The Issue of Art and Society

well, i felt a little guilty the last time for typing short phrases.. so.. well..

Im here to talk about how art plays a part in the society that is today. Like salt and pepper, Art and Society are two features that will compliment as well as challenge each other. The society of people is known to compromise of a few sectors, such as entertainment, health, politics and so on.

first up, its Arts and entertainment.
With the rise of the new media in the society, it is no doubt that this media is a powerful tool in bringing across messages. Well, in my opinion, one of the effective ways to bring across messages is through the new media! television programmes such as crime watch and national day parade are two examples where messages are brought across to the viewer through the television. That's all on entertainment, now to the serious point, what does art got to do with entertainment? It is no doubt evident that commercial products use art as a tool to maximize it's popularity, simple use of striking colors and images are used in the entertainment industry. These choice of colours require the elements of design in order to capture the attention of the audience. In the fine arts world, performance art can be a form of entertainment, not to mention acting skits and ballet, these graceful and emotional movements make up an interesting display for the audience to view and appreciate.

Business, Science and Technology.
There is an irony in this matter, science and technology are more logic based, where personal emotions are ommitted in the pursuit of knowledge and developement. Personal expression that is observable in art seems to be non existent in these formal and down-to-earth industries. Yet, Science and Technology is always seen side by side to art in the society. As science progresses in the course of time, new materials that achieve different results are introduced to the people. Materials such as Fibre Glass, Enamel paint, television, computers, Formaldahyde are made available to aspiring artists that are made famous for their materials used. These artists include Nam June Paik, Duane hanson, Damien Hirst. Science and Technology has definitely paved the way for new media artists of our time.

Communication and Media.

Similar to the first discussion of entertainment, Art is used as an improving feature to bring across messages to people. Art is used as a medium to convince and lure people int thinking certain ideologies, such examples include pro communist paintings made throughout the past in attempt to enforce allegiance amongst the citizens.

Disadvantaged and the Marginalized.

In any society, there is definitely people who are disregarded and outcasted by the main body of people. People that might suffer disabilities at any point. However, art can be a savior to these disadvatanged people if you think about it. Some disadvantaged people in the world actually made it big through taking up art as a career, some of which includes Frida Khalo, a mexican artist who suffered from a hard neck. In my opinion, art is a very versatile career, where it can either bring you a fortune overnight, or make you bankrupt instantly. People who are unable to walk, or talk, might be able to produce unique works of art that can break them out of the cycle of poverty.

Education and School.

The fact that art is diverse and so greatly used int he world just like the english language, instituitions around the world have taken art as an academic feature to enhance the student's view of the world around them. Which every school system the issue of stress cannot be avoided that easily, this is where art comes in to relieve stress from the minds of people. similar to the messages brought across through entertainment,i believe that the messages or information brought across to the students relies heavily on art. A simple picture on the side of notes and perhaps a stroke of the highlighter is able to enhance the student's ability to learn. Colour, is brought into the picture, making students feel more happy about what they are doing. In the informal sense, random drawing during boring lessons are able to keep a person awake for the entire session, true, some attention might be lost to the teacher, but it beats sleeping and listening to nothing anyway.

Family and Home.
In order to enforce a healthy relation between one another in a family setting, i do believe that proper forms of self expression should be given or produced. Its really stupid for family members to not express their emotions and feelings to each other. Criticism of art forms, such as the new fashion trend, food and so on help to bring families closer together as it enables one another to understand the likes and dislikes of each family member. Aesthetic activites like painting and drawing can also be family bonding actitvities that can help promote a healthyfamily lifestyle. As for the home, art is seen as an important factor in making the home worthwhile living in. New lines of furniture and floor cover are produced into the society every year as people are demmanding more high-end homes. People in society have different tastes and likes when it comes to art. It can be seen that art come sinto play in choosing the right home for a family to live in.

Governtment and Leadership.
In the communists world, it is researched that artists are being brought to centres to paint portraits of leaders that are powerful in an imposing visage. art is hence "abused" into creating propaganda in a country especially when it is communist. In the democratic world, merchandise are created with the image of a leader as a form of branwashing to the people. Take Barack Obama for example, silly merchandises such as underwears, mugs and even dildos are created through art to promote his image.

hmm ok, time to blog about art!
so who are the stakeholders in this case?
well, since the stakeholder are the ones who will benefit from this matter, I can assume that they are the youth community? well, think about it, youths tend to view graffiti art as something lively and fresh, compared to classical paintings and all. in addition to that, the entire act is done in view of the youth olympics that are coming up, as well as warming up the feeling of the post box competition. well, the company, SingPost can be the stakeholder too, the participation rate from the youth community can be encouraged from this act. hmm

to what extent can we consider such graffiti acts as art.
the definition of art, is the expression of an emotional feeling or message in the form of a visual form. aesthtically wise, this can be seen as a form of art. It does seem to emanate a certain extent of life, it does seem to make the place more fascinating... it does add on to the visual aspect of the mailbox. Art is an object for debate, it sparks discussion amongst people who view them. the application of paint sparked a debate amongst the people.

but we will have to consider the action of applying the paint itself, thats where it gets hard to justify. the boundaries of crime and art can be seen to be blurred at this instance. crime is seen to be unexpected and unruly, not regarded as beneficial to society, well, in my opinion, this act of art is seen to be a crime by the unotified public. SingPost actually had the permission to perform this stunt, and alterations made to the mail box is totally called for.

lessons learnt from this example. well, it can be seen that when artworks are to be made in the public space, the minds of people, and i mean ignorant people (aunties and ah bengs)should be kept in view. afterall, they are the viewers, if an artwork is decided to be placed in a museum, thats another issue, since all the people who go there to view the artworks might have more or less a clear picture of how an artwork looks like. especially in the context of singapore, there is a huge gap in the mindsets of singapore. in addition to that, notification should have been placed before an artwork is made in an environment that involves people.

in my opinion, i do feel that singaporeans are non tolerant of gestures outside of their everyday norm. there are mainly two types of singaporeans existing, the first: well read people who attend school, church and formal functions, and the other, those well... ignorant people who live within their own neighborhood, those who do not appreciate change in their environment. they are two totally different sights of singapore. on one hand, the well read people are able to comprehen the meaning of art in singapore, while the others don't, thats just sad.