Night School

Date:
  • April 11th 6–8PM
Tickets Free, registrations recommended

presented with the State Library of Western Australia

State Library of Western Australia (Theatrette)

25 Francis St, Perth WA 6000

Whadjuk Noongar boodja

Book Launch: Creative Tools and the Softwarization of Cultural Production image

Edited by Frédérik Lesage and Michael Terren, Creative Tools and the Softwarization of Cultural Production explores how creativity is increasingly designed, marketed, and produced through digital products and services which, the editors argue, are not politically, economically or culturally neutral.

For this Night School session Michael Terren will lead a discussion building off of ideas expressed in the book. This will explore how artistic praxis has been co-opted by the service economy, rebranding it as the 'creative industries'. It will explore the consequences of this co-opting: insecure work as the norm, erosion of work-life balance, erosion of unions, and so on. Terren will invite us to discuss how artists might seize the means of cultural production in our techno-feudalist setting, and the need for artists to critically re-assess "creativity" and "artistic expression" without becoming blueprints for global capital to co-opt.

Paul Boyé, Skot McDonald and Sze Tsang will join the latter half of the discussion to offer provocations.

Accessibility:

The State Library of Western Australia Theatrette is a wheelchair accessible venue, with space for wheelchairs in the front row accessible via even carpet. There are numerous wheelchair accessible, all-gender bathrooms located throughout the library. The event is alcohol-free and all-ages. It can be attended online via Jitsi, and will be live-captioned using Jitsi’s in-built captioning service. This or another live-captioning service will be available to view via projection in the venue. The venue is indoors with no windows, but it is spacious and there will be room to sit socially distanced. The stage will be warmly and brightly lit, whilst the audience seating ranks will be dimly lit. There is no dedicated check-out space booked for this session.