busy
therebirthofme.I agree that in many ways, art and creativity have faded out of communty awareness. A key part of that has been gutting the school system of creative programs such as music and art. Another part is the narrowing of performance to experts, which shuts out most people from the creative process, especially in terms of sharing it with other people.
On the other hoof, there are some survivals of art in community. Murals are popular in some local areas -- including mine, happily. Buskers are prevalent in some cities; I like Chicago, IL and Madison, WI for this. Some activists use costuming and street theatre to make a point. Remember how the fans at ComicCon defeated the protesters with humor and sheer exuberance? It works. We just need to do more of it.
I think that cyberfunded creativity is beginning to close some of the breaches between art and community. First, it is inherently a collaborative activity. The creator and the audience are doing something together, although individual projects vary widely in their types of interaction. Second, it removes the bottleneck of conventional publishing by allowing patrons to support whatever they consider valuable; that broadens the scope of what can be made available to the public. This allows creators a chance to make money from things that would have been hopelessly unmarketable before; if your work is edgy and controversial, all you need to do is find an audience interested in that, not convince a single company buyer to gamble on it. For disadvantaged groups this can be a terrific way to get around certain social barriers -- many such groups have a much stronger tradition of community support than the mainstream does. All of this raises the opportunity for crowdfunding to overlap with social, environmental, or other concerns shared between the creator and the audience.
You can already see examples of how crowdfunding overlaps activism...
For instance, my Poetry Fishbowl lets people pitch any prompts they wish, loosely connected by the month's theme. If you want to see more strong female characters, or queers that don't get killed in action, or brown-skinned Ph.D. holders, or Minoan bull-dancers, or a touchy topic refracted into another world's context, or whatever -- you can ask for that. If somebody else requests a topic you care about, you can sponsor the poem I write about it. Thus, a fair portion of my fishbowl poems touch on issues that I and my audience find compelling; they are not just idle entertainment but social commentary. Social discussion, even. This project is monthly with a rotating theme and open participation, so it can cover just about anything. If I ever have the money to attend science fiction conventions again, I would like to do a facetime version of the Poetry Fishbowl, which would be another good way of bringing creativity into the public sphere.
Some projects have a continuing storyline that allows them to feature the same issues consistently. A good example is "Wonder City Stories," in which superheroes try to get through life's social challenges; the storyline crosses over many issues such as racism, sexism, and classism. The episode "Three Legs Good, One Leg Bad" opens a discussion about discrimination against transgendered people. The author also plans to start adding occasional nonfiction posts about the issues that arise in the fiction, so interested audience members can explore further. "Spots the Space Marine" gives a glimpse of military life (albeit with psychotic alien opponents) and its challenges. Some of the profits go to charities that assist American soldiers and their families, Wounded Warrior Project and Soldiers' Angels. It's a way for people to give back to the folks who are risking their lives and health for our sake.
Then of course there is the Haiti relief painting over on
therebirthofme. This is an example of a crowdfunding project with a pinpoint focus: a specific incident in a particular place, the Haiti earthquake earlier this year. Ideas for imagery were submitted by the audience; the artist then combined some of those into a sketch, which is in the painting phase now. You can see several versions on the site. Donations are accepted. When finished, the painting will be auctioned off and its proceeds donated to Haiti relief. Donors will get an art card image of the painting. Note that this project has encouraged the artist and audience to pay closer attention to how the rebuilding of Haiti is progressing and the challenges people are having with putting money where it is needed the most.What do you think about art in community, creativity in social issues, and crowdfunding?
Yay!
August 9 2010, 01:48:23 UTC 10 years ago
Re: Yay!
August 9 2010, 01:56:38 UTC 10 years ago