Let me just say this from the start. In the first half, it’s going to sound like I’m attacking.. pretty much every illustrator I know (and that's also what I thought it was at first), but as you go along, you'll find that it isn't that simple. Please, I beg.. hear me out... Grab some tea. Get comfy. Maybe put on a little music. Maybe read it in different sittings. This is a long one, I have NEVER been this scared to release a piece of writing, but it’s been a long time coming.
Pastel colours. Glitch effects, black and white and other digital filters made to resemble traditional. Japanese Text. The female form.. more specifically, the face. Depression. Some line from a film.. probably about loneliness or something. S P A C E D C A P S. Slowed + reverb.. and other edits.
The aesthetic movement’s been around for a while, now. It’s a difficult thing to explain for those not already versed with it. The term, aesthetics, traditionally, refers to the philosophical study of art and beauty. How art works, what it even is and all that stuff is the study of aesthetics. At some point, though, people started using the word ‘aesthetic’ as an adjective. “That room is aesthetic.” “Those colours are so aesthetic.” Its use in that regard is something that’s grown on the internet, especially on the more tumblr, Instagram, Pintrest side of it. Now, what people will refer to as ‘aesthetics’ are whole disciplines and subcultures in art and fashion. Even whole lifestyles have arisen to fit in to certain ‘aesthetics.’ It’s one of those distinctly young, Millennial/ Gen Z, E-girl type deals. I have a rather complicated relationship with the whole thing. At first, I actually really dug the whole aesthetic thing (in art, at least) and still do like certain aspects of the vibe. I like pretty things, and that’s exactly what the whole aesthetic thing is all about. However, as I’ve grown artistically, I’ve come to realize that it’s this exact quality of the aesthetics movement that is also its biggest problem. In fact, it is this very quality that reflects just about all my problems with the current state of art.. and you could take it further and apply it to internet culture in general. Before you burn my house and poop on my lawn, let me explain.
Aesthetics vs a e s t h e t i c s
Alright.. where do I even begin with this? Art. What is it? People’ve been asking that question for centuries and will probably continue asking it as long as it exists. Why is it made? What makes art ‘good’ or ‘bad?’ Can art be ‘good’ or ‘bad?’ Does art have rules/should art have rules? Do ethics apply to art? What is beauty? This is the traditional meaning of aesthetics. It’s these questions. For centuries upon centuries, thinkers have been asking these questions in essays and artists have been asking these questions in their work. Each artist will draw different conclusions which are then challenged and built upon by others. Artists are constantly taking influence, recontextualizing, adding, subtracting, exploring the vastness of art all while trying to make sense of the world and themselves through their art. If you ask me, to create art is to dig down within yourself and pull out some truth that seems more real than reality, itself, and bring this truth out into the material world to be received, felt and experienced by others. This truth will then sink into others, revealing some truth within them. These conversations are translated through various forms and mediums carefully created to evoke that truth that the artist wants to express. Each word is carefully chosen, each strum, each line, each step is carefully considered (or carefully not considered) to achieve this authenticity that can only be achieved through art. I know describing it that way may make it sound like every work of art has to be all deep and dark, but that’s just not the case. It just has to be true... or at least honest. The world as the artist sees it is what is conveyed in whatever form that takes. Everything that pleases them, disturbs them and haunts them is what an artist will convey if they are telling the truth. I think that right there is where the beauty lies. Anything can be beautiful if you look at it long enough. I do not believe that art has any real rules.. none but that art should be honest.
At this point, that is the only rule I have for myself as an artist, and it’s also the one common factor I can see in every great work of art. Art must be honest. Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter. An artist cannot lie. Not in their work. Let me tell you something. Creating art is a tremendously embarrassing thing, and I’ve heard it said that you know you’re creating good art if you don’t want certain people you know to see it. Not calling myself a great artist or anything, but as much as it grieves me, I’m VERY grateful that the people I know don’t tend to understand my work. When you’re an artist (and you’re being honest) it’s an inevitability that your entire soul is going to be laid out there for all to see.. if they know where to look (or can relate). A personal example is how heavily I understand Charlie Kaufman’s work. The man seems to have all the same insecurities as me and frankly, I feel both catharsis and embarrassment watching his stuff. Watching his stuff feels like walking through my neighbourhood without pants. I feel exposed. Similarly, for the work of Edward Hopper, his paintings seem to capture something deeper. I feel like I’m in the paintings and it’s embarrassing. If you look at any (honest) artist’s body of work, it’s all there. Sometimes I don’t know whether I’m looking at (or creating) a great work of art or a very public mental breakdown. Maybe it’s both.. maybe it’s all the same. This is why those of us who care more about art are generally more opposed to stuff that feels.. artificial. You know.. corporate stuff.. formulaic stuff.. remakes and cash-grabs. Stuff that feels manufactured, like it was made by a machine.. a company. That whole authenticity factor tends to feel.. absent. Things made this.. not people. This isn’t art. This is content. This is product. This isn’t real. This isn’t the truth. This isn’t honest. Maybe it started out from some place of truth, but it’s mutated into something else, entirely. Now, let’s talk about the whole modern ‘aesthetics culture’.
The whole aesthetic thing just has.. SO many problems that get worse the more you think about them, but I don’t necessarily want to dog on it as much as I probably could. This is partially because, as I said before, I get it. I get the appeal to a certain extent, I’ve even implemented some aspects of the style into my own illustrations. I’m not about to (completely) attack people for making things they think are pretty. It’s also because the larger culture is more of one of those teenage girly stuff that’s just a bit too far out of my demographic. I feel like I’m clowning on a culture that’s just not meant for me. I felt VERY strange doing some of the research for this. As much as I like pretty things, it does get a bit much for me. Also, by proceeding, I’m probably officially cutting ties with that larger part of the online art community, but I do think this stuff has to be said. I’ll take what I get (plus I already made a series of satirical drawings that said all this already.. that people didn’t seem to get so let’s go!)
As I mentioned before, defining aesthetic culture is not a very simple thing to do, especially if you’re not someone already versed with internet culture. Aesthetic culture branches off into fashion, music, décor, illustration, photography and pretty much every other form of expressionism. There is also the whole lifestyle aspect of it. To fit in with an aesthetic, there are certain tropes, certain practices, certain habits and certain styles you must follow. There are different aesthetics, like genres, which serve as subcultures with their own formulas and anatomy. To fit in with an aesthetic, you must mold your identity to suit the tropes. Buy certain clothes, use certain colours, speak a certain way, respond to situations a certain way.. all that stuff. You know.. strip every sense of individuality to become a part of this mass. I.. if you read my thing about culture you probably know how much this kind of thing hurts my head. Why would you want to become a cliché? This isn’t a new thing, though. I observed that (I’m sorry in advance for generalizing, I know there are always exceptions and nuances, but) more females have a tendency to group themselves (but then again, guys have the whole alpha beta thing so idk). I heard that females are biologically wired to be more social, so I figure that might have something to do with it. Whether it’s star signs or musician fandoms or (and I’m kind of in this too, but) MBTI personality types, they do seem to really love grouping each other and being grouped. As much as this makes me want to vomit, I do get the appeal. Like I said, the personality type thing does fascinate me, because besides the fact that it’s (mostly) based on actual psychology, my type happens to be one of the rarer ones. Up until I found the online community of people with my type, I was sure I had more than a couple screws loose, as I don’t exactly know anyone else like me. I cannot begin to tell you how comforting it was to see that there are others who think and act the way I do. Seeing the memes and videos made me feel ‘normal’ (even though normal doesn’t exist). I do believe that that feeling is precisely why all these subcultures of aesthetics exist, but I also know that the MBTI personality test is not 100% concrete and my personality is bound to change and develop as I get older. Not only that, but I can deliberately improve on myself. Getting too wrapped up in these communities and labels can make you even convince yourself that you are a set of tropes and forget that you are, in actuality, a nuanced person with passions and contradictions and the potential for growth. When you put yourself in a box, you can and probably will stop yourself from experiencing that growth. That’s the problem with aesthetics as a lifestyle. Now let’s take all that and translate it into the effect on that thing we use to express our individuality, shall we?
Take everything I just said about stopping your growth and reducing yourself to a series of preestablished tropes and apply it to that mysterious thing we have that is used to express our individuality and personal truths. It’s that nostalgia-driven, drug-induced, anime-inspired, low fidelity, slowed + reverb, decolourized Simpsons gif.. or maybe it has purple or magenta filter. For photography you just gotta decolourize, maybe purplize, add a glitch effect or some artificial film grain to simulate that physicality that used to connect us to art, maybe obscure the face. There ya go! For illustrations, you can do the exact same thing. Remember those pinks and purples, also girls, lots of girls, guys love girls, girls love girls, everyone loves girls (I wonder why that is.. couldn’t be because the artists in the past who actually sought to make things beautiful in the past where all men who aestheticized the female form therefore manipulating the general public to view them in that light therefore making the illustrators of today (who seem to be mostly female) just buy into it because it’s already a e s t h e t i c). Anime girls, especially (because you know that’s why most people become illustrators, nowadays). Bonus points if you slap some horns on her, people love that edgy crap. As for the backgrounds.. completely optional, slap a solid colour on there, maybe some Japanese-looking neighbourhood if you feel fresh. Speaking of Japan, you can finish off your picture with literally any Japanese text. Doesn’t matter what it says. Katakana or Kanji, preferably.. most of these kids will recognize hiragana after they tried 1-2 lessons on Duolingo and know you’re full of it. And you know what? I dig this stuff. As much as I’m clowning on it, I some of it’s cool. I do some of this stuff, myself (where I see fit). But. It. Is. SHALLOW. When it’s just done for the sake of following a certain aesthetic.
Following all these tropes will likely build something that may be pretty but also may be empty. It’s a formula. While there will always be exceptions, the genre as a whole lacks any kind of substance. It is built from imitations of imitations of imitations. A lot of this stuff boils down to “I made an aesthetic thing to be aesthetic.” These things may be pretty, sure, but only on the most superficial possible level. You slow down a song and now, it’s deeper (I eat that stuff up, though). You draw your anime girls with faces devoid of any kind of emotion, except for maybe the most artificially sad one. You see, the issue I take with this stuff isn’t the works, themselves (let me tell you one more time, I actually really like the styles of a lot of this stuff). What irks me, though is this LARGE movement as a whole. The big picture. What does this shift from ‘people finding beauty through creation’ to ‘people recreating pretty things to fit a set mold’ say about the current state of art as a whole? Why has this movement emerged? What started it? Who started it?
Let’s take a look upstairs, shall we?
-incoming inevitable display of cinephilia.. I'm sorry-
Martin Scorsese (or as I like to call him, Eyebrow-sensei), legendary filmmaker, made a comment back in 2019 saying that the superhero movies “aren’t cinema.” This sparked much discussion in the film community about what counts and doesn’t count as cinema (or at least, cinema as Scorsese sees it) and is still being discussed today, as of writing. Also, more recently, he expressed similar sentiments that I think add more context to where he’s coming from in an essay about Federico Fellini, called 'Il Maestro.' This time, he criticized streaming platforms for the way they manage films. The big comment that stood out to most of us is that they are systematically devaluing cinema, treating it as mere content. Eyebrow-sensei’s remarks suggest that the way they treat cinema makes it that a film is in the same category as a cat video or Instagram post. Those who consume are called users rather than audience members. Streaming platforms pump out ‘content’ to ‘satisfy’ us. Entertain us for a minute or just play in the background while we mindlessly scroll through our socials or make out.. also mindlessly. They whet our appetites with words like ‘latest’ and ‘trending’ and of course, ‘recommended for you.’ ‘EAT, YOU FILTHY CUSTOMERS, EAT!! PAY US, FIRST, THOUGH!’ He laments the lack of curation, the lack of care that these businesses and algorithms have towards the artform that he fell in love with and helped legitimize long ago. What he and other artists of his time fought to prove as not just cheap entertainment but a valid artform is now being systematically stripped right back down to cheap entertainment: content. You can call them old fashioned and elitist all you want, but you’re dealing with THEIR world. Their baby. People always take it that he’s saying the movies are just BAD but that’s simply not the case. It’s not that the works, themselves, are bad or that ANY art is better or worse than another. It’s that those in charge simply don’t care. They only have one thing in mind, and that is to make money. Thing is, there are definitely certain types of things that make more money than others. Do you see where I’m going with this?
See, now I’m going to get all personal and whiny, but I’m writing this essay and have no better point of reference for this next part.
Art isn’t something taken very seriously where I come from. Sure, if I’m drawing a thing somewhere, I’ll get the ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s and ‘is that Goku’s, but in terms of actual opportunities for artists to grow or start their careers, the options are limited and obscure. Social media was always/ still is the best option. I started an art page on the gram and a few other places, but the gram was always the main one. It was all fine and dandy for the first couple years. I had a relatively organic, gradual growth, but then the darnedest thing happened. I started to mature both personally and artistically. While I initially did mostly fan-art and clearly manga-inspired stuff, I started getting more experimental and trying to really understand that ‘truth’ I mentioned, earlier. So, what happened was that the more and more I started to care about what I made, the less and less traction I got. My follow count kinda.. stopped. My average amount of likes.. cut in half. And I’m confused this whole time because I’m thinking “.. but my stuff’s literally getting better.. What’s going one?! Am I losing my MIND?!” Now, I know how the algorithm works, and I’m doing just about everything wrong. The trouble is, though, if I was to go with all the things that the algorithm wants, I know it would mean sacrificing my artistic growth. I’d have to start lying. I know how this works, because I’ve seen people shoot up around me. I know what they do, I see how it’s being rewarded. After realizing this, I got the maddest idea earlier this year (2021) to start satirizing the art community and ironically, I got the first real bump of growth I’d seen in years. I had to stop, though. Because. It was just getting way too depressing. It’s like.. I’m making fun of these people to their faces and they didn’t even get it. It also didn’t help that I alternated between satire and genuine drawings.. and while I’d gain followers with each satire, I’d lose them with each genuine picture. What this was saying to me was, “We don’t want you here. You aren’t playing the game. You don’t fit in. Stop it.” See, what this did was make me, not so much doubt my abilities or style (I’m not changing for no one), but make me, for the first time in my life, really question whether it’s really worth it to create, at all. I’m literally just here to express myself and tell the world some things I’ve been thinking about. What the algorithm was seemingly telling me was that this was against the rules. “The art world is no place for such things. Not anymore.” I know, now, that it’s not that simple, but this really hurt at the time. Also, I’d like it to be known that this isn’t just a “whoa is me” conversation, though it may sound like it. Since then, I’ve found many other more underground artists that really have stuff going on, though you probably wouldn’t be able to tell from their follow count. The really upsetting thing is that the people who the system is rewarding aren’t even always necessarily.. very good. Technically. Or even in artistic maturity. I’d say the vast majority of those that the algorithm really rewards (who aren’t already legitimate) are still artistically immature, in fact the algorithm REWARDS that immaturity. There are people out there who are really REALLY good, technically, but aren’t growing artistically because they only stick to one thing.. and it’s because that one thing works.
All of this frustration resulted in an experimental little project of mine called “Doll House,” and while I don’t know how successful it was (or even what it really meant), I am nonetheless quite proud of it. After doing that, I quit.. for like two months. Now I really just use Instagram to promote my other projects and shop. It also resulted in the creation of this website where I basically just turn the messages of my paintings and stories that people don’t get into essays, so that’s nice. I've been told I could get more attention from TikTok.. and while that may be true, I'm not so sure if that quite fixes the real issue at hand, even if that algorithm might be in my favour.
While whining about how much the system’s stacked against me is just begging people to roast me, there is really one key point I want to establish, here. It’s not so much that what hurts me is a lack of attention, but the fact that I seem to get less attention for creating better art. Every time I try to tell the truth, I get hurt. Because of this machine that we’ve let man that fundamentally human thing called art, people are being encouraged to create things devoid of truth in order to win the attention race. Yes, I know that’s just how things are. The more marketable something is, the more it’s going to win the race. The starving artist is a cliché for a reason. As much as I don’t want to say, capitalist dystopia, this is a capitalist dystopia. I agree with every word Eyebrow-sensei said in both of his comments, partially because of my own experiences with the gram and partially because I’ve never seen the type of film that he calls cinema shown in my country’s local theatres (except maybe for one screening or two). You have NO IDEA what it’s like to know names like Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Paul Schrader or Joel and Ethan Coen and know your theaters will probably never show their work (or at least, no longer than a week).. meanwhile No Time To Die and Eternals are playing for months on end. He says superhero and franchise movies are ‘something else’ with a different discipline, different audience and different purpose from what he considers ‘cinema.’ His problem is that all motion pictures are distributed by these companies with money as their main goal without any care as to artistic integrity or the nuances of the different disciplines. As a result, lil’ Steve fresh out of film school who wants to release his little indie film about a bizarre night he once had has to compete with these MASSIVE franchises with multi-million dollar production and a cast of A-list actors who are releasing the latest installment of their decade upon decade long series that’s literally made to rake in the cash. Who’s going to be successful on opening night? Worse on streaming platforms when people are just fed either what’s popular or stuff similar to the things they already know they like. Poor Steve never stood a chance.. To win, you have to dance. Do what everyone else is doing. The corporate machine’s only going to function if all of the cogs play their role.
The way how we interact with art has fundamentally changed. Everything’s easily accessible and up for grabs. Both creation and distribution are easier than they've ever been, so there’s more art being made now than ever before. Plus, postmodernism’s made all art equal (which isn’t a bad thing but yk). So, how do we organize all this? Algorithms. AI. Not people. That’d just be too much work for any person. What?! Art is a fundamentally human thing that should probably be managed by people who care rather than beeps and boops?! Curation?! Artistic integrity? Expressionism?! Truth?! Get out of here with than pretentious nonsense. We’re here to feed and be FED. Play by the rules. Join your niche. Find your aesthetic. The way I see it, this is the big problem with how art is handled, today (online, at least). The aesthetic movement is a direct result of the lack of curation and care put into how art online is generally handled. It’s a distinctly inhuman trend that chooses to imitate rather than express. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this is a movement that’s grown online where algorithms, rather than people, are what determine whether or not something is of value. It seems that more and more, not just with the online world, the value of art is being given over to the numbers. Dollars and cents, likes, follows.
The truth of it is that this isn’t a conversation about art and what art’s better or worse than others. It’s a conversation about business and how it's taken over every aspect of our lives. We've monetized everything human, therefore dehumanizing them. It’s about money and what makes it go ‘round. Art isn’t a thing taken seriously by most people. It never really has been, but the power of imagery and narrative is one that can utterly destroy your mind if you think about it enough. More of it’s being made and seen now than ever at any point in history. Are we really willing to give this power to those who only have it in their best interest to confiscate our attention and money? Regardless, this is our reality. We have already let this happen.
D E A T H
The concept of the death of art, while extreme and unlikely, has become increasingly more plausible. Everyone has their own definition of art (as they should), but mine, as should be evident throughout this whole thing, is about finding that truth. By that definition, while still not quite dead and likely not to completely die for now, if we keep treating art the way we treat it, the future of art does look bleak. Then again, I’ve heard an interesting point that suggests that art can’t die entirely as there will always be those who appreciate it, even if it does become a more niche community. Think about what happened to theatre. That artform is past its prime, but it’s still alive and well because of a certain community that still appreciates it. The same thing seems to be happening with films, or at least ‘cinema’ as Eyebrow-sensei sees it. There was once a time when the hype for The Godfather Part II was just as mainstream as the hype for Avengers: Endgame. Say what you will about cinema vs not cinema, but there’s a VERY big difference between what’s mainstream now vs back then. But. Now, look at the hype for A24. Look at the hype for Criterion. The audience that loves cinema as it was is VERY MUCH still alive, if maybe, less popular. It’s bitter-sweet, but it looks like that’s what’s going to happen. Art isn’t what it was, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead.
It’s harder for the artists, though.
Alright, artists, if you’ve ACTUALLY made it this far, I know it may sound like I’ve been attacking you, but that’s just not the case. I can’t tell you what to do; I hate that. That’s one of the few things I truly hate: telling an artist what they can and can’t do. You can and should do what you want and what makes sense to you. In fact, that’s my problem with aesthetic culture. The systems that govern how art is distributed now are telling people to sacrifice artistic growth and experimentation in favour of playing by the rules. This is because the people in charge of most art (especially online) don’t care. It’s all business. Every professional, hobbyist, beginner and struggler is put in the same place. Portraits, oc sketches, surreal art, landscapes, cartoons, abstract, lewds, urban sketches, cityscapes, fanart, all different disciplines made to compete with each other by people who don’t care. If you see it, you see it. If you don’t, you don’t. If you have any hopes of getting attention, you best pick your niche, otherwise, best of luck. Again, I've been told TikTok works a different way, but also (based on what I've heard) I don't think it should be that algorithms are forcing one kind of thing down your throat. YouTube works that way as well (though to a lesser degree from what I hear) and that's one of the things that makes me SICK about it. As if now that I watch a one two type of videos, suddenly that's my new favourite thing, then there will be other things I like that just fade into obscurity. Just because I want to hear this one thing Jordan Peterson said about this one topic doesn't mean I want to fall back down the right wing rabbit hole. Same goes for the left wing. This is how algorithms work and yet we wonder why political discourse is so garbage. Like Eyebrow-sensei said, we need to give art back to the artists. The problem is, though, I know how tall of an order that is, especially online. While social media now gives a platform for those without alternatives, it’s also pretty horrible in how the art is treated. While I won’t pretend like it’s a small thing to ask, art does need to be handled by those who actually care. That’d be a start.
‘Aesthetics’, as the internet calls it, may be cool and pretty, but it’s shallow. There’s nothing wrong with liking pretty things, it’s just that I kind of long for the time when artists asked why things are pretty. When you make a picture, is it just pretty because it fits a formula or is there a beauty in there that only you could find? Are you telling the truth? I think we need to continue these conversations rather than just imitate each other.
Let’s bring the humanity back into art, shall we?
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