I have said many times to people that “if the art you are making pisses people off then you are doing something right.” Why is this the case?
There have always been countercultures to whatever is mainstream. Whether this is because of humans being naturally non-conformist or some people drifting towards iconoclasm doesn’t really matter. Countercultures come about in response to what has come before. It can be to a culture’s benefit. New art forms and new styles emerge in response to what came before. Progressive House music can be a good example of this. In a broad generalization, Progressive House music was rejected by mainstream music for some time, while many rebellious teenagers fell in love with this new unusual music that had not been heard before.
Music, like many other art forms, is trend based. The “new” type of art tends to supplant the previous top art form and, in many cases, uses elements from the previous forms in new compositions. In other words, each iteration combines older forms together to create something new and in turn becomes somewhat more complex. Just look at the most popular music genres overtime. Classical to jazz then jazz to rock like music and so forth. It almost seems like an unconscious desire to make things better than drives art to a new level, which as a side effect gives rise to a new art form.
One thing that makes new art forms more captivating is the incorporation of technology. Long ago, humans might have only ever played music with one instrument perhaps a drum of some sort. This would sound pleasant and eventually become popular worldwide. Then someone will discover another instrument such as a wind instrument and create a melody to match the drumbeat, at first it might perhaps be seen as unusual and then repeating the same trend as before becoming more popular than just pure drum music. If we skip a couple hundred thousand years, we will reach what we would call modern music, which if we look at all the most popular music of today, we will see they all use multiple instruments, if not multiple variations of instruments that did not exist before. If you ask anyone today probably almost all people would rather listen to a pop some then some regular repetitive drumbeat. Even if very complicated percussion music still exists in many cultures and is enjoyed.
From this we can conclude that some of today’s art forms would be completely out of reach simply because of the technological restrictions. In a way lack of technology limits our imagination and ability to see new things. If we went back to the 1600s and said to some artists from that time that I am a movie maker, they would think I am are a complete lunatic! And yet in our current time movies theatres are far more popular than an art gallery, but of course this is not solely because of the technology, so why have movies become more popular?
The answer to this is actually quite simple. Take a look at Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photograph Man Jumping the Puddle, now watch Eadweard Muybridge’s Sallie Gardner at a Gallop. What is the man difference between these works of art that caused one to become more popular? The answer is movement, or successive sequential changes of moments in time. Now compare, Sallie Gardner at a Gallop to Casablanca. What is different now? It is not storytelling because all three tell a story. Answer: sound. Casablanca has another form of art synchronized with it. The art of sound. By now you might have started to notice a trend between the previous most popular art form and the next; each new art form is a combination of previous art forms.
From this we can gather that the next iteration of art will contain parts of other art forms. Aside from technology this is key to creating a new masterpiece. Sculptures are appealing, so is architecture. What can be more appealing and attractive is if you combined sculpting with architecture. Look at Michelangelo’s David then look at Frank O. Gehry’s design of Friedrich R. Weisman Museum of Art. Or watch Sallie Gardner at a Gallop then watch La La Land. You will start to see this idea tend to be true. It might seem impossible to ever comprehend what the ultimate art is or let alone imagine it, but it has been staring at us from the beginning. What (to most people) has perfect synchronicity between sight, sound, touch, and taste? Water waves. Almost no sculpture, painting, or song, can even begin to be compared with an ocean waves. Even then, the ocean wave is not quite at the final iteration of art, it is missing a few things. Like a story, etc. So, what is it?
The ultimate art form is to perfectly simulate life; as in the entire universe with all of its complexity. Because it is the only thing that has every element as a part of it.
By N.Monk, the unofficial philosopher
