Art and Capital

In Conversation with Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey

Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey helped shape the structure of the Digital Economies Lab and here we discuss their vision for artistic prosperity in the 21st century. We chat about artists’ complicated relationship to capital and how we are in an exciting moment of transformation. Join us, as we delve into questions of value, the pace of production, and our perception of reality, augmented or not.

Drawing on his experience as an artist who works through every new development of digital communication technologies, self-proclaimed Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey shares his insights on the inspiration behind his contributions to the development of the Digital Economies Lab (DEL). Posed with questions like whether tech and digital spaces can resist their sinuous ties to capitalism – a notion that seems invaluable to artists – Bailey asks us if that is the point? Rather, he asks us to consider creativity and the pace of production in our evaluation and monetization of the arts. Art, profit, and governance are not mutually exclusive, or at least they don’t have to be. Countering a perceived dissonance between capital and art, Bailey challenges us to consider new media art as appropriating the means of production. How can artists be empowered to demand the true value of their work? What could artists learn from embracing startup culture? Are artists responsible for advancing culture? Do you think artists are endowed to care for the community and, if so, what infrastructure are you willing to establish to sustain that pastoral care? Join us as we tackle topics such as arts infrastructure, technology and capitalism, and the issue of reciprocal care between artists and society.

Produced by the Artengine Stream Team:

Mikke Gordon aka Seiiizi https://twitter.com/s3iiizi

Ryan Stec

Kimberly Sunstrum https://www.kmbrlysnstrm.com/

 

Editorial Assistant

Erin Galt

 

Production Design Consultation

Leslie Marshall/MAVNetwork http://mavnetwork.com/

Post-Production Support: Chris Ikonomopoulos

DEL Theme Music by Mikki Gordon aka Seiiizi

 

Artengine’s Digital Economies Lab brought together a diverse group of artists, designers and other creatives to rethink the infrastructure of cultural production in the 21st century.

 

Funding for the Digital Economies Lab was received through the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategies Fund.

I personally find it concerning, if I’m honest, though, because my fear is that the rejection of a macro sociology, like the amount of technology that’s stacked on top of technology in our society overall, the rejection of that by artists is potentially the rejection of helping codify or unpack or culturally translate what that means for everyone.

If artists have some responsibility, it is to advance culture.

Organizing Creative Labour

In this conversation Tim Maughan chats with us about digital infrastructure, the role of organized labour in the creative landscape, and the DEL project Artwork_Local404. Join us, as we discuss technology and capitalism, the benefits of organizing, and what form collective action might take. Maughan also talks about how we need to rethink many of the platforms of tools of the digital world as public infrastructure: this may change how we understand what the government could do with them.

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Game + Community Design

Dames Making Games (DMG) founder Izzie Colpitts-Campbell speaks with us about her art and design practice and how her role as a community organizer influenced her contributions to the DEL. In this conversation we discuss her new DMG project Damage Labs, similarities between game design and community organizing, and how artist solidarity can be provoked digitally.

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