As someone who has been able to monetize my lifestyle, I really have the gall to write about the commodification of art and culture. But maybe that’s the point. The unquestioned hegemony of consumerism over every facet, every mode of society’s cultural production has not only led to a flattening of culture but also a besiegement of slow, romantic and, most importantly, authentic living. It has infiltrated artistic expression so that the battle has become a cultural one. Never have the forces of cultural opposition been so blind to the task at hand, to the nature of the conflict; the conflict being creating for the sake of being versus creating for the sake of profit.
My ethos, creatively and personally, is to live as authentically, beautifully and intentionally as possible and the rest, be it monetary success, purpose, impact, will follow.
In Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s book Dialectic of Enlightenment, they write:
“Culture is a paradoxical commodity. It is so completely subject to the law of exchange that it is no longer exchanged; it is so blindly equated with use that it can no longer be used. For this reason it merges with the advertisement."
The artist, in this day and age, has become a lifestyle one takes up as a kind of consumer decision, much as one decides on any commodity. It’s a look and attitude that symbolizes a certain variety of hyper-consumer, though not consciously adopting the mindset of one. The artist is the person who perpetually leads us to new styles, habits and modes of living and seeing. We create because we have something to say. We create because we feel an urge to disseminate ideas. And we create because we hope that along the way in doing so, people will buy into it. Our role in powering the great wheels of consumer capitalism is real, even though our intent is to simply to have something to say.
I’ve been a full-time creator for almost five years and with every passing year, I remind myself that while my work serves many purposes, one of them being consumer-facing, I must always revert back to living my life as authentically as possible. I don’t want to lose my critical social position and become more or less a propagandist for planned obsolescence. And this feels wild to type out!!! Because I get paid to run ads off the content I create!!! And yes, I’m using extremities here; creatives are not propagandists. But in the day and age we live in today, where profit reigns supreme, cultural capital is predicated on our social influence and we all, consciously or subconsciously, become cogs in this monocultural machine.
As creatives today, we must create art that is as thought-provoking and authentic as possible and at least as well done as advertising—if not so blatantly, then at least as persuasively. We cannot afford to regard the postmodern “condition” of detached images and cheap, immediate bites of information and entertainment an innocuous and inevitable development of our times. We have something real to say…so say it.
When I wrote that note, I was inspired by a tweet that I can no longer find by one of my favorite video creators who has since taken a hiatus (or maybe a total withdrawal?) from creating to live in a van across the country. I don’t think the call live out your life as art has to look like that—to give up most materialism and comfort and seek supreme spirituality through nature. But it’s of note to demand a new aesthetic of resistance, a secession from the rat race of constant creative output and look inwards at what we’re actually trying to say. How do we actually want to live? How do we honor life and beauty and creation by simply being? We must call for art that is radical in its content. And what seems radical now is actually quite simple: just be authentic! be slow! be you! don’t fold to the parameters of the market!
I don’t know what that looks like for you but for me, living my life as romantically as possible subverts the cadre of consumer monoculture. I’m literally just me. And in an age where the great capitalist forces conspire to keep us dumb and complacent, we must dedicate ourselves to simply being.
I love you,
Laura
This is so important. The intersection of capitalism and perpetual onlineness has made the panopticon feel so total is intrudes even on solitary creativity, and that simply cannot happen. Here's to consciously forging better paths forward.
Being authentic can feel so difficult and even embarrassing these days, which makes it all the more important. That’s why I ignore my shame, wear what I like, and write what I need to.