un|we|sen

And the world would be a great place if that was all there was to it. Turns out that the initial risk is not something to be desired — who would have thought — so new artists aren’t measured by their initial success, but by the success of other artists who have produced somewhat similar works. The result is contributions to culture are controlled and ultimately dictated by a few, who are wealthy enough to pay artists for what they do¹.

That’s not so dissimilar from what’s been happening for centuries. The church in particular is well-known for having supported only those artists who didn’t contradict their view of the world². The big difference is that the church, for all the political influence it had, simply didn’t have the reach to control every aspect of re-creation of culture.

With the advent of the internet, suddenly that’s the case. Technology has advanced to the point where every re-creation of culture by electronic means could, theoretically, be monitored by the entities that control the creation of art. Digital Rights Management is a step in that direction. In theory, musical instruments such as the Gibson HD 6X Pro could contain similar technology, and prevent artists from playing copyrighted songs without permission.

Those horror scenarios aren’t here yet, but with stricter copyright laws and more pervasive digital technology, they could arrive tomorrow.

However, the last century also witnesses the emergence of two other developments. Never before has a popular art form, music, been as diversified as today. Most if not all forms of popular music known today have their roots with the dispossessed and disaffected. It’s debatable whether that is because the cooperative creation of culture proves to be a community building experience, or because the dictatorship of the music industry makes pure consumption too expensive³.

And never before the age of the internet was it possible to start a new trend virtually overnight. People like Jonathan Coulton have received their measure of success through hard work, and what’s nowadays called virality — word of mouth. With the internet, word of mouth can reach a rate of expansion hitherto unknown.

Coulton demonstrates another aspect of the creation of art that’s different today than it was a few decades ago. Self-publishing experiments such as his Thing a Week undermine the control that publishing houses have over the creation of art. Their “natural” monopoly, extended beyond what was known and common for centuries, is now threatened by the same technologies that enabled their existence. Is it a wonder that (parts of) the publishing industry wants the state to support their status quo?

However… times are changing. People nowadays have access to participate in the creation of new aspects of culture. That won’t go away; given the means, creators won’t allow it. What we need to figure out is how we as a society can continue to support the best of our artists, while allowing for this increased diversity. Because one thing seems clear to me: we won’t be able to support them all, for a while at least.

Developments in copyright law are, at their heart, nothing more or less than a response to us trying to build our cultural identity. While stricter laws are somewhat frightening to me, it’s also clear to me that ultimately, and most likely within our lifetime, they’ll prove to be futile. I just wish that we’d get over this transition period to whatever the future may look like with as little suffering as possible.

1. Turns out that once they’re in control, there’s not much need to pay the artists very much anymore… [↩]
2. Milton’s Paradise Lost is a rare exception insofar, as the church allowed the protagonist of the first two books, Lucifer, to have positively heroic aspects. [↩]
3. It’s intersting that many of the artists pioneering these music genres have since followed the dream to financial freedom through the pursuit of their art. [↩]

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.