Reading cultural conditions

Culture is of course an industry and collective art form, as well as reflection and antagonist of the zeitgeist. Over time, repetition of cultural acts contributes to tradition and reinforces group identity. But any consensus will necessarily produce its negative charge, cultural outliers spun out to seed dissensus and evolve the landscape. The cultural landscape––films, books, theatre, art, design and television, its major and minor players, its funders, (ideological) agendas and political purpose––contributes a reading as vital to our sense of the whole, as important, if not more so than current macroeconomic conditions.