#613: 2017.10.08 [audio-DH]

this edition of framework:afield, entitled audio-DH, has been produced in the netherlands by francisco lópez, barbara ellison and iii in collaboration with 250 creators from the city of den haag (the hague). for more information see the project website at http://audiodh.nl.

audio-DH:
sonic manifestations by 250 creators from Den Haag / The Hague

Rejecting nostalgia and elitism, I am among those who believe that the current sound creative situation worldwide is not only particularly appealing but also has no historical precedent in terms of the magnitude of the phenomenon of creativity socialization (a term I prefer over the more equivocal of ‘democratization’). This state of affairs is not a consequence of ‘the internet’ or ‘the social networks’ –as many seem to dogmatically assume nowadays. In my opinion, the causal sequence is at least an iterative bidirectional succession, if not the outright inverse. The essential mechanisms of this process were present before and they have indeed manifested themselves in their outcomes every time the techno-cultural conditions were right (two pre-internet examples are the social history of the electric guitar and the so-called ‘cassette culture’). The current discourse is quite often focused on the evolution and accessibility of the tools (‘new technologies’, ‘computers’…). This perspective is not only deficient in light of its positivist character and its teleological fiction, but also because it obliterates what is perhaps the most significant process of transformation that has taken place over the past few decades: the ethic and aesthetic socialization of the right to create. […]

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