Art after Empire: Creating the Political Economy of a New Democracy
“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.” –Leo Tolstoy. It is certain that when an artist creates a work of art, he/she does not only aim to create, but rather, is attempting to share a personal experience or opinion on a matter. The artist has the potential to enable “the experience of the sublime, the contemplation of the other, the not yet, the no longer, the inconceivable” –Matthais Osterwold.
The question now arises is art not only a medium of ideas which simplifies and clarifies a person’s opinions and thoughts or is there an artistic take on current times which has the “potential to nurture the seed of utopia and allow it to grow.” –Matthais Osterwold. At such a historic moment, in the midst of the world financial crisis and the fear of a global economical collapse, in a world where reaction dominates action and governments aren’t impulsive enough to implement new and innovative policies an artistic approach may be a new take to bring order to chaos and develop a vision for a sustainable momentum forward.
The 2008 presidential elections in the United States were proof of how art is the essential medium to candidates who were through art able to gather supporters and votes. A staggering $5.3 billion dollars were spent on the elections. Alone the presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain rose close to $1.5 billion dollars during the process of their campaign (Reid). Candidates spent millions on TV and Internet ads to voice their opinions and to gather votes. Internet Communities like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook or Twitter were used as platforms for the candidates to gather massive support. Furthermore having celebrities and rockstars voice their support at concerts and shows helped candidates to able to engage with wide spread audiences.
However a reason why many say Barack Obama won and was able to attain so much...