Start thinking of art as a "reaction"

One of my favourite paintings I’ve ever made is called ‘avocados and bills'. It’s probably the least I’ve ever prepared for a painting. The way it came about is kind of funny. I had been staying at my friend’s place in London for a few weeks, and one day I got home and saw that in his fruit bowl (which had become a mail-to-deal-with station) he had placed two avocados. Two perfectly ripe avocados - sticker still on. Something about it hit me immediately. I grabbed my paints and painted the scene straight away from the exact angle I had first seen them.

I find it hard to explain without sounding pretentious, but there was something about seeing fruit (which I associate with commodified luxury) placed on top of unpaid bills. I really loved this contrast. I wish I had a photo of the painting, but as soon as I showed my friend, he stuck it above the living room light switch, and I never got to scan it.

It might be a ridiculous piece of art, but why did I feel such a strong urge to create it? My friend never intended to evoke this feeling, and his “sculpture” isn’t really art in itself. But lately, I’ve been creating a lot more art. Mediocre art. And not caring too much about how amateur it is.

Art as a reaction to an experience

John Dewey’s “Art As An Experience” (1980) has been on my reading list for months, ever since I read this essay exploring his theory. In short, Dewey sees art as the culmination of the interaction between an individual and their environment. In other words, the context surrounding the creation of art cannot be separated from the outcome. The means and the ends, process and product, are both integrated in a piece of art.

This matters because, in our increasingly specialised and fragmented world, means and ends have become separated. Everything in society has its own compartment: politics, science, philosophy, and of course, art. The worker is doing work in which he is removed from both the intention and the result.

Where the whole man is involved there is no work. Work begins with the division of labor and the specialization of functions and tasks.

— Marshall McLuhan.

Through experiencing art (both creating and consuming it) certain human traits are strengthened, experience is enriched and life intensified. Art is inseparable from morality, because it plays such an important role in our growth. Art literacy teaches us how to incorporate meanings and ends, overcoming purely subjective interpretations, into a single judgement.

When art is separated from policy or science, we are keeping morality out of the conversation. We focus solely on “objective and external” ends, neglecting the intention and process behind them. But art, which once occupied communities, forums and temples, has now been put in museums and places meant for aesthetic recreation alone. The market for art neglects that art is a response to specific historical conditions. Art is lived experience. Art is the interaction between an individual’s internal subjective world and their external environment.

‘Shitty’ art as a reaction to AI

Hence, my revenge against the divorce of art from the world: creating and consuming art that integrates its context and process. React to the world first, then call it art.

Now more than ever, I’ve been reacting to the polished and objectively “OK” art produced by AI. I’ve been listening to anti-folk, going to concerts, reading local independent newspapers and drawing on the back of napkins.

Yes, AI can write technically better poems…

And if I had to pick a poem to sell, it might be the first one. But the second one tells you about how I went about creating it. You can tell that I came up with it in the shower, that my anniversary was coming up and that I love tinned fish.

Much love,
NekoMiya