By Nicole Basaraba
Art
in the Machine Age
"In the days before machinery, men and women
who wanted to amuse themselves were compelled, in their humble way, to be artists. Now they sit still and permit professionals to entertain them by the
air of machinery. It is difficult to
believe that general artistic culture can flourish in this atmosphere of passivity" (Huxley, 1927).
Aldous Huxley is stating that the “Machine Age” was
causing a lack of creativity in American culture because people passively
consumed what was produced by professionals.
Walter Benjamin, a 19th century German
theorist and literary critic, wrote a paper called “The Work of Art in the Age
of Mechanical Reproduction”, which addresses the topic of artistic culture in
the Machine Age. Benjamin (1936) wrote, “for the first time in world history,
mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence
on ritual” (Benjamin, p. 224). He argued that mechanical reproduction
eliminated the authenticity (or aura)
of art, photography, and film. In other words from a rhetorical theory
perspective, a work of art lost some of its ethos,
its specific character or its originality because there were several copies.
Benjamin (1936) described film as “the promotion of
a revolutionary criticism of traditional concepts of art” (p. 231). Due to the
lack of aura (or cult value), audiences
became critics of film instead of consuming them in awe. The masses could
experience a work of art in many different contexts and it gave them the opportunity
to think critically rather than being passive.
Although, the Machine Age encouraged critical
evaluation, it did not allow viewers to participate in the creation. This
aspect may account for Huxley’s argument that creativity and artist culture
diminished during the Machine Age because art creation was managed by the
“gatekeepers” namely museums and galleries curating artwork, film directors,
music producers, and traditional publishing houses. The artists became part of
an elite group, who were selected by ‘gatekeeping’ experts. The resulting pool
of artists was small and definitive.
The ‘Digital Age’ shows that Huxley’s statement is outdated
because the Internet has spawned an explosion of creativity in traditional and
new formats.
Art
in the Digital Age – Online publishing
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989
and since then it has created a "global village" and given way
to a new wave of artists. The Internet democratized art.
Clay Shirky refers to this democratization as “mass
amateurization”. Shirky (2008) writes, “the future presented by the internet is
the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from ‘Why publish this?’ to
‘Why not?’” (p. 60). He points out that the definition of journalists in the
Oxford Dictionary makes reference to the ‘gatekeepers’ and says, “journalists aren’t
journalists unless they work for publishers, and publishers aren’t publishers
unless they own the means of production,” (Shirky, 2008, p. 71). Writers,
photographers, filmmakers, and other artists are no longer bound to publishers
and their means of production, so it decreases the reliance on professionals.
Blogging
and Citizen Journalism – Who are the professionals?
Blogs took off in 1999 when Blogger and Livejournal
were created. The ‘blogosphere’ now has several other platforms like Wordpress,
and Tumblr, which millions of people use to write, read, and share
(wikipedia.org/blog). Blogs can be personal, but they can also be professional
as many mainstream news organizations such as Huffington Post using them. Statistics
showed that over 173 million blogs were on the Internet in 2011 (statista.com). So
where is the line between blogging and journalism?
There is a categorization called citizen
journalism. Mark Glaser (2006) explains, “the
idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism
training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of
the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in
collaboration with others.” Many bloggers write on the same topics covered by established media sources and
often include the personal opinion of the writer(s). Blogging also gives the
writers the ability to comment or report on issues not covered by the media.
Glaser (2006) notes, “there is some
controversy over the term citizen journalism, because many professional
journalists believe that only a trained journalist can understand the rigors
and ethics involved in reporting the news.” Although, a prime example of successful
citizen journalism is Indymedia.org. The Independent Media Center, originally
created in 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization
protests in Seattle, is now a place where journalists can gather information,
reports, photos, audio and video footage. Since it operates on a democratic
open-publishing model, hundreds of media activists have set up Indymedia
websites in several countries (indymedia.org).
Shirky (2008) asks: who is a journalist,
who is a photographer, who is a publisher? In the Digital Age, the answer is anyone; anyone who has
the digital literacies to operate and access the Internet and the associated
tools (e.g. computers, software, etc.). Bloggers can be journalists,
journalists can be bloggers, and citizens can be photographers and publishers. Contradicting
Huxley’s statement, blogging and citizen journalism are two examples of people
being active rather than passive consumers.
Peer
Production Networks – Are artists still humble?
Not only have citizens passed the gatekeepers, the
Internet allows users to produce on a grand scale. People are no longer
confined to their immediate environment or basic tools. In the “global village”
they can work together to create massive online projects. Yochai Benkler,
Professor at Harvard Law School, defines 'commons-based peer production' as “a
form of open creation and sharing performed by groups online that sets and executes
goals in a decentratlized manner” (2012, p. 1). The term makes reference to the
democratization or amateurization of art. People participating in peer
production networks create new works from online encyclopedias to folksonomies.
Benkler applies this term to online projects. Wikipedia launched on January 15, 2001 is a
collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia with 30+
million articles (wikipedia.com/wikipedia). It is one of the most successful and most referenced piece of
collaboratively produced online work. Another example is LibraryThing, which results in the creation of
folksonomy. With LibraryThing users participate in social tagging and as a result,
they create new categories and terms to aid in searching for books. Tim
Spalding (creator of LibraryThing) uses the example of new book genres being recognized in LibraryThing,
such as Cyberpunk, which is not recognized by traditional taxonomic libraries
like the Library of Congress (youtube.com).
People participating in peer production are not humble any more because their
collective action can have large-scale results on culture.
Creative Commons Licenses – Facilitating the remix
Creative Commons licenses, founded
by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson and Eric Eldred with the support of the Center
for the public Domain, give the public permission to
share and use creative work with conditions chosen by the creator. These
licenses encourage creatively, participation, and collaboration. Lessig (2008) explains,
‘they (or at least the “young people of the day”) add to the culture
they read by creating and re-creating the culture around them” (p. 28). There
is a huge quantity of art on the Internet in multiple formats. Lessig (2008) explains, “they remix, or
quote, a wide range of “texts” to produce something new” (p. 68). People are
participating and creating art independently and collaboratively.
YouTube is a video-sharing
website that allows users
to upload and share video blogs (vlogs), short original videos, music videos,
and remixes. Lessig (2008) says, “remixed media may quote sounds
over images, or video over text, or text over sounds. The quotes thus get mixed
together. The mix produces the new creative work—the “remix”" (p. 68). YouTube
is one of the most popular online mediums for remixing. Even large media
corporations use it to connect with the platform’s millions of viewers and independent
vloggers have become millionaires. The Creative Commons licensing options lets
users encourage others to use their work, build on it, and remix it to create
new art. This art form is starting to gain more formal recognition through the
YouTube Music Awards for example.
Produsage
– Not passivity
Axel Bruns, Associate Professor at
Queensland University of Technology (Australia), coined the term ‘produsage’ to
describe the new and fluid nature of digital artistic culture. Bruns (2008) explains that
the old language fails us because we have used terms such as 'production', 'consumer', 'product' and 'audience' for so long (tracing back to the industrial
age) that they have become well-defined. Bruns (2008) writes, “the emerging user-led
environments of today can no longer be described clearly and usefully through
the old language only – and produsage is my suggestion for an alternative term”
(henryjenkens.org). Bruns clearly identifies the issue with Huxley’s
statement, it is now a matter of history. In the ‘Digital Age’ we
are produsers, not passive. We evaluate, critique and create. Bruns (2008) defines produsage
as “the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content
in pursuit of further improvement” (henryjenkens.org). Although, he notes that it is only
the starting point. We are not only improving but, as the examples of new media
show, we are creating new art.
Digital-born narratives - Creativity flourishing
Since Internet technologies have allowed the masses
to self-publish blogs, videos, and other media such as podcasts and digital
photography collections, it has resulted in new art. When moving into new
mediums, we tend to remediate traditional modes of creation first. Now
digital-born narratives are growing and show how far artistic culture has come.
An example of digital-born narratives is Inanimate Alice, a story written by
Kate Pullinger that was created and published in the digital medium. It
involves sounds, images, video, and text as well as active participation of the
reader. Digital-born narratives show that artistic
culture has in fact flourished into something new.
To
transform Huxley’s words in conclusion: In the days of the Internet, people who want to amuse
themselves are compelled to be artists in a public and sometimes large-scale way. Now they sit
in front of their computers and make art to entertain themselves and others by
the air of digital technology. It is easy to see that general artistic culture
can flourish in this atmosphere of creativity.
References
Huxley, A. (1927). The outlook for American
culture: Some reflections in a Machine Age. Harper’s
Magazine.
Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New
York: Penguin Group.
