Culture as a Market: “Inspiration Is Not for Sale”?

Abstract

Considering artistic creativity through the prism of socio-philosophical prob­lems, the author reveals the reasons and the course of the increasing subordina­tion of culture to the market and capital in the process of evolution of modern society. The article shows that this subordination becomes most intense due to the expansion of the total market of simulacra – a system that is becoming dominant in the 21st century. The dominance of simulacra on the market de­velops to the extent that the main object of not only economic, but all social transactions are signs that have no basis (denotatum) – simulacra. This process of increasing subordination to the total market of simulacra extends not only to the external (sale of the results of artistic creation, which was typical for the previous market), but also to the internal life of culture, including the goals, values, motives of the artist’s activity and transforming co-creativity into alien­ated market relations. This transformation is transforming the market for manuscripts into a market for “inspiration”. The author identifies contradic­tions specific to this process, including the dual nature of the brand, artifact, glamour and the measure of the transformation of cultural phenomena into an “empty sign”.