moderator: Farid Tabarki
participants: Kuba Mikurda / Gianni Vattimo / David Barrie / Jean-Yves Leloup
We can easily say that modern culture has billions of contributors. With internet access, anyone can produce cultural products and have an immense distribution system at their fingertips: multimedia platforms, social networks, online communities, and an immense number of blogs are all part of a gray area of culture created spontaneously, without interference from the authorities or any kind of strict cultural policy.
In these masses of culture, the line between what is and what isn’t art has been blurred for a long time. Terms such as “artist,” “artwork,” and “gift from God” are becoming meaningless and unnecessary. Today, anyone can claim the mantle of the “author”, giving us an immense supply of cultural products. The problem also spans issues of control and censorship, and what constitutes the core and fringes of modern culture.
Does open culture give us a wealth of choice or are we cursed by excess?
We would like to discuss what pop-culture is today, what the difference is between culture made for and by the masses, and to what extent “masses of culture” — any form of activity that is informal, grassroots, street-oriented, or distributed online — contribute to the popularization of culture and eduction, or merely serve to trivialize high culture.
