1.4_ A brief on the nature of subjectivity

24April 2007


1.4  A brief on the nature of subjectivity
Freedom of expression, to hold any opinion, and act on those opinions, is an invaluable liberty for an artist.  The idea of being an artist became an American pop fashion, like the clothing style an individual chooses to wear.  It is not a mystery as to how this happened.  Subjectivity without discipline fueled within a materialistic mass marketed society of vanity, naturally and quietly created this era.  The fifth intellectual dark-age; where our current generation are all aspiring artists, and all of these emerging somethings keep trying and keep failing to have their big moment.  They were showed fame, and it was kept from them, creating this untalented generation of dreamers.  Do not take my words for that of a fool.  There are countless known and unknown master artists in every corner of the States; for every master there are thousands of fools living lies.

Minneapolis is the city of the arts.  Living here, it seems as if everyone is an emerging something, where by removing the validity of the term emerging as a result of its commonality.  We live in the era of the American artist, the creative class, a group of dreamers in perpetual poverty.  As a result of this generation, subjectivity, diversity, and individuality has become the norm.  Being different, unique, and standing out, has become more important than the honesty in knowing ones’ self and what one is capable of.  For the artist all of this just happens and s/he becomes himself/herself with ease.  For the pretender, the mask they adorn creates a similar emotional crisis just as that of schizophrenia.  In order to understand this disease of individuality driven materialism we live with, we must first understand free will, and with that we start with the idea, causes, needs, inaction, and action of the subjectivity of making decisions.

Subjectivity is the unjustified personal opinions commonly based on perspective, particularly feelings, beliefs, and desires in direct conflict of proofs and justified belief.  Subjectivity addresses a unique view of experiencing reality available to individuals where the causes of experience are objective and without ownership, but the perspective of these experiences are subjective and commonly owned, i.e. my feelings about my events are my idea and my identity.

Subjectivity in conjunction with the arts is a practical necessity.  Subjectivity is essential to the world of art, albeit, the ideas of those that value individualism without a sense of being or a personally defined idea of what one is truly capable of fall prey to the modern materialistic cycle of individualism.  Thereby forgetting the ideas of self-cultivation, that at first inspired their subjective world view, we are thereby ceasing to know truth in their personal behavior; and with it the momentary ability to judge and know right from wrong.  There is no true subjective but through culture, tradition, and generation.  The ideas of good and bad are presented for us.  The enemies of the subjective can not understand the desire to be different, is not to be different.

The artist that is simply not honest with one’s being uses the idea of subjective to mask their inadequacies in originality and talent.  That artist creating works of art to be recognized as an individual of importance by their work, as a result they invent an icon of themselves as a character style, each trying to out-do the other artist pop renditions of the human melodrama.  This individual invents their identity, continually recreating themselves to become what they wish to be, regardless of past and present truth.  This is the result of any subjective competitive media.  As the competitive nature of the arts use their identifying mark and projected sense of being, becomes anarchy at first, and then a universal that the individual believes all must adhere to.   

This critique is without an honest look at these shared opinions.  As a result of this indecisive subjectivity this artist becomes the intellectual opinion on their current state as an ism or school of art simply by an established majority.  Without an isolated voice, this generation of artists has thereby become speechless, developing into art for the sake of art- without purpose outside of a waning child’s ego or adults neurosis.  Hence, todays subjective established materialistic artistic philosophies granted this generations artist’s identities.  It can be likened to the death of cubism as Picasso’s innovations were copied by hundreds of artists and are still mimicked today as people intellectually catch up to Picasso. 

There are pioneers within this generation of artists, and like Picasso, multitudes of the unimaginative follow their wake mimicking only the basic level of rendered aesthetic.  This artist is full of egotistical fantasy and momentary self discovery, and poisons himself and the arts with every stone wheel they claim to invent. The death of expressionism is a direct result of the copy cat, which for some reason people continue to figure out for the first time and keep regurgitating its emotional fever on the canvas over and over again.  
Each generation has its voice as that voice can be considered a purely subjective viewpoint where the previous generation can not relate to the new.  Conclusively, I can state that only the honesty of the artist’s works truly maters.  For if the artist creates works that are true to their thoughts, honest with their own tastes and internal dialogue, and although a subjective voice, it is their own to identify with.