DISCUSSION: The Death of the Author

When Roland Barthes proposed The Death of the Author in 1967, he argued that audiences should focus on the work, rather than the author’s intentions or biography. But does that idea still hold in the 21st century? The contemporary state of social media, personal branding and manufactured visibility seems closer to Guy Debord’s 1967 text The Society of the Spectacle, where daily life becomes something to be consciously performed and consumed en masse.

In this discussion with electronic artists L’Rain and Juliana Huxtable, moderated by author Lauren Martin, we’ll consider what it means to create music, art or write in 2026. Can we move beyond the myth of the lone genius towards collective models of creative labour and community-building? How might artists resist the expectations of visibility and self promotion? And ultimately, what does it mean to be present in your work, and to understand the personal as political?