Culturalization of the Economy and the Artistic Qualities of Contemporary Capitalism

Abstract

The term ``creative economy'' is often portrayed as a rubric for a process where arts and culture are increasingly subdued to the logics of the economy. This chapter claims that we could, conversely, describe the constitutive logics of contemporary capitalism in terms of artistic creation. The common lens through which the realms of art and capitalism have converged from the 1960s onward can be found from a set of qualitative transformations in the organization of the production process---of the artwork, on the one hand, and of the economic commodity, on the other hand. Through a contextual rereading of composer John Cage's oeuvre and thought, the chapter constructs and illustrates three ``artistic qualities'' of postindustrial capitalism: ephemerality, relationality, and coproductivity.