Comment on: What is the role of art in contemporary society?

Bigthink — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:59:23 +0100

I think the easiest answer to this very complicated question is trying to imagine the world completely without art, from the beginning, starting with cave painting. So, forget all of it. Means no design, no movies, no photography - in fact no image making at all, nothing done for the sake of being aesthetically pleasing... Shows the impact art has had in human development. Have we stopped developing? What is there in contemporary society that suddenly makes art lose this impact it has had for centuries?

But when speaking about individual artists today, it gets fussy. Different individuals have different reasons for making the work they do (heck, most people today probably don't know why they do anything - the whole meaning of life -issue)... But I doubt many artists would say "I'm doing this for a meaningful impact on society" - I know I can't say that, although I of course hope to have an impact on at least someone. There is some kind of creative drive that motivates these people, so in a way they are doing it for themselves, indulging in that urge to create.

Today artists push the developments in new technology to its limits. Give a new media artist a gadget and he'll show you what you didn't know the gadget can do. Right now they are hacking everything from YouTube to the Wii, to show what it can do and by that to point the way to the next big thing. Several mainstream things in our culture started out as experimental things. And you need creative people to come up with the experiment and to be willing to take the risk.

As a final note (I rambld) I've also heard it said that artist is the canary in the coalmine in the society. So when the arts drop dead, the society is headed for trouble... I like that visualisation.

Comment on: What is the role of art in contemporary society?

Bigthink — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:34:27 +0100

Art is a complicated thing. I don't think there has ever been any art that was created just to be created. What has been the role of art up until this point? To entertain, to be aesthetically pleasing, to protest, to make money, to release emotion. It's the same today. When I create something (whether or not it could be called art) it's to express emotion.

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Comment on: What is the role of art in contemporary society?

Comment on: What is the role of art in contemporary society?