Art Platforms and Cultural Production on the Internet (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies)

In this book, Goriunova offers a critical analysis of the processes that produce digital culture. Digital cultures thrive on creativity, developing new forces of organization to overcome repetition and reach brilliance. In order to understand the processes that produce culture, the author introduces the concept of the art platform, a specific configuration of creative passions, codes, events, individuals and works that are propelled by cultural currents and maintained through digitally native means. Art platforms can occur in numerous contexts bringing about genuinely new cultural production, that, given enough force, come together to sustain an open mechanism while negotiating social, technical and political modes of power. Software art, digital forms of literature, 8-bit music, 3D art forms, pro-surfers, and networks of geeks are test beds for enquiry into what brings and holds art platforms together. Goriunova provides a new means of understanding the development of cultural forms on the Internet, placing the phenomenon of participatory and social networks in a conceptual and historical perspective, and offering powerful tools for researching cultural phenomena overlooked by other approaches. "In this book, Goriunova offers a critical analysis of the processes that produce digital culture. Digital cultures thrive on creativity, developing new forces of organization to overcome repetition and reach brilliance. In order to understand the processes that produce culture, the author introduces the concept of the art platform. An art platform is a specific configuration of creative passions, codes, events, individuals and works that are propelled by cultural currents and maintained through digitally native means. Art platforms can occur in numerous contexts bringing about genuinely new cultural production, that, given enough force, come together to sustain an open mechanism while negotiating social, technical and political modes of power. Amateur and folklore work, aesthetic forms of organization and geeky publics, creativity, freedom, and humour are reinterpreted in the theoretical apparatus offered in this book and tested through case studies derived globally. Software art, digital forms of literature, 8-bit music, 3D art forms, pro-surfers, and networks of geeks are test beds for enquiry into what brings and holds art platforms together. Goriunova provides new means of understanding the development of cultural forms on the Internet, placing the phenomena of participatory and social networks in a conceptual and historical perspective, and offering powerful tools for researching cultural phenomena overlooked by other approaches. This book an invaluable resource for scholars of digital media and cultural studies, and a readership involved in every kind of network culture."-- Provided by publisher "In this book, Goriunova offers a critical analysis of the processes that produce digital culture. Digital cultures thrive on creativity, developing new forces of organization to overcome repetition and reach brilliance. In order to understand the processes that produce culture, the author introduces the concept of the art platform. An art platform is a specific configuration of creative passions, codes, events, individuals and works that are propelled by cultural currents and maintained through digitally native means. Art platforms can occur in numerous contexts bringing about genuinely new cultural production, that, given enough force, come together to sustain an open mechanism while negotiating social, technical and political modes of power. Amateur and folklore work, aesthetic forms of organization and geeky publics, creativity, freedom, and humour are reinterpreted in the theoretical apparatus offered in this book and tested through case studies derived globally. Software art, digital forms of literature, 8-bit music, 3D art forms, pro-surfers, and networks of geeks are test beds for enquiry into what brings and holds art platforms together. Goriunova provides new means of understanding the development of cultural forms on the Internet, placing the phenomena of participatory and social networks in a conceptual and historical perspective, and offering powerful tools for researching cultural phenomena overlooked by other approaches. This book an invaluable resource for scholars of digital media and cultural studies, and a readership involved in every kind of network culture."-- Note de l'éditeur Table of Contents 9 Figures 11 Acknowledgments 13 Introduction 15 1 Organizing Free-range Creativity 35 Post-Marxism and Liberalism: Free Software and Open Culture 36 Creativity 45 Self-Organization 48 Applications 52 Autocreativity 56 2 Aesthetic Brilliance and Repetition 59 Kreativs of Male Literature (Mate Lit) 65 'Word Intensity' 68 Social Figures 70 Gazira Babeli is Second Life 75 3 Organizational Aesthetics, Digital Folklore, and Software 81 Runme.org 85 Digital Folklore 95 Art-Surfing Clubs 100 4 Geeky Publics, Amatures, and the Potency of Art 103 Micromusic.net at Work 112 8-bit Sound, Low-tech Aesthetics, and its Publics 115 Technologies, the Music Industry, and the Amateur 118 'People Doing Strange Things with Electricity' 122 Afterword 125 Notes 127 Introduction 127 Chapter 1 131 Chapter 2 135 Chapter 3 141 Chapter 4 147 Afterword 152 Bibliography 153 Index 161