make your voices heard
So I'm trying to work this out in my head as I write it, trying to see if I can figure out how to explain this gut feeling I have. It makes sense in my head, I just want to be able to explain why.
I was driving home today listening to NPR, like I do, and they were talking about how, in this election even more than in previous ones, it has become baldly obvious that it is Money that guides our political discourse, political opinion, and eventually guides and brings about legislation. That Money is the determinant in changing people's lives in this country. Wars are mostly economic wars now, or fought for economic gain. The 1%, that relatively new phrase, is running our country. Not the general public, not even the politicians, because Money influences and guides public policy. If you have enough money, you might even be able to buy the White House. That is, if you spend enough Money on the right propaganda to convince people that it is in their best interests to give it to you.
Public policy determines the patterns of our day to day lives, influences whether we are able to succeed or fail. The roads we drive on to get to work, the safety of our cars and public transportation systems, the safety of the food we buy, when and whether we are able to buy alcohol and when and where we can consume it, the ability to receive the health care we need, whether or not we have a job, how much it costs us to live and to die. All of this is deeply affected by the laws that our legislators pass. And more often than not, those laws are influenced along the way, sometimes out-and-out guided, by special interest groups and lobbyists that are throwing around a lot of Money for the ability to do so.
But there is another voice that can sway millions, and that is Art. I read a reference the other day to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and was reminded that that one book was the tipping point that brought about widespread sympathy to the cause of Abolition. A good piece of Art can change people's lives, can reach across age and race and class and gender borders and touch the core of our humanity, create empathy where antipathy existed, remind us of our connectedness. Inspire change, in both ourselves and our world.
But Art itself has always needed money. From the very uneasy patronage systems of the past, where the artists were supported in creating Art for people that that Art may have criticized in a veiled fashion. Artists self-censoring from a need to keep the donor(s) happy and donating. When photography, and then film, first arose, both were considered rather insignificant, domestic hobbies, there therefore the industries began being run by women. Once the whiff of potential profit was clear, the machines moved in to take things over, and it became Art for Commerce. Again, Commerce, Money, became an entirely too large influence over Art, and in most cases the Art suffers (John Carter, anyone?). As of ten, even five years ago, no one considered that you can make movies without courting those with Money, and promising that your Art will be in service to Money. You have to appeal to the right demographics, you have to follow the money-making formulas, or no one outside your immediate circle with see your Art. We are all too familiar with the fact that movies today are created, guided, by MBAs, not by Artists. Because unsupervised Artists cannot be trusted with Money.
But then this influx of technology hit the movie industry (and the publishing industry, and the music industry, etc). I was watching a podcast on Vimeo, and someone said "...the internet, which is famous for turning dollars into pennies..." Yes, it's terrible in some ways, because why pay $15 for a movie ticket if you can watch it on line for $0.99? So it is killing the movie industry, the same way it decimated the music industry. The machine is falling apart at an accelerating rate.
But. The flip side of this is that it has also turned dollars into pennies on the other side of the equation. It is now possible to make an amazing movie for 1/100th the cost. Which means ACCESS.
And because of the internet, it is now possible for that movie, rather than chasing after nearly impossible and ridiculously unprofitable distribution deals, to simply be uploaded onto a website that can be viewed by anyone with a computer and a wifi connection anywhere in the world. ACCESS.
Which means, all those voices that could exert influence by the passion and the beauty and the effectiveness of their message, which would never have been heard before, which never would have won the favor of the Patrons of this century because they may have been speaking in opposition to those Patrons, can now be heard. Can now go viral, and be in front of everyone's eyes. Documentary or Narrative, if you have a message that can change the world, you actually have a chance to get it seen by enough eyes that it might, just might, bring about that change you hoped for. Without Money. Without the benediction (and corruption?) of those with Money. The author of the next "Uncle Tom's Cabin" could be writing right now, and could upload his/her book to the internet for a pittance, for what it costs for a Frappaccino at Starbucks, and millions could read it and be moved. Billions.
Sure there is babble. Sure there is competition for eyes and the minutes it takes to have your Art viewed or read or listened to. But there is amazing Possibility. For change. For Access. For those without Money to have their voices heard.
And that is why, for someone who wants to make Art for social change rather than Money, I couldn't have moved to Los Angeles at a better time.
I was driving home today listening to NPR, like I do, and they were talking about how, in this election even more than in previous ones, it has become baldly obvious that it is Money that guides our political discourse, political opinion, and eventually guides and brings about legislation. That Money is the determinant in changing people's lives in this country. Wars are mostly economic wars now, or fought for economic gain. The 1%, that relatively new phrase, is running our country. Not the general public, not even the politicians, because Money influences and guides public policy. If you have enough money, you might even be able to buy the White House. That is, if you spend enough Money on the right propaganda to convince people that it is in their best interests to give it to you.
Public policy determines the patterns of our day to day lives, influences whether we are able to succeed or fail. The roads we drive on to get to work, the safety of our cars and public transportation systems, the safety of the food we buy, when and whether we are able to buy alcohol and when and where we can consume it, the ability to receive the health care we need, whether or not we have a job, how much it costs us to live and to die. All of this is deeply affected by the laws that our legislators pass. And more often than not, those laws are influenced along the way, sometimes out-and-out guided, by special interest groups and lobbyists that are throwing around a lot of Money for the ability to do so.
But there is another voice that can sway millions, and that is Art. I read a reference the other day to "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and was reminded that that one book was the tipping point that brought about widespread sympathy to the cause of Abolition. A good piece of Art can change people's lives, can reach across age and race and class and gender borders and touch the core of our humanity, create empathy where antipathy existed, remind us of our connectedness. Inspire change, in both ourselves and our world.
But Art itself has always needed money. From the very uneasy patronage systems of the past, where the artists were supported in creating Art for people that that Art may have criticized in a veiled fashion. Artists self-censoring from a need to keep the donor(s) happy and donating. When photography, and then film, first arose, both were considered rather insignificant, domestic hobbies, there therefore the industries began being run by women. Once the whiff of potential profit was clear, the machines moved in to take things over, and it became Art for Commerce. Again, Commerce, Money, became an entirely too large influence over Art, and in most cases the Art suffers (John Carter, anyone?). As of ten, even five years ago, no one considered that you can make movies without courting those with Money, and promising that your Art will be in service to Money. You have to appeal to the right demographics, you have to follow the money-making formulas, or no one outside your immediate circle with see your Art. We are all too familiar with the fact that movies today are created, guided, by MBAs, not by Artists. Because unsupervised Artists cannot be trusted with Money.
But then this influx of technology hit the movie industry (and the publishing industry, and the music industry, etc). I was watching a podcast on Vimeo, and someone said "...the internet, which is famous for turning dollars into pennies..." Yes, it's terrible in some ways, because why pay $15 for a movie ticket if you can watch it on line for $0.99? So it is killing the movie industry, the same way it decimated the music industry. The machine is falling apart at an accelerating rate.
But. The flip side of this is that it has also turned dollars into pennies on the other side of the equation. It is now possible to make an amazing movie for 1/100th the cost. Which means ACCESS.
And because of the internet, it is now possible for that movie, rather than chasing after nearly impossible and ridiculously unprofitable distribution deals, to simply be uploaded onto a website that can be viewed by anyone with a computer and a wifi connection anywhere in the world. ACCESS.
Which means, all those voices that could exert influence by the passion and the beauty and the effectiveness of their message, which would never have been heard before, which never would have won the favor of the Patrons of this century because they may have been speaking in opposition to those Patrons, can now be heard. Can now go viral, and be in front of everyone's eyes. Documentary or Narrative, if you have a message that can change the world, you actually have a chance to get it seen by enough eyes that it might, just might, bring about that change you hoped for. Without Money. Without the benediction (and corruption?) of those with Money. The author of the next "Uncle Tom's Cabin" could be writing right now, and could upload his/her book to the internet for a pittance, for what it costs for a Frappaccino at Starbucks, and millions could read it and be moved. Billions.
Sure there is babble. Sure there is competition for eyes and the minutes it takes to have your Art viewed or read or listened to. But there is amazing Possibility. For change. For Access. For those without Money to have their voices heard.
And that is why, for someone who wants to make Art for social change rather than Money, I couldn't have moved to Los Angeles at a better time.