Art is Dead?
I have never really paid attention to art before. I did not enjoy going to museums or looking at artifacts because I would rather learn about these things from someone or from a book rather than reading a tiny plaque. Things that can’t be explained and must be viewed abstractly confuse me. Art has never been something I talked about or willingly went out of my way to look at. Social media on the other hand is something that I truly embrace in my every day life. Social media is all anyone talks about these days, what is going to be the new Facebook? How do you market products using social media? How can you use social media for personal branding? These are just some of the questions one would ask in regards to social media.
I recently read an article written by Ben Davis entitled, ‘”Social Media Art” in the Expanded Field’ which he wrote to try to explain the effect of social media on art and the emergence of a new artistic category, ‘Social Media Art’. Davis liked to use the word faddish obsession when describing social media. When you think of the word fad, it means something that is popular now but will fade in popularity, essentially it’s a short-lived craze. I don’t think social media is just a fad, it won’t be leaving us any time soon. It’s here to stay and we just need to learn to adapt with it, just like other emerging technology. By describing media platforms as new-fangled technology, it seems like he isn’t a huge fan of technology in general. It’s like old-speak when he uses the word new-fangled, something that is too new for him to adapt to.
He has a patronizing idea of what art is as he describes it as being “the products of the traditional, professional art world”. I disagree with this statement because art is always evolving with the times just like how social media has been affecting us individually throughout the years. He believes that all art are visual art. But I think that art can be anything that can stir emotions in people. I know, it’s a pretty abstract idea and I mentioned how I don’t like art because it can be too abstract but like Davis, I was speaking about visual art. I do acknowledge however, that art can be more than just a painting on a wall.
Davis believes that art is “exclusive” and “closed-in”, however, there have been efforts made to make art less ‘exclusive’ and ‘closed-in’, the social media craze has made art more open to the public. If art is exclusive and closed-in, social media is inclusive and open. He does not think that the two can merge because they are polar opposites. Art isn’t just an intellectual pursuit that only a select few can view and pursue, it is a creative pursuit that is open and inviting to anyone who wants to know. Even though he acknowledges that he is being biased and elitist, he still wrote this article.
In class, it was mentioned that Davis said only special people can be called artists. I believe that anyone can make art, whether it is a drawing, a written piece, a spoken word, a photograph... Art can be in the form of many things and created by any kind of person. There isn’t just one kind of people who can create art. By utilizing social media, artists can exchange ideas and thoughts on a global scale and improve the development of art. Art isn’t supposed to be limiting, in my opinion, art is supposed to be limitless.














