Wall-E World

My grandma and I don't send each other letters anymore, we use email. It's really the best mode of communication for us, because she lives halfway around the globe, and we don't share a primary language. I also like email because I have horrible handwriting. I don't text. I don't even have a cell phone. Sometimes I'd like to have one, but I don't need it to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. I do need my computer and my internet. I love the reach of information, the fact that I can learn just about anything at any time, but (and it's a big but), I also have to sort through the miss information and gossip. I like to see my friends' pictures on Facebook, hear about who liked what movie and who's birthday is coming up. It's the banter that bogs me down. The online gossip that replaces actual conversation, like everyone is standing in the same room, facing away from each other, and all talking at the same time. And now pets have Facebook pages too. Well, if my cat wants to learn how to type so he can network with other Nip-Heads that's fine; but that's just the thing, pet's don't really use the internet, it's pet owners who could be doing something else with life. When we talk to each other face to face, that is a whole communication. When we talk on the phone, at least we still have an actual voice, and that means a lot when it comes to knowing someone. But take away the physical presence and the voice, and all that's left are words. Words are a tool of communication, but just a tool, and communication is not contact. Posting a message and receiving a response is not interaction, and without interaction we don't have a context for ourselves as social beings. Gossip grabs your attention, and there's nothing wrong with a casual chat about who looked the worst on the red carpet, but banter can't fill the void where learning and thinking aught to be. If we are too distracted by the cyber world to pay attention to the real world, making Facebook profiles for pets instead of having face to face conversations with real people, learning how to be a good consumer instead of a good human; if this is what we're doing then we are headed for a Wall-E future. We will spend our lives sitting in hover pods, on a spaceship, consuming and gossiping. I'm not an alien, but I can see the future, and this is one possible outcome.

...Art?

What makes art good? Or bad? What is art? I've got a degree in art, and these questions were never really answered. Words like Kitschy and Dynamic come up a lot in art school, but in the end you like something or don't, feel ambivalent, or worst of all, are totally disinterested. In any case, it's your personal reaction that determines what art is and if it's good for you.

I looked at a lot of burnt wood hanging on strings. My interest was tepid, at best. Then I found out that the pieces of wood came from a church that was set on fire with racist motivation. I thought, that should change my reaction. Now that I had a context, something scandalous, why did I still feel generally bored by this art? Because it wasn't a real context, just a statement about the context, and that didn't actually change the bits of hanging wood. Had this been erected at the site of the church, maybe I'd respond differently. The thing is, no matter what I knew about the hanging wood, the artwork itself didn't elicit much of a response. For me, that's bad art.

On the other side of the room was a miniature cathedral make entirely of guns and ammunition. Inside the cathedral was a spinal column, laid out on luxurious fabric. Immediate response. Visual interest and strong emotional reaction, didn't want to focus my attention elsewhere. Good art. Would I want that in my house? Hell no, but I loved it. I like art in my house that's pretty (that word is essentially blacklisted in art school), and interesting enough to be inspiring, but not a distraction. That cathedral was beyond pretty, it was awesome. As to the emotional response, well, it was made out of guns and housed a spine. I dare say anyone who knows what guns and religion are would have a pretty strong reaction, and I think that's what makes good art; not that everyone likes it, just that it makes everyone think.