Culture Class

by Martha Rosler, Julieta Aranda (Editor), Brian Kuan Wood (Editor)

In this collection of essays Martha Rosler embarks on a broad inquiry into the economic and historical precedents for today’s soft ideology of creativity, with special focus on its elaborate retooling of class distinctions. In the creative city, the neutralization or incorporation of subcultural movements, the organic translation of the gritty into the quaint, and the professionalization of the artist combine with armies of eager freelancers and interns to constitute the friendly user interface of a new social sphere in which, for those who have been granted a place within it, an elaborate retooling of traditional markers of difference has allowed class distinctions to be either utterly dissolved or willfully suppressed. The result is a handful of cities selected for revitalization rather than desertion, where artists in search of cheap rent become the avant-garde pioneers of gentrification, and one no longer asks where all of this came from and how. And it may be for this reason that, for Rosler, it becomes all the more necessary to locate the functioning of power within this new urban paradigm, to find a position from which to make it accountable to something other than its own logic.

Genres: Art, Essays, Nonfiction, Photography

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Martha Rosler is an American artist. She works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler’s work is centered on everyday life and the public sphere, often with an eye to women's experience.

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book while browsing the shelves of the art and music library. I had recently come across e-flux journal through an online community, which – coupled with the aesthetic of the cover – caught my eye, and made me decide to give it a spin. The book itself is a collection of essays which investigate the role of artists in gentrification.

The first essay looks at the role of critical art. This brief history begins with the role of art in the public sphere during the development of the bourgeoisie society in Europe. This positions the artist in the strange position of critiquing capitalism while, essentially, being implicitly tied to it. But despite this there is an art culture ­– an art culture that is global, She suggests that all moves toward reform are worthwhile. The situation is more obscene and systemic. That said, for many, art is done on the market's terms. Success is judged not by the art, but the sale. This leads to a loss of experiment. As well as a stagnation.

This title looks at the use of artists, or the creative class, as a tool in the colonial gentrification of urban spaces. These sections draw heavily on the work of certain urban theorists such as Guy Debord and the Situationalists, Henri Lefebvre, and Sharon Zurkin as well as the political move in art presented by people like Duchamp (and Debord). A large part of these essays is placed in response to the work on the creative class by Richard Florida. It is suggested that Florida's creative class is an extension of neoliberal policy, and ultimately works against critique. There is a focus on the colonial and racist nature of gentrification, and the creative class are the initiators of this move. A notion that art has implicitly fallen into the clutches of capital, and that this is difficult to escape. Florida's theory promotes diversity through stagnation. Creative class encompasses both the poor artist, and the rich 'yuppie'. He is one who is happy to support the arts, so long as they are controlled by capital and easy to contain. Creatives have been taken hold of and brought into capital. But Florida's creative class gives no agency to the artists themselves. Artists, as actors, still have the ability to move in social progress, and this can be seen in the occupy movement. These movements look different than the past. They are more autonomous than marxist. There is, here, a notion of direct democracy – similar to that of Mouffe. The potential that those in the creative class can turn against the neoliberal movement of the cities which have taken their labour, and used them for neo-colonial purposes. From this, there is a rallying cry against gentrification, towards occupation (i.e. Occupy).

The main problem I had with the text was that, while its message was one I tended to agree with, there wasn't really a sense of an overarching ethos. The author drew from a good nubmer of sources from different disciplines in order to make their point, but at times it seems a little superfluous. While I found myself engaging in certain segments of the text, it was difficult to sometimes see how they connected to other areas. That said, in general, this is a really interesting read which examines the relationship between art and the political. This text presents more of a realist than a revolutionary understanding of art, but at the same time does not deny art's revolutionary potential.

Worth the read or purchase for those interested in the intersection of urban studies and art. Most of the book skews towards urban politics, with a specific look at the role of artists within those theories.

[La Central · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clase cultural es un conjunto de ensayos de la artista y crítica norteamericana Martha Rosler, todos ellos fruto de diferentes intervenciones públicas a lo largo del tiempo, donde la autora planea sobre el complejo papel del arte y la cultura en el contexto urbano postindustrial y su posicionamiento ante el nuevo paradigma neoliberal.

El núcleo central del mismo nace tras la invitación a una conferencia sobre Richard Florida, autor del muy influyente La clase creativa. La transformación de la cultura del trabajo y el ocio en el siglo XXI, cuyas tesis están en el origen de la instrumentalización del arte en los procesos de gentrificación de nuestras ciudades y del llamado “modo artístico de producción”, donde “nuestras condiciones económicas actuales se han vuelto, de un modo u otro, artísticas”.

Esta serie de ensayos evidencia por tanto la problemática de sostener la tesis del poder transformador del arte en un sistema en el que la propia comodificación de la cultura convierte al mismo en un engranaje más del marketing de patrones de consumo. A pesar del tono pesimista, Rosler no claudica: “la imaginación artística sigue soñando con la acción histórica”, y de la misma manera que Chantal Mouffe exhortaba a los artistas a no abandonar el museo, afirma: “no hay nada que sugiera que no debamos ocupar de forma simultánea el terreno de lo urbano”. Ramón Andrés

[Alba Gallego]

siempre se nos olvida que a veces tenemos que leer no en busca de epifanías sino en busca de palabras con las que articular una certeza que ya teníamos

y eso es este libro

[Macarena Del Curto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buena lectura para interiorizarse en temas de relación entre políticas públicas y promoción del arte, desde una mirada materialista. Hay que leerlo teniendo en mente que la autora es estadounidense y una artista consagrada, por lo que su análisis, sobre todo hacia el final, hace más referencia a los grandes circuitos artísticos y no tanto a los movimientos de base o lo que pasa por fuera de lo institucional. Aún así, nos da categorías de análisis que pueden ser útiles incluso en el estudio de los casos que no menciona, para comprenderlos por diferencia. Recomiendo si les interesa la geografía urbanista y el accionar municipal respecto de la actividad artística.

[German Chaparro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tender but severe critique to how urbanists see artists, and how artists see their role as part of a functional society. Apparently there's still hope for the both of them.

[reviewsformythreefriends · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, incredibly depressing. I guess it would be more of a formative read if you went into the 'culture class' with the beliefs that she is critical of; ie artist saviour/bravery complex, soho-house circle-jerking etc. Personally I already carried the guilt and deep belief in the inutility and cowardice in choosing this career path lmfao.
It would be nice if she proposed more tentative solutions rather than just criticality. This whole book is haunted by the failure of the Occupy movement- sometimes criticality without pragmatism, in that way that millennial movements always did. To be fair I really like her art.

[Esteban · Rating 1 out of 5]

Una elite que solo puede escribir sobre y para sí misma. Imagino que un gestor cultural o un curador en la periferia del circuito puede ver acá reforzada su ideología profesional. Para el resto no hay nada.

[Ilena Shadbolt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry but interesting, put much more eloquently a lot I was thinking abt moving to a new and big city

[Mall Goethe · Rating 2 out of 5]

deserves a revisit at some point. somewhat meandering but ultimately asking if art can thrive without entering into the mechanisms of capital. in short, no it cannot - in long it cannot either, but the utopia idea of it does exist insofar as there being actual value in the arts.

you look at the mainstream and it’s all “slop” - in a utopia is would be “brain nourishment” not “rot” but therein lies the problem, the people WANT slop.

[Lisna Atmadiardjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Menjelaskan bagaimana dunia kerja kreatif yang awalnya semacam anomali ke depannya dapat menjadi sumber pendapatan baru yang menjanjikan baik untuk pribadi dan negara. Kaitannya dengan urbanism dan budaya.

Buku ini relate banget sama perkembangan industri kreatif di Indonesia, khususnya Jakarta saat ini.

[Mills College Library]

701.03 R821 2013

[a r g]

i read this in supplement to her survey exhibition at the jewish museum in new york, "martha rosler: irrespective"