tag:searching-for-a-view.blog.co.uk,2009-11-07:/MokoFeed2009-11-07T23:14:48+01:00tag:searching-for-a-view.blog.co.uk,2008-09-23:/2008/09/17/art-and-seeing-in-a-digital-age-4741692/#c7819133tempted2008-09-23T11:16:11+02:002008-09-23T11:16:11+02:00On Sunday night, I watched 'the mona lisa curse', Robert Hughes' polemic on the contemporary global 'art' scene. While I envied his acerbic wit, which combined with his eloquence is a deadly mixture, I did not necessarily share all his views. If i recall correctly, one of his final critiques was that art should reflect the social world within which it originates and have something worth saying. If that is what art is about, then today's art scene does accurately mirror the commericialized commodities world which we inhabit. Success is measured in terms of monetary value and so is today's 'art'. Thus today's 'art' cannot be dismissed or even criticised for being an abberation.<br> <br> But that doesn't mean that I want to share in that experience. For me, the value of art (as with other disciplines that allow for some measure of creativity) lies in its intrinsic capacity to resist the mainstream. Creative output is exciting when it disrupts; when it says something more than what we are accustomed to hearing, thinking, believing, seeing; and, as i've already said, when it makes you think. That's why I'm not a great fan of Warhol, Hirst and Emmin. They just bore me. As do most films (Hollywood or otherwise), much popular fiction, music and even academic publications. I am not suggesting that they are ALL dull and therefore bad; but most of it is. And it seems to me that we live in an age where we keep producing and reproducing for the sake of doing so without stopping for one brief moment to ask ourselves: why? tag:searching-for-a-view.blog.co.uk,2008-09-17:/2008/09/17/art-and-seeing-in-a-digital-age-4741692/#c7774812technomist2008-09-17T19:35:42+02:002008-09-17T19:35:42+02:00They could all just go into the gift shop and get a download of the gallery onto a memory stick. :)