The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Six - Art is a powerful communication channel
October 23, 2007
The most important thing in this sixth article explaining the points of the Code is the truth - only, in a much different way than the subject of truth was approached in the last article. The only words with true power are those with true meaning, and any form of power that is based on lies and deception is not real and lasting. Those who run the communication channels of the world cannot create the entertainment that is broadcast on them; they come to us, and artists must protect these channels with the power of truth. This is so important to the direction of culture and civilization that if you are an artist, you need to read the following article, immediately. Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
When we looked at the last point of the Code of a Creative Artist we looked at the idea of communicating truth in a work of art & entertainment. In this the sixth point we are considering how such truths are actually going to reach the public. For the last forty odd years the freedom of those channels has been steadily eroded by corporate acquisitions, otherwise known as the greed and lust for power and control. This next point of the Code of a Creative Artist looks at exactly this problem.
Art is a powerful communication channel to the Public, protect those communication lines and decry their abuse.
The reality is we probably cannot protect them. The broadcast channels are leased from the public through government organizations such as, in America, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Companies who want to get into the broadcast business purchase broadcast licenses and these are paid on an annual basis. The point is the channels are leased from the public. The frequencies are sources of revenue for government–basically the spectrum is divided up and sold off to those who can afford to pay the annual fee. In America, corporations have increasingly sought massive control over broadcast channels because the revenue to be made as a result of advertising is huge. But here’s the thing that most people miss when it comes to broadcast channels, in fact, we’re pretty much encouraged to miss these obvious simplicities:
1. People do not turn on radio or television to listen to or watch advertisements — they want music and/or information about what’s happening in their world.
2. People do not read newspapers to be exposed to advertisements — they want news.
Advertising works on commercial radio and television because creative individuals make screenplays, write songs, create humor, and generally seek to give us a chance to enjoy life after work, creating opportunities for human interaction and communication that forges relationships and creates the sort of experiences that make life on earth, or anywhere, worth living.
If the channels only conveyed advertisements, nobody would listen or watch. Period. That’s an important thing to remember and take to heart. The power then, is in the hands of those who own the copyrights to those works. This should not be overlooked, the art & entertainment industry is a rights-based industry; without copyrights it can’t work. This is why the copyright wars that corporations have been waging since the advent of the internet have become so prevalent. Before the internet came on the scene as a means of mass communication between individuals and the rest of the world, nobody heard much about intellectual property and most people didn’t know anything about it, and that little not well at all; just enough to misinform and cause problems, really. The industry of mass media was and still is, a bottleneck, attached to a bottle.
The art & entertainment industry is really supposed to provide a service to creator and public. It is supposed to provide a channel of communication for those who create works of art & entertainment to reach the public, and it is supposed to deliver those messages to the public. Communication channel access then, is important. But when channel access is limited, then it becomes harder to have free articulation–the freedom of expression that is necessary to the health and well-being of a civilized free society. Channel control, when channels are limited, is necessary–there is only so much channel to go around. But channel control results in the power to deny, and all it takes then is someone with an agenda to control the channel and the next thing you know, the free flow of information is now confined and defined and some are going to miss out. This has consequences for democracy. It also has consequences for art & entertainment and the ability of Creative Artists to bring a message to the public that the public needs to hear. What sort of message? The sort of message that is important to freedom and the advance of civilization.
Allforart limits channel access in some respects. We have to, our resources at this time are limited, though we do so much with so little you would be astonished, and if you aren’t then you’re not seeing enough of what we do…yet. But once we have determined the nature of the artist we are dealing with, there is nothing we will not do to help that artist become a Creative Artist. If it is within our power to do something, we will do it. Our power is in communicating.
Just think about that single line for a moment.
Our power is in communicating.
Communicating what? Yes, that is the next question. Communicating what? Communicating that which the people actually do want to hear and believe me, a focus group doesn’t know. But people do. I’ll explain this more in the marketing section. Focus groups don’t work when it comes to art & entertainment.
What is abuse of a communication channel or line? A channel of communication is abused when it does not deliver upon a reasonable expectation that those at the other end of a channel have reason to believe will be delivered. If it’s an entertainment channel you expect to be entertained, nor harassed, harangued or otherwise abused. If it’s an information channel you expect to be offered information you can use to better manage your life on the topics of interest. If it’s a channel claiming principle then it damned well better explain and reason that principle through so you get it, and go away saying to yourself…”Damn, I know this is right!”
How do you protect a communication channel or line? How do you decry it’s abuse? With communication, of course. Yes, I know it’s apparently a flippant answer, but really, if you stop to think, there isn’t another. And it’s the “of course” that makes it flippant, even mildly cheeky.
I know people who decry the quality of television a lot. But they still watch it. It shocks me. I watch television a lot. Why? Because I need to know what crap is being taught to the public, so I can figure out what to create to undo that rubbish and help them kick it out of their heads by creating something that counters those messages. In part, the Free Articulator is about exactly that.
Many news channels today are not news channels at all. They specialize in the trivialization of important events, this is known as morselization, which means to turn something substantial into something tiny and insignificant. There is little to no in-depth coverage or critical analysis because it doesn’t suit the bottom line of their corporate owners to spend what could be profit investigating, verifying and analyzing events in order to provide the public with informative and useful information that helps the public make a decision.
The last thing modern news channels want is the public knowing all the facts, for example, about corporate corruption and interference in political affairs that improve bottom line profits. So morselization (the transformation of events into little more than a few seconds of media time, or column inches–a morsel is a small quanity of anything) is the name of the day. Most Western News Channels are being whittled away at in the usual time-honored traditional way that leads to sweeping changes by scandal, which undermines tradition and leads people to question the espousing of, or declaration of values; which then further undermines the civilizing power of values and principles; and we wonder why principles and values no longer have anthying but passing meaning as buzz words? Tsk. Tsk.
The BBC has undergone just such a scandal regarding its contests and competitions. A few of those and the credibility of an otherwise valuable national and international resource is completely undermined in the perception of the public, and that then makes such an entity ripe for takeover and new management. You can bet a predatory megalomaniac like Murdoch smiles with glee when he hears of such things. Hell, he is probably orchestrating it, and if he isn’t he probably wishes he was. What Murdoch has done to media is murder it, render it useless as a tool of democracy, as the Fourth Estate was meant to be. He’s not the only one of course.
This is not just my opinion. I’ve listened to professional journalists lecture and they say the same sort of thing about the companies and state of journalism at this time, but they find themselves incapable of doing anything about it, because the channels are controlled. However, there are a few here and there who are doing something about media. People like Michael Moore, who surely does a better job of raising hell than anybody. His most recent advance into the media maelstrom–promoting his movie Sicko–has made the giant CNN back down and apologize for their lack of journalistic integrity. They are not alone in this lack. Robert Fiske, and Danny Schechter are also journalists and communicators who can teach us a thing or two about speaking truth to power. Truth has power.
Truth has power because it is truth. When one investigates something claimed as truth, one finds that it is real, that it did happen the way described and not another. That observation creates power, and truth is incredibly powerful. True power is truthful then. If truth spoken to power did not work, then that power would wither, and in fact, that is what happens when truth is spoken to anything that presents itself as a power.
Speaking truth to power then is a test of that power’s state, and the response of that power defines it. It’s a bit like me saying to George W. Bush, “You are not an American, in fact you are un-American.” But I know this, whatever else he may be he is a product of his culture, and his culture is what has made him who he is. Therefore it is America and Americans who must answer up to the rest of the world about the state into which they have brought their nation and the world at this time.
Up until I was 45 I wanted to become an American, for they seemed to me to embody all that was good and noble and human in the world. But then I saw and experienced what America really is, and then I no longer wanted to be an American. Now I have discovered more about that truth than I ever cared to know, the truth of American character as it is and has been over the last 15 years destroyed the ideals America had taught me through its cultural communications. Most of which, I now understand, are the most horrendous lies, designed and intended to cover some of the most brutal, savage and uncivilized behaviour the human race or mankind has ever engaged upon.
Truth can be brutal. But truth is also liberating, and even the most brutal of truths, skilfully communicated, can enlighten the load of living under lies. However, the picture that can be drawn with a few facts, can be distorted and manipulated, and twisted into a crusty fragile pretzel. It’s the fragility one then needs to focus upon. That and documentation that will stand up in courts of evidence. It’s a painful thing to have to document such things as truth, but in a world that is not given to truth, and which so frequently gets it wrong resulting in the persecution of innocents, one learns what one must do.
This particular principle of the code of a Creative Artist says why this point is important in the first few words; “Art is a powerful communication” - I’ll let Susan Sontag tell you why:
“A work of art encountered is an experience, not a statement or an answer to a question. Art is not about something; it is something. A work of art exists in the world, not just as text or a commentary on the world. A work of art makes us comprehend something singular.”
Think about what it means to create something singular, that makes us comprehend, for a true work of art creates understanding and that means it does not obscure or hide or destroy. Rather it reveals, it expands, it deepens and enriches our understanding of ourselves and our world, and in this it surpasses almost all human endeavor. Now think about not being able to deliver communications that are art to the world so they can do this. Contemplate that for a few moments.
The feeling you get from considering that idea…that is why you have to protect and decry the abuse of such communication lines.
In this world in which we live there is an idea that we are the most amazing communicators because we have such amazing technology to communicate, and because we have so many ways to communicate, so many channels and lines to use. But the truth is that we are poor communicators and that much of what we call art, is not art at all. It is weak, powerless pretensions to the throne and status of art, and this is part of the problem the Free Articulator and Allforart address. If we are to turn our civilization around then we need to get a new grasp on what it means to craft a quality communication, and the quality is all in the effect it creates. Protecting a communication line or channel is also about keeping that communication line free of crap. Crap art closes the mind, shuts it down, puts it to sleep, is tiresome, and lacks meaning or substance. It has, in short, nothing to say that will increase your understanding of anything.
The closest I ever came to a workable relationship and family of my own was when I stood in a doorway and admired a painting that had captured the warmth and hope and love of family. I understood family in that moment and I was stunned and hungry for it. What I later realized is that it was only part of a family, that the man was left out and not a part of it at all. But the feeling was there and is still there, will always be there. It was the feeling that was important to my understanding and I am both grateful and the richer for it.
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