My inability to draw definitely isn’t related to my mortgage.
Everybody has an inability to draw until they learn how.
Not all art is drawing. Music is a big one. If you don’t know how to play music you have electronic music.
If you still want something more plastic, there are forms of graphic art that do not rely on manual drawing abilities. You can do 3d renders for instance. But also several stiles that do not requiere much ability. You can even code a piece of art through a generative algorithm in something like p5.
There’s also photography, and video.
Writing, from poetry to full novels.
Art is limitless.
“Rich people have it too easy” is such a crabs-in-a-bucket mentality.
Yeah every comment I’ve seen from you recently points to you being well off, and this kind of cinches it.
You live in Texas, have a well paying job (beyond well paying, if your comments can be trusted), and here you are commenting about crabs in a bucket. You’re not a part of the crabs you fucking cretin, you’re the bucket.
In what way is “everyone should be able to explore their artistic side” a “crabs-in-a-bucket mentality”?
I don’t think that’s what the person you’re responding to is saying. I’m fact, I think you might actually be in agreement with each other.
No idea. I didn’t suggest that.
I’m an artist and rent is due. If I focus on one I end up homeless (again). If I focus on the other I’ll want to kill myself because my life would have no more meaning.
This is a world-building element of Heinlein’s posthumous novel, For Us the Living, where UBI allows people to do art or other low-pay trades. The UBI system in the novel enables people who don’t want to work, are tired of work, or who aren’t good at working, to live and pursue what does make them happy since their livelihood doesn’t rely on working a job. Of course, Heinlein has some libertarian nonsense to harp on in the book, but it’s wild just how long we’ve known that there is enough to take care of us all and that working to live is a detriment individually and collectively.
the money also gets them famous
An important parallel to this, especially for those of us who grew up in the US, is to remember that your hobbies and the things you build can be for your own enrichment. They do not need to be efficient or profitable. The effect of the process on your psyche is far more important than the new inanimate object you possess at the end. But that’s not how our capitalist worker bee culture taught me to see it.
This is kind of how I treat hobbies. I don’t start learning Spanish to be able to speak Spanish for instance, like obviously you might get there. So for me it’s all about the journey and if I get bored and move on to something else that isn’t failure that’s chasing your curiosities and being open to try new things.
Also ADHD helps.
Haha, absolutely with the ADHD. I’m tempted to put a sign on all the shit I constructed this summer that says “the house that adderall built” or something like that, lol.
It also helps to have multiple projects going, as long as you keep it to a manageable number. Nothing like making progress on hobby project B to procrastinate on hobby project A because you aren’t feeling that one today.
Everytime my German teacher says something like “one day if you’re gonna be in Germany and say it as so and so…”, I always wonder: “should I tell her I don’t really care about pronunciation or stuff like that and am only learning this so I can better understand the memes that show up in my timeline?”
It’s been a little over a year and the secret is still up.
The way I’ve heard this put is that our potential (skills, will, interest, gumption, etc) has been financialized.
It’s to the point where you’ll just even be day dreaming about some fun idea, and a little subroutine in your head will kick off titled but how do I monetize this?
This is ofc in large part due to the fact that you need to earn a lot of money to survive comfortably, but even that is an artificial condition that we could collectively change if we wanted.
I’m convinced that this process of self and imposed financialization ultimately costs us more joy, wellbeing, peace, and even productivity, than if we simply identified and addressed needs democratically.
a little subroutine in your head will kick off titled but how do I monetize this?
Yep, that is exactly it.
I have finally been winning the battle against that subroutine, and I still stomp that shit into the ground any time it makes a peep.
I’ve given away some cool stuff to some excited people this summer!
A parallel to this issue that still irks the shit out of me is the “huh… smart!” reaction when somebody takes the most greedy path possible. It gets to the point where generosity is a character flaw because it makes you a sucker and not a winner.
it’s weird, i don’t think i’ve had this urge. i have an urge but i don’t know what it is.
Art is just doing something for the pride of it. A carpenter or electrician can be an artist. People express art in countless ways. I think it would be very unlikely you aren’t an artist in at least one aspect of your life.
god i wish
If given an opportunity, I think you would. Maybe not right away, but of you didn’t have to work, I think you’d build something instead of just playing video games or watching TV, because that gets old.
Some options:
- software dev - this is me, I want to build a P2P reddit alternative and video games
- 3d modeling
- landscaping
- cooking
- welding
All of that is art. Art is just building something for the sake of seeing it exist rather than to pay the bills. Chances are that if you could choose your work instead of whatever you’re doing now, it would include creative expression.
i don’t understand where people get this idea that they know me
I don’t know you specifically, but people I do know generally have something they’d like to create. I think those that don’t would if given enough of an opportunity (i.e. not a week or two off work, but several months).
I’ve never considered myself an artistic person, but many years ago I was laid off and had a few months of time to fill, and in a surprise to myself, I started making pixel art animations and absolutely loved it. It fulfilled some sort of latent creative need that I didn’t realize was there until I had the time.
I think many of us would be surprised at what parts of our personalities come out when not suppressed by the daily grind.
i spent the last six months doing nothing at work because there was nothing for me to do, and i’ve just been doing “code doodles”. snippets that don’t do anything. i don’t think it’s because i wanted to make them, i just wanted to look like i was doing something. my proof is that now that i’ve been laid off (because there was nothing for me to do), i don’t find myself wanting to do anything in particular, but wanting to do something. every single thing feels forced, but when i try to get my brain to actually tell me what it is i do want i just get nothing.
If you’re taking suggestions - I enjoy making things, quite often what I enjoy is looking at something someone else (or some company) made and figuring out how to do it myself/build the skills necessary to do it/improve on the original design.
i will always take the option to watch other people do things. whenever i try to do it myself it always turns to shit.
Sometimes finding the right thing, on a day that you have the right energy and focus, is the hard part. A lot of people face something similar when they enter retirement.
i’ve faced it since age 10. i’ve always wondered how people create.
Do you have ADHD by any chance? Because I do, and that sounds kinda familiar.
That constant urge to be creating something. Or more to the point; to have already created something, something that wasn’t the thing you have to work on for your wage.
I mostly manage to quieten that urge by doing a weekly radio show.
i would love to know. the official stance of public healthcare here is that “if you can function in society, evaluation of a diagnosis is not needed”. and getting it done through a private actor costs money that i can not spend right now.
It seems to me like being able to choose to be an artist when rent is due IS what being Privileged means. Yeah, a lot more people probably would choose to express themselves over being a wage slave.
I’m not even sure what this post is trying to convey. Is there a definition of Privilege that doesn’t include having opportunities that a lot of other people don’t have?
I don’t know if it’s art or just creation. Like, if I had infinite money I’d spend time on leatherworking and making little machines/programs. Both a form of creation.
Have I shown you my assorted lengths of wire?
Same.
Like…exactly the same. Weird.
Yup. I’d probably dabble in blacksmithing, gardening, or coding apps.
It is creation. Humans have a knack for creating things using the gifts given from nature, as long as said humans have their basic needs met.
Creation can easily be art as well though. A lot of creative endeavors require you to be artistic on some level. I don’t think the two things are as easily separable as people think.
I think even the manner in which you go about creating things could be the way you express yourself artistically in some cases.
Only thing I’ve been creating lately is chaos…
I have long thought that a UBI would generate a new renaissance.
In the early 90’s, myself and every single computing geek I knew thought the Internet would usher in a Renaissance of intellect.
It was humbling to be so sure and so wrong. While I hope the same as you do, I am not so sure of anything anymore.
You weren’t wrong across the board though. I know it’s hard to focus on the positives these days, and we are constantly bombarded with depressing and inane content, but we can’t lose sight of them.
It’s hard to overstate how much the internet has made scientific research and collaboration easier for instance. The sheer amount of research being done has exploded, and it’s far from being all slop. Publishers try their best to paywall the articles but they’re still available nonetheless.
And what about all the art that is shared online by people who would never, in a million years, have been able to show their creations to the world before the internet. Not to mention the people who don’t share it but can make it because of freely available information.
I know it’s not as idyllic as you probably foresaw it (yeah, understatement of the century, I know), but it did happen, even though unfortunately it also led to a gigantic pile of shit. Both can be true simultaneously.
Also Anna’s archive is what I always wanted. That and piracy sites mean that most of the movies, TV, and whatnot are easy to get noatter what
The problem is we don’t.live in a democracy
RIP Aaron Swartz. RIP Reddit.
Good point about science, eg mRNA Covid vaccine development. However because of social media emboldening cookers, the Western public is increasingly anti-science. Even the number of Flat-Earthers is on the increase.
Acrual law is online and yet delusional Sovereign Citizens make up their own law and have become deadly terrorists.
As for the arts I disagree even though I personally embraced the technology.
I was inspired by techno in the mid 90’s using daisy chained old Roland gear. Each person could afford one and together they were complete. It was punk ethos.
I then formed perhaps the first laptop electronic band in the world to take ot to the next level. Three of uswho already had computers banded together because each 80486 computer was not powerful enough on its own. The next generation of computers saw us splinter to go solo because we could.
Now I jam and record weekly with custom software over the Internet — me in Australia and other guy in Switzerland. But this space age workaround is out of necessity because locals in Sydney are unavailable. I would prefer to be in the same room for the vibe and have made a callout in local forums.
Respondents supposedly liked my music enough but nothing ever came from it once I revealed that there are no upcoming gigs and I am not interested in chasing gigs either. Youngsters seek fame (as always) while the older ones seek paying gigs to afford their rent. They don’t have time for creative collaboration for its own sake.
From a community standpoint, it was better pre-computer. Even night club DJ’s performed a different role as collectors and curators. Spotify has killed that. It is the enshittification of music.
In the early ’90s*
It would improve society in so many ways. The only people it wouldn’t benefit are the ruling class, and by harming the ruling class to benefit society, you benefit society. There are literally no downsides to it.
3 minutes of Brian Eno talking on this very topic and undermining the concept of the genius.
I so want a UBI. Time to help my community, make open source contributions in ways I deem meaningful and beneficial to society rather than driven by corporate profit, make art, and have as much time as I want with my family? Sign me up.
But we wouldn’t want to prove that people don’t need the fear of homelessness and starvation to be productive now would we?
Don’t wait for your country. How much do you want it? Are you willing to find all the other people who want it? Once enough people want it you can move into one place and pool parts of your income to create it.
Yes, some sort of commune is definitely not out of the question, on a personal level. That does not help the vast majority of people who stand to benefit from it (more so than me) though.
Grow it. If people benefit they will join.
That’s wait I want
The vast, vast majority of artists do it as a job to survive and not for fun though.
It can certainly be a hobby that is done for fun with no time constraints, where you can just make whatever you please, but it can also be stressful, soul-sucking necessity once money gets involved.
I would consider many of the construction trades a form of art, and thats certainly still a job. Art is more a way of doing something than a specific action in my opinion. You can also create art in a way thats not expressive, which would mean the person making it might not be an artist.
Can confirm. I’ve gone full-time gigging musician. Don’t get me wrong, I chose this path after exhausting all other options because it’s the only career I can stomach, but when you make your hobby your job, your hobby becomes your job.
I’ve managed to pay rent and bills, but I still got credit card debt from the beginning when I was really scraping by. Every month feels like I’m unemployed until I get saved by a big gig, but it is quite terrifying still.
I think what this alludes to is the reality that the time and resources to self-actualize are still largely the domain of the owner class.
And many to most still seem to just chase a bigger hoard rather than do that.
yeah, i’ve got a buddy who illustrates. about 350 a page for friends [edit: last i bought something a decade ago]. he can whip them out decent quality pretty fast, but it took him years of training to get to that skill.
Nope. 1
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- I’ve met artists.
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I used to be the kind of optimist that would largely agree with this post. But in the past decade I’ve seen the truth. Most people are profoundly uncurious and uncreative, even when encouraged to be.
