The Book Of Last Resort A Subversive Guide For Artists In The Digital Economy

The Book of Last Resort: A Subversive Guide for Artists in the Digital Economy

This book is exactly what it says: a Book of Last Resort. But if you're an artist toiling without traction, it may be time for something different. Fifteen years in the making, The Book of Last Resort is Jon Reed's hand-crafted love letter to all the artists who aren't where they want to be creatively - or financially. The goal? Turning hard truths about the digital economy into a methodology that artists can use. Is free content a potent marketing tactic, or a trap? How do you effectively build an online audience, as exclusionary algorithms cater to deep pockets or push vacantly viral memes? Until you unravel your creative identity, success is a trap. But your true creative power is found in your scars - and imperfections - that you might try to mask over. Open up, read on, and channel these bittersweet insights into the creative expression that will change the terms of your existence. And yes, this book does address the impact of AI on your creative pursuits. AI is an unfolding part of this story that will pose additional obstacles to creators, both in terms of finding audiences and monetization. AI will also impact the jobs outlook as well. However, AI may end up increasing your audience's craving for the brave, uniquely human aspect of creation Jon advocates for in the Book of Last Resort.

The Next Digital Decade

Artificial Hells

This searing critique of participatory art—from its development to its political ambitions—is “an essential title for contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who has . . . thought, ‘Now that’s art!’ or ‘That’s art?’” (Library Journal) Since the 1990s, critics and curators have broadly accepted the notion that participatory art is the ultimate political art: that by encouraging an audience to take part an artist can promote new emancipatory social relations. Around the world, the champions of this form of expression are numerous, ranging from art historians such as Grant Kester, curators such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Nato Thompson, to performance theorists such as Shannon Jackson. Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as “social practice.” Claire Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic. This itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina and Paris; the 1970s Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawel Althamer and Paul Chan. Since her controversial essay in Artforum in 2006, Claire Bishop has been one of the few to challenge the political and aesthetic ambitions of participatory art. In Artificial Hells, she not only scrutinizes the emancipatory claims made for these projects, but also provides an alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by such artworks. Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling, and bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.