I feel there is not much more important to the development of human beings than art that is derived from deep passion.
The over exposure of what many people have labeled “content” or what can also be called soulless or passionless “art” honestly worries me intensely. It seems rather than seriously engaging in media we consume, many people would sooner get addicted to the dopamine they receive from watching awful videos on Instagram or TikTok which are not made with passion, but only with the goals of succeeding in an algorithm. I know because I personally am trying to work myself out of this dopamine addiction.
Real art can come in a variety of mediums. There are paintings, music, movies, books and even video games. Art is subjective and does not need to be considered good or worthwhile by the majority, but only that it is made with passion and that it evokes a feeling within the viewer or tells a message or story.
Content does nothing of the sort. Content is made only with keeping a viewer’s attention in mind and filling the easily manipulated human brain with as much dopamine as possible. The fact this is creeping into, and even somewhat taking over, genuine art is soul crushing.
I think there is also some middle ground between art and content. I believe some movies made by companies such as Disney in the modern day can be classified as a mix of art and content. While there is certainly some soul in them, there is not much and the viewer’s wallet is considered more important than the art.
It is as Martin Scorsese said in a New York Times op-ed, “Many of the elements that define cinema as I know it are there in Marvel pictures. What’s not there is revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk.”
It is worrying to me how companies can take something as beautiful as art and only see dollar signs. I say this as someone who even likes a few of the new Marvel movies. What should be in any art is passion, not following an algorithm to a tee.
There should absolutely be a distinction between art and content. I would hate to see all of the beautiful masterpieces of the future only be what could have been. What is amazing about art is its subjectivity; what one person may find spectacular another will find repulsive. Drawing an emotion out of a viewer is something fundamental to art.
This is of course not to say all art needs a point. I adore surrealist works like Salvador Dali’s short film “Un Chien Andalou” and while Jackson Pollock is not an artist I like, many others can see the value in his work because they invoke an emotion.
The thing that is ultimately the most frightening is how something so divine such as art can be turned into a commodity. It is as if homo sapiens are devolving to the point of only caring about basic things such as dopamine intake rather than the majesty art can provide us.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
