Disposable Arts

Please visit the main collection page here:→ Proof of life (continued...)← to experience proper world building as it is meant to exist.

“Passion or Apathy”

Feel weird to have a bad feeling attached to something you’re passionate about. It’s not something that artists / creatives are strangers to but there are levels to this that the majority of the non creative side of this exchange of energy & consumption will likely never understand, care about or respect. This is expected, understandable & to be honest is a tale as old as time but please humor me for a moment and allow me to contextualize.

• The Inspiration / Catalyst

The things, feelings, experiences that led up to the very first moment & any future moment the human paused the world around them to create art (any & all mediums)

*This a level where negative feelings can be harnessed into a productive outlet.

• The process

For some it’s natural & effortless, others maybe not so much. No matter the medium, for those whom fall in love creating all share different levels of sacrifice / investment. Practice, Tools, equipment, schooling, but the most important & overlooked investment is time. 10 thousands hours…. time not spent with friends, family, working, relaxing, etc….

*this is another level where negativity can be justified & used as fuel or motivation, and most importantly, harnessed & transmuted into something that has potential to ripple out and creative positive impact.

• The external factors

You now have art. Congratulations, you put in the 10,000 hours, or even 5 minutes and you created something from expression that wouldn’t exist in this world if you chose to do something else with your valuable time. Now comes the parts that almost always end up being a conflict to the magic & the process.

This level has consistently changed over time, As a creative who has lived as a creative, consuming & surrounding themself with creatives at every level and stage. I can only share what I have lived through and witnessed or experienced.

Creative expression (Art) as a sustainable career…

If you are able to sustain as a creative for years or decades without compromising losing your love for the process. You are A unicorn. Truly magical. (Avoid Tim curry at all costs). The reality is, Art as a sustainable career has always required more non creative work than most jobs or careers…. I’m not speaking to exceptions, but the majority and reality. The most talented Artists, that a majority of strangers view as “successful” I know or have met the past 30 years usually had non creative careers also.

With that part out of the way let’s make our way to the most important level for the creative soul removing the financial ROI of time from the equation.

• Reach, Impact, Purpose, Resonance…

Art is powerful AF…. It’s also subjective AF

A song created from a negative place with a negative message equally has the power to seed negativity & in contrast, allow a confused soul to process vicariously & create positive ripples based solely on the impact that song had on them. Art is magic & powerful AF. Knowledge, Culture, Imagination, Empathy, History, Laughter, Relaxation, Love, Hate…. It’s so so powerful. And Art impacts each personal in a unique way.

That power & magic have a tiny flaw tho…

It only works if it’s available to be experienced & perceived.

Sure, the Counter argument could be that power & magic still exists for the creator even if it’s never shared & honestly, most artists already know this and it’s not just weird quirk or coincidence that almost every great artist I know only releases a fraction of the art they are most proud of….

The reason myself & nearly everyone I know does this is…. It’s not perfection, it’s not doubt, not insecurities…. It’s protection. An act of clawing to retain the magic that happens during the process. Because it takes a special kind of person, a certain level of sensitivity & vulnerability & an insane amount of passion to spend large chunks of your only life, creating and expressing over and over. One might say, It’s their true purpose.

So where & when is the last place A creative soul, who sacrifices time, energy, experiences with other humans that has already accepted that any consistent monetary ROI of time is unlikely but always would be appreciated.

Any guesses?

If you guessed the external distribution layer. High Five Yourself :)

And everytime this Level became inorganic, tainted with payola, manipulation, curated or gate kept to the point where no amount of hard work or talent has the same effect as compromising, politics, and playing nice when a nice game is being played. Artists pivoted & found a way to at least reach the dedicated people seeking out art.

We lost…
TV, FM radio, College Radio, Magazine Print, (Actually lost the ability to tour and do shows live for a few years) lost blogs, lost journalists, platforms, websites, lost soundcloud, all of our social media following (algo hellscape) lost search engines, lost YouTube to thumbnails and clickbait, we never had Spotify or streaming platforms, lost tumblr, deviant art? And during all this loss of basic reach (forget the financial part) just the ability to have all the basic functions that created decades of meaningful art and connections as we flourished culturally ignoring the world of FM radio & billboard chart tactics…. Artists are expected to increase output, quantity over quality (content) in a system that treats it all as disposable.

So in closing, where is the absolute last place an artist should have bad or negative feelings attached to…. ?

The Level where the artists pivoted from all of those broken, manipulated & greedy places because we finally had a chance to get it right & restore some sanity & order into the world…

The 3rd Level & Evolution of the Internet.

On any Platform that is centered around and simply just does not function without….. Art.

“Feels Bad”

Cus, the amount of Levels it took to entrust “forever branded” art is….

This Collection was meant to display real time Proof of human existence after a human nearly stopped existing. It feels bad that I feel bad documenting anything meaningful further in it because it’s clear the direction we are headed to is the direction that artists expressing meaningfully came to the level 3 internet to escape.

and if it’s not, well there is a major communication error that needs to be…. Communicated.