PressPausePlay: The Digital Revolution and the Changing Creative Landscape

This ambitious survey looks at how new digital technologies have shaken the world of art, music, film, and literature, democratizing the playing field via affordable devices and online communications, while circumventing the usual media-industry gatekeepers and making everyone a potential “viral” star. All good, says musician and DJ Moby, who also feels this is the best-ever time to be in a creative field. Not so, counters author Andrew Keen, who sees an ocean of “cacophony,” in which works of true genius go unnoticed in a relentless cascade of mediocrity cranked out by newly enabled no-talents. This oft-contradictory exploration of today's media/arts-scape is interwoven with periodic visits with Iceland's Ólafur Arnalds as he coordinates a pop-classical fusion concert in Manchester, England (Arnalds' career got a lift from his online presence—a rather tenuous qualification for inclusion here). Other segments focus on Seth Godin, who made a self-published success out of his quickie book Unleashing the Ideavirus by broad-banding it as a free e-book; the groundbreaking Red Digital Cinema camera, which has enabled a fully software-based motion-picture industry; and Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, who created the music file-sharing site Napster (before they ever met face-to-face) and had music execs running scared. Delivering a thought-provoking snapshot of the current state of the intersection between art and technology, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)