| Title | : | The Future of Serious Art |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published November 12, 2020 |
In The Future of Serious Art, Bidisha uses her personal journey through novels, TV and film to mirror the seismic changes that have occurred in culture and its industries in recent years.
The digital revolution has brought all of TV, cinema and music into the palms of our hands. It’s easier than ever to bring stories to life, but what happens when artistic work is rebranded as 'content creation'? Where does this leave literary novelists and arthouse filmmakers? What about those auteur-directors who make mainstream but thoughtful films for the big screen?
As a storyteller herself, and a woman of colour who isn't a millennial, Bidisha asks who is taken seriously as an artist, what is taken seriously as art now and how that might change over the next century.
This brief but mighty book is one of five that comprise the first set of FUTURES essays. Each standalone book presents the author's original vision of a singular aspect of the future which inspires in them hope or reticence, optimism or fear. Read individually, these essays will inform, entertain and challenge. Together, they form a picture of what might lie ahead, and ask the reader to imagine how we might make the transition from here to there, from now to then.
The Future of Serious Art Reviews
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This is the first I’ve read of a series of five essays in the FUTURES series published by Tortoise Media in 2020. The series take inspiration from books published in the 1920s which attempted to give a broad and constructive view of the future in different spheres of life, with the aim of generating new ideas and stimulating thought and discussion.
This essay, by Bidisha, considers the future of ‘serious art’ (which isn’t particularly clearly defined). It is a clear and passionate argument about the importance of art. Bidisha reflects on the ‘Cool Britannia’ era of Labour government, and contrasts this with the approach to the arts during austerity and all that has followed.
I enjoyed this mostly for the opportunity of reading an artist’s take on the future, which I suppose is the point of the book!
Particular highlights:
“In the future, there will be a fight to reclaim contemplation. Without contemplation it is impossible to create serious art and impossible to consider serious art. Contemplation is about creating mental and physical space, in peace but not necessarily in silence. It is this which we have lost from the outer world and from our inner selves. We’ve lost touch with ourselves, with our thoughts, with our bodies and with nature. We’ve lost contact with the flux of time and with our own instincts.”
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“Serious artists have always bemoaned the philistinism of the masses. That is a constant. It certainly feels that we live in a far more self-righteously ignorant, defiantly troglodyte, insular, uninterested and thuggish culture than before—but that’s just a feeling. All the people currently staring at their phones weren’t studying sheet music before the digital revolution. One could argue that globalisation and digitisation have opened up vast archives and endless resources for people looking for serious art.”
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“Governments will realise that what makes each of their respective countries unique is the talent of its residents, their originality, their creativity and their ability to make new things that thrill us and make us think.” -
Excellent essay on the state of serious art in Britain in 2020’s. Now I would be interested in reading a similar essay by a writer 10 to 15 years younger for another perspective.
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This extended essay on the state of Art in 2020 - looking forward into future decades - is wonderfully written.
