In the framework of classical modernity, artistic production is characterized by innovation, creativity, non-alienation, and originality, and thus opposed to repetitive, automatized, non-creative industrial work. This gap that traditionally divided artistic and non-artistic labor is arguably becoming narrower than it was in the times of >< modernity. Artistic practices and their labor processes have become hard to distinguish from the non-artistic practices and processes in at least two ways. The post-industrial “creative industries” presuppose the innovative, project-oriented and, in a certain way, autonomous working process. But on the other hand, the artists, designers, or writers use the means of production that they do not own or control. This relates in the first place to the Internet; being the common working place for the “creative class” it is at the same time owned and controlled by big private corporations. One can see here the same conflict between the common, collective space of work and
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Art production
While the desire to transform society through the power of art is a fundamental characteristic of art practice at least as far back as the Romantic art movement of the nineteenth century, we today still struggle with the question of how art can effectively change society. Now we know from Karl Marx that it is primarily work that changes society and the world as a whole. So the best way to investigate the transformative power of art in contemporary society is by looking at the specific position of art production in our current societal context.