[microsound] "When Facebook Isn't Fun, or, Why iLife Isn't My Life: Immaterial Labor in the Age of Web 2.0" (Draft)

[{ brad brace }]

Facebook adheres to the typical self-serving curatorial
agenda, but why not examine one of the most pervasive and
entrenched cultural scams -- artworld institutions! -- where
"unpaid labor" is an accepted abusive tradition! The
acolytes and their institutions, not the artists or their
heirs, get the real money -- and that's trillions of
tax-dollars diverted from possible public works -- only to
stockpile and establish (their received) 'cultural value' in
thousands of upper-middle-class social clubs a.k.a. art
museums!

/:b

On Thu, 5 Mar 2009, David Powers wrote:

> "When Facebook Isn't Fun, or, Why iLife Isn't My Life: Immaterial
> Labor in the Age of Web 2.0"
>
> ***DRAFT OUTLINE***
>
> I. It Is Your Patriotic Duty to Consume
>
> Consumption, in the capital system, is not only a means of individuals
> reproducing themselvees, i.e. in the consumption of basic necessities;
> it is objectively necessary to the reproduction of the system. Thus
> Bush must admonish good Americans, in the wake of 9/11, to please go
> on consuming as usual. Underconsumption represents a danger to the
> system, especially to a system based on overproduction of goods that
> are not produced on any rational basis but only in the hopes of
> realizing a profit (i.e. according to Marx commodities exist only for
> their exchange value, not for their use value). It is imperative for
> capitalism that the commodity be consumed at some point, in order for
> capital, which has been invested in creating the commodity form, may
> again return to the form of money and thus capital. (M-C-M =
> Money-Commodity-Money).
>
> II. The Curse of Consumption as (Re)Production
>
> Thus, the more one consumes commodities, the more one participates in
> the reproduction of capitalism. The consumption of commodities is one
> aspect of the reproduction of everyday life under capitalism.
> Consumption of commodities, in this sense, must be understood as an
> entire system, that includes the consumption of advertising material,
> the work of choosing which commodities to buy, and the choice of a
> lifestyle or identity based on the consumption of particular kinds of
> commodities, both physical and cultural commodities (i.e. the high
> school student who identifies as "goth" or the enlightened consumer
> who buys only organic food and listens to NPR). Consumption, far from
> being an exercise of individual freedom, is in capitalism a duty and a
> form of unpaid work which is essential to the ongoing survival of the
> system.
>
> III. The Reproduction of Everyday Life
>
> Understanding the productive aspect of consumption requires
> understanding the way capitalism, as a totality, reproduces itself in
> all the mundane details of everyday existence. The works of Adorno and
> Lefebvre are key here, for both wrote extensively on this very
> subject. By exploring their theories, we can deepen our understanding
> of how contemporary capitalism operates not only in the realm of
> production, but as a total system that produces and reproduces persons
> and subjectivities and not only commodities.
>
> IV. Why Buy the Cow When You Can Get the Milk for Free
>
> >From consumption, we must now return to the realm of production in its
> cultural (and immaterial) form. With the so called "web 2.0
> revolution," we find that consumers are, in their leisure time, also
> becoming producers. But in this case, they are performing unpaid labor
> in the service of major corporations. Whereas once corporations had to
> pay workers to produce content for individuals to consume during their
> so called "free time," now consumers are producing such content
> themselves, for free! (This gives a whole new meaning to the term
> "free time"). Insofar as this production occurs on large corporate
> websites, such as MySpace and Facebook, consumer-producers are in fact
> allowing themselves to be exploited, creating capital (and surplus
> value) for the large corporations without receiving any compensation.
>
> V. The Struggle for Everyday Life
>
> Despite the overwhelming colonization of everyday life by the forces
> of capitalism, there are always already new possibilities for struggle
> opened up by changes in technology including the so called Web 2.0
> revolution. Especially, the same technologies used by the major
> corporations are also available to individuals and can be used in
> alternative ways; mailing lists, blogs, bulletin boards, and personal
> websites offer the possibility to produce critical thought and to act
> in non-productive ways that do not strengthen the system. Indeed,
> while overall the Facebook phenomena is an example of a new form of
> exploitation of immaterial labor, its content is ambivalent; one can
> imagine a Karl Marx or Theodor Adorno Facebook page, that uses the
> technology precisely in order to spread critical thinking that weakens
> the system, dispels ideology, and breaks through reified and false
> consciousness. One can also organize anti-capitalist and subversive
> actions more effectively using the internet, cell phones, and Web 2.0
> technologies. As long as capitalism exists there will also exist the
> possibility for anti-capitalist action, a possibility that lays the
> groundwork for future revolution.
>
> ***
>
> This is obviously just an outline, and the essay itself will require
> extensive research to complete. Constructive comments would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> David Powers
> March 5, 2009



"We fill the craters left by the bombs
And once again we sing
And once again we sow
Because life never surrenders."
-- anonymous Vietnamese poem

"Nothing can be said about the sea."
-- Mr Selvam, Akkrapattai, India 2004

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/:b