The art conundrum; the disconnect between society and art establishment Celebrity art dealers artists and art collectors have become superstars of such caliber F. Scott Fitzgerald would’t imagine in a wildest Great Gatsby's wet dream. The breathtaking fables of high-flying multi-million art deals inspire the sensational and entertaining articles to be written by the writers who could barely earn a living nowadays. How many people, however, actually become the art lovers learning about the adventures of the glitzy art stars? None. The art world is a lonely Narcissus that admires the own reflection. But desperately wants the public affection and attention unwilling to admit the need of new source for awe. Or how many art critics made a serious attempt to explain in written word the post post-modern art scene? What about the artists… is next thought that comes to mind. Maybe this whole problem of art turning into a very sexy fast-money exchange business is due the bad quality artists? Even television tried to popularize art in the attempt to create a show who wants to be the next American top model I mean artist. But the public only grow less interested, more so, the public wants to take over the art franchise after the so-called digital revolution. Masses of people who could never touch a camera for variety of reasons now turn to photography. For instance, 300 million photographs are uploaded every minute to Facebook, The numbers have power the sheer grandiosity. And yet the art world tries to keep its cool. And more so, continues to be disconnected. Which could be good or bad depending how one looks at it. Good in a sense of art preservation, not good for survival of the franchise. In most recent global social phenomenon there’s a new traits of human behavior that present a real threat to what is known as highly developed Western culture. Manipulating reality Everyone makes photos and in doing so everyone selects an image to a fit some desirable standard. This is done consciously. This manifests the beginning of a creative process and is not known to the imagemanipulator who wasn’t warned about it. It would be strange digital camera was sold with a warning. right? Majority of people are now involved with photography and it seems to be a good thing, what kind of warning should be given for such innocent hobby… art is known to have healing effect, why would I assume the worse? The latest version of the Western “Me” society is the loneliest know in human history. Not just that. Being self-centered changes personality the further the more. I’d call it menacing loneliness, life for the purpose to create nothing but annoyance to the environment and nothing works better thinks the menacing loner than creating a false individual happy story in pictures. The latest social development is such that people prefer visual images to direct communication using photos instead of language. Pictures speak in newly invented language to maintain one’s virtual self-centered presence with the help of the desired “realistic” images as evidence of one’s medium.com/the-armory-art-gif/so-who-acts-like-a-whore-th... The art collectors, art dealers art writers and the rest of the fine art establishment have the practical experience and knowledge in field of visual arts meaning they know good art when they see it. And there are THE OTHERS who have nothing to do with the art profession. For a regular person it could take sometimes a lifetime to have developed the acquired aesthetic taste. Meanwhile the art establishment is not concerned with the educational part. It seems that the elite decided to SAVE the fine art from going INVISIBLE by paying the prices that are irrelevant to what the artwork might actually worth. By throwing tons of cash money the collectors created some naturally occurring chain reaction. Now it is not the fine aesthetics of art that is the main thing in the present day cultural life, its the money, honey. This highlights another disconnect that had occurred. Profitability decides what is good art and what’s not. The art industry answers with more “consumer” quality art trying to cash in. What happens next? The digital revolution is expected to produce something “new” in the arts. What would that be not the philosophers, writers or analysts are even trying to foretell. The faithful to the cause (the progressive growth and enlightenment) are in the state of the disillusionment. There is no purity in art inspired by money and not the MUSE. Writers turn their back at the art as a man who would turn his back at a whore he won’t marry. To write and think about art and its future one needs the inspiration. Art that acts like a whore doesn’t inspire poetry. A woman that sells sex… Death of news (The art conundrum continued) 2 Once the average person turns antisocial there’s no doubt that the cultural/artistic establishment looses whatever little popularity it earned trying for the long periods in human history to maintain some presence among the “real” or “everyday” people and pull some degree of respect from the wide masses. No more people believe the cultural standards once they are able to manipulate reality and control the cultural standards. Even create new culture (reverse, re-culture, un-culture, de-culture, post-culture) Sounds improbable? Not if you recall the sheer weight of the numbers that this majority of population present. The stronger is the art establishment’s “standoff” to simply is process the new popular influences the deeper goes the corrosion of the aesthetics core. Similar transformations happen in the circle or creative people. Nobody is protected by a bullet proof glass to be unaffected by what is happening socially. After all this is a historical commonly experienced condition. Everyone goes through similar changes. Of course I would presume that a professional artist is entangled into maintaining his/her cyber presence for a different reason. To spread his art and gain exposure. Better intention won’t change the outcome of the changed personality. On the path to promote his art, the artist is facing theme-world. “I wanted to change the world,” he soon admits, “But the world had changed me after its shape and image, etc.” The me-culture breeds an army of idle over informed minds that live with chronic ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with insomnia, with body -- dysmorphia, anorexia, obesity, addictive behaviors, and so much more that combining the whole array with the “creative” activity of self-promotion it is soon turned pathological but we are talking here —GLOBAL proportions. THE DEATH OF NEWS The Death of news means one thing. The dream of the unconditional social oppression by ruling class is finally realized when the PRESS IS DEAD. People communicate with each other through social media. The news feed is where they access news shared and spread around. When the “me culturati” social net-worker posts three hundred million picture a minute only on facebook, any news that had a slight chance to show up in the newsfeed drawn in selfies and other web-images. The art establishment is trying not to loose the face. By expertly acquiring the “new” art to look more and more consumer — friendly henceforth the art acquisitions are the flashy ones, the really bright and glowing and sparkling with the mirror surfaces and intricately labor intense (the only grounds to be valuable and fetch the high price for the bunches and tons of handiwork.) And no artist gets away with the easily produced art, The ABSTRACT art has to be scrupulously produced not some quickie chancy or accidental improvisation. This brings new question to the fore. The art establishment sets the consumer-friendly fashionable standards for the art items. Meanwhile the consumer turned “content creator” now had evolved into an ARTISTE the one who now is in control of each and every aspect that relates to the visuals, since anything visual is used for photography or videos. In turn all the cyber images, the pictures, the videos are produced to be posted as a part of the creator’s online identity. Meaning each person knows and wants some items that represent and promote further the Self, the me-world that is now again as the earth once was the Earth flat. The content creator wants his/her “own art” to be worthy, to be hand-made somewhere in China in the meticulous detail to translate well on thescreen with the content creator’s online mobile profile. The Art or what it stands for now the Me-Art is created for the only reason to enhance the online persona’s presence in the me — photo collection. Rules of Selfie The art conundrum 3 The art establishment is not really interested in how most people live and their new behavioral patterns. Or what some “nobody” would like to have as a backdrop for selfies. But the situation present a huge social phenomenon and the changed interaction with reality, the NEW REALITY (SEE the OLD REALITY), manipulated and adjusted to the standards of what is POPULAR to get attention and “likes”. The reality is transformed because of the new rule of the majority (see the old rule of the majority). What happens everywhere with everyone can’t go unnoticed. It changes many things in the world. It is the new “cyber” life style with new problems of the final ESCAPE from what we know as the physical reality. Art establishment encourages the Consumerism . What it should start doing instead is to support the philosophical quest to build new school of thought that could help to change the ongoing social disillusionment, start creating the new utopia and ideals to inspire higher grounds and not support most base instincts of the human nature. The MORAL change is the only thing that would sustain the art franchise as an independent authority on anything related to the visual image. As one and only historically credible authority to maintain high aesthetics and in turn to prevent Atavism. It starts from the top. With the little hope that a change is possible, the need for it is especially urgent in the premise of visual art. The art establishment can no longer cater to the bad behavior of the disordered and disoriented people even with the mutual dislike. The involvement of the masses globally in CREATIVITY that goes along with the photo production is destructive to the artistic structure. The so-called digital art and mass photography puts any artistic attempt at a meager level of not something that “goes viral” “trending” spoken ROARED about and spread like fire what happens to the things that internet population loves to share. Anything but not art indeed. Post-medium condition medium.com/the-armory-art-gif/the-hand-that-splashed-the-... In her text A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition, critic Rosalind Krauss expands Clement Greenberg’s description of the modernist desire for “pure” art forms in order to encompass the forms and issues of art today, the art of the “post-medium” age. She argues that while this drive for purity of art forms still exists, the forms of art themselves have evolved in such a way that the search for purity can no longer follow the same tenets. Instead of searching for painting or sculpture, the media have become so conflated that the artist must strive to attain a purification of Art itself. She mentions Joseph Kosuth’s idea that as painting and sculpture begin to come together, i.e. as different media become indistinct, the project of art will become more general, and modernist art must locate the “essence of Art itself” . In art purity means same thing as in life – truth, not any degree of lie. How an artist / a writer would create the pure art meaning that he/she is honest in Hemingway’s understanding? Just tell the story from experience or knowledge and don’t invent it. In the postmodern art to be the “proper” and postmodern creator one would have to save time and deliver the truth taken from the “samples” of it. While the process is not the Hemingway’s, it is the process where someone would experience evolution of his/her personal taste. One would be able to “cheat” and make anything believable. This is the point where a crisis starts to develop. In history there is a good example of how a reputable credible establishment as the ancient philosophers had compromised their own teachings. Such is the case with Sophists. Same as Philosophy the art establishment is also one of the the historically credible ones yet same as the Philosophical establishment is develops credibility crisis. The expert Sophists would prove anything for you – if you want the black to be black –- they would prove it for you, the black to be white –- proved it to you. Henceforth if the Sophists could and did practice to prove anything it becomes quite clear that there is no truth and it means there could be no purity. Vacuum The art conundrum 8 Nowhere to be found any scholarly inquest about the contemporary art. Could the art in its present OFFICIAL postmodern form in fact represent the reality? Would the artists detached from and disconnected even be interested to know the reality? Does the contemporary art have any way of representing the so — called reality or historical period we are living in? Or is the art running behind the time or ahead of our time? In the art industry the owner of art selling business hires a worker (a consigned artist) to start the money exchange that continues for as long as the art item goes through the various stages changes hands, from the art dealer to a collector( who often flips the artwork he didn’t buy to hold) from the collector to an auction house, from the auction house to the art consumers. At that point the “hired” artist is not a creator of the “finished” art product. More likely he/she is a small part of a larger production machine. He/she repeats the same not always in full consciousness of his/her role not as the center figure — the diva, but a part of larger scale production. This results in a phenomenon of estrangement detachment and the disconnection. The artist is only interested in the monetary reward and quality of his art among other things which indirectly affect the profit. The art dealer in turn is not concerned to provide his art buyers with the best and high quality art, and treats the artworks as any inventory for sale. Advertisement tactics are not that different. To sell something of questionable use and value the business would use most creative advertising and go as far as to apply pressure, use the basic human instincts to engage the buyer to the end and close the art deal. The only goal is the sale. The artwork could turn into a tedious laborious ordeal for the dealer and his artist. After the successful sale the artist would stick to the salable quality. Henceforth the creation of art is particularly for the sale and nothing else. On the other side the society still partial to the old-fashioned concept that the culture and fine arts should serve the people at least with something useful showing that in our time similarly to other historical times anyone creative is given the freedom for the independent artistic expression. For the common people without art background digital, computer art works as the new young anti-establishment movement. The art establishment avoids using the term in relation to visual art. If one enters the search with key words to see if there’s any publication on the topic of multimedia art from 1960 to now there would be no results. Few attempts were made by the non — western theorists to analyze the possibilities of multimedia art and what could it evolve into in the future. The artconundrum 7 Nobody in the art business see any possibility for the change in the current situation. On any level starting from the super rich collectors to the penniless art bloggers. The state of ignorance or hopelessness or incompetence doesn’t help to inspire anything to break the art away (to save the woman from whoring) from the commerce. They still want the woman but paying seems to be real convenient. Once you pay for LOVE you don’t have to engage the feelings. If this provides a long -- lasting business opportunity for the oldest profession, what would commercial art bring as the cultural and moral contribution, the higher priced art, the most expensive art piece by a living artist… An imprimatur from the yes-critics. Nobody even bother to deny that money driven art commerce dominates and surely it affects what is only done by inspiration. Maybe the money-driven art is better than nothing? The public at large always looked at the “king and his noble knights” only to observe ignore and silently hate on. Would the fine arts thrive on such high grounds surrounded by the silent but global hate? Instead of such unfortunate situation (paradoxically so as the art making is now lucrative) the artists might think that they could have already won over the people’s love by reducing the complexity of creative moment. But this is not the big idea of meeting with the masses. With the free art on the Internet the people love to finally exercise their power and with the majority vote to support the most primitive idiocy in visual terms. Hardly an artist ever lived to bring the creativity to such rot. If people support the visual rot it could be for the reason of the silent disdain to the pretentiousness of the artists who can’t win their love. No matter what the artist does, the art about people, art for people, art of people, people as art, the people (the real people) don’t buy into any of the deceptive tactics. Who acts like a whore ? The art conundrum 5 It’s not only what I see happening but commonly observed how the consumption of pictures substitutes reading, watching short Youtube substitutes TV programs and movies. As to the News it was previously explained hot there is no more news. It is only natural since there’s no demand for any news in the unchanged or not well adjusted to what the people want to know. In the consumption of photos there’s another phenomenon I would say. One would need to find all visual info there is meaning the endless “research” henceforth the RESEARCHER can’t stop and keep at it to exhaust all sources. Meanwhile the supposed project or “work” is disregarded. The research is THE WORK -– the agglomeration of an obscene amount of “useful” links, pics, articles and variety of the all-encompassing knowledge collected daily from the PRECIOUS sources. While the research is conducted for some purpose (like writing this article for instance, I would go in lengths to search for supporting evidence. Quite often I was brought to the new most interesting topics that I would forget what was my initial interest, what was it that I needed to back up with goof quality info). Fact is that nobody has any control over the image once it arrives to cyber. It seems that someone should be able to exploit this constant need for images same as the constant recycling of the images. Nobody seems to know how to do it. How to reign supreme as the image authority. The art establishment believes itself to be in fact the supreme authority over the image selling the art for hundreds of millions of dollars as the most valuable commodity among the cultural images. Why the art establishment is totally absent from the new publishing (since there is any other) platform of the Internet on its images sprees? With the help of the NEW INTERNET PUBLISHING the public sees what goes VIRAL and it could be anything from some ghetto street art to the things that would be hard to mention due to their utter stupidity. But those viral visual things reach out to the country of many billions Internet people. It would probably be only good or even better if the art establishment was ever concerned with the matter of reaching out to the masses. In the present moment the only thing that comes out of the elite establishment of the fine arts is the continued and unchanged concerns with the acquisitions of the artworks and upping as much as possible the dollar value as if protecting the institution of arts with loads of cash. As to the artists — there’s no aesthetic school of thought at this point, to have any ideological direction. The artists were used to be the ones who could stand against the establishment as the Avant-garde. Invisible Non-Stop The art conundrum 4 Rules of Selfie The art conundrum 3 Death of news (The art conundrum continued) 2 THE INTERNET PEOPLE spenddays and nights online looking at the images. This might not be a healthy or productive way to spend time but its happening.Sometimes THE INTERNET PEOPLE “actively” participate INTERACT the way they can, by “liking” pictures, sharing links and so on. Less and less are they capable of producing an original written comment with few exceptions and for the different type People of the Internet . Some could be “talkative” bashing the DEMS and engage into the long political arguments, some could write product reviews, some could still make comments about movies. And of course there is the largest part of the population who live now the CYBER LIFE, the kids. They rarely are capable to produce any kind of comments indeed, but the kids RUN the Internet and do interact in a limited text abbreviations or in the non verbal ways. The topics to get the kids into the mood to utter any sort of comment are the Kid’s things, (the very advanced technically computer savvy children and teens) for example YOUTUBE videos of their interest. It is explained by the lost desire per se, or by the fact of a physical disability to think in the lifestyle where the majority of kids nowadays don’t get quality hours of sleeping. They are most likely are unable to focus. personal reasons they feel quite uncomfortable if not anonymous or in other words invisible and at the same time their invisibility is what contributes to the chronic emotional problems. This condition is hard to explain, one must experience it. One can’t understand it unless you ”did your time” of the online marathons being day after day in the same mode of looking at some discovered sources of pictures, savoring the visual abundance with one’s “hungry” eyes. It could go on for many days non-stop. It is a strange condition when a person can’t stop consuming the visual images. As if waiting yearning for something major, or something fantastic. That something should in some unexpected way involve the visual “treasure —hunter” who is scrolling down the newsfeeds and paying that precious deficient attention that one has gotten to the myriads of photos. It can turn into a very lengthy addiction if one had learnt how to fish out the sources for huge data of photos that is like gold mine if discovered by someone and nobody knows about it
