Commodification as the Means of Cultural Production

Abstract

The paper discloses the phenomenon of the commodification of cultural production in course of evolutionary transformation of technic, technologic and economic capacities of society. Economic issues, including the definition of cultural product as a commodity, form the apparatus for the objectification of creative intention that does not impact directly on the creativity as freedom. Albeit the tension of social apprehension, spoken in words by either intellectual critics or market demand, and dependence on the market laws, reflecting either the labor issues or distribution and consumption, evoke the shift in the function of art, in particular, the loss of critical and regulative functions. Thus, the article seeks the logic dependence of the functional shifts in art on the phenomenon of commodification. The paper aims to justify the hypothesis that the commodification is an auxiliary tool for communication between the artist and audience, barely directly causing the leveling of aesthetic artistic value. Considering that the comprehension of commodification relies mostly on the philosophic criticism leaving the economic research of cultural production aside and missing the discourse of aesthetic and artistic essence, this paper concludes that the commodification of symbolic production, as the consequence of social and economic development, rather implies communicative capacity for artistic value than the destructive or leveling impact factor causing the shift of social functions of art.