Redefination of Art - what is Art now?
I was thinking about the events, conferences, technologies and industries I’m involved in both from a Web Analytics, Social Media and Art Perspective. I’m also thinking about weather it makes sense of me to maintain a studio that I hardly ever use (over at Brooklyn Artists Gym).
Maybe, I’ll take a breather for a few months to decide if I really need to create anything there, anymore, or my sketches and spontaneous works, most of these I post here, are enough for me.
I don’t know - but I do know that Art, Art and what it means to be a Artist, today, needs to be re-defined. I’ve never really fit into the Art World that well - I feel more like someone that goes back and forth between different realities, at the same moment - that’s unlike most people, that put on one hat, take it off, and put another one on - I don’t.
I wear all my hats - all at once (I guess that doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense if we were talking about “hats” and not something else - which has little to do with “hats”).
I was “tweeting” (using Twitter) today to mention an Mashable Event I went to last night - here’s the Tweets:
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webmetricsguru the challenge of an artist, today, is to redefine what art is, in light of all that’s happened |
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webmetricsguru and, now, where it’s happening might not be location as much as it’s a process, site, idea, network, community |
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webmetricsguru as an artist, for example, painting, the act of art, perhaps Art, needs to be redefined, in light of all of this |
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webmetricsguru I’m near the center of “it”, even if my role is less visible. it seems to me, today, our Rennisance is Internet and Social Media |
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webmetricsguru feel pretty good about some of the social media reporting I’m doing, new ground I’m coming up with. I like that much of what is “happening” |
Was kinda thinking about the idea that “painting” doesn’t really excite me that much - probably never did - it’s more the idea of “connecting” and painting feels to me like a bridge to that.
To the extent Painting, and Art, promotes “connecting” I think it works for me. To the extent that it doesn’t, it becomes a detractor for me.
And that reminds me - today Paul Krugman wrote a post that reminds me of my Tweets - that we need a new vocabulary for Art, just as we need a new Vocabulary for Economics - We need a new business cycle vocabulary
The point, I think, is that the traditional definition of recession only worked well in the face of a jagged business cycle; if we now have smoother, longer curves — maybe due to better inventory management, or whatever caused the Great Moderation — the question, “Is this a recession?”, no longer means much.
And, I think, the same thing holds true of Art. What’s painting … anymore? Does anyone know?
How about Drawing? Sculpture? Cinema, Directorship?
Does anyone know?
Maybe we need to sit down, and re-define all of what means - today.
I, for one, don’t want to spend my time, creating things that no one really wants - most artists do - it’s only the force of their personality, their own Social Networks, that make the difference between success and failure - the money thing is only the indication of what has already happened, or didn’t.
Being “influential” in a satisfying way, via Self Expression, is something that artists always wanted - I suggest we re-define what that means in the 21st Century (instead of letting some Museum Curators, Gallery Dealers and Art Publications decide that - maybe the “Artists” that feed all of this …. maybe They should be one’s to decide, what Art is, today.
