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This is Not New
Art, Culture, and the Promise of Change
Brief Description
What does it mean to call something 'new'? Why is Western culture, even after postmodernism, still so obsessed with the concept? What are the political consequences of relying on this culture to bring about social change? In this provocative book, David Balzer argues that Western culture...
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A lively and witty critique of 'newness' as an unquestioned good in art and culture
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Description
What does it mean to call something 'new'? Why is Western culture, even after postmodernism, still so obsessed with the concept? What are the political consequences of relying on this culture to bring about social change?
In this provocative book, David Balzer argues that Western culture was never designed to produce truly new or original artefacts. Rather, the West moves from fixation to fixation, trend to trend—a cycle of creation and destruction with deep origins in Judeo-Christianity and the paganism that preceded it. The culture industry is rooted in a resource-scarce economy, which promises its own form of change while preserving many other things exactly as they are.
From the New Jerusalem to the New Left, Vannevar Bush to Kate Bush, This Is Not New takes a dynamic approach, asking difficult questions about the role of culture not in making change, but in delaying—even preventing—it. Balzer urges us to look at the Western culture industry for what it is, lest it become all there is.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780745342702
Publisher: Pluto Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 20 May 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Pluto Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 13.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 192
About the Author
David Balzer is a writer, lawyer, editor, and educator. He is the author of Contrivances (2012), Curationism: How Curating Took Over the Art World and Everything Else (2014), and This is Not New: Art, Culture, and the Promise of Change (2025). His critical writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Artforum, and Frieze. He lives in Canada.
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