Future thrills

There is almost always a reality to be found in the activities humans engage in – there is a truth. Information leading us to see the truth must be available so that true processes can run their course. Of course we do not always  agree as to what true processes are: maybe so that democracy can function, balanced action is possible.

When we know the truth we can get nearer to what is right, and elected politicians should abide by the truth.

Information control, propaganda, twists, spin have made the truth hard to find. The people with the agendas played out locally and on the world scene now try to control what information you will have access to. Human activity or what goes on – including war –  is not always reported as a true story, there is a fight for our minds – what you can be led to think is going on.

This is the reality of modern information processes. But it is not good enough to leave the truth to be found out by historians in about two hundred years time.

The media are playing along as they let themselves be controlled for reasons unknown – maybe it is a lack of access and resources, they just repeat what they are told. The truth is now hidden – may it always has been – trust in public information is gone.

Wikileaks has popped a little bomb about Afghanistan – some of the realities have been bared. The informants will now be killed, they say.

If it all is about information control we go astray. The power game has gone too far – reality must be reinstated. Wikileaks is there, the rest of the media have doubtful presence, but remember that Watergate exposed a bad president. We need exposure, even power games must tolerate that, the world must be transparent.

This is obviously naive, but truth will out, and hiding the truth can be dangerous. It will be a shame if we did not do right because we did not know.

We use markets for almost everything – put it on the market and supply and demand will take care of everything – you are supposed to get everything you need in the markets.

But this system is not good enough. Many people are left uneducated, in bad health, with substandard housing, in a general state of suppression and poverty.

The market system works well in many cases, but the deficiencies are severe. The industrial and technological developments have made production of food, industrial products possible in abundance. Often farmers and factories have to reduce production to avoid surpluses. At the same time time many people have less than they need.

Some markets may even hurt you, so that you can lose everything or find it impossible to participate. Markets presume efficiency to work well, equality and balance among participants, satisfactorily elastic and predictable supply. This is not always the case.

So a lot of human activity must be kept out of markets to function well. Basics like education, health, roads, water and others too should be shared and made available to all by the community.

Shared resources should therefore be considered part of a common pool and administered as such by users, partners, interested parties – often outside of politics. Many resources could be part of such schemes: metals, fisheries, oil, forests, water. For some resources this could be done on a global basis. The system we have for utilizing the worlds resources is – and have been for centuries – based on powerplay and political scheming, and will one day hit the wall.

So changes must come. Markets must be sorted out, common pool resource thinking must be introduced,  both locally and in some cases globally. We must sort out our thoughts about markets: what can be left to the markets, what is to be provided for all, what are common resources to be administered in a pool for all, what sales should be taken care of by special systems – e.g. distribution of human organs. We should consider that when a product becomes a commodity it is seen as a common pool resource and is to be had by all and financed through taxes and levies.

This change also ties in with politics and the economic system which do not benefit all.

A new, refined and modern thinking related to production – ever cheaper and more efficient – and distribution of goods and services tied in with a new monetary system is hereby placed on the wish list.

Art should not be left to your senses only: you see and you feel an emotional response, you feel well or maybe unwell. The object of your vision is nice or ugly or provocative or… and you react to it. Should you put words to it, intellectualize it? Should you try to conceptualize it, set it into context and make it somehow useful. Your mind is stimulated, you are led into creative processes.

Is the experience of art an individual experience for you alone or can the experience be had in a group of several people or even in a large crowd?

Art can maybe be turned into a useful tool for the development of persons or society, to enhance our lives or improve the way we live. So artists should be challenged to to explain what they are up to, what they intend the outcome of their art to be.

Illusionists use the concepts of the staging, the performance and the effect. May be artists should consider their art as the creation of an illusion and follow it through to as to what effect it is intended to have on individuals, groups or society. On a long term basis we therefore we can see art as a cultural activity in the process of shaping our society – no less! In this way we raise the ambition and improve the effect of art through intellectual/creative activity.

The question of how to commercialize art is also an important one: should individuals, companies, institutions pay up or should art be common pool resource to be shared and paid for by the community.

Art is seldom considered important enough to be elevated to societal importance. Artists should therefore elevate their ambition, strive for effect through staging, performance, economic grounding and ultimately influence and effect on society.

So what can art do for us: show us beauty, form, color, relationships, context, themes, composition … but ultimately and more important be critical of shortfalls, wrongdoings or harmful action in society. It can point the way towards a better, more inclusive and fair  society.

Art can thus be seen part of a total cultural and economic system as a force for development. Artists must enlarge their role – they must be teachers, critics, conceptualizers, political persons, designers and strive for effect.

So artists – let us hear from you – let us begin to see the effect of your work.