Used to be a prolific journaler; like reading, it's something I haven't done in years, but it should be good practice. It will take a while to warm up the brain cells, both of them. I'm not in much of a stream of consciousness mood today. Anyway this is a start, at least opening the book and looking at the "page" (gosh I remember when pages were all made out of paper. I am ancient).
Maybe I can start thinking out loud about a notion that I've been thinking about for a few weeks. It started when Congress made a move to cut funding to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting - the last standing "Liberal" medium. My question: Is Art Subversive? By art I mean "the arts": Fine, Lively, Pop, whatever. Are the arts subversive, in some intrinsic way, to the prevailing or dominant culture, or to those in power? Is the creative act/artful invention the thing that is subversive, or dangerous, or suspect by the control freaks that rule us? I know that art forms can be co-opted, or used for purposes of propaganda. They did it in Nazi Germany and in Stalinist USSR. But both regimes were diligent, from Day One, to seize control of the communications media, the universities, or anywhere else a free spirit or free thinker might be hanging out.
As a musician, and as a teaching artist in public schools, it's a question that concerns me. I feel that the arts, as I present them, have a subversive element to them, because it's me. But I wonder if this is part of a much greater whole.
Maybe I can start thinking out loud about a notion that I've been thinking about for a few weeks. It started when Congress made a move to cut funding to the Corp. for Public Broadcasting - the last standing "Liberal" medium. My question: Is Art Subversive? By art I mean "the arts": Fine, Lively, Pop, whatever. Are the arts subversive, in some intrinsic way, to the prevailing or dominant culture, or to those in power? Is the creative act/artful invention the thing that is subversive, or dangerous, or suspect by the control freaks that rule us? I know that art forms can be co-opted, or used for purposes of propaganda. They did it in Nazi Germany and in Stalinist USSR. But both regimes were diligent, from Day One, to seize control of the communications media, the universities, or anywhere else a free spirit or free thinker might be hanging out.
As a musician, and as a teaching artist in public schools, it's a question that concerns me. I feel that the arts, as I present them, have a subversive element to them, because it's me. But I wonder if this is part of a much greater whole.
necia:
Now, that is something I'm going to be thinking about and get back to you. It's an especially relevant question in this forum--art and the human body always seems to be subversive and controversial, and I've been thinking a lot about that lately.