Here’s to the curator and the patron
A reflection upon Martin Scorsese’s Harpers Magazine essay titled “Il Maestro”.
Today, art- and cultural institutions increasingly lean towards curating and exhibiting art as seen from an audience’s perspective, almost like Netflix puts together original films and series. These are mainly derived from analysis of the algorithm working behind the scenes, measuring people’s tastes, popular topics and viewing habits. It happens in museums, in the board rooms of big entertainment corporations and on YouTube.
I don’t mind this form of pleasure, which has its strengths, sometimes pairing up strange yet titillating themes to take in or giving you a momentarily mental break. But it starts to get destructive where market forces, such as visitor counts, merchandise potentials and content consumption metrics, indirectly take over the control and start to dictate the outcome. Then we are not dealing with art any longer, but rather design instead since “content” is created by direct or indirect request rather than manifests or expresses itself, springing forth from a personal viewpoint.
We already see this in the music business. In most cases, only a narrow and often strictly fabricated form gets listening time and, in the best cases, can generate even a small income for the artist. This “narrowness” is partial because algorithms like Spotify spin listeners into reinforced feedback loops of more of the same music based on popularity. But it is also partially because people’s ears become increasingly de-tuned to other music forms, thereby finding anything outside “the bubble” repelling. This forces artists to fill out the gaps or risk being forgotten quickly, based on the popular vote. And this is starting to expand beyond music as an art form.
When it is best, art can be a kind of “philosophical expression” you can almost feel when the underlying subject gets to you, just as music can give you goosebumps either by sound, lyrics or both. This expression can act as a thought experiment over existing or being in this world, as manifested by another person’s life experience. This art form is a direct opposite of a calculated, safe bet based on advertently or inadvertently dictating themes or forms that are already well-established and part of popular culture.
Using music as an example again, back when radio was significant, the local DJ found an obscure local band and, with enthusiasm, just had to let the world know about it. This DJ has almost been entirely replaced by code and top-ten lists today. The same thing is starting to happen with films and tv-series. And to take a recent example, art has seen an explosion in NFTs where all middlemen are gone, which in many circumstances can be good when they only are there as financial gatekeepers. But search engines- and other algorithms are now promoting the artists instead. What will then be next? Will books end up being spat out based on formulae? If we remove the altruistic and curious curator or patron and rely only on the tried and true, we dilute all arts and culture and their philosophical importance. And thereby potentially an essential choir of empathic perspectives on being a human being in our time and beyond.
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