Recently a student of mine recommended that I
should return to writing on my blog. I said that I may do, if I ever get a spare 5
minutes. I fear that a spare five minutes may be rarity, however there is
something that I wish to write that I feel passionate about but can't quite
articulate it clearly enough to currently convince questioning students.
Therefore I have decided to write it down as a sort of manifesto or a document
to defend my specialism if in some dystopian future, art is decided to be an
insignificance, or a luxury that can be wiped from our lives. I have decided to
write this in a slightly 'it's a wonderful life' style response, considering what
a world would look like where art is forced into extinction.
Why bother studying art? What is the point? It's
of no use.
Good question why indeed? What is the point? Why
bother with the aesthetic? Why not get rid of
anything that favours the aesthetic over functionality.
We could start by closing all the art galleries, the
obvious first port of call, where they hang all the pointless, the
pretentious and elitist. Nothing functional there
at all. We could save millions and put that into medical research or
healthcare, which could eventually extend our lives to say 200 years.
We could then move on to the designers, fashion,
architecture and all other forms of aesthetic design.
One car design or colour is as functional as the next, one building or item of
clothing shape or colour just as functional. There is no need to visually
enhance them.
Once rid of this futile embellishment of our
surroundings we can rid ourselves of anything else that favours the aesthetic
over the functional until we become a super functional
long living species.
We will functionally drive to work in our square
grey cars
wearing our grey suits to our square grey office
buildings all of them perfectly functional. Living our perfectly functional 200
years.
Then one day, say on our 175th birthday we will
climb to the top of a hill on a late summers afternoon, sit down and pull out a
book. The book would be called 'male and female' and would be one page long.
Because adding a title like Romeo and Juliet and adding some extended elaborate
text would be just, to misquote Shakespeare "guilding the f#*cking
lily".
You would look out to the horizon after finishing
your inadequate but functional novel and take in the natural beauty in front of
you. The only remaining beauty, now that all the non functional man made beauty
had been done away with.
Then one day, because of you not being trained to
see beauty or have any interest in it, you would now no longer have the ability
to even see beauty in the natural world. You would look out at the horizon and
only think functionally. You would not see the beauty of the millions of
colours of the autumn leaves blowing in the wind. You would only see the
season...that it was time to harvest food or buy warmer clothing. Your thoughts
would be no more advanced than any other animal, the only importance, success
and survival of their species.
Art is the most important of subjects, it should
not be an options subject but a compulsory subject. It is the only solely human
subject. Maths and other sciences, Computing and technology make us functional,
advance our understanding of the world around us.
English and other languages help us communicate
with each other. History and geography tell us where we are and where we’ve
been. All important, However all of these subjects are not solely human. All
other animals use the scientific method to ensure the survival of their
species, all animals use their own form of language to communicate with each
other whether to attract a mate or ward off a competitor. They are aware of
their surroundings and to some measure, their history. Even subjects like Music
and dance, which are thought most similar to Art, are used in nature for
functional purposes, to attract a mate.
‘A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms
for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it.’
Oscar Wilde
I have little doubt that no government would endorse the comments that
I have just made. Who needs the aesthetic or the useless when you can have the
functional? A government wants a functional population to work the machines and
pay the taxes, the last thing it needs is a population who ‘blossom for their
own joy”, a population who are observant of their surroundings because of the
being taught to do so, a population who think creatively and inspire others to
so.
A population like this makes a government less confident of their
control over the plebs. A population that lacks a creative mindset becomes a
sitting duck for a dictatorship.
“Art should comfort the disturbed and
disturb the comfortable.” Cesar A. Cruz
Spend a small amount of time looking at the countries with the least
human rights, with the least personal freedoms and you will find countries with
no individual creativity and no art, unless it has been state or church
authorized, culminating, eventually in the non existence of the individual,
only the state and its subjects.
Art is pointless…what is the point in studying it? You could ask the
populations of many Middle Eastern countries or maybe North Korea, but I fear
that their ability to answer such a question may no longer be part of their
psyche.
