YIDO
From Andrew Garton's wiki
A draft manifesto on the making and value of art in the 21st century from a 20th century nomad. Inspired in part to responses to Resolution for Digital Futures, empyre forum.
Contents |
Beginning
YIDO, pronounced Why I do, is a manifesto on the value and making of art in the 21st century by a 20th century nomad weaning himself off the net and much more besides.
What does a manifesto for this century proclaim if not a halt to all things that ail us? And what of art in this process? More than ever we require the means to shift, or rather, change consciousness towards an appreciation of all things that are, or ought be returned to the commons.
What is the role of technology and design in these processes? How do artists respond to open platforms and licensing? Is there a future for the arts in the commons?
I have responded in more detail in the paper, Growing the Global Information Commons, but in YIDO, I seek to define a more personal approach with the addition of simple responses to key issues for artists seeking clarity and substance in both a world immersed in sameness and uncertainty.
We urgently require an overhaul of concepts of equity towards assured and manageable equity of access to food, shelter, education, information, art and re-assessment of how we consume, what we consume and how and what resources can be sustained. We are facing unprecedented turmoil.
Rationale
I do many things.
I am moved by many things.
But there are a few things that compel me to persist in both a social justice perspective in my work and ensuring I maintain a reasonable sense of being OK all of the time.
Stupidity
It is the single most common trait of all humanity. It has caused unimaginable suffering through all of known time, it has drawn power and vast reserves of our precious resources to it and the blood of millions, 6-8 million in the 20th century alone, has soaked the soils of every inhabited landmass in the world. And yet, we have never, ever managed to evolve the stupidity gene out of us.
qu: what is stupidity? it has to be defined first. What kinds of exists? which ones dewelop out of metal disabilitys
and which ones out of just not thinking enough? who is allowed to judge? is puting ones interests higher, than the ones of society stupid? in which cases?
remarks: 6-8 millions is defenitly underratet
Response
You can't fight stupidity, but you can defend against it. Make great, inspiring, motivating art... and remind people that if they're a little stupid, they don't have to be bad!
qu: what does bad mean? and who is do deside that?
Homogenisation
Surely a by-product of stupidity is the making of all things the same: homogenisation, or sameness. By enclosing public goods in legal frameworks that protect and secure private ownership of them we lose the freedoms and motivations to innovate. The net result is a culture that stagnates, that breeds indifference in its populations of luxuriated somebodies, that cannot grow and enrich its inhabitants where everything sounds, smells and looks the same.
We have no hope of breeding stupidity out when sameness becomes the dominant feature of our so called developed societies,. We can, however, defend against it.
remarks: "stupidity" needs sameness to cope, needs sameness, because you are not afraid from what you know.
but there will always be people, that will be bored with that. "the problem is" that because of the world
wide communication tools, the tendencies of sameness are entering a new stage. you dont have to be the same
as the others in your village, you have to be the same as the others in the whole world. (60% of male
collage teenagers in the usa think that an intercourse has to end with shooting the load into the girls
face.) who makes the most popular content defines the basis of sameness.
Response
Critical to our defence against sameness is a revitalisation of the commons – the reclamation of resources that ought not be owned by any single individual or entity, but protected and managed for all, including every single known biomass.
It is critical that we, as artists, grow a commons based culture that innovates through collective effort for the benefit of the many, not the personal nor private and vested interests of a few.
Homogenisation is the enemy of diversity on all levels of life. There's no argument. If the core of all life is sustained through diversity and if humans have less genetic diversity than a lecture room full of chimpanzees, why are we trying to make everything the same?
Mix it up and give it away. Make work derived from all that inspires you and do so freely and openly. Support flexible and open licenses and use more bottom up forms of distribution. After all, how much money do we really need to lead a sane, comfortable and sustainable lifestyle?
remark: more then most people of the world have. more then most of the artists of the world have. Less then that what is in the hand of the richtest 3% of the world population.
People
Not all people are stupid. The city of Graz would sink into the Mur River if stupidity prevailed in the design of the city's foundations. The people who grow its food and sell it at Franz Joseph Markets are generally not stupid. They can do things that most of us can't. Stand out in the open and sell their produce at minus zero temperatures for one! Some may say that's stupid, but not if you're wanting a fresh, locally farmed trout or typically Styrian schnaps to finish off tonight's dinner. The alternative is sameness.
The forest communities of Sarawak are not stupid either. Sarawak is on the island of Borneo. The people who govern Sarawak are stupid and powerful. Stupidity and power is the worst kind of stupid. It destroys peoples lives, it removes them from their native lands, it puts them into ghettos under the guise of development and punishes the land by removing the entire biomass and replacing it with cash crop monoculture.
Response
Stupidity can't be fought, but it can be defended against. Use your work to raise the consciousness of people in society. Help them to make more informed decisions about what they consume and why?
remark: most of the people do not want hear and learn about, because it is to tiresome. So first you have to bring them back to wanting to hear and to learn, than you can inform them.
Being OK all the time
People, despite the stupid ones, are entirely amazing... What we have achieved, what we have created, what we know, what we are yet to find and the utterly mind blowing planet that supports us, is what inspires and motivates me the most.
remark: there are many "stupid" people, who also achiving many good and interesting things or are good chraftsmen, or ...
In spite of all that ails us, in spite of the mantras and policies of warmongering governments and so called peoples movements, in spite of the appalling depression and anxiety our so called developed world imposes, I am inspired to sustain, at the very least, a reasonable sense of being okay all the time... and I mean, all the time. Try it... Why do we have to feel bad about feeling good? What's wrong with feeling good all the time? Anxiety is NOT normal!
remark: whats the recipe of feeling good, if you look around with open eyes and see all the "stupidity" and poverty and hate and destroying of earth.
Response
Be kind to each other, spend less time online and be in the world.
Learn to love this planet because, despite us being made of the same stuff of stars, we got no where else to go... I find that terrifically compelling!
Notes
Additional issues and responses include:
- Design
- Technology
- Growing the commons
