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One day they take over Maria-Therese Hoppe, |
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| Interview: Ingwill M. Gjelsvik/Chief TUG, Edited: Dagfinn Fjelddalen, Photo:Kjersti Myrehagen | |
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As
creators of emotion, artists of the communication society of the future will be in great
demand. Yet as the role of artists gains economic status, it will also have to adjust,
according to Maria-Therese Hoppe, Reseach Executive, at The Copenhagen Institute for
Future Studies.
- In
agricultural society, power and status was built on ownership of land. In the industrial
society, it was investment capital, and in the information society, knowledge. The first
sign that the exchange of information has become automated and rationalized, is the
appearance of software agents that scan the networks and sort out and collect information
for us. Technology is the key to the communication society. Automation and rationalization
has relieved us of boring work, first of the muscles, then the work of the brain. Now we
see an emerging automation of senses such as hearing, taste and touch. The only remaining
work is that which applies to the emotions; the imagination, stories, art.
Human
beings have always produced art, but the money was never made in this field. It will be in
the future, however. People will be willing to pay big money for the intangible products:
emotions and stories.
If this is the factory - imagine the car. When art and commercialism trade strategies, it is easy to fall into a trap. Is the result a worthy, contemporary artistic expression, or is it Diesel Jeans? How can artists relate to this market, and what happens then to artistsic freedom and integrity? – This very question, whether art is free and autonomous, is quite revealing, because it is based on a myth. Art has never been free and autonomous. - Art and power is a difficult subject, because artists despise technology and technologists despise art. But the question is really about the definition and purpose of art. – Today, only art that is not applied to a utilitarian purpose is regarded as "art". But in fact, rulers of all times have utilized art to symbolize their power and ownership of the values of society. Even today, the independent artist who freely comments on life is a myth. Autonomous art is far from autonomous Many artists are curious about new constellations because they are not satisfied with the traditional role of the artist; in the myth of the unique, the noble, of artistic values that last for centuries. At the same time, businesses relate mostly to traditional art forms, or go as far as to maintain that they have "psychological ownership" of works of art. Do art and industry really have a future together after all? – That is a very relevant question, and I think they have. The TUG project is very exciting to see in this respect, simply because the money is there. NEW GENERATION - VISUAL ALPHABETS - The artist’s role in the future may well be different from how artists see themselves today, or in the form that industry imagines it, but the money is there because the artists are the ones who can relate thoughts, ideas, messages and feelings. That is the work of artists. And relating thoughts, ideas, and feelings is where the money lies for industry. For this, they need to consult the specialists. - But can artists tolerate gaining this new and critical audience? Young people are especially adept at reading visual alphabets. They have grown up with visual impressions, with pictures. They read visual messages in a nanosecond. If they’re interested: Fine! If not: Discard! The role of art is to touch on that which is innermost and give it expression. It need not be pretty, it can be negative or anything at all, but it must elicit our emotions. Industry cannot do it without the help of artists. And then again, artists cannot come and say "I have to do it in the correct manner". In the end, the customer decides. – To liberate oneself from the traditional artist’s role is to rebel against industrial society’s overriding definition of the unique, "spiritual", poor artist in the attic studio. For me it is a very difficult problem that both the established art scene and young artists still adopt industrial society’s conception of what is art. – I often marvel at why a fantastic commercial is not considered art? I believe the reason is that it is utilized towards an end - it is applied to something. "Applied Art" is not "Art". And that is in effect the issue you raise when you ask: is art free and autonomous? Because the second your art is used - is it any longer art? "The function of art has always, in all societies, been to communicate emotions. Emotions such as experience, beauty, security, peacefulness, anxiety, uneasiness, recognition. But also emotions such as power, prestige and respect. We rarely talk about the later - they lie beneath the surface like a hidden agenda. There is a greater interest in art and eroticism than in technology. Art has nothing in common with reason. Art is the irrational - the producer of emotions. The industrial society’s values are built upon reason and science. In a society of the future, status will swerve away from these values. They will definitely not disappear, but rather be taken for granted. Values will instead be based on the creation of emotions, on "storytelling"; in other words on art and culture. Yet certainly not in the form that we define culture today - something that exists outside of work, outside of production; something that is associated with leisure pursuits. Something that someone – the ruling culture –defines for us. There will be a growing need for emotions such as identity, security, connection and experience. When the task of art is not first and foremost to symbolize exclusive emotions and power for a little group, what can it then become?" From the article "Kunst og makt" (Art and Power) by Maria-Therese Hoppe - To say that art is a symbol of power that rulers use is provoking. Art has two sides: one always talks about emotions and expression, but art used as a symbol of power is connected to industrial society, all the way back to the Renaissance. A small elite defines what art is. "It is art because we say so, and because we pay for it. And if it is art, it is our art, and everything else is not art." - Yet ordinary administrators of art do not experience art as power. They cannot see the point in even discussing it. This is in fact one of the greatest obstacles. But what I question, is that when art has hung in the rulers’ major palaces during the entire existence of the industrial society it is partially illusory to say that art is autonomous, because it isn’t. It is paid for. Now that industrial society is disappearing, one must ask the question: Since we are no longer living in an industrial society - where is art headed from here? Is creative the same as artistic? - Being an artist today is a profession, but I believe that the profession of artist will become more demanding. Everyone must know how to read, and everyone must have an artistic dimension in their work. From being an exclusive, little group that is "unique", more and more groups will have to be able to express themselves artistically. And if the young artists say, "but wait a minute, we won’t have any of this", others will simply carry on and define what their art is, and leave the rest to shout alone. – When industry does come to the artists, it is natural that they come with some very set ideas. How could it be otherwise? They are not artists. - I believe that as an artist one should be far more active, open-minded, and irrascible, she says. The TUG project originated with the wish to tell good stories in a new artistic setting and to make use of an already existing popular media, as a crossover project. How can artists establish a dialogue and collaborate with industry? - I was so happy when I saw the structure you have built in TUG. Finally, here’s someone who understands. Would anyone have believed ten years ago that sports would end up on the stock market? No, it was just as untouchable as art. How great a business is Tour de France? And sports are just one of many new sectors. And those who tell the really good stories, get really well paid. The story, not the product, is what that industry’s capital is based on. Therefore they need artists. When I say stories, I mean to a large degree visual stories. The Marlboro Man may well be dead, but what is he selling now? Not cigarettes, but gloves, shoes, shirts. Large, successful chains that do business all over the world, Benetton and Ralph Lauren for instance, use no words in their advertising, but visual information, visual stories told worldwide. Why are people starting to call Benetton’s photographs art THE CONSUMER IS DEAD - Because the stories have nothing to do with clothes. Nothing at all. In the periodical "Wired" I saw a picture of a little boy wearing a night cap with a big smile on his face. And it said, "Dreamers Wanted". It was an employment ad for AT&T! In another advertisement a boy of about seven or eight stands with a baby in his arms and says: "This is my baby brother. I’m writing a book about him. It’s not very long yet, I’ve only got three weeks stuff, but I say he can read it later. I’ve saved everything on this disk." And that is an ad for a hard disk! In an industrial society, which we no longer are living in, one would sell by appealing to common sense, to reason; that is where the consumer belongs, the consumer that one must talk to, explain, advise, enlighten. But the consumer is dead. That is why marketing and advertising people are so frustrated. The consumers don’t want to be guided, advised, divided, misled. Of course the cars run. Of course they have air-conditioning. The product has to be perfect, but you can’t use that to sell any more. The same thing applies to eggs. We pay a little bit more to know that the chicken had a few more square centimetres to move around in, and yet a little more so that it could scrape and peck in the dirt. And then we pay much, much more so that it can have "free range". We want free range eggs. And if there is a picture of a chicken and a lady, then you pay twice as much. The market for free range eggs can be double the market for ordinary eggs. We pay for the chicken’s life style. So they don’t have to be great, expensive stories. - The scientist Ian Pearson at British Telecom has been researching WHEN computers will become smarter than us. He gives us until the year 2015. Will they keep us as household pets? In the same way that new technology first acquires dominance when it is used in areas other than first intended, art will take on a new role only when it is used for something it was not intended for, says Hoppe. Electricity was used only for light bulbs for forty years. The telephone was originally intended for transmitting opera over great distances, for which it failed. Instead, the telephone system has become the physical transportation vehicle for communication between people all over the world. - What do we use art for today? We use it on Sunday, as a leisure activity. We must face the fact that art and power are connected and will continue to be so. But what art and power have forgotten is that a whole new market is on its way, and it will appear somewhere unexpected. If artists and industry don’t discover where, others will.
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Maria-Therese Hoppe has a Ph.D in ethnology and is Reseach Executive, at The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies in Denmark. Among other things, her research has focused on new value systems and the consequences of new technology.
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| Scenarios: An uncertain future
The
intention of The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies is not to measure todays’
trends in order to predict the future. The future is seen rather as interesting,
susceptible to influence, and different from the present. While trend predictions can be
used with respect to longlasting and stable periods of developement, the results are often
of little interest, because they do not contribute anything new.
Scenarios
are recognized as a primary method in studying the future. Scenarios see the future as
uncertain, with several probable lines of development, susceptible to influence, and full
of possibilities. The future demands as well active action rather than passive
assimilation.
- The
future is not something that comes from heaven, but is created in the interaction between
individuals and groups that act. The future can thus rarely be described with the
precision that a prognosis presupposes.
By setting up several
scenarios depicting future development, one can cover a broad expanse of possibilities
where the future is likely to unfold.
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WWW http://www.iftf.org/index.html The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is a nonprofit applied research and consulting firm dedicated to understanding technological, economic, and societal changes and their long-range domestic and global consequences. http://www.gbn.org/index.html Global Business Network, founded in 1987, is a unique network of organizations and individuals committed to reperceiving the present in order to anticipate the future and better manage strategic response. http://www.2.nas.edu/21st/ Preparing for the 21st Century As the 21st century approaches and science and technology assume increasing importance in society, the Governing Board of the National Research Council has synthesized, summarized, and highlighted principal conclusions and recommendations from recent reports to inform decisions in a number of key policy matters. http://www.wfs.org/ The World Future Society is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization for people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future. http://www.euroconstruct.com/ EUROCONSTRUCT, founded in 1975, has extensive experience in the analysis and forecasting of construction market trends in Europe. Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research organization that aims to help people make better decisions about the conservation and use of their natural resources and the environment. http://www.inteco.com/ INTECO Corporation - researching the future INTECO conducts large-scale, regular, primary research in the US and Europe and analyzes current and future trends and markets for interactive technology and services for the new digital consumer and for business-to-business trading in a connected world. The Conference Board is the world’s leading business membership and research organization, connecting senior executives from more than 2,300 enterprises in over 60 nations. |
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