From Printing to Streaming: Cultural Production under Capitalism

by Michael Chanan

For mainstream economics, cultural production raises no special creative expression is to be harvested for wealth creation like any other form of labour. As Karl Marx saw it, however, capital is hostile to the arts because it cannot fully control the process of creativity. But while he saw the arts as marginal to capital accumulation, that was before the birth of the mass media. Engaging with the major issues in Marxist theory around art and capitalism, From Printing to Streaming traces how the logic of cultural capitalism evolved from the print age to digital times, tracking the development of printing, photography, sound recording, newsprint, advertising, film and broadcasting, exploring the peculiarities of each as commodities, and their recent transformation by digital technology, where everything melts into computer code. Showing how these developments have had profound implications for both cultural creation and consumption, Chanan offers a radical and comprehensive analysis of the commodification of artistic creation and the struggle to realise its potential in the digital age.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2022

Reviews

[Alexander Parra · Rating 4 out of 5]

More historical than contemporary analysis, but Chanan knows what he is talking about and articulates it clearly. It's a great read for media & technology studies that adequately prepares you to think about current mediums and the technology that makes them up.