Is commercialism destroying art? I posted a video the other day on - TopicsExpress



          

Is commercialism destroying art? I posted a video the other day on my personal FB page of science fiction author Ursula K Le Guin talking about commercialism in the literature industry and how some authors and publishers are basically just pandering to the lowest denominator (the easy sale) to make a profit. Authors are artists, the same as painters, sculptors, illustrators, musicians, and photographers. The drive to make huge profits, lit by fires started by shows like American Idol, Americas Got Talent, The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance and others, and the industry itself long before that, has taken the heart out of most art making and many artists - who are not making art to become millionaires but to address issues, inspire action, showcase beauty and expression. The process is tied not just to art making and art buying, but also to education, for one. A less-educated populace is generally happy with mediocre art because they are unaware of the amazing things discovered, created by, and thought of in philosophy, science, math, literature, music. Lack of art education, and especially art participation, as well as the low status art has in general (its fun to do, but otherwise not productive work), brings down the level of accomplishment in other fields, including business. Over the weekend, an article in The Atlantic discusses the rise of the Creative Entrepreneur to replace the artist and the function and purpose of art from the individual to a networked crowdsourced money-making social enterprise replacing the individual artist and the individual work of art with an experience. (m.theatlantic/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/4/. Its a long read but worth the time if you can spare it) Its confusing and disturbing for artists who are not social butterflies, the life of the party, who dont crave to be in the spotlight or derive their energy from all-night parties and week-long celebrations, who dont look at the creation of their art from the dollar sign backward, or even from the creation forward to the dollar sign. Success today can come swiftly, but also disappear as quick when the next new thing overshadows your ability to keep up. Art today is a thing of the moment, like the new toy on Christmas day forgotten by dinner time. The major change I see today from earlier times (say, pre 1940s) is society envies and praises the person, the entrepreneur, who rises quickly in the ranks of the rich and famous. It proves their success. Money equals validation (i.e. Peter Lik and his $6.5 million photograph - though I tried hard not to bring that up). Too many people want to strike it rich quickly, winning the lottery, winning a contest, building the next widget or software platform to be bought up for millions by a larger company that started the same way, being part of a network marketing program. Get rich quick. Work from home. Fire your boss. There is no time for art at home, in the community, or in the schools. At least for the creation of meaningful art. Meaningful art is fine for museums, but it doesnt make money. Were too busy trying to figure out how to train workers and inspire housewives. deadbeat dads, and ex-artists to make more money.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 20:34:30 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015