"We’ve even come to take for granted the idea that a person’s demographic data is more important than their art."
Well, depends on who "we" is.
People who currently control the prestige positions in the culture do. But I am not a part of that "we" and most of us never will be. The original dream of the Internet was that people would find the art they want and that the gatekeepers would lose control. Has that failed? Why does anyone care what the gatekeepers say? Status is still important, and some people care about status and others apparently retain the ability to grant or withhold or destroy status. Opting out of that game is hard but it should be easier now than it was in the past. If you, or any of us, want to make art, we can, and if we want to at least try to find an audience, even (miracle of miracles) a paying audience, we at least have some tools now to try to do that.
We can choose not to live in Urinal World forever. Duchamp would laugh loudest of all that his prank still gets attention after a century.
Jesus, I was so annoyed, I didn't even realize I was using the "condescending you-we." (It's like the royal We, except for psychiatrists.)
Unfortunately, most genres of fiction online are ruled by roving packs of... well, if you get rid of the big gatekeepers, you tend to wind up with a lot of power-hungry, mentally unbalanced little ones.
There is no option then but to just write or make what you want, and take your chances with the big gatekeepers or the little ones. At least you will have made what you wanted, which only you can do. And only you can decide whether to let yourself be defined by your demographic data, whatever others may do.
1) This place is a butt ugly homage to the cargo cult, so when you delve into art, you delve into profit, and in the world of the prosperity god, art is just the means to get there.
2) No one in this land of fugly wants to be reminded of 1).
post modern shit... it's all about denigrating, removing anything as sacred, to make the ugly worthy, to worship the horror as acceptable. Embracing the monster... was one of my first posts on this sick art show.
I've often wondered about the trends in modern art, which seem intentionally counter productive, and anti-art. I've come to a conclusion that it has to do with art being subservient to buisness, that money, which is based literally upon nothing, is given more authority than the actual creative instinct.
I agree, it is deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional.
That’s always been the problem, but now we have a new one: Voting by clicks is sinking the lowest common denominator so far below sea level, we’re creating a desert.
NOT getting an immense number of clicks from the stupidest 50% of the population mène you don’t get seen at all. Even if I am looking for someone exactly like you, there’s no way to find you from the bottom of Death Valley.
well said.
Its all pretty much digitally hazed into infodromes of the cargo cult
https://youtu.be/lhei72suGMs
Thank you! I hadn’t thought about it that way, but yes!
"We’ve even come to take for granted the idea that a person’s demographic data is more important than their art."
Well, depends on who "we" is.
People who currently control the prestige positions in the culture do. But I am not a part of that "we" and most of us never will be. The original dream of the Internet was that people would find the art they want and that the gatekeepers would lose control. Has that failed? Why does anyone care what the gatekeepers say? Status is still important, and some people care about status and others apparently retain the ability to grant or withhold or destroy status. Opting out of that game is hard but it should be easier now than it was in the past. If you, or any of us, want to make art, we can, and if we want to at least try to find an audience, even (miracle of miracles) a paying audience, we at least have some tools now to try to do that.
We can choose not to live in Urinal World forever. Duchamp would laugh loudest of all that his prank still gets attention after a century.
Jesus, I was so annoyed, I didn't even realize I was using the "condescending you-we." (It's like the royal We, except for psychiatrists.)
Unfortunately, most genres of fiction online are ruled by roving packs of... well, if you get rid of the big gatekeepers, you tend to wind up with a lot of power-hungry, mentally unbalanced little ones.
There is no option then but to just write or make what you want, and take your chances with the big gatekeepers or the little ones. At least you will have made what you wanted, which only you can do. And only you can decide whether to let yourself be defined by your demographic data, whatever others may do.
Yep!
A couple realities about art in this society.
1) This place is a butt ugly homage to the cargo cult, so when you delve into art, you delve into profit, and in the world of the prosperity god, art is just the means to get there.
2) No one in this land of fugly wants to be reminded of 1).
Now go do art, kid!
post modern shit... it's all about denigrating, removing anything as sacred, to make the ugly worthy, to worship the horror as acceptable. Embracing the monster... was one of my first posts on this sick art show.
I've often wondered about the trends in modern art, which seem intentionally counter productive, and anti-art. I've come to a conclusion that it has to do with art being subservient to buisness, that money, which is based literally upon nothing, is given more authority than the actual creative instinct.
I agree, it is deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional.
That’s always been the problem, but now we have a new one: Voting by clicks is sinking the lowest common denominator so far below sea level, we’re creating a desert.
NOT getting an immense number of clicks from the stupidest 50% of the population mène you don’t get seen at all. Even if I am looking for someone exactly like you, there’s no way to find you from the bottom of Death Valley.
O man, that is the truth.
I can't get over the painful irony that everyone was sold this internet thing on the basis of connexion, and here we are, Balkanized to the max.
What is the appropos. line..."you can't make this stuff up."