Art cannot be a commodity because the "owner" / "buyer" cannot control what it does. Unlike other commodities like wheat, cars, guns, furniture, etc there is a perfect sense of control over these objects. They fulfill a purpose. They do something. But to say art/music does nothing would be wrong. It does something but as an audience/ "owner" of it you cannot control what it does to you. You do not know what it will make you feel at any given point in time. Unlike a coke-cola that you happen to purchase. You know it will fulfill the purpose of quenching your thirst and giving you the mild taste of sugar at any given point in time. It will never taste different. A coke cannot mean anything more than what you expect it to mean. But art can mean things you never will expect it to mean. It can surprise you.
So this leads us to a problem people who buy art as decoration. Who do not contemplate it. And ignore its ability to make one feel. *Footnote: why the fuck do we need art to help make us feel? i mean i can go through like feel all the goddamn things in the world?* For them Art is a commodity. It serves the purpose to decorating the room. It reliably pulls the room together like one's desk will reliably hold one's computer and books. Is Art is this type of commodity because we sell it and by selling it it takes on a purpose as decoration ? Art suddenly becomes a trophy of one's wealth. Books suffer a problem like this too. some People will buy books to display them as some sort of trophy without ever reading them. How do I get people, i.e. the mainstream group of people in this world, to look at art and purchase art for the their own well being? because it excites them and thrills them.
Do I need to publicize it like music with a gigantic industry that can distribute a CD? What is the CD of art? posters? postcards? No Postcards and posters a symbolic reproductions of works. Not like an album which is complete work of art. How do i distribute en masse complete works of art that carry meaning like Amnesia or Kid A or Sgt peppers does?
Is the live performance by a musician the equivalent to visiting a painting in gallery? Do CD's-now mp3's serves as both complete works of art and as method of getting individuals to attend live performances. And how does the difference between the number of people who will download a musicians songs and actually attend their concert reflect something that a the audience is missing? Does attending a concert fulfill the experience of owning the MP3? and now that MP3 is free. A complete work of art in the form of album is free change how a musician functions? Does the free music act as an incentive to see a artist live? Is the Mp3 album suddenly an incomplete work of art that can only be completed through the live performance. What about sgt peppers? never performed live is hailed as the greatest album of pop music ever written.
And If i do find a way of making the visual arts equivalent to an album, masse produced complete works of art that act paradoxically as commodity and art simultaneously, do i sell it? or give it out for free. What is my ultimate goal? I think it is to disseminate the wonders of my mind through art. But how will earn a living... to maintain this production of art. But in terms of the goal? do i want people after seeing this visual art equivalent to come to galleries to see my larger paintings a sculptures? and try to sell that to them. Will they understand the paintings and sculpture? will they understand the new digitalized medium equivalent to an album? or like a lot music and artists it will be misunderstood and misinterpreted and re-appropriated as method of marketing products that enforce the military-industrial complex? Will it simply serve as someone's in house decoration? or will it exalt one's mind. Most of all, by giving visual arts to masses do i run the risk of creating a lot of garbage that the mainstream will eat up? will there be miley cyrus of painting? a billy ray cyrus of painting? and will good painting be marginalized once again by an industry intended to promote the wonders of it?
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