Thieves of Eyes & Legs - Arts Needs, opposed to Timelines schemes

Of all the maddeningly frustrating ways in which the crypto art scene tears itself apart, the incessant rush of it all is perhaps the most irritating. It permeates all of us, reinforced through a multitude of ways; from the timeline drama, to the outside worlds memetics.

It is no longer enough to have ones finger on the pulse, now you need to have that blood under a microscope, checking each cell everyday and posting your findings quickly before it oxidises and the content impact is lost.

We are chained to algorithmic treadmills, forced not only to run at another's pace, but to run on their terrain, looking at another's scenery the whole time. Nevermind the fact that you run better on grass, that you prefer podcasts to TV when jogging, it doesn't matter that you didn't even come to the gym to run. The only way to be successful here is to ingratiate and impress the people around you with your recollection of the screen, to affirm their views, don't run faster than them, make sure you never stumble and certainly don't use any of the other equipment in the gym.

It is as ridiculous and unproductive in reality as it is in metaphor. Yes some artists do choose this pace and methodology, but they are the exception to the rule. By and large forcing every artist to be a rapid fire focal point reflector for memes, ephemeral content and niche cultural commentary, is a terribly flawed way in which to shape an art space.

The fact hat Michelangelo was only 29 years old when he completed "David" is a fact much loved by the "Hustle Mindset" types- who incidentally largely feed in to and compound the issue we're talking about - The part of that story they always leave out though, is that it took Michelangelo 3 years to complete "David". What's more Michelangelo only made around 18 sculptures in his life, in fact we think that overall he completed 200 works of art in his life time (this includes lost works but not unfinished commissions, though of course being sure of that number is difficult).

Was there any less happening in his time worthy of comment? The streets and palazzo of Florence were just as chocked full of humanities idiosyncrasy's as ours, those palace courtyards and backrooms teemed with power plays and politicking that make our space look practically pedestrian by comparison. Undoubtedly he could have found a new fashion or faux comment to make each day in his works if he wished. Employing a factory worth of makers was not beyond him and his means, if he'd aimed to churn out 10,000 plaster casts "Each uniquely hand finished by the artist" he could have.

Is he a worse artist because he didn't?

What about a more modern artist? Rothko made 3400 works that he considered finished, 836 of which were the canvas paintings he is widely known for. At roughly 85 works a year that's a good pace, certainly faster than i put out work (for those wondering, I've put out around 150 pieces since joining the space 4-5 years ago). But where were the pop culture comments, why didn't he use the pantone trending colour of the year, surely he must have looked around seen Warhol and realised where art trends were heading, why didn't he collab and capitalise? Clearly he wasn't very market savvy, doesn't have "founder energy" that's for sure. Plus even throughout a lifetime, he couldn't even make a single 10K collection worth of art, never gonna make it with that level of distribution.

Alright well as we mentioned him, what about the Pop Art peoples champ, what about Warhol? Surely he is the spanner tossed in to the gears of this article grinding it all to a halt, irrefutable proof that literally every artist should make as much work as possible as fast as possible, aiming to capture so many individual Zeitgeists' as to make the Ghostbusters Jealous. Surely Warhols massive production rate wasn't meant in part as commentary on anything, surely his focus on so much of homogenised commercialised culture was just a smart marketing move all artists should follow, and not his individual artistic response to the world around him...

You see that's just it, he had a reason for doing those things. No one is saying people cant produce 45,000 works of art in their lifetime like Warhol, no one is saying you cant make comment on the small and large news stories and cultural moments that abound each day. But you cannot turn all art in to that, you cannot create without reason. It doesn't work from a human creative level, and the end artwork wont work as art, just as a visual product, an aesthetic template in to which memes and media are pressed with not true thought as to how that aesthetic can add comment or better communicate its content.

Expecting art to fit itself to this treadmill, to only reflect on what you show it and to do so at a sprint, will tear the innards out of the art and culture of a space. It homogenises and ostracizes. holding no space for the innovation and diversity of perspective which is necessary for true culture to survive and flourish, whilst burning out those who do participate until they leave or become naught more than performative husks. If you want animatronic artists then keep putting coins in those treadmills, but i'd rather run outside.