Perhaps We (the global, royal we) are entering an age of artistic abundance. Janan Ganesh thinks we might be. What flavors might this abundance take and how might the aspiring artist participate? Asking for a friend.
Well, it’s time to get cracking on quantity. Make things. And don’t worry too much about what. Do things. Don’t worry too much about how. Ask about and describe things. Consider that the growth orientation that has driven the world’s development up to the present quagmire of a GDP worshipping economicosphere has invaded every category: photography, “design” (a term too vague to be able to see itself in the mirror), architecture, writing. So what’s one whose trying to carve the things that leap from the imagination into the world to do? Go along with the flow and look to become either the highest grossing or top free app in the global liking store? Or maybe do Banksy-stunts (as it’s now commonly called when you get rich people to pay for something and then make it even more valuable by enhancing the novelty in a surprising way).
Perhaps there’s room for some corporate tomfoolery – artists have underutilized the twisted webs of interconnected nonsense that many companies build to avoid taxes, limit & cordon liability, and generally confuse everyone involved. An artist could create a web of companies through which a donation or revenue are converted into every known currency, dodge every known tax authority, and come back to the donator as a single coffee bean unsustainably sourced from a bag of Starbucks coffee beans (with a gig worker pouring the rest of the beans into any given local intersection). A real statement about capitalism and stuff.
The extra-intrepid artist might consider raising botnets from the silicon dead to create the new roaring 20s version of a flash mob (the same TikTok video of a man snoring in a rocking chair playing simultaneously on every iPhone older than 18 months – buy a new one so Apple can start designing space ships you god damned minimalists). Of course there will then be artistic escapades dodging the police to non-extradition countries and then tragicomically running for political office in one’s new home. Lots to look forward to.
So get going. Write your morning pages, then write a poem on a mask and wear it to the local Starbucks to fulfill your latest TaskRabbit job.
Roman Ryan 