Creative pragmatism : competency and aesthetics in Bolivian indigenous music video ( VCD ) production (original) (raw)

Although several of the case studies in this book feature indigenous people based in countries with strong economies, it is important to stress that a disproportionate number of the world's indigenous people live in poverty. 1 Given this tendency, a particularly notable aspect of the so-called 'digital revolution' is the way it has provided low income consumers and creators with access to cheap audiovisual technologies. Massive reductions in prices alongside exponential growth in unlicensed copying (so-called 'media piracy'), has given rise to an abundance of new media consumers and producers among the world's poorer populations, especially in parts of the global south. In such regions, the Internet is often available in larger towns and cities, but primarily accessed in public Internet cafés. 2 In these rapidly transforming technological environments, the number of home computers has risen exponentially, but most remain offline. Meanwhile, in smaller towns and rural areas, television reception is often poor; thus, where electricity is available, audio visual entertainment often takes the form of videos. Arguably, the most ubiquitous form of digital hardware in low income homes of the global south 3-especially over the first decade of the twenty-first centuryhas been the VCD (Video Compact Disc) player. 4 Such machines are usually found alongside a stack of (mostly 'pirated') VCD discs of films and music videos. The VCD format, which is almost unknown in the global north and a kind of low-tech' version of the DVD, enables video to be copied onto CD discs and played, on low cost players, through a television. 5 Originally launched in China, this technology rapidly spread to other areas of the global south, escalating both the creation of massive new markets for audiovisual entertainment among low income groups and rampant 'media piracy'. 6 It also motivated indigenous musiciansoften with negligible technical training and support, or financial resourcesto grasp the entrepreneurial opportunities offered by this cheap audio visual technology to create music videos for these new low income local and regional markets. Here, might be identified a distinction between more outwardly orientated