Art Slam Competition.

Here's my piece from the beginning. We were given one hour to paint. I was able to get one friend to come out, so needless to say, I was not voted the winner. That's also not me saying the other art pieces weren't good. There were lots of good works.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Art is absolutely a popularity contest. I had this argument with someone. Actually, with one of the few people I've ever deleted off Facebook (not for this reason, but it factored in). I was up for a Reader's Choice award in a magazine in Toronto a few years back. Mikey shared the voting page and asked people to support. One dude asked for information on all the other artists so that he could make an educated decision.

I told him that it wasn't a problem, but that he needed to do his own research, we would not be supplying him the links to my competitors.

He got upset and said that art is not a popularity contest. It would be great if it weren't, but that's just not how voting tends to work, or we wouldn't have to try to get all of our friends to come out to competitive events like Art Battle, Art Slam, and the like. Your friends will usually vote for you, even if you make some hot garbage.

At least in Art Battle, the multi-round system lends a lot of extra ballots. If you're in round 1, lots of people who came to support their friend in round 2 will have to spare vote to pick an actual favourite.

To say art is not a popularity contest is very idealistic. It ignores a lot of modern art history. Probably more ancient history, too, but artist hijinx themselves have lent a lot to the value and fame of art pieces. The whole Dadaist movement was based on protest. Dali, though extremely intelligent and skilled, would probably have never risen to the fame he did if he hadn't 1) alienated the other Surrealists, 2) met Gala, his partner, and 3) burst through a window in a bathtub in New York. Not all in that order. And Warhol? I haven't read his biography yet, but I know one of his models shot him point blank in his warehouse. Now soup cans and Monroes in psychedelic colours are iconic.

History is the story of the people. The people decide which stories to remember forever. Art is a popularity contest, because everything sort of is.

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