Creating new symbols
I find it very helpful to reappraise the reasons for communicating with symbols as frequently as possible. Artists need to survive and thrive, so one has to accept that the business of culture is part and parcel of the cycle of keeping the arts alive. There are moments however, when it feels like one is tempted to put the cart before the horse, with regard to priorities.
Big companies need to work in corporate ways. It helps to have worked for some of them when one is building a track record as a practitioner. Some people feel attracted to the formality of working in such organisations on a long term basis. This doesn’t make them more skilled, talented or worthy of respect than folks who chose to function in less grand surroundings.
We can learn about culture through text books and formal education. It is necessary to go through a process of development to become proficient at most things. Somewhere down the line, artists need to get rid of the shackles imposed on them by conventional ways of learning, if they are going to create new, original, innovative pieces of work.
When people complain about the lack of engaging dynamic creativity in the music that is heard from most establishment outlets nowadays, perhaps they should remember the days when they regarded television programmes such as “X Factor” as being worthy of watching.
At the end of the day, we should simply accept that there is a need for a multiplicity of approaches and aesthetics in cultural expression. Let’s leave formulas to the scientists.
