Bubble Essay #1: The Irony Of The Democratization Of Art
It’s been stated many times by the founders of Redbubble that they seek to democratize art by allowing everyone to have a gallery of their work on display for public view, with the ability for it to be purchased in various high quality media.
An ongoing debate has been occurring since the nascent days of the site regarding quality, and the large amount of uploads that are perceived as lacking in artistic merit. I used to be concerned about this, but have slowly let go of the idea that this is a site that is about ‘meritorious’ art (despite the flourishing debates), and more to do with the idea of participatory community focused around creative activity. I’d like to address the idea of ‘online community’ and it’s contradictions in a future essay, but for now will acknowledge that this community is the ‘front end’ sustained by the ‘back end’ business of print-on-demand. Not an uncommon contemporary business model; one that links the participatory capabilities of ‘Web 2.0’ with a physical business. I’m not implying that there is a cynicism in doing this however, its just one manifestation of the positive (if problematic) use of capital in the social sphere.
One idea that has occurred to me lately, and one that is only too evident as Redbubble grows and evolves, is the great irony of the democratization of art: that universal freedom of expression is important to increase the chances of great art occurring, but it also allows the unskilled, the inarticulate and the unimaginative free reign to express themselves. To some, creative expression is merely the documentation of their surroundings, to others it is as much as possible a subjective interpretation using whatever objective means they have mastered. To put it bluntly, democratization leads at one and the same time to greatness and mediocrity, and the thing that defines greatness is it’s rarity among mediocrity, forcing us to think harder about the nature of art itself.
I don’t for one moment support the idea of an artistic elite, this is impossible to define, but more the idea that mediocrity is the sea on which greatness floats, and maybe we have to begrudgingly accept that cultural evolution involves a certain volume of mediocrity.
Adrian Carmody
The new expanse of our sea would be easier to accept, if there was an interface, search utility and category browsing option that let us navigate through it a little easier
Curiously, all the selling tools are polished and updated, but the most basic tools to get around and wade through the mass of uploads remain the same. We live in the age of the elegant searches through Google. Redbubble tags are broken beyond belief, and are so open for search exploitation that it is ridiculous
It ain’t working. Fix that, and I think a lot of the complaints would end then and there
transmute replied
Tagging and metadata are the bane of existence to anyone who works with images on the web. It’s a whole other kettle of fish, and the contradiction is that people want as many others as possible to view their images. As an Account Exec for a stock photo library, I find nothing for frustrating than doing an image search for a client and getting thousands of hits, most of them completely irrelevant on certain keywords because the photographer or supplier tagged every single element in the image no matter how prominent. But, if I were trying to make a living from selling my own images as stock, I’d probably do the same to make sure they came up in searches. A hard one to figure, large agencies like Getty have a whole division of people working on keywording. Yes there is such a job as ‘Keyworder’...
Lisa Jewell
Interesting idea,
Well thought-out and articulated
Mediocrity is the lifejacket of greatness…hmmmmmmmm….
I wonder if it is the reality of quantity that becomes bothersome and therefore maligned. Why is greatness thought to be limited…
transmute replied
I think Adrian raised the idea that the only way we can deal with the quantity we’re faced with is to improve the tools we use to deal with it, or to rely on other people to help us. Greatness is limited by it’s semantics, how else do we define it as being above and beyond the mediocre? I think the main problem arises with trying to recognize greatness among the increasing amount of mediocrity that digital technology allows the distribution of.
animo
i love a good paradox : ) well put upside-down man.
transmute replied
I think the blood rushed to my head…
Friederike Ale...
Interesting idea…
Lisa Jewell
I write for varied reasons, a compulsion, an addiction, a means to express in a format that appeals to me. As such I write constantly. Odds are most of my written work is mediocre. This will not prevent me from continuing. At the end of my work if I have only a few pieces even one that is considered “great”…then perhaps the mediocre was a vehicle to get there…
transmute replied
You’re right, output is important. I’ve got thousands of images and notebooks full of scribble. It’s like mining for diamonds.
sjem ©
Diamonds in the coal. Amen.
transmute replied
Maybe some pearls too…
Paul Louis Vil...
You linguistic gymnast you! ;p
A thoughtful provoking and stimulating read, thank you Chris! :)
transmute replied
A cunning linguist…
Jan Piller
Yes – a great read! Let me tell you a story about a very popular gift shop just north of us. It was a shop for artists to display and sell their medium. The owner was very careful to accept skilled artisans to display their work and bit by bit word got out of the quality and skill of the artists and the business boomed. She added an adjacent coffee shop and our government posted an Ontario Road sign to guide tourists. With the expansion, came more artists and more artists but unfortunately the quality started to go down. As the quality of art went down, so did the price points of that art. The art at those price points were alot more appealing to the average joe looking for something different. But as the poorer quality art was being accepted into the store, the more serious artists began to drift away. Eventually the store was filled with only the wares you would find at any flea market or craft sale. Word spread that that quality had gone down in recent years and as that word spread, the visitors and tourists and buyers became fewer and fewer. That beautiful little art shop is now out of business. They closed down just over a year ago.
Somehow, it seems relevant to this discussion. I’ll be curious to see where RB is in five or ten years from now. Anyway Distal – you should be a writer!
transmute replied
Thanks Jan for sharing that story too. We’re never really going to be able to view art separate from it’s commodification, it all has a value, and it seems that we have to exercise constant vigilance ensuring that commodification doesn’t become the be all and end all.
Lara Luz
thanks for the read. I think this may be well worth keeping an eye out to see the discussions that come of it.
transmute replied
Thanks Lara. I hope some discussion comes of it. I’d like to do a little series of essays here arising from some of my disappointment about some issues on the site at the moment.
Melinda Kerr
Interesting Mr White Knight…The keyword argument is a tricky one ‘aint it? The site I’ve been consulting to which some folk here are members of has a system whereby every submission is checked by a curator for accurate keywording. It’s laborious work but the whole point of it is to make sure searching is more sophisticated so you never have to wade through irrelevant crap. They are trying really hard and I give them credit for it. It does mean submitters have to be more precise in their submission procedure and the act of submitting takes 2 minutes longer but making sure keyword spamming doesn’t happen is the reason for this. It’s here Very early and young days. Anyway I agree that with democratisation comes good and bad. And by nature there’s less good than bad.
Now I’m going to turn my avatar down because all the groovy people seemed to have and I have limited self esteem and thus must follow…
transmute replied
Hey Mel, it wasn’t supposed to be about keywording! Maybe there’s another essay topic in that…
Melinda Kerr
Ok so that link didn’t work…it’s HERE
I love the power of uppercase…
Melinda Kerr
Sorry didn’t mean that to be a spam!! Sounded a bit like it when I read it back…what I mean is I think letting people keyword with moderation can make for a lot of stuff appearing in the wrong searches. And THAT’s frustrating ‘cos if you’re a potential buyer you have to wade through too much dross. There’s nothing worse than putting in say ‘beach with palm trees’ and getting ‘dog with bucket on head’ although the latter is never not funny. The more accurate the search techniques-the less it will seem irrelevant. Am I making sense? Back to being upside down…
transmute replied
But yes, you’re right. Keywording is definitely a method for managing content and keeping relevant.
Melinda Kerr
Yeah that’s what I meant. How come that only took you 11 words to say when it took me 3 posts, 1 unusable link, 1 second thinking I was a spammer which I ‘aint, 1 moment to change my avatar to being upside down as I’ve finally worked out what that means and, oh I don’t know…other stuff…
transmute replied
Don’t take up a job as a Ninja…
Melinda Kerr
Someone get me my CV and a tub of white out…
peter
I think there are a number of legitimate ways to look at this discussion … one tangent I’d like to take is to look at the question ‘what is the purpose of a life’. Is it to strive towards something great for all humanity or is it to help an individual to grow and evolve as an individual. A journey of self discovery if you like. If you take an ‘all humanity’ perspective then what we as a society should foster is a culture of elitism where the best in all dimensions is fostered and passed down to the ‘next generation’. But if you take life as an individual journey of self discovery then who cares about the relative concept ‘mediocrity’ ... what’s important is that a person has the ability to realize their potential – where ever that might be. In these matters I don’t know what the right perspective is … but I know how I tend to look at the word – and that is that life’s a journey of self discovery.
Jan makes some interesting points about how something can be diluted and damaged by the watering down of quality. But I can also point to other examples where a diversity of competence happily exists under one roof. Take, for example, a church. In any given Sunday you’ll find a collection of people under a roof … some smart, some rich, some poor, some simple. They come together and are held together by a shared interest and belief. Perhaps the glue that should hold people together here is a recognition that creative expression is important and should be fostered and encouraged in us all – whatever our competence level.
transmute replied
This tangent also opens another set of problematic definitions. The idea of the self or the individual as a separate entity from our social, cultural and economic entanglements is another are for debate. In the Occidental world our idea of self or the individual is a particularly inward looking concept that seems to spring from Enlightenment thinking, while most Oriental thinking emphasises the individual role in the collective.
Probably the most difficult thing to do is to recognise the paradox of the individual as being both constructed and self-determining. Art and cultural production is one area where this paradox becomes most evident. Originality can only be understood within a context of previous expression. I tend to view organised religion (not theology or mysticism) as a method for people to resolve or avoid the acceptance of paradox by positing some responsibility for change in an external prescient force.
How do we resolve paradoxes in art and cultural production? We break it down in to genres, we formalise it and commodify it. We make it easier for more people to consume, but at the same time obfuscate some of the subtler aspects of meaning. I don’t always think this is a bad thing, because then the new way to look at it is in its social and economic functions. For me that’s what this site is starting to become. A democracy is dynamic and plural, but it’s always a compromise and the preoccupation becomes keeping everyone participating at the level they feel comfortable, and allowing truly great individual expression to still be seen and heard.
StuartR
The argument has been floating around since the first proto hominid sprayed coloured dirt over his/her’s splayed fingers. What is genius, and what is dross. The only way to figure that one out (even on a subjective and individualist scale), is to accept the mediocre (for the intention its presented), and glory in the sublime.
Its like the problem faced by the sane mind (whats that?), when viewing the minature scribbles of the insane (whats that as well). Sometime, somewhere, there may well be snippets of inspired genius amongst the demented ravings.
The secret is in spending the time looking, rather than the actual result.
I agree that the mix gets even more complex when money becomes part of the equation, does saleability equate with quality, and does “art” equal equity.
transmute replied
Some of my best work comes from extracting the gold from some affected ramblings in old journals. I’ve come to beleive though that greatness comes from the abilty to clearly communicate, and this requires a certain level of sanity!
Danny
As a side issue (and maybe its own essay) I believe that the democratize of art and it’s evolution via Web 2.0 communities and such will be the death of copyright as we know it.
This could happen in a variety of ways, as a protest to conventional art and/or the battle against elitism or as a natural progression due to the size and volume of new art and writing that it will be impossible to police.
Anyway, it’s good to see something like this posted as opposed to those stupid “I’ve been featured” posts.
Thank you Chris.
transmute replied
Thanks Danny. I grapple with this everyday. I’m representing ‘traditional’ photo stock agency as opposed to a ‘micro stock’ agency and am confronted by clents telling me that their clients don’t want to pay a lot for images. Web 2.0, and inparticular the content-related phenomenon of crowd sourcing have moved the focus from distribution to content management, raising issues of ownership and the distribution of revenue. This relates back to the quality issue, but also forces cultural production towards an increasing volume. What bugs me is that a large corporation now thinks it’s justifiable for a photographer to get paid a few bucks for an image that they might use on a billboard, in direct mail brochures and at point of sale. It’s great that anyone can become an artist, but it also devalues the work, meaning that those that wish to make a living from it are pushed towards volume.
Pilgrim
Truly a fascinating discussion. I really don’t have much to add despite the fact it is a topic very close to my heart. From my perspective I believe that all should feel free to participate in the creation of art and that quality art is door opening and inspirational rather than door closing. I see young aspiring artists sketching a copy of an old master and feel neither are diminished.
shanghaiwu
Speaking of mediocrity:
I have a philosophy/theory/ which I used in my classroom..tell a child their work is wonderful and it will improve by 50%.
I have walked into many a gallery and thought…....how did this work ever get here…........it is about who you know
otherwise I have read all with interest/sorry I don’t have much else to say! .
Alvin de Quincey
If these are your own words, then extremely well put. You write well.