Art has become something to package and sell rather than something to feel. Much of it has become commodified, forced to be as vague, wide-reaching and marketable as possible. It has lost the heartbreak, the joy and the personal quality that allows our creativity to resonate most. Our stories are flattened into profitability and stripped of their humanity.
Society’s focus on profitability, both in cultural and monetary capital, has shifted why many people decide to make art in the first place, including my own.
When asked about my artistic goals, I instinctively say my biggest goal is to turn my artistry into profit. Years before, that answer looked much different: the goal was to create art because I loved doing it, and in turn, I hoped the love I put into it would someday resonate with an audience.
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Self-interests are rampant in art today. In Dani Offline’s Substack article, “Everyone wants to be a DJ, no one wants to dance,” she adds to the phenomenon, positing the question, “Is it such a problem that everyone wants to be an artist these days?”
The problem is not the number of artists, but the seemingly endless, wrong reasons why people seek the elusive title of “creative.”
Previously, I discussed how the democratization of art should be liberating. It is easier than ever to make the art we want to make. Yet the more access we gain, the further we move from that primary goal of audience investment and self-actualization. The access simply becomes another tool to make ourselves a business.
As Dani Offline states, “As creation gets conflated with entrepreneurship, making art becomes an experience, a lifestyle, to be bought and sold.”
Although heavy blame can be put on the modern artist for their search for profit and fame, a similar amount of blame should be put on the modern audience as well.
As an audience member, there are often times I seek out art purely to be better informed. I’m guilty of yearning to sound smarter, more unique and interesting. Sometimes, I even engage with art simply because I think it’ll make me a better artist. In those moments, art has lost what I love about it — pure enjoyment of something simply because I like it.
The sad truth is, the audience is simply not paying enough attention to the art we’re making.
We’re living in a world that besieges our attention. And when the remaining attention goes into our own projects, we as artists fail to be good audience members for others. We can simply be too self-interested.
As Debbie Chachra wrote for The Atlantic in “Why I Am Not a Maker,” “There’s a widespread idea that ‘People who make things are simply different [read: better] than those who don’t.’”
Society tends to overlook those whose work is tied to helping others. Caregivers, maintenance workers and educators are seen as inferior because we continue to enforce the idea that creating is the only thing of value.
This dynamic between creator and consumer is at the core of why so many people decide to not indulge in art wholeheartedly, why so many people are unable to show full support and fall in love with another’s creations.
What needs to be understood, though, is that being a generous audience member is itself a creative act. You are adding value back to what made many become creatives in the first place: the love for the art form you are working with.
Workers whose job is tied to helping others know this truth; without them, the world is incapable of running. By supporting other artists with our pure attention and allowing their work to engulf us, we begin to create a space where art is given back to the people.
To combat the growing commodification of art, we must become better audience members. We have to start caring about the art we’re interacting with — enjoy it just because we do, not necessarily because we get something from it.
All the power is in how art makes people feel. How it shifts their whole world when they hear an album, read a book or watch a film. It’s not enough to make art. We have to indulge in it wholeheartedly — build community around it. Then, we can overcome the current status quo and even become better artists in the process.