The role of Art in the next age. 1. [@sndbox]
I was thinking about how things are changing in the role of Art in the world far before I discovered Steem and its blockchain. In the last many months posting on Steemit (mostly) about Art, I started thinking also about the contents rewarding, such as it is on Steem (but other media are going to think about rewarding the content creators, i.e. Viewly, that will work differentl from Steem).
This 2 subjects - the changing perception of the role of Art, and the need to reward content creators - are something I'm thinking about as one.
Content creators are going to matters more and more in the future. That's my opinion.
They are important also today, of course, but that "market" is going to become bigger and more fluid - not restricted only to a little number of copywriters and laureate authors.
This is where artists can find a new way to express themselves and earn money from that.
Yes, earning some money is important for an artist. Not only because he needs to make a living, but also because being rewarded means being accepted in the society. I don't care about Van Gogh selling almost nothing in his life (but he received a good monthly allowance from his brother Theo) or other great artists discovered after their death. We are not in the 19th or 20th century anymore. Artists have to think about themselves in a different way.
I want to say it short:
Artists have to think to themselves not as makers of objects, but as creators of content.
@reddragonfly said it in a better way: "When I started in the gallery business, a piece of art was very much an "object." And, as an object, it was something you could potentially "possess" or "own. Today, many more people approach art as more of an experience."
How the role of Art changed? I think the most important events are 3:
The end of the avantguards (This means that styles are languages, and not themes.)
The advent of the Street Art (This means Art is not just something you find in a museum or buy in a gallery)
The Web and Social Web (This means a powerful place to share and find contents and images)
Maybe a fourth? The birth of the decentralized economy.
There's a ghost floating around this subjects: the one-of-the-kind artwork. The art market needs to keep alive that ghost, for it justifies the prices of artworks. But do we need to keep it alive? Sure, there are artworks that cannot be reproduced and multiplied. But there are many that can.
And even the artworks that need to be one-of-the-kind (and every artist have the right to work that way) can have their partial but still important influence by reproductions. The Walter Benjamin's myth of the aura of the original one-of-the-kind have to rest in peace.
Am I saying blasphemy? Well, I'm just thinking and writing. Strong convinctions are far away from me.
1. To be continued
for @sndbox
If useful ideas gain value with increased use (and repetition) then what about creative ideas? How can we package (embody) and present them in order to guarantee rising value, when appropriate? Is that the Steemit dynamic? Where else should we look for such opportunities?
Steem is a draft of idea about rewardind creative contents, sure. Can it work on large scale and continuosly? I don't know. I'm just sure that good and original contents will be more and more wanted, in the future.
Good and original are important, but good, original and useful is more likely to be sustainable. What does useful, creative content look like? To me, it looks like content worth pausing over, keeping and sharing.
then "useful" and "good" are not so different ;)
wonderful post @paolobeneforti, you've given me some food for thought. I hadn't thought about
that is a very interesting insight and I agree that it has a lot of power because it means that style can be used with much more meaning and depth.
Also, I love your drawings here, they are so alive.
thx @natureofbeing. I hope to develope even more this subject :)
Some very interesting thought and it will be very interesting, how all this is going to develop. I for one have done reproductions of my work for a long time. Just imagine the music business would only do one of a kind... every time you want to listen to a piece of music, you need to hire a band or a complete orchesstra! Absurd... so why would it be so strange to make visual art available in a similar way, right?
Also really like your artwork in this post!!
thx very much, maestro :)
That's right.Well illustrated!
More generally we are witnessing a global virtualization but this may also involve a different relationship to the material and probably the gradual disappearance of the work of the hand and the replacement of the manual technique by the technology
I see rather technology helping the manual work, and giving new ways and possibilities to create - as far as we have bodies ;)
It is possible that this is only a transitional period and I think the machines will have the capacity to create. Since the emergence of technology we are witnessing a gradual disappearance of the work of the hand and I think that the phenomenon will go to the end if humanity continues to go in the same direction.
I agree that we're in a new age for artists - where process is much more highly valued than the final product. I really like your illustrations. The second one makes a really powerful statement in support of this new artistic movement where we are less interested in the old gallery setting and more interested in sharing our process/ideas online and beyond.
thank you.
beyond the analysis, what I'd like to do is start a real collaboration between artists on Steem.
we are working on it.
Very nice @paolobeneforti, and thanks for the shout-out!
A while back I ended up in part of a discussion with @arthuradamson where we touched on the "ownership" of creative expression. As I recall, he had talked to a younger person who insisted that art becomes "public property" the moment an artist finishes it... nobody actually "owns" it. Again, pointing to art-as-experience.
opensource art is ok, as far as there is the right attribution.
for the artists that make Installations, that problem doesn't exist at all: they sell not the artwork but a sort of merchandise of it (signed prints, signed photos, signed drawings) :)
Excellent @paolobeneforti. This is VERY interesting. I believe that there are parallels in the music industry as well. I am excited to hear more of your ideas.
thx Bucky :)
Thank you for the terrific post..
I dont know much about Art, but i must admit i learnt a few things with this wonderful piece. I'd like to read more of your post in the future as i am open to learning. Thank you @paolobenerforti