Class 3 &4: cultural economy
SD373 Cultural Identity: Cultural economy:
Culture + Economy= cultural economy?
Two conventional perspectives on ‘culture” and “economy” (Paul du Gay 1997):
1. “’Economy’ and ‘culture’ are absolutely autonomous entities and any merging of them is bound to demean and debase the latter”
“culture”=”high culture” (“the pursuit of particular values – ‘art’, beauty’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘truth’;
2. the economy=the rational pursuit of profit, ‘instrumentalism’
Materialist and economistic traditions
“economy”/”economic base”=>”hard”, “objective”, and deals with “transparent” and “factual” materials=>”true knowledge”
“culture”/”superstructure” (Marxism) =>deals with the ”soft” and less tangible elements of life=> “incapable of generating clear, unambiguous and hence ‘true’ knowledge
> “economy” as an entity depends on a particular mode of representation, a discourse (會計表、財經報價表)
> in search for the “mutual constitutive relationship between culture & economy”
What Cultural Economy is not (Amin and Thrift)
“ is not “simply adding a cultural filigree to what in the end is still held to be an economic core. Neither is it in the business of arguing that there are immanent economic laws that play themselves out in a medium called culture (i.e., that the economy is culturally embedded). Nor is it interested in showing that matters cultural are mobilized for economic gain (e.g., the mobilization of culture for profit).”
“is more than simply analyzing each moment in a production or consumption process, and then seeing how it is culturally inflected and how the cultural inflection affects economic "outcomes." (p.xiv)
The Context of the Emergence of Cultural Economy
1. A profound mistrust on orthodox economics (Amin and Thrift)
(e.g.許寶強筆戰雷鼎鳴 2005年《明報》另刊「獨立媒體」 http://www.inmediahk.net/public/article?item_id=117664&group_id=49 或參許寶強：《資本主義不是什麼》，香港：牛津出版社，2002。)
2. “the sheer diversity of economic organization has become clear in a way that has never been the case before (e.g. Islamic and Buddhist economics)” (Amin and Thrift);
3. “the rise of interdisciplinary work”, particularly the “cultural turn” (Amin and Thrift).
4. Culturalizing the contemporary economic life – “the increase importance of ‘culture’ to doing business in contemporary world” (from macro/globalization to micro/individual work-based identity formation) (du Gay)e.g. Sony, Time Warner, Disney etc. both technology hardware and product software
-“Today, ‘culture’ is a truly global business”
-“The growing aestheticization or ‘fashioning’ of seemingly banal products” (over-design) to stimulate desire
e.g. 班馬牌原子筆
-“The increased influence of the cultural intermediary occupations of advertising, design and marketing”
-The shift from mass production to flexible specialization, make small batches on assembly line possible e.g. coloring
-“The internal life of organizations is also the subject of cultural reconstruction”
e.g. 中港商業文化差異
> two directions in studies CE: production of culture >< culture of production
Our Hong Kong context: lure of the cultural/ creative industry
- vivid popular culture: cultural products are very often mass manufacture (Frankfurt school-Max Horkheimer & Theodro W. Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightment as Mass Deception”)
「拓寬經濟領域 19. 創意產業是知識經濟體系中的重要環節。香港市民的知識智慧、創新思維、創業精神和靈活求變的能力，是發展創意產業的良好基礎。除了加強支柱產業外，我們還 將積極推動創意產業，為香港經濟注入新的元素。創意產業是文化藝術創意和商品生產的結合，包括表演藝術、電影電視、出版、藝術品及古董市場、音樂、建築、 廣告、數碼娛樂、電腦軟件開發、動畫製作、時裝及產品設計等行業。香港的創意產業已有的一定基礎，存在進一步開發的潛力。民政事務局局長、工商及科技局 局長與其他相關的決策局及部門，將會共同研究具體方案，營造有利環境，推動及協助創意行業的發展。」(香港特別行政區政府：《行政長官2003年施政報 告》，香港特別行政區政府，2003年1月。)
西九龍文娛藝術區(http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/chi/main_archive.htm )
政府有責任提升經濟發展層次，全力發展高增值產業，香港要大力發展自己的品牌、自己的設計、自己的科研成果，改良創意產業，推動高技術產業，大力擴展金融 業，爭取更多優質企業來港上市，爭取國家以香港作為人民幣匯價開放的試點平台，結合國家經濟高速增長，互惠雙贏，將香港經濟推上一個新的台階，令香港更添 繁榮。4.我要為香港締造新的優良生活潔淨的食物、清新的空氣、優美的環境、良好的文物保育、低壓力的生活，這一切香港市民都應該享有。
「協造新香港共創好環境」 ─曾蔭權的競選宣言 (2007年2月2日)
> instrumentalism: economicism & developmentalism (
> culture as governmentality: corporate culture, work ethics (&works base identity) and management of leisure
> “itemize” vision of cultural production
> city branding: life-style of cosmopolitan elitists (bourgeoisies)
> “regional” & “national discourse”:香港的創意產業、大中華的文藝復興、亞洲文藝復興 e.g. heritage industry、大長今、吉蒂貓、日本設計
Doing cultural studies: circuit of culture- an analytical framework
(du Gay 1997)
- To analyzing the biography of a cultural artifact : Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation.
- How a cultural product “is represented, what social identities are associated with it, how it is produced and consumed, and what mechanism regulate its distribution and use”
1. Representation:
(fig- walkman) thinking otherwise? How do describe such an object?
“existing meanings are extended from something we already know to something new…’the chain of meaning’”;
(fig-p.9) How a product being recognized in our cultural universe & map of meanings?
“smallish stereo-headphone cassette player”(denotation) > “walkman”(connotation) (1979): from language to practice
“the practice of constructing meaning through the use of signs and language.”
William: study of society is study of culture- “communication is process of community” (“signification”)
“associating [the meanings of an object] with different discourses or semantic networks.” (similarities and difference with other objects)
Connotation: “articulated with a number of key themes in the culture of late modernity”:
- youth (crazy, zany, scatty youth), cool, elegant technology, small and powerful, speed, power and masculinity, the discourse of race, gender and sex, generation of its “outlook”; to individuality, activity, leisure, the outdoors, fitness, health, movement, getting-out-and-about, beating boredom of the city life, private listening in public, lonely figure in daily crowd in “practice”.
- “Japanese-ness” (vs. Brithishness & etc.): 80s economic growth in industry replacing the West
- cultural software: popular music & youth culture (Sony produces both means and meanings)
- private listening in public: soundscape was a public collective activity> transportable and mass manufactured, electronic & digital reproduction, easy commodity, highly personal choice
~ deregulation by technology)
2. Identity/Identification:
(fig ad)
Advertisement: matching meaning with subject; create “subject for the product” by stimulating imagination and identification- the idealized self-image
- the same products but many identities
“How various groups and types of people came to be associated with the Walkman.”
“The language of advertising and marketing attempts to create identification between consumer and product.”
“The identity of Sony as a company was continually created and recreated through different representations.”
3. Production and 4. Consumption：
Karl Marx: “Production is …at the same time consumption, and consumption is at the same time production…But at the same time an intermediary movement goes on between the two…Without production, no consumption; …without consumption, no production.”
4. Regulations (de-regulation)
types of regulations: cultural and costume, legal and copy rights, mass media and the public sphere:
Class 4: cultural economy- case of Sony walkman
Re-cap：
- new object entering our universe: representation is making meanings of things; culture is informal social knowledge that 人所共知, that something you don’t have to ask
e.g. what other objects will you associate with MP3?
- ad: as reflection of market reality? Only youth buy Walkman? No. After some time it becomes a signifier of youth > circuit of meaning (flux, formation) and identity is always becoming
五個環節裡都是culture-making meaning的小宇宙
Production of culture & culture of production
1. Production:
- What does it signify for you?
- narratives: telling of the story如何敍述成功故事？
Father(s)of Sony walkman:
盛田昭夫 Akio Morita (1921-1999)/ photo: 1967
Also: 井深大 Masaru Ibuka or Yasuo Kuroki, Kozo Ohsone… a collective process with initiate aims to kill boredom
- culture of production: narrative- the story:
1. organization culture- typical Japanese (蒙民偉-電飯煲) from the W- small size/ “cosmopolitan” “foreign” in Japan- technology
2. personification & heroic figure: Akio Morita (personal experience during travel to the US)
“The best way to describe Morita's extraordinary drive is to scan his schedule for the two-month period immediately preceding his stroke. He took trips from his home base in Tokyo to New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Dallas, Britain, Barcelona and Paris. During that time he met with Queen Elizabeth II, General Electric chief Jack Welch, future French President Jacques Chirac, Isaac Stern and many other politicians, bureaucrats and business associates. He attended two concerts and a movie; took four trips within Japan; appeared at eight receptions; played nine rounds of golf; was guest of honor at a wedding ceremony; and went to work as usual for 17 days at Sony headquarters. Morita's schedule had been decided on more than a year in advance. Whenever there was a small opening, Morita would immediately and strategically fill it by arranging a meeting with someone he wanted to become acquainted with or catch up with. Unlike so many executives who remove themselves from the rest of the corporate pyramid, he was always in the middle of the action.” (http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/morita.html )
How Japanese is Sony?
- national hero: “Rise from a war-devastated country to the world’s second largest economy”/ “economic miracle”
- Japaneseness: Japanese company: i. hierarchy; 2. rituals; 3.life long employment; 4. alliance between cartels
“The company that would become Sony was founded on May 7, 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita as the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The name was later changed to Sony in 1958. According to Sony's website, "The Sony name was created by combining "SONUS," the original Latin for "SONIC," meaning sound, with "SONNY," denoting small size, or a youthful boy. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that is the same in any language."[6]
language: “international (business) language ”+ adaptation of a English brand name
flexibility in a stable Japanese system (挖角、內部調動)
~ technology from US and capital from family
~ post war military control over technology, military industry turned into civic electronics and issuing of licenses in high cost
contextx(具體情況具體分析) ：culture of production by intention“Sony operated both as a traditional Japanese company, managing from the bottom up through group consensus, and as an American company from the top down, by delegating responsibility to small design team.” + “borrowing” technology from the US (AT & T US made transistorized electronic components- rights charged $25,000 in 1952) (other cases: Toyota, Nissan)
”happy accident”: radio cassette recorder team to radio division – its more by planning with marketing strategy, the rational calculated aspects of mass production (33,000yen to celebrate company anniversary)
~ 香港版本：李嘉誠串塑膠花(潮洲人克勤克儉-獅子山下白手興家> 官商勾結)
Consumption:
Karl Marx
“Production is …at the same time consumption, and consumption is at the same time “production is […] each is directly its own counterpart. But at the same time an intermediary movement goes on between the two. Production furthers consumption by creating material for the latter which otherwise would lack its object. But consumption in its turn furthers production, by providing for the products the individual for whom they are products…Without production, no consumption; …without consumption, no production; since production would then be without a purpose.”
產品如果只是擱着不用，就只是一件沒有意義的東西；只有使用才能使之產生意義
沒有消費就沒有生產
intermediary movement－articulation
- assumption of young customers who need music anywhere any time: target of production> cheap price by mass production
- Sony fathers / Sony mothers? Innovative male executives on top while female assemblers on the bottom – sexual division of labor (see: 潘藝、Michael Woolf http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/the_real_toy_story/index.html & Cao Fei )
- Naming: Pressman> walkie talkie> walky> Sound-about> Stowaway> “Walkman” is a Japanese made English but well-received
- PR: free to music editors, musician (Berlin and NY Philharmonic Orchestras), news then ad; (反例：搶包山－ 體育版還是文化版還是消費版？)/ send out of cassettes as invitation card, visit to Yoyogi Park/ 市場定位
- Market research: Morita said no (“create market by educating and communicating with the public”) but in fact yes in particular: 100 young people> movement to rhythm & sound quality/ music as collective listening activity to private object (two headphone reduced to one) in outdoor public space > adjustment of product (production & consumption)
contradictory narratives
“Cultural intermediaries”
– how the functions and possibilities selected and represented
Bourdieu:
“increasingly important group of workers who play an active role in promoiting consumption through attaching to products and services particular meanings and ‘lifestyles’ with which consumers will identify. Put simply, they can be defined as people involved in the provision of symbolic goods and services. They are most frequently found in the media, fashion, advertising and design industries. In their symbolic work of making products ‘meaningful’, designers are a key link in our cultural circuit; for, amongst many other things, they articulate production and the world of engineers with the market and consumers ” (p.62)
(~ Richard Florida – “Creative Class”)
- Sony – a design led company, higher important in production, e.g. mini stereo play > walkman > they same product with many different “looks”(700 modles) to enable more lifestyles
- Lifestyles: “combination of responsive design and visual communication with techniques of market segmentation” > niche or target market segment (p.66) ＞life-long loyalty
National characteristics:
- Japanese company
- Miniaturization & simplicity: traditional – perceived as the success behind the economic miracle
Japanese Industrial Design Association : the idea of industrial design is a outcome of American occupation (p.71)
Transcultural & hybridization, esp. design as a global category
Going Global:
- shortened technological monopoly
head office in NY; international warranty; standardization of corporate literature: “Sony is global”
“On March 7, 2005, Sony Corp. announced that Nobuyuki Idei will step down as Chairman and Group CEO and will be replaced by British/American Sir Howard Stringer, current Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the British Howard Stringer will mark the first time that a foreigner will run a major Japanese electronics firm. Sony Corp. also announced on the same date that current president, Kunitake Ando, will step down and be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi. [8]”
global-local nexus: assembly lines to other district (radio)
(Russia painting in HK)
Synergy: synchronization: hard-ware and soft-ware industry (ipod & itunes)
Culture industry:
Horkheimer & Adorno (Dialectic of Enlightenment )
“What Horkheimer and Adorno were doing was connecting the idea of industry to culture to make the point that the growth of cultural production was drawing on methods adopted and used in industrial manufacturing […] the idea of culture industry has undergone something of a shift. From applying the idea of industry to culture, theorists and indeed those involved in the respective companies have been applying the concept of culture to industry. Hence, whilst cultural production is ‘industrial’, so too is industrial manufacturing ‘cultural’. ”(p.81)
- purchase of music and film company: 1989 Columia studio
- culture become highly rely of industry to distribution
～ 「陰質工業」e.g. VCR, DVD, PS – distinction by hardware thus by software
Consumption
Two arguments:
1. Frankfurt school, Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man: true needs are based on human biology while wants are infinite, capitalist society is promoting false needs / exchange value taken over use vale of things/ isolation of individuals/ passive consumption + homogenized mass culture (87-89) e.g. 賣雞蛋買即食麵; Christian cry for “competitor to the voice of God” & inflicting civic mores
2. Jean Baudrillard: meanings does not reside in an object, but how it is used. (p90-91 qoute)
“is forced to represent the individual as a completely passive victim of the system… we are all aware of how consumers resist such a precise injunction, and of how they play with needs, on a keyboard of objects. We know that advertising is not omnipotent and at times produces opposite reactions; and we know that in relation to a single need, objects can be substituted for one another… if we acknowledge that a need is not a need for a particular object as much as it is a need for difference (the desire for social meanings), only them will we understand that satisfaction can never be fulfilled, and consequently that there can never be a definition of needs.”
e.g. 我會做好呢份工
total difference understanding of shopping e.g. 貪慕虛榮 喪買建立主體性？
subversion: Rey Chow周蕾：「另類聆聽‧迷你音樂─關於革命的另一種問題」
Regulations:
- walkman: privatized pleasure in public space & battle of private hearing
Readings:
On cultural economy:
Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift (2004): “Introduction,” in Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift eds. The Backwell Cultural Economy Reader, Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Vitoria: Blackwell Publishing, pp.x-xxx.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )
Tutorial reading:
*Special task of the tutorial: Please illustrate the “cultural circuit” model with the case of Chinese cinema.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Designing the Walkman: Articulating Production and Consumption”,Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp.62-74. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )
徐百柯：「导演贾樟柯称商业大片像细菌破坏社会基本原则」，載《中國青年報》，2007年01月10日02:18。
http://news.qq.com/a/20070110/000353.htm
Useful links:
https://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cndls/applications/posterTool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=2330
Culture + Economy= cultural economy?
Two conventional perspectives on ‘culture” and “economy” (Paul du Gay 1997):
1. “’Economy’ and ‘culture’ are absolutely autonomous entities and any merging of them is bound to demean and debase the latter”
“culture”=”high culture” (“the pursuit of particular values – ‘art’, beauty’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘truth’;
2. the economy=the rational pursuit of profit, ‘instrumentalism’
Materialist and economistic traditions
“economy”/”economic base”=>”hard”, “objective”, and deals with “transparent” and “factual” materials=>”true knowledge”
“culture”/”superstructure” (Marxism) =>deals with the ”soft” and less tangible elements of life=> “incapable of generating clear, unambiguous and hence ‘true’ knowledge
> “economy” as an entity depends on a particular mode of representation, a discourse (會計表、財經報價表)
> in search for the “mutual constitutive relationship between culture & economy”
What Cultural Economy is not (Amin and Thrift)
“ is not “simply adding a cultural filigree to what in the end is still held to be an economic core. Neither is it in the business of arguing that there are immanent economic laws that play themselves out in a medium called culture (i.e., that the economy is culturally embedded). Nor is it interested in showing that matters cultural are mobilized for economic gain (e.g., the mobilization of culture for profit).”
“is more than simply analyzing each moment in a production or consumption process, and then seeing how it is culturally inflected and how the cultural inflection affects economic "outcomes." (p.xiv)
The Context of the Emergence of Cultural Economy
1. A profound mistrust on orthodox economics (Amin and Thrift)
(e.g.許寶強筆戰雷鼎鳴 2005年《明報》另刊「獨立媒體」 http://www.inmediahk.net/public/article?item_id=117664&group_id=49 或參許寶強：《資本主義不是什麼》，香港：牛津出版社，2002。)
2. “the sheer diversity of economic organization has become clear in a way that has never been the case before (e.g. Islamic and Buddhist economics)” (Amin and Thrift);
3. “the rise of interdisciplinary work”, particularly the “cultural turn” (Amin and Thrift).
4. Culturalizing the contemporary economic life – “the increase importance of ‘culture’ to doing business in contemporary world” (from macro/globalization to micro/individual work-based identity formation) (du Gay)e.g. Sony, Time Warner, Disney etc. both technology hardware and product software
-“Today, ‘culture’ is a truly global business”
-“The growing aestheticization or ‘fashioning’ of seemingly banal products” (over-design) to stimulate desire
e.g. 班馬牌原子筆
-“The increased influence of the cultural intermediary occupations of advertising, design and marketing”
-The shift from mass production to flexible specialization, make small batches on assembly line possible e.g. coloring
-“The internal life of organizations is also the subject of cultural reconstruction”
e.g. 中港商業文化差異
> two directions in studies CE: production of culture >< culture of production
Our Hong Kong context: lure of the cultural/ creative industry
- vivid popular culture: cultural products are very often mass manufacture (Frankfurt school-Max Horkheimer & Theodro W. Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightment as Mass Deception”)
「拓寬經濟領域 19. 創意產業是知識經濟體系中的重要環節。香港市民的知識智慧、創新思維、創業精神和靈活求變的能力，是發展創意產業的良好基礎。除了加強支柱產業外，我們還 將積極推動創意產業，為香港經濟注入新的元素。創意產業是文化藝術創意和商品生產的結合，包括表演藝術、電影電視、出版、藝術品及古董市場、音樂、建築、 廣告、數碼娛樂、電腦軟件開發、動畫製作、時裝及產品設計等行業。香港的創意產業已有的一定基礎，存在進一步開發的潛力。民政事務局局長、工商及科技局 局長與其他相關的決策局及部門，將會共同研究具體方案，營造有利環境，推動及協助創意行業的發展。」(香港特別行政區政府：《行政長官2003年施政報 告》，香港特別行政區政府，2003年1月。)
西九龍文娛藝術區(http://www.hab.gov.hk/wkcd/chi/main_archive.htm )
政府有責任提升經濟發展層次，全力發展高增值產業，香港要大力發展自己的品牌、自己的設計、自己的科研成果，改良創意產業，推動高技術產業，大力擴展金融 業，爭取更多優質企業來港上市，爭取國家以香港作為人民幣匯價開放的試點平台，結合國家經濟高速增長，互惠雙贏，將香港經濟推上一個新的台階，令香港更添 繁榮。4.我要為香港締造新的優良生活潔淨的食物、清新的空氣、優美的環境、良好的文物保育、低壓力的生活，這一切香港市民都應該享有。
「協造新香港共創好環境」 ─曾蔭權的競選宣言 (2007年2月2日)
> instrumentalism: economicism & developmentalism (
> culture as governmentality: corporate culture, work ethics (&works base identity) and management of leisure
> “itemize” vision of cultural production
> city branding: life-style of cosmopolitan elitists (bourgeoisies)
> “regional” & “national discourse”:香港的創意產業、大中華的文藝復興、亞洲文藝復興 e.g. heritage industry、大長今、吉蒂貓、日本設計
Doing cultural studies: circuit of culture- an analytical framework
(du Gay 1997)
- To analyzing the biography of a cultural artifact : Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation.
- How a cultural product “is represented, what social identities are associated with it, how it is produced and consumed, and what mechanism regulate its distribution and use”
1. Representation:
(fig- walkman) thinking otherwise? How do describe such an object?
“existing meanings are extended from something we already know to something new…’the chain of meaning’”;
(fig-p.9) How a product being recognized in our cultural universe & map of meanings?
“smallish stereo-headphone cassette player”(denotation) > “walkman”(connotation) (1979): from language to practice
“the practice of constructing meaning through the use of signs and language.”
William: study of society is study of culture- “communication is process of community” (“signification”)
“associating [the meanings of an object] with different discourses or semantic networks.” (similarities and difference with other objects)
Connotation: “articulated with a number of key themes in the culture of late modernity”:
- youth (crazy, zany, scatty youth), cool, elegant technology, small and powerful, speed, power and masculinity, the discourse of race, gender and sex, generation of its “outlook”; to individuality, activity, leisure, the outdoors, fitness, health, movement, getting-out-and-about, beating boredom of the city life, private listening in public, lonely figure in daily crowd in “practice”.
- “Japanese-ness” (vs. Brithishness & etc.): 80s economic growth in industry replacing the West
- cultural software: popular music & youth culture (Sony produces both means and meanings)
- private listening in public: soundscape was a public collective activity> transportable and mass manufactured, electronic & digital reproduction, easy commodity, highly personal choice
~ deregulation by technology)
2. Identity/Identification:
(fig ad)
Advertisement: matching meaning with subject; create “subject for the product” by stimulating imagination and identification- the idealized self-image
- the same products but many identities
“How various groups and types of people came to be associated with the Walkman.”
“The language of advertising and marketing attempts to create identification between consumer and product.”
“The identity of Sony as a company was continually created and recreated through different representations.”
3. Production and 4. Consumption：
Karl Marx: “Production is …at the same time consumption, and consumption is at the same time production…But at the same time an intermediary movement goes on between the two…Without production, no consumption; …without consumption, no production.”
4. Regulations (de-regulation)
types of regulations: cultural and costume, legal and copy rights, mass media and the public sphere:
Class 4: cultural economy- case of Sony walkman
Re-cap：
- new object entering our universe: representation is making meanings of things; culture is informal social knowledge that 人所共知, that something you don’t have to ask
e.g. what other objects will you associate with MP3?
- ad: as reflection of market reality? Only youth buy Walkman? No. After some time it becomes a signifier of youth > circuit of meaning (flux, formation) and identity is always becoming
五個環節裡都是culture-making meaning的小宇宙
Production of culture & culture of production
1. Production:
- What does it signify for you?
- narratives: telling of the story如何敍述成功故事？
Father(s)of Sony walkman:
盛田昭夫 Akio Morita (1921-1999)/ photo: 1967
Also: 井深大 Masaru Ibuka or Yasuo Kuroki, Kozo Ohsone… a collective process with initiate aims to kill boredom
- culture of production: narrative- the story:
1. organization culture- typical Japanese (蒙民偉-電飯煲) from the W- small size/ “cosmopolitan” “foreign” in Japan- technology
2. personification & heroic figure: Akio Morita (personal experience during travel to the US)
“The best way to describe Morita's extraordinary drive is to scan his schedule for the two-month period immediately preceding his stroke. He took trips from his home base in Tokyo to New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Dallas, Britain, Barcelona and Paris. During that time he met with Queen Elizabeth II, General Electric chief Jack Welch, future French President Jacques Chirac, Isaac Stern and many other politicians, bureaucrats and business associates. He attended two concerts and a movie; took four trips within Japan; appeared at eight receptions; played nine rounds of golf; was guest of honor at a wedding ceremony; and went to work as usual for 17 days at Sony headquarters. Morita's schedule had been decided on more than a year in advance. Whenever there was a small opening, Morita would immediately and strategically fill it by arranging a meeting with someone he wanted to become acquainted with or catch up with. Unlike so many executives who remove themselves from the rest of the corporate pyramid, he was always in the middle of the action.” (http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/morita.html )
How Japanese is Sony?
- national hero: “Rise from a war-devastated country to the world’s second largest economy”/ “economic miracle”
- Japaneseness: Japanese company: i. hierarchy; 2. rituals; 3.life long employment; 4. alliance between cartels
“The company that would become Sony was founded on May 7, 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita as the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. The name was later changed to Sony in 1958. According to Sony's website, "The Sony name was created by combining "SONUS," the original Latin for "SONIC," meaning sound, with "SONNY," denoting small size, or a youthful boy. It was chosen for its simple pronunciation that is the same in any language."[6]
language: “international (business) language ”+ adaptation of a English brand name
flexibility in a stable Japanese system (挖角、內部調動)
~ technology from US and capital from family
~ post war military control over technology, military industry turned into civic electronics and issuing of licenses in high cost
contextx(具體情況具體分析) ：culture of production by intention“Sony operated both as a traditional Japanese company, managing from the bottom up through group consensus, and as an American company from the top down, by delegating responsibility to small design team.” + “borrowing” technology from the US (AT & T US made transistorized electronic components- rights charged $25,000 in 1952) (other cases: Toyota, Nissan)
”happy accident”: radio cassette recorder team to radio division – its more by planning with marketing strategy, the rational calculated aspects of mass production (33,000yen to celebrate company anniversary)
~ 香港版本：李嘉誠串塑膠花(潮洲人克勤克儉-獅子山下白手興家> 官商勾結)
Consumption:
Karl Marx
“Production is …at the same time consumption, and consumption is at the same time “production is […] each is directly its own counterpart. But at the same time an intermediary movement goes on between the two. Production furthers consumption by creating material for the latter which otherwise would lack its object. But consumption in its turn furthers production, by providing for the products the individual for whom they are products…Without production, no consumption; …without consumption, no production; since production would then be without a purpose.”
產品如果只是擱着不用，就只是一件沒有意義的東西；只有使用才能使之產生意義
沒有消費就沒有生產
intermediary movement－articulation
- assumption of young customers who need music anywhere any time: target of production> cheap price by mass production
- Sony fathers / Sony mothers? Innovative male executives on top while female assemblers on the bottom – sexual division of labor (see: 潘藝、Michael Woolf http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/the_real_toy_story/index.html & Cao Fei )
- Naming: Pressman> walkie talkie> walky> Sound-about> Stowaway> “Walkman” is a Japanese made English but well-received
- PR: free to music editors, musician (Berlin and NY Philharmonic Orchestras), news then ad; (反例：搶包山－ 體育版還是文化版還是消費版？)/ send out of cassettes as invitation card, visit to Yoyogi Park/ 市場定位
- Market research: Morita said no (“create market by educating and communicating with the public”) but in fact yes in particular: 100 young people> movement to rhythm & sound quality/ music as collective listening activity to private object (two headphone reduced to one) in outdoor public space > adjustment of product (production & consumption)
contradictory narratives
“Cultural intermediaries”
– how the functions and possibilities selected and represented
Bourdieu:
“increasingly important group of workers who play an active role in promoiting consumption through attaching to products and services particular meanings and ‘lifestyles’ with which consumers will identify. Put simply, they can be defined as people involved in the provision of symbolic goods and services. They are most frequently found in the media, fashion, advertising and design industries. In their symbolic work of making products ‘meaningful’, designers are a key link in our cultural circuit; for, amongst many other things, they articulate production and the world of engineers with the market and consumers ” (p.62)
(~ Richard Florida – “Creative Class”)
- Sony – a design led company, higher important in production, e.g. mini stereo play > walkman > they same product with many different “looks”(700 modles) to enable more lifestyles
- Lifestyles: “combination of responsive design and visual communication with techniques of market segmentation” > niche or target market segment (p.66) ＞life-long loyalty
National characteristics:
- Japanese company
- Miniaturization & simplicity: traditional – perceived as the success behind the economic miracle
Japanese Industrial Design Association : the idea of industrial design is a outcome of American occupation (p.71)
Transcultural & hybridization, esp. design as a global category
Going Global:
- shortened technological monopoly
head office in NY; international warranty; standardization of corporate literature: “Sony is global”
“On March 7, 2005, Sony Corp. announced that Nobuyuki Idei will step down as Chairman and Group CEO and will be replaced by British/American Sir Howard Stringer, current Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation of America, Corporate Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and COO Sony Entertainment Business Group. Sony's decision to replace Idei with the British Howard Stringer will mark the first time that a foreigner will run a major Japanese electronics firm. Sony Corp. also announced on the same date that current president, Kunitake Ando, will step down and be replaced by Ryoji Chubachi. [8]”
global-local nexus: assembly lines to other district (radio)
(Russia painting in HK)
Synergy: synchronization: hard-ware and soft-ware industry (ipod & itunes)
Culture industry:
Horkheimer & Adorno (Dialectic of Enlightenment )
“What Horkheimer and Adorno were doing was connecting the idea of industry to culture to make the point that the growth of cultural production was drawing on methods adopted and used in industrial manufacturing […] the idea of culture industry has undergone something of a shift. From applying the idea of industry to culture, theorists and indeed those involved in the respective companies have been applying the concept of culture to industry. Hence, whilst cultural production is ‘industrial’, so too is industrial manufacturing ‘cultural’. ”(p.81)
- purchase of music and film company: 1989 Columia studio
- culture become highly rely of industry to distribution
～ 「陰質工業」e.g. VCR, DVD, PS – distinction by hardware thus by software
Consumption
Two arguments:
1. Frankfurt school, Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man: true needs are based on human biology while wants are infinite, capitalist society is promoting false needs / exchange value taken over use vale of things/ isolation of individuals/ passive consumption + homogenized mass culture (87-89) e.g. 賣雞蛋買即食麵; Christian cry for “competitor to the voice of God” & inflicting civic mores
2. Jean Baudrillard: meanings does not reside in an object, but how it is used. (p90-91 qoute)
“is forced to represent the individual as a completely passive victim of the system… we are all aware of how consumers resist such a precise injunction, and of how they play with needs, on a keyboard of objects. We know that advertising is not omnipotent and at times produces opposite reactions; and we know that in relation to a single need, objects can be substituted for one another… if we acknowledge that a need is not a need for a particular object as much as it is a need for difference (the desire for social meanings), only them will we understand that satisfaction can never be fulfilled, and consequently that there can never be a definition of needs.”
e.g. 我會做好呢份工
total difference understanding of shopping e.g. 貪慕虛榮 喪買建立主體性？
subversion: Rey Chow周蕾：「另類聆聽‧迷你音樂─關於革命的另一種問題」
Regulations:
- walkman: privatized pleasure in public space & battle of private hearing
Readings:
On cultural economy:
Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift (2004): “Introduction,” in Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift eds. The Backwell Cultural Economy Reader, Malden, MA/Oxford/Carlton, Vitoria: Blackwell Publishing, pp.x-xxx.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )
Tutorial reading:
*Special task of the tutorial: Please illustrate the “cultural circuit” model with the case of Chinese cinema.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Introduction”, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-10.
du Gay, Paul ed. (1997): “Designing the Walkman: Articulating Production and Consumption”,Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony walkman, London/Thousand Oaks/New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp.62-74. (reserved- HM621 .D64 1997 )
徐百柯：「导演贾樟柯称商业大片像细菌破坏社会基本原则」，載《中國青年報》，2007年01月10日02:18。
http://news.qq.com/a/20070110/000353.htm
Useful links:
https://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cndls/applications/posterTool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=2330
posted by 梁寶山 Leung Po Shan at 1:26 AM
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