The world is filled with an indefinite amount of art.
Art can be obvious, and contemporary life thrives on its popularity.
Will Meyer
Argonaut
Young people spend hours every day consuming media. Much of this media, especially music, is generally thought of as art.
Art represents a world we all hold within ourselves, but often it must be expressed to us in a specific way to be recognized. The artist has long stood as a regulator of the status quo who ensures that people are shown a world outside of the one money-making entities want us to see.
When art connects to people, there is a loophole that allows both art and the individual to be manipulated in the process.
Evidence of this can be seen in the art produced during the reign of regimes, where figures represented the standards set forth by the oppressors. The works were transformed into a propaganda tool that helped convince the public that they were not being brainwashed.
Look to any painting from the early days of Stalinist Russia, any sculpture produced in North Korea or many pieces of art produced soon after the Chinese Revolution, and this concept becomes quite clear.
What is not clear is how often this is utilized by entities which strive to manipulate or remold the status quo behind the backs of a community.
As of now, most developed countries don”t possess totalitarian regimes that plot against their people, and so the program has changed. But that doesn”t mean the art that is created can”t have negative effects.
Although many people think their own opinions are unique, this is becoming more difficult to believe.
In the media, people are given a world created by a literal web of internet searches.
This individual objectivity that each person is fed makes the true divergence of the tradition of art difficult and sometimes impossible to maintain.
What is seen instead are things that look new and fresh, but are instead regurgitations with flashy wrapping.
If a piece of artwork really is new, its success will still be tied to whether consumers” search history matches what the art is portraying. We constantly praise artists as being creative and bold when in fact much of their content is not created by the artists themselves, but ripped off from previous trends.
What is left is a world who praises a person as courageous who does not create his or her own art.
We are correct in worshipping something because it is courageous, for this is what all major movements in human history have consisted of, but we are incorrect in swallowing the words of anyone with enough money to buy a pedestal to stand on. In these cases we are worshipping the money, not the art.
Will Meyer can be reached at [email protected]