{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","title":"Cultural Crowdfunding Platform Capitalism, Labour And Globalization","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","id":"171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","uuid":"171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","title":"Cultural Crowdfunding Platform Capitalism, Labour And Globalization","normalized_title":"culturalcrowdfundingplatformcapitalismlabourandglobalization","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":128,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Cultural%20Crowdfunding%20Platform%20Capitalism%2C%20Labour%20And%20Globalization","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/171eb612-d523-4536-900d-5453dce83960/search"},"page":{"printed_page":25,"pdf_page":33,"physical_index":33,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"3b6eaadcfcd8c39190bc64d4f1976e47f84207fff284a1bac37a2baa4b6eb20e"},"chapter":"Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour and Globalization","content":"Closer to our own times, let us consider the emblematic case of the independent film Shadows, by John Cassavetes, which came out in the US in 1959. The British critic Thomas Jarvis describes the conditions under which it was made:\n\nTo retain artistic autonomy Cassavetes had to be creative in raising money and finding equipment for the film. He arranged an interview on Jean Shepherd’s Night People radio show, and told the DJ about the improvisation and the idea for the movie. When asked how he was going to fund the film, Cassavetes replied; ‘if people really want to see a movie about people they should just contribute the money’. After that radio listeners started mailing in money to the station. For the next two years Shepherd would keep listeners up to date with the making of Shadows, which he described as ‘their film’.8\n\nThe example is interesting in two respects. It clearly illustrates the continuity of a phenomenon which, from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to the vast number of ‘alternative’ projects on platforms like Rockethub and KissKissBankBank, promote crowdfunding as a (more or less successful) attempt to escape the apparatuses of economic, political and ideological domination. And the call for financial contributions which Cassavetes made on the late-night radio show played a part in the emergence of specialized media (specialized by age category, subcultural group and so on—something that reaches all the way to today’s virtual communities). In this respect, it incarnates one of the modern myths cultural crowdfunding and crowdsourcing depend on: that of the media’s capacity to ‘translate between the language of professionals and the desires of the public’ (Hennion 1993: 305). Jean Shepherd described Shadows to her audience, her users, as being ‘their’ film—a reference to ‘their’ decision to finance its production. One must also note the importance of similar modes of funding in the field of politics and the press. The French communist newspaper L’Humanité has regularly relied on public subscriptions in order to maintain its daily publication, and permanent fundraising has been similarly used by FM radio stations in North America as an alternative or a complement to advertising revenue. These are clearly not novel phenomena, as one might also consider the case of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda, which was set up by Lenin in 1912 and relied then on a network of 40 000 regular reader/donators (Elwood 1972).\n\nFinally, current approaches to crowdfunding are linked to problematics about heritage preservation. The financing of the Statue of Liberty in New York is often cited as an argument that crowdfunding was not born with the Internet. As Pitts (2010) says, ‘the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty was funded in 1884 by Joseph Pulitzer through an open call to the American people and funded through micro-donations’. In fact, numerous funding ‘campaigns’ were needed before the project was completed. Note also that, anticipating methods which are now commonplace on crowdfunding platforms, the French designer Bartholdi exhibited various already finished pieces (the arm holding the flame, for example), and organized a lottery ofering mostly art-related gifts (Moreno 2000).\n\nCrowdsourcing and Crowdfunding: The Origins of a New System?\n\n25","previous_page":24,"next_page":26}