Ingo Arend on the importance of the cultural and creative industries

Ingo Arend reflects in the left-wing weekly Der Freitag on the development of the cultural and creative industries: "The promotion of aesthetic ability to a directly productive force shows clearly: capitalism is heading resolutely into the post-industrial era and placing itself under a creative imperative. Sixty years after Max Horkheimer's and Theodor W Adorno's settling of scores with the 'culture industry' the rapid rise of the 'cultural industries' to become the spirit and engine of a new capitalism is remarkable. Shouldn't the creative scene feel honoured? At last it finally has the chance, instead of standing on the sidelines scarcely able to earn a living, to be at the centre of a colossal social revolution. But just as here artistic practice and potential have not only advanced to the status of directly exploitable economic location factors but become the absolutely central idea of an economy of innovation, so a dramatic change in the role of art seems to be in the offing. At the same time there are still some lingering suspicions that these sought-after creative people will really just end up in smartshops doing the work that big companies no longer want to pay for. Nevertheless, (left-wing) fears that creativity will now be nationalised and the artist will mutate to become an agent of commerce are largely unwarranted. For creativity is not plannable like a chemical process. It is derived from a stubborn unpredictability."

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