Jenkins, Henry, 1958- . Convergence culture : where old and new media collide / Henry Jenkins. [9780814742815 (cloth : alk. paper) ] New York : New York University Press, 2006.
Call#: Annenberg Library Reserve P94.65.U6 J46 2006

"Photoshop for Democracy: The New Relationship between Politics and Popular Culture"

Chapter 11: Destructive Creativity: Arts in the Information Age 

 

What is 'cool' now isn't just an isolated piece of culture, but rather the result of a history of 'cool'. The future of humanities must begin to converge with art in order to bridge the gap. In other words, to be 'cool', older art forms must merge with more contemporary art forms. Society is currently so visually overstimulated that something needs to change just to get an idea from on mind to another.  Destructive Creativity refers to one approach, which is reassembling the past into the future.  It refers to the present aesthetic, mutation and remix culture. Creative Destruction is a slightly different approach.  Critiquing culture becomes an inherently edgy aesthetic. Tradition is linked to the avant-garde through the reappropriation of familiar things. Information is a new raw material, a form a currency. The chapter gives a history of destructive art, new art's need to reject or destroy the old to move forward. After pages and pages of examples of earlier works, the chapter gets to digital works.  Jodi works with the aesthetics of the internet, using a web browser as a frame.  Still, inside that frame, the text is made to look like an old DOS-based personal computer, acting as a reminder that contemporary art has at least some root in the past.  The self-destructive, self-activated behavior of the art is the formula for twentieth-century art.

 

This chapter seemly chronicles every step on the path to current existence of edgy art, which was tiresome to wade through, but certainly not useless. For every part of the current state of 'cool' that Liu describes, he provides several examples of the predecessors. Knowing more about the current state of art than the past and reading the chapter put everything into a perspective that wasn't necessarily any different, but is perhaps now more informed. What was noticeably missing from the discussion was the influence of an artist's contemporaries. Having not read the entire book, it is quite possible that Liu talks about it elsewhere, but regardless, talking about art with respect only to the past is ignoring half of what influences it.

 

Liu, Alan, 1953- . Laws of cool : knowledge work and the culture of information / Alan Liu. [0226486982 (cloth : alk. paper) ] Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HM851 .L56 2004

 

 This chapter discuesses the way people deal with the concept of self in virtual worlds through MUDs (Multiuser Dimensions). These MUDs are in part creations of their users, who may design their characters (name, gender, species, physical attributes) as well as the "rooms" of the dungeons themselves.  They are free to experiment with identity and often choose to do so.  Interactions between players parallel and sometimes overlap with or substitute for real life. One example looks at a Yale dropout who used a role playing game as a form of therapy. Her mother disowned her after she had an abortion, and through role playing, the daughter was able to understand and come to terms with what happened. Another example describes a physics grad student whose physical health was so fragile that he could not go out normally without putting his life in danger.  He spends hours on MUDs socializing with people from across the world.  In doing this, he fulfills a need for social interaction that he might otherwise miss out on entirely.  In these virtual spaces, players often project their ideal self through their virtual identities.  MUDs offer an environment similar to real life and often equally useful for simulating and processing personal issues. In some situtations, they may even serve as something better than reality. Because of the difference between real-life and online social interaction, certain issues, such as sexism and gender roles can be more visible in a MUD, allowing for discussion of such topics. The addition of non-fatal guns to one MUD was another cause for debate. Changing the dynamics of the world (some players wanted to kill for fun) led to debate, virtual laws, and even the election of a virtual sheriff.  MUDs demonstrate a certain tension between the real and artificial through which we can reconstruct and examine aspects of our own culture.

 

The author seems particularly biased toward MUDs, probably due to his research methods: joining and participating in various MUDs.  The examples she uses focus a little heavy on the fringe of society rather than the average person who happens to participate in a MUD. This suggests that the correlation between MUD culture and real-life culture is limited.

 

If being a part of a community, such as a MUD gives people another means of expressing who they are or defining themselves, then so too might their preferences in memes be a means of expression. 

 

Culture of the Internet / edited by Sara Kiesler. [0805816356 (alk. paper) ] Mahwah, N.J. : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HE7631 .S613 1997