Refuse critique: kynics, cynicism and creative industry in Aotearoa

Abstract

An intimate part of New Zealand's cultural identity draws on a historical narrative of innovation. The current Labour government draws on this identity and uses it for a justification for policies that promote 'creative industry'. This 'study' investigates how a government's focus on creative industry encapsulates the arts, and how particular framings of creativity might influence an artist. The position of an artist who is interested in the political economy of their art and is not wholly satisfied with the implications of creative industry is sketched revealing a number of tensions. The unwillingness of the artist faced with these tensions to embrace creative industry can be explained through Sloterdijk's (1987) conception of 'cynicism' and 'cynical reason'. Against cynicism, Sloterdijk invokes the cheekiness of the Ancient Greek Kynic Diogenes. The life of a Kynic provides a challenging figure to anyone interested in the wider implications of their cultural productions - including both artists and academics - and questions the necessity of cynical compromise. Tracing Sloterdijk's reasoning, this thesis asks why Kynic cheekiness is singled out and then explores tensions regarding Kynic embodiment and escape. The triad of meaning in the title, Refuse Critique, flavours the text: issues of refusing (declining) a prescribed mode of critique; a critique of relations to refuse (what is waste, rubbish, shit?); and an approach to re- fusing (re-combining) methods of critique.