Vacant or full? Mashups
There has been a brilliance in the visual arts for some time now. It occurs for me when two previously separate but conjunct ideas are married by their manifest forms. But I see a possible danger for societies exploration, growth and range of expression when the content sources or results are too nostalgic and shallow in their pop culture in references. Brief limited commercial ideas merging with brief limited commercial ideas leads to an instant “Wow!” but then what?
This “emergence of brilliance” is when something you’ve seen in one context, say a utilitarian object, a movie, or a piece of clothing merges with another object from another separate and well known context. They have a connection that was not seen before but aided by the artist in their coming together. So the skill we are after in this particular expressionistic from becomes the skill of mixing disparate contexts and forging a treaty in the middle.
It is possible to see that the end result becomes like a child born of two parents. Then, after a while, this child is free to marry with another context, because over time it has become a context unto itself. The child is free to become something new or its own when it can shed, or be perceived without its personal or cultural history attached.
So with the Storm trooper/Kiss Helmet image done by Bill McMullen (visit his website: www.billmcmullen.com) – if you didn’t know either of the two sources or “parents” from which they came, you could begin to ask or envision “What are these characters capable of?” “Where are they going? “ “What do they do?” etc. They can be even so free as to invent their own mythology and personal history bearing no relation and totally devoid of their sources (Kiss, Star Wars) to their somewhat actual inception.
If we scan through pre-industrial art, what is its brilliance? Say in ancient Greece, was there brilliance when they placed their mythology in pictorial form upon the surface of their jugs and cups? Was there wit occurring at Stonehenge or in the armor plating of Roman foot soldiers?
A question for designers: “What really matters to you – what needs propagation?” Will art of this nature cease to be witty? Is “witty” only relevant to the industrialized, time based world where nostalgia can be married to the future? It can be said that, “What really matters” is relevant to the particular group or target audience being addressed.
Like they said in the Belief video (see links) – “Just because you saw it for the first time, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist before.” If you do see “it” for a first time, then what relevance does “it” have? Is it innovative? New? Does “it” require the history of its sources to be seen as cutting edge?
Grabbing someone’s attention is only the first step in genuine communication (not that all your communication has to be genuine – but I measure my life by being clear with others). A danger has occurred on the mass level where that “flashy pop expressions” are all we have come to expect or know! A reference to a reference to a reference and the true source never known let alone one having a direct and intimate experience with that said source.
Let’s marry contexts but not just with pop references. The intention being, making relevant and useable ancient, universal and world culture knowledge and wisdom here in our biological domain and its veins of commerce and communication.
Links:
Bill McMullin
