The most resonant slogan of Occupy Wall Street is “we are the 99%!” But who are the one percent? The popular answer is “Wall Street.” But to think about this more closely, perhaps the question to ask is: how do the most advanced means of computing and communication of our time create new class relations? Perhaps this isn’t your grandparents capitalism we are now living in. Perhaps there are intra-class struggles within the ruling class for which we do not yet have good social maps. Perhaps there are new kinds of class formation outside the ruling class. What do the new relations of communication mean for the creation
of art and culture?
McKenzie Wark is the author of “Telesthesia” (Polity 2012), “The Beach Beneath the Street” (Verso 2011), “Gamer Theory” (Harvard 2007) and “A Hacker Manifesto” (Harvard 2004). He is professor of culture and media at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College, in New York City.
The ATC series is produced by the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM), with support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Provost, the Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Meyer Sound and Theo Armour.