“Sell-out” isn’t such a dirty word anymore. The notion that one should compromise their principles for support has become a widely accepted tool for survival in an increasingly precarious gig economy. To sell-out is to live, and artists, producers, musicians, performers, writers have higher living costs, lower pay and fewer independent spaces to work in, outside of corporate interests. Instead of resisting the inevitable total subsumption of the margins by expanding markets, one can join in, get paid, gain visibility and work from the inside. But is this realistic, and what is the real cost of such a concession?

AQNB editor Steph Kretowicz hosts the ‘Assimilation Politics’ round table at Studio 1 of Künstlerhaus Bethanien, on October 27, examining the effects of corporate and institutional co-optation on counterculture, and the people, identities and communities it represents. In conversation with Dorine van Meel, Philipp Rhensius and Ari Robey-Lawrence it questions the value of visibility and exposure outside of an artist’s original context, and explores the consequences of collusion with the capitalist or state prerogative.