I was thinking about it. Do we care about the artist’s personality or the product of said personality? If it turns out that the product is more efficiently produced without involvement of the artist, will we reject it? My answer is “the latter” and “hell, no!”. When photography came along and displaced the majority of painters, did the society care? Even if it did, it didn’t matter in the long run because now the photography occupies the space previously held by living artists. Luckily, pictorial art did survive, though it occupies a narrow niche compared to the past. I think there were other art forms that disappeared completely in the course of technological progress.
Now the question is, is it what we strive for? (and by we I mean educated people who support technological advancement and take a certain degree of responsibility for its direction). Looks like it is.
I, for one, do care about the artist’s personality.
I value creators—be they writers, artists, directors, or composers—best when they have a reason to do what they’re doing. When they have an aspiration, a passion for art, or a message they want to relay to the audience. I like analyzing works and trying to understand the author’s mindset, figuring out what drove them to do it the way they did and what they were thinking at the moment, and how it relates to their historical context, etc.
All of those are human, relatable, empathic qualities.
But idolizing a hollow software moeblob that only does what it’s told? There really is no wonder it’s Japanese. It’s the same kind of worst excesses of the otaku subculture that drive fans to conduct faux-marriages with anime characters.
Most people obsessing over various idols are obsessing over a carefully constructed fake image anyway. At least with an obviously fictional idol, people are more honest about the fact.
Good point actually. The pop industry is built around crafting cynically made up images, and the actual singer is often an incidental figurehead.
I guess this is the logical conclusion—when there is nothing real about the image at all, there isn’t even a living person behind it. In which case we should ask if this is the direction in which we want to go, or it’s time to look back and rethink it.
Well said.
I was thinking about it. Do we care about the artist’s personality or the product of said personality? If it turns out that the product is more efficiently produced without involvement of the artist, will we reject it? My answer is “the latter” and “hell, no!”. When photography came along and displaced the majority of painters, did the society care? Even if it did, it didn’t matter in the long run because now the photography occupies the space previously held by living artists. Luckily, pictorial art did survive, though it occupies a narrow niche compared to the past. I think there were other art forms that disappeared completely in the course of technological progress.
Now the question is, is it what we strive for? (and by we I mean educated people who support technological advancement and take a certain degree of responsibility for its direction). Looks like it is.
Now there is one more reason to think about this.
I, for one, do care about the artist’s personality.
I value creators—be they writers, artists, directors, or composers—best when they have a reason to do what they’re doing. When they have an aspiration, a passion for art, or a message they want to relay to the audience. I like analyzing works and trying to understand the author’s mindset, figuring out what drove them to do it the way they did and what they were thinking at the moment, and how it relates to their historical context, etc.
All of those are human, relatable, empathic qualities.
But idolizing a hollow software moeblob that only does what it’s told? There really is no wonder it’s Japanese. It’s the same kind of worst excesses of the otaku subculture that drive fans to conduct faux-marriages with anime characters.
Rant over.
Most people obsessing over various idols are obsessing over a carefully constructed fake image anyway. At least with an obviously fictional idol, people are more honest about the fact.
Good point actually. The pop industry is built around crafting cynically made up images, and the actual singer is often an incidental figurehead.
I guess this is the logical conclusion—when there is nothing real about the image at all, there isn’t even a living person behind it. In which case we should ask if this is the direction in which we want to go, or it’s time to look back and rethink it.