263.
[5] Software Terms: Proprietary Software Definition –
https://techterms.com/definition/proprietary_software
[6] Goriunova, Olga. Autocreativity: The Operation of Codes of Freedom
in Art and Culture. (2088) FLOSS+Art. de Valk, Marloes and Mansoux
Aymeric (Editors). P.92.
[7] Gunneflo, Markus. (2015) “Rudolf Kjellén: Nordic biopolitics
before the welfare state”. Retfærd. 35 (3). ISSN 0105-1121.
[8] Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio. (2001) Biopolitical Production.
Empire. Harvard University Press. P.23-24
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