the simplification and weaponization of art, music, literature
#musing #thought #society #art
- This is the $n$th stage of art
- After the initiation of the form... when it's pretty terrible, but you're just playing and having fun with it
- Then, there's the golden age, when people are really paying attention to this art form, and people are getting good at it, creating the perfect environment for innovation
- Then....
- Although, this stage of art is partially a technologically driven phenomenon
- E.g. art was maybe the first to experience this, where for the most part, the visual art that we see these day is advertisement
- Also in music, where people are now listening to music in a passive manner rather than actively due to streaming
- In some sense, we're letting the artist choose how to affect us rather than choosing so ourselves.
- We're letting ourselves reduce our conscious power.
- Similarly in literature, we're increasingly distracted, perhaps reading in shorter chunks, or even listening to audiobooks while cooking or something.
Slogan
Passive consumption incentivizes simplification of an art form. Someone listening to Bach in the background won't notice all the subtle things (inversions, counterpoint, etc... I don't really know music terminology) that really make his works the masterpieces they are.
The Danger
Passive consumption is what will lead to our loss of agency. We let the creators interface directly with our subconscious, manipulating us in ways that we are not consciously aware of.
- I'm imagining a world in which we're constantly plugged in to input streams... whether that's auditory music, visual
- a future where all our content consumption becomes passive, straight through to our subconscious
Counterexample
One perhaps counterexample to this is film. This is a medium that inherently demands your attention: no phone allowed, quiet theater... Movies are becoming longer and with more subtle meaning.
- I do also want to say that literature can still be like this. Sitting down to read a book still demands attention, and it's probably still the case that many people are reading books with intention.