book – Openmute – ISBN 0955066476
Identifying the ‘new’ in economical and social evolution has been a necessity for the capital since it reached a global status. Then after expanding intrinsically into a networked environment the urge of tracking innovation nurtured by productive workers has dramatically arisen. But this nothing newer than 18th century as Adam Smith ‘philosophers’ text proves. And it last till the last years development of London focused on the ‘new’ creative class. Barbrook here let a ‘quoting culture’ emerge, exploited for his own narrative. The consistent collection of quotes is in fact a written history of ‘innovation’ generated by social dynamics. The chronological sequence of ‘cognitive capitalism’ embodiments can be even read randomly, but it formulates (in)voluntary a fierce critic on the capitalism rhetoric. This ‘cut & paste’ form of writing lead to meaningful results only when skillfully used. Re-contextualizing quotes is always a dangerous game and we are not yet trained to freely sample the monstrous amount of essays on the net. Nevertheless the most interesting meanings are often hidden between the lines, and this book seem to liberate and legitimate a critical use of juxtaposing sources extracting sense. It’s no remix or mashup. It’s meant as a possible straight sequence without interruption, bleeding interpretation at every passage.