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Art after the Change

Chrysalis [no longer around] said Aug 7, 2007, 3:09 AM:

Having studied Art History of India for many years at the university, I want to give us something to think about here.

Imagine we achieve the changes we want to make, and the world is a better place and a happier place. What would artistic expression look like?

I am wondering about this because the motivation for art has always been different. There were times when art was born from suffering and depression. Then there was art which criticised the current government or social system. There was art which was paid for by governments or kings to have it decorate their palaces. And then there was art which was motivated by spiritual or religious devotion.

Some say, art has to have a message, different layers of interpretation and it certainly can't be just nice to look at. So…how do you imagine art after the change in the brave new world of the future we start to create?

Best wishes

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Re: Art after the Change

Yvette said Aug 7, 2007, 7:12 AM:

Great question!

I will speak to the re-envisioning of art that i aspire to….”art as philosophy” to me is about art with purpose. So in the brave new compassionate world of the future art is the overarching framework that is used to develop solutions for the most complicated challenges. When everyone is scratching their heads and only able to see through the lens of the past, it will art that enters to save the day with its gift to enable creators to see with fresh eyes, minds and hearts united the results are more holistic and easily integrated as more people shake off old assumptions.

In the future more of us will have found the courage to step into ”unknowing” and that will free more of us to discover so society as a whole will be more loving, creative and inspired. It will be passion for creative expression and social capital that will be driving forces for a new open economy. This shift empowers the many instead of the few so the traditional will adjust and grow in positive ways so that a point of interface can be utilized to maintain continuity during the transition.

Thanks for that chance to daydream :-)

Re: Art after the Change

cosmicbdog [no longer around] said Aug 12, 2007, 2:59 AM:

Great topic Chrysalis!! I like what Yvette had to say and think that yes, artists will be those who have the minds to solve the problems of our future. But I'm thinking even beyond that, imagining that we are so successful as to completely rid ourselves of fear in the world. Complete overcoming of poverty and repression.

Perhaps in this world, there would be less pressure to achieve an objective, but more to explore and maybe deepen our discovery of ourselves and each other.

I think that in time, our lives will then become art… not separate from what we do for living. The artist in all of us walking our creating our lives hoping for the ultimate expression to come through.

I feel we should encourage artists to give more energy to work that is timeless, assuming we are there… or artists who are about possibility. Assuming we are fearless. We could be creating art about all the things wrong with the world forever and ever, but that could potentially lock us into the past fears and attachments.

Do we listen to musicians who are stuck, moping about their situation or those who are offering an insight of a new possibility? I'll tell ya what… I know a quick way to get a girl considering whats wrong with the relationships in your life and thats to play a couple albums of alanis morrisette… before long, she'll be questioning!!!

It seems very hard for me today to go out there and buy an album that is not fluffy zen music which is not impersonal and about helping the listener out. In my opinion, in this day and age, too many artists are making it personal…celebrities coming out saying “oh this is who I really am” but how on earth does that make a difference? Why are we looking at them in the first place, because they pretend to be in the position of icons we admire?

How is it possible for us to move forward when we are looking at art which justifies our past deluded binding agreements? Why do we spend time watching movies that are false impressions of the past? Why do we spend time learning even?

This is an out there idea, but could most art that exist today, be pretty irrelevant to the new world of tomorrow? Simply because we've yet to really live in a time where people have not been repressed, how is it possible to create art that resonates freedom and not just something that makes you have an empathy for the artist, or inspiration for the developer or whatever the current paradigm is?

I'm not saying the freedom art doesn't exist… or there's not amazing art that makes us compassionate… but i think most art is actually compassion inspired… its either 'get compassionate about this' or 'get compassionate about me'.

I think most people have self agenda running throughout their blood. So artists may find it hard to create art that truly serves the good of mankind… those who do, manage to create art that stands the tests of time. Michaelangelo's work… that other guy who has a book and movie out on him. They made art that was actually benefical to mankind… truly selfless.

Art of the future in my opinion encourages freedom. For artists who want to help others in the world, I imagine them to create emotional experiences for others that helps them to see freedom and abundance where it is hard to see.

For example, we see this happening with Grafitti… what is often an ugly thing in some places where it has been embraced, the artists are not creating in fear and they are allowed to create truly beautiful artwork on ugly brick walls and fences and it inspires people on the bus. I think this is a great example of how art is becoming a bigger collaboration… council people who change the laws… business owners who own the walls… street kids who have no money getting payed for their skills… the millions of people who see real art instead of tags. Its the kinda thing that makes more people feel good about themself. Why do graffiti heads do tags? They want to be recognised…. interesting how they don't do that obsessively once they get recognised.

I'd say a lot of our artwork will move towards beautifying the ugliness we've created. What are we gonna do with all the highrises? Maybe there'll be an organisation that works on supporting a city vine system that has really awesome air cleaning properties? Part of the artwork of filling a city with greenery again is that everybody experiences cleaner air. Greener energy. More heart chakra. I imagine in a free world unbound by fear there will be many more things like this that will come about… we're truly in for an interesting ride! What on earth would you create if you could create anything?

Re: Art after the Change

Yvette said Aug 12, 2007, 11:37 AM:

Bobby, i really like where you went with your post/vision…..That is awesomely inspiring. This part especially clicked for me:

I'd say a lot of our artwork will move towards beautifying the ugliness we've created. What are we gonna do with all the highrises? Maybe there'll be an organisation that works on supporting a city vine system that has really awesome air cleaning properties? Part of the artwork of filling a city with greenery again is that everybody experiences cleaner air. Greener energy. More heart chakra. I imagine in a free world unbound by fear there will be many more things like this that will come about… we're truly in for an interesting ride! What on earth would you create if you could create anything?

This is sounding like the kind of place i'd want to live in and help create….to add to that…..

I also feel that the nature of art, as a medium that embraces diversity, offers a framework for integration without competition inspired conflict where contrast takes its place. Where Either Or thinking can be transformed to see BOTH AND….i wonder if this will be an expression of quantum technology that will emerge in art because i do wonder what role that plays in speeding progress in the development of quantum technology…i know that is something i'm very interested in seeing explored in art and i'm hoping there are others who share this curiosity.

In art it seems that sharing of ideas can be done in a way that is less threatening….for example in a discussion it seems there tend to be some who feel something we resist/reject is being forced onto us merely by the sharing or exchange of ideas. In art it seems easier for people to take the “i don't care for that” and keep walking approach while in a discussion context i can provoke a more competition inspired response. Do you think the difference art makes in eliminating povery and repression can also work to eliminate conflict and war? I ask because i tend to see art as communication, a nonverbal language and i am curious about its potential as a universal language of peace.

I wonder what role an emerging or stronger “creative class” would mean in terms of social structure….any ideas about that?

Only the best!

Re: Art after the Change

火狐　Li said Aug 17, 2007, 6:55 PM:

Frankly, for me it is hard to fanthom how art would be after the change, but all of your ideas have given me some inspiration to my mind scarred by images of worldly suffering.

Yvette's suggestion that art is a non-verbal language, made me think very hard about the communicability of art to all. I think everyone has the potential to view what we now call canonical works of art, but to comprehend it requires a grasp of certain symbols and signifiers that are specific to a certain cultural or sub-cultural group.

when Yvette spoke of 'unknowing' do you mean that art should return to a point, when an idea was less emotionally charged… an idea that is on the verge of being articulated by words, but could be universally understood through art in various mediums.

gosh this is a tough thread to consider. [I need to put a little more though into it]

I want to make art less “A”rt and more 'art'. But I don't want a Maoist “Art for the People!”

If art is self-expression, I think it can be seen as agency, or empowerment. If this logic follows, ultimately art is empowerment. Whether it can be comprehended by others is a different story.

To me
Art after change… should not be art for art's sake, nor should it serve the society, rather society would recognize the right to agency of all, and everyday life becomes an art.

Life, not as the distopic spectacle it is now, but rather a carnivalesque life, where authority is not completely dispersed, but kept in check by a citizenry or collective concerned with mutual well being placed on par with individual self-expression [agency]…
it is but a dream.

My conflation of agency, art, and life comes from being witness to, as well as being complicit in the dominant order of repression. I place my hopes in an idea articulated by the sociologist Michel de Certeau called ”Le Perrugue” (the wig?). Le Perrugue suggests that one can do for oneself in the guise of what is done for the employer or the system.

A corporeal art of taking back one's time, mind, and body [agency] from the necrophilic mechanisms of control. This is an art, whose main purpose is not to be understood, but to facilitate liberation if only for a moment.

It is performance, it is agency, it is freedom to self-express.

Often times it does not leave a trace, and it could not be witnessed long enough for many others to admire…

a spark in the darkness

beautiful no?

Re: Art after the Change

Chrysalis [no longer around] said Aug 24, 2007, 1:04 AM:

Apparently I gave a rather difficult topic to discuss. But I can see where it goes. Human beings seem to be born with the need to be creative, to create something that takes their soul out in public. Some do it with books, some with poems, some become chefs, some become designers. It will be interesting to see how art is developing, because it will depend on the human soul as much as it ever did. We can only work on the soul matter and people will express themselves from there. I hope to live and see that.

Best wishes

Re: Art after the Change

sandy said Aug 29, 2007, 6:54 PM:

I find this interesting because I have
really given the matter some thought
- being an artist myself.
I have long felt that Art is the best way to tell
any story.
Although the “fashion” of art changes -
art itself will always live on.

Re: Art after the Change

Fusedroot said Sep 4, 2007, 6:38 AM:

I will post a quick note that got me re looking for this thread to post my comment … been waiting for a few days now… could'nt think of anything conclusive…. heres my story to describe my answer

Assuming a “Good World ” f r u i t s ..That would mean having Redeemed ( we are talking future !! ) corporations to the mystical to healing centers, different new Real meet ups and Pods …. practicle community .. 'intentional' communities taking control of the physical ZEN World they dwell in…. New arty would 3D, 4D 5D .. Zero's 1's exhibits, new acceptances from the human body … to a dilution of hidden mis-interpreted fetish scenes…. skin strech OOOhch. … i'll leave the links out…
However future ART will be ………………LIKE
bansky.co.uk City realism ……….
and LIVE NATURE ARTIST Goldsworthy (www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/goldsworthy_andy.html )
and theres many others I cannot remember right now… these innovations would WILL FLOURISH…

ALSO in the cities artists would be into interior decor….making half their unnecessary shopping malls into big lounges, meditation centers, guided meeting rooms … Real stuff…Rehab to tai chi on the plastic peninsulars ..haha..or what ever art springs to that….. Why is there SHOPPING every where … I cannot wait for the change.

Jules