Watch your tone - Arts intent V its impact.

No one can truly know how that nebulous group we call “the audience” will respond to an artwork. And many would say that you shouldn’t create as dictated to by that theorised response.

Now whilst I mostly agree that your creations form and the ideas you platform should be removed from what “the people” want in a saleable sense. It is also fair to say that if you have a clear intent in mind for an artwork, that you to some degree must consider the viewer, lest you try and say one thing and end up saying another.

As for how you strike that balance between imparting your intent, and remaining authentic to it, there really isn’t a fixed answer here. In fact for some the intent may well be a blank space waiting to be filled by the varied impact amongst the audience, with differing life experiences informing different response.

The intent may be broad, so long as the impact falls somewhere near by, it’s achieved its goal. The intent may be categorised more by what it clearly isn’t as opposed to what it is, or it may be highly specific, targeted.

Thinking about the way a viewer interacts with and receives your work doesn’t need to be some marketing man’s game of pie charts and surveys. In fact we all think of the audiences perspective from an instinctual sense when we form a pieces composition, even if that audience is just one so broadly defined as by having sight.

Whatever it is you wish to create the key is to be aware of what you are trying to say, whilst having some mind as to who you’re talking to. Try to observe the impact different tones have on different people and cultures, how certain visual language may cause your message to be rejected out of hand before it’s truly been heard.

As an artist you are simultaneously inventor, explorer, and translator. Whilst it is not on you to dance to the latest populist tune, if your intent is to parody it you had best know the song.