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colin

muffinista@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years, 6 months ago

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colin's books

Currently Reading (View all 5)

2025 Reading Goal

87% complete! colin has read 14 of 16 books.

Jasia Reichardt: Cybernetics, art, and ideas. (1971, New York Graphic Society) No rating

There is a great diversity of public reaction to the partnership between the machine and artistic creation. Some people maintain that a work of art cannot result, for by definition it must be 'created', in the whole and its parts, all along the line, by a human being, whereas a machine, being dead, cannot invent. Others again hold that one might certainly undertake the ride by machine just for fun, or to see what will turn out, but the result will not be 'finished' or anything more than an experiment, interesting though it might be. The fanatics, finally, accept without hesitation all the marvels of the craziest science-fiction. The moon? Why not—it's quite within our reach. Longevity, too, is just around the cor-ner... Why not the creative machine as well? These are some of the faithful whose cranky optimism has replaced the myths of Icarus and of fallen fairies by the scientific civilization of the twentieth century-and this civilization does not even prove them altogether wrong.

Cybernetics, art, and ideas. by  (Page 124)

This book was published in 1971 and is basically a bunch of survey of the attitudes of artists and scientists towards technology and its applications towards the arts, and huge chunks of it feel incredibly relevant today.

Liz Pelly: Mood Machine (Hardcover, english language, 2025, Atria/One Signal Publishers)

An unsparing investigation into Spotify’s origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive …

Essential

It's easy to say that streaming is bad because artists can't make a living, but this book goes way beyond that. Spotify (and streaming in general) has influenced the work of being an artist in all sorts of ways described in the book. It's extremely well-researched and documented, full of quotes from artists, employees of Spotify, music industry professionals, etc. It's obviously focused on music, but it's impossible to read this book without thinking that basically any form of labor which can be commodified will be commodified and strip-mined for all of its value by the market.

The book is pretty bleak, but it's also full of hope for the future. There's a lot here about artist/labor movements, local organizing and things like that. It's good! You should read it.