Answer to Question 7: What's wrong with corporate/commercial art?
Well, one problem is that it alters what people expect from art. These days most of what passes for art is in fact commercial product, and, because of that, the audio and visuals we ingest and pay for (one way or another) don't do much to stimulate our critical thinking or our desire to create and express ourselves. It's just all fungible commodity now, our images are evaluated on whether they stimulate our appetite for STUFF, not whether they satisfy our need for meaning, understanding, inspiration etc. etc.
Art is supposed to challenge our worldview, cause us to look at things differently. Can we ever see a Campbell's soup can the same after Andy Warhol's paintings? The guy became one of the most famous artists in the world putting common images onto canvas. Thank goodness he wasn't arrested by the copyright police, thankfully, we still have enough free speech to build on the works of others if it is satirical. Far more important than his popularity, was his respected stature as an artist for the noteworthy attention he drew to the idea that art had been diminished by it's commercialization. If you are talented in the visual arts today, you are for more likely to have applied that talent to commercial purposes, than expressive ones.
Art is supposed to inspire us to feel close to our creator and creative spirit. Our society would ultimately be better served by art which does that than by art which motivates us to consume or which simply entertains us.
When all art was sponsored by the church, everything had to pass the Vatican smell test. Only art which fit certain parameters was supported. Anyone with a different vision had almost no viability, there was really only one customer. The church was the only entity willing or able to support artists so they could create and the only artists they supported were the ones presenting, essentially, what was commissioned. Sounds pretty backwards and sad, huh? Well, look around. Yes, it's somewhat better today, there are all sorts of small niches of people out there creating stuff from their hearts, and, with the internet, that will hopefully grow and grow and grow. But, compared to the larger, more pervasive society, I would have to say that the vast majority of "art" that most folks see and hear, must conform to certain paramenters. The powers that be no longer care if you're a Christian, as long as you're a consumer. But, don't be fooled, you're still being manipulated. That desire you feel for more stuff; vacations, private schools, houses, whatever, it's not an inherent feature, it's been stretched out by powerful forces you no longer recognize. Fish don't see water and we don't see how we've been hooked onto the treadmill.
And, I'm not just talking about visuals here. If you look at the best-selling records, movies and books, you'll see that they rarely get there by grass roots word of mouth but rather by the support of monied entities.
The internet is the best thing that ever happened to art. Now we all have the chance to easily access a public forum and use it to express ourselves. Artists have more potential customers, more ability to find them and be found. It's that central funnel feature we try to avoid and the P2P nature of the internet will alleviate the funnel phenomenon more and more as individuals become more empowered.
Art is supposed to challenge our worldview, cause us to look at things differently. Can we ever see a Campbell's soup can the same after Andy Warhol's paintings? The guy became one of the most famous artists in the world putting common images onto canvas. Thank goodness he wasn't arrested by the copyright police, thankfully, we still have enough free speech to build on the works of others if it is satirical. Far more important than his popularity, was his respected stature as an artist for the noteworthy attention he drew to the idea that art had been diminished by it's commercialization. If you are talented in the visual arts today, you are for more likely to have applied that talent to commercial purposes, than expressive ones.
Art is supposed to inspire us to feel close to our creator and creative spirit. Our society would ultimately be better served by art which does that than by art which motivates us to consume or which simply entertains us.
When all art was sponsored by the church, everything had to pass the Vatican smell test. Only art which fit certain parameters was supported. Anyone with a different vision had almost no viability, there was really only one customer. The church was the only entity willing or able to support artists so they could create and the only artists they supported were the ones presenting, essentially, what was commissioned. Sounds pretty backwards and sad, huh? Well, look around. Yes, it's somewhat better today, there are all sorts of small niches of people out there creating stuff from their hearts, and, with the internet, that will hopefully grow and grow and grow. But, compared to the larger, more pervasive society, I would have to say that the vast majority of "art" that most folks see and hear, must conform to certain paramenters. The powers that be no longer care if you're a Christian, as long as you're a consumer. But, don't be fooled, you're still being manipulated. That desire you feel for more stuff; vacations, private schools, houses, whatever, it's not an inherent feature, it's been stretched out by powerful forces you no longer recognize. Fish don't see water and we don't see how we've been hooked onto the treadmill.
And, I'm not just talking about visuals here. If you look at the best-selling records, movies and books, you'll see that they rarely get there by grass roots word of mouth but rather by the support of monied entities.
The internet is the best thing that ever happened to art. Now we all have the chance to easily access a public forum and use it to express ourselves. Artists have more potential customers, more ability to find them and be found. It's that central funnel feature we try to avoid and the P2P nature of the internet will alleviate the funnel phenomenon more and more as individuals become more empowered.
posted by Intervision at 9:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home