It is difficult to disagree with the idiom: “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew IV:4). Humans are endowed with culture too. However, the majority of opinions agree that modern culture is inadequate due to its material orientation, and it should be reconsidered as Gaylor, the Director of Rip: A Remix Manifesto and Adorno, the founder of “culture industry theory” suggest.
Theoretical framework: culture industry
Adorno’s critical diagnosis of the predicament of culture can be applicable today (Adorno and Bernstein 2001, p.1-2). Adorno (2003) defines “culture industry” as “the contemporary form of popular art” (p.55). The main features of culture are standardization and the interchangeability of cultural products (Welty 1984, unpaged). Mass culture promotes thoughtlessness or provides the content of thoughts, making the audience passive (Welty 1984, unpaged). Adorno defines the influence of culture industry as “a locus of power” (Lash & Lury 2007, p.12). The main postulate is that culture has become a commodity (Adorno & Horkheimer 1993, p.1).
Discussion of RIP
The aim of the film is to heal contemporary culture. The title of the film suggests that it offers a petition. It really contains one:
- “Culture always builds on the past.
- The past always tries to control future.
- Our future is becoming less free.
- To build free societies you must limit the control of the past” (Gaylor 2008).
The main plague that affects contemporary culture is the manufactures of a culture whose main aim is to sell it. They have turned it into a supermarket, selling rights to use culture.
RIP in relation to theory
The ideas of the documentary correspond to those offered by Adorno. As Adorno sees the restrictions imposed on people by the culture making them passive, Gaylor also sees legal restrictions imposed on people. Elimination of copyright will open access to culture, making people more active. Though this is the purpose of Adorno, he disapproves of modern culture, promoting the past culture.
The image characterizes culture, proving Adorno’s theory and the ideas of the film. The image reinforces Manifesto: culture should stop being the means of enrichment and start giving pleasure.
Chasing Money. 2010. A Remix Manifesto offers a solution to the problem of culture: free use of culture that will help build a free society. Gaylor is led by the theory of “culture industry” by Adorno, though not all theoretical aspects are accepted by him.
Reference
Adorno, TW 2003 ‘Culture Industry Reconsidered.’ The Audience Studies Reader. Edited by Will Brooker and Deborah Jermyn. Routledge, New York.
Adorno, TW, & Bernstein, JM 2001, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. Routledge, New York.
Adorno, T, & Horkheimer M 1993, ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.’ Dialectic of Enlightenment. Continuum, New York.
Chasing Money. 2010. Web.
Gaylor, B 2008, ‘RIP: A Remix Manifesto’ (Video file). Web.
Lash, S, & Lury C 2007, Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things. Polity, Malden, MA.
Welty, G 1984, ‘Theodore Adorno and the Culture Industry’. Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Web.