It is interesting to compare how far we have traveled as a culture through the interpretation of visual art. True we have been inundated with sensory overload via television, print media, video/movies, and our standby internet.
Instead of gathering around the radio or television as a family depending on ones income level we are all going into separate spaces to watch individually programmed televisions, portable audio systems, or even hand held web browsing.
If we look at the art of the Last Great Depression we see groups working together in concert with machinery and technology. The technology dwarfs the human subjects. It is a group effort and we were proud we could work together to solve our problems. Things were harsh but we stood together and built a nation to be proud of. Even when we were in a bread line. Anonymity was in our solidarity.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Clare Leighton: Bread Line, New York, 1932
Compare those works to the current crop of recent winners in an art contest. Here we have images of technology but it is interposed by individuals separate from any other person and the technology itself.
Comparatively we are alone in a technical wasteland, devoid of unity and cooperation.
From the Best of Show work of Julio Reyes Empire:
I wonder how art will pan out in the future as we grow further not only into a technological frontier but into a severe economic crisis?
We are taught to be alone, why?
Because we will then require more of the same materials thus increase purchasing needs. What will this new economic crisis do to change these attitudes and ideas of what it means to be a member of the human race?
Will we continue to pretend we are lone wolves in charge of our own destiny?
Or will we grow to understand we are a society and as such grow closer as a society to solve our problems?
I'm anticipating what our art will be like in ten years.