Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures

Routledge Studies in Media and Cultural Industries

CURATION IN THE AGE OF PLATFORM CAPITALISM

THE VALUE OF SELECTION, NARRATION, ANDEXPERTISE IN NEW MEDIA CULTURES

Panos Kompatsiaris

Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism

This book employs the figure of curation—the selection, arrangement, and display of objects, concepts, and things—to explore the cultures of platform capitalism. Considering its rise in the global art world as an authorial, meaning-making activity and an organizational-entrepreneurial endeavour, it looks at curation as the interweaving of innovative concepts, elaborate storytelling, and trusted experts leaking out from galleries to hashtags.

Its logic encompasses diverse spheres ranging from high-brow art and the fashion world to low-brow experience economies and economies of authenticity, from confidence cultures and relationship gurus to algorithmic spectacles. More than an economy, “curate and be curated” is a difused imperative amidst the disorienting spread of information that digital platforms enable: What to post, what to wear, what to eat, what friends to have, what music to hear, what films to watch, what places to visit, what socks to choose, and what opinion to have about serious issues like climate change, military coups, AI, genetics, space colonization, and cryonics, or everyday issues like football, fashion, and diet. Drawing on critical platform theory, material culture, and multi-sited ethnography, the book examines curated worlds of coolness, authenticity, and inspiration, including the luxury fashion brands Vetements and Balenciaga, Airbnb food experiences, and the figure of the life coach. The book argues that the curatorial imperative endorses an aspirational class imaginary and the idea that handling self-narratives is a strategic means of socialization that can assist upward mobilities as well as neoliberal narratives of well-being, promotion, and success.

This book will be of key interest to academics, researchers, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of cultural studies, media studies, communication studies, curating, contemporary art theory, critical management studies, and art history, as well as to more general readers interested in new media, platforms, and digital culture.

Panos Kompatsiaris is an associate professor in cultural and media theory at the HSE University and a research fellow in media sociology in IULM. He earned his PhD in art theory from the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of the Politics of Contemporary Art Biennials (2017) and co-editor of collections on art, media, and cultural politics. He has been a guest lecturer in Franklin University, Athens School of Fine Arts, University of Edinburgh, and University of Copenhagen, among others.

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10 Configuring the Field of Character and Entertainment Licensing The Licensing Expo and Other Sites of IP Management Avi Santo

11 European Audiovisual Policy in Transition Heritiana Ranaivoson, Sally Broughton Micova and Tim Raats

12 Entrepreneurial Cosplay Creating Identity, Building Identity, Brand and Business Acumen Edited by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols, Amy C. Lewis and Dave Tomczyk

13 Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood Simon Hewitt

14 The Travels of Media and Cultural Products Cultural Transduction Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed

15 Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures Panos Kompatsiaris

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Media-and-Cultural-Industries/book-series/RSMCI

Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism

The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures

Panos Kompatsiaris

ROUTLEDGE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2024
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2024 Panos Kompatsiaris

The right of Panos Kompatsiaris to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-032-02300-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-02301-4 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-18280-1 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003182801

Typeset in Sabon by Newgen Publishing UK

Contents

List of Figures vii
List of Table viii
Acknowledgements ix
PART 1
Homo Curatorius 1
1 Introducing the Curatorial Imperative 3
1.1 Do Socks Have Personalities? 3
1.2 Theory on Platforms, Cultures, and Curating 9
1.3 Methods and Perspectives 16
1.4 Chapter Breakdown 19
2 From Galleries to Hashtags: The Aspirational Imaginary
of Curating 27
2.1 Everyone Is a Curator 27
2.2 Curators from Ancient Rome to Modern Museums 30
2.3 Expertise, Value, and Materiality in Museum Spaces 34
2.4 The Rise of the “Curator as Author” in Contemporary Art 37
2.5 “Organize Your Passion”, or Curating as Business 40
2.6 Conclusions 44
Curating and Platforms 49
3.1 Cute Animals 49
3.2 Data, Reflexivity, and Communication Unbound 52
3.3 Platform Capitalism as a Productive Model 56
3.4 The Gig Economy and Aspirational Labor 61
3.5 Curated Consumption and the Aspirational Class 66
3.6 Conclusions 69
PART 2
Cultures of Platform Capitalism 75
4 Cool Is in the Air: Atmospheres of Banal Luxury in Digital
Warhol Economies 77
4.1 The Banal Luxury Complex 77
4.2 Warhol Economies and Cool Atmospheres 80
4.3 “It Is Ugly, That’s Why We Like It”, or Privileged
Populism in High Fashion 84
4.4 Highbrow Selfies in Vetements Instagram 89
4.5 Poor Chic, the Security Uniform, and the Damaged
Sneakers 93
4.6 Conclusions 96
5 The Babushka–Nonna Experience: Curated Authenticities
and the Aspirational Gastronomical Imaginary 102
5.1 Biennials and Babushkas 102
5.2 Experiences and Authenticity in Business Literature 105
5.3 Aspirational Food and the Gastronomical Imaginary 109
5.4 “Handmade Pasta with Italian Grandma” 112
5.5 Anarchist Foodies 116
5.6 Conclusions 121
6 “A Person without Vision Will Perish”: Curating Mindsets,
Micro-Celebrities, and Intimacies in Life Coaching 127
6.1 You Know How Much I Love Paris! 127
6.2 The “Self” and Liberal Governance 130
6.3 Digital Gurus, Micro-Celebrities, and the Claim to
Charisma 134
6.4 Curating Lives of Discipline, Confidence, and Resilience 139
6.5 Curating Masculinities in Sexuality and Intimacy
Coaching 145
6.6 Conclusion 150
7 Who to Be, How to Appear, and What to Consume:
Concluding Thoughts 158
Index 164

Contents

Figures

2.1 The Moon Rock in National Air and Space Museum,
Washington, D.C. 36
4.1 The intersections between banal luxury and contemporary
art: Vetements on the way to Giardini, Venice Biennale 2022 80
4.2 Vetements fashion selfies 92
4.3 Vetements Okhrana uniform 95
5.1 Images from THRiA’S Facebook account 119

Table

3.1 The curatorial imperative in platform work

62

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Routledge editor, Suzanne Richardson, for the kind support since the early stages of this project, as well as the editorial assistants, Tanushree Baijal and Stuti Goel, for their helpful guidance. I am very thankful to the following persons for reading parts of the book and ofering priceless feedback across diferent writing stages: Yiannis Mylonas, Anastasia Philimonos, Mark Banks, Jaka Primorac, Dimitris A. Moschos, Georgios Papadopoulos, Evangelos Chrysagis, Andrea Miconi, Christos Mais, and Nafsika Papacharalampous. I would also like to thank the following individuals for engaging in various forms of exchange and collaboration throughout these past years, which have enlightened my scholarly and general knowledge: Barucha Peller, Vangelis Poulios, Faidra Douzina-Bakalaki, Christos Papanikolaou, Kostas Venetis, Nello Barile, Angela Dimitrakaki, Penny Travlou, Thodoris Prodromidis, Natalia Vereshagina, Steryios Valioulis, Marios Chatziprokopiou, Karin Ahlberg, Nada Endrissat, and Nanne Buurman. I want to especially acknowledge all the colleagues and students I have worked with in the context of the Critical Media Studies master’s program at the HSE for expanding my intellectual horizons and for sustaining an excellent learning environment amidst troubling political times. I am equally grateful to my colleagues at the EUMEPLAT project for maintaining a welcoming community that has significantly expanded my knowledge and understanding of digital platforms. I want to thank my past professors, Neil Mulholland and Angela McClanahan, for introducing me to some of the concerns and theoretical angles found in this book; David Connolly for the proofreading and pertinent comments; Lilya for the caring support; and Christos, Vasiliki, and Kiveli for always being there. I am solely responsible for the contents of the book and for any mistakes and omissions found throughout.