Our society has evolved to manufacture nearly every part of our sociocultural experience.
Aside from our natural land, whether untouched due to law, usability, harsh conditions, population or lack of consideration, our experience of modern civilization is ultimately manipulative.
As humans, we wish to interact with one another. We are social creatures. The arts have been an essential and at times a sacred part of our interactions and understanding of the universe. We have been compelled to draw, to write, to make music, act in theatre and vocalize our thoughts in attempts to communicate and express ourselves for as long as humanity as we know it has existed. Written language at its core is nothing but a standard set of marks to pronounce phonemes, morphemes and provide a visual baseline for spoken word.
We have record of this innate human need to be creative but are we moving towards a standardized, more homogeneous social acceptance? Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, goods were able to be mass produced. Everything became faster as ingenious engineers invented machines to speed production and lower service time and cost with the scale balanced by less demand or need for highly skilled craftsmen. With designers applying advancements in science & technology, the Industrial Revolution began creating more consumer-based economic social structures.
Today, where I live, everything I see has been designed. I live in a city (planned and mapped and even revitalized) where every entrepreneur who has the ambition and the means can create a business (design standards, logos, branding, marketing, advertising, signs, websites, social media) for any industry to which they are called. We are experiencing a transition in technology with the Computer/Electronic Age that is propelling sociocultural interactions and consumer economics.
My chosen profession is one of a digital artist. However, in my perceived social position I have realized that businesses or those wishing to begin their entrepreneurial endeavors literally need–require–demand that I be not just an artist in the traditional sense, but specialize in a myriad of skill sets. I began my personal journey as a digital artist because I recognized immediately that going digital would not only help preserve the environment, but because I also saw the new possibilities that were the direction of relevant creative expression.
I am a child literally born at the beginning of this consumer Electronic Age of civilization. I started with crayons and pencils and paper but I was fascinated with the exponential options in the visual arts when electronics like Socrates and desktop computers became available & affordable to the general public. I quickly learned that to be truly effective, my chosen profession of a graphic designer must not have a narrow, tunnel-vision approach. The experience and knowledge gained by not only applying up to date technology but also learning from the sociological and anthropological impacts of copy writing, marketing, branding and advertising has shaped my skill set into an ever adapting, versatile arsenal.
All of our world is affected by design. Consumers are bombarded with it at an unprecedented level. Yes, we still have the traditional forms of sociocultural creative expression, but absolutely everything is preplanned and constructed or manufactured–from the instruments to the architect who maximized the acoustics of the theatre for the ballet that is a creatively choreographed series of movements. So, where does that leave us?
At a certain point consumers become numb to this bombardment. It is routine, average or expected whereas prior to the Industrial Revolution, the arts were perceived by societies completely differently. Historical figures created masterpieces, some on commission and the public remained in awe of the most stimulating visual experiences available. To refrain from being “expected”, the cultural arts of today will adapt to technology–balancing the scale. Being perceived as ordinary is not a good thing. To engage, absorb and enrapture the target audience is another, and the goal which drives most marketing to use artists. However, to make an impression so deep in the cultural mind as to set a standard is regarded as the ultimate goal.
Setting a new standard in art history is a recognition of uniqueness, of usefulness or any other adjective one may use to describe creative application of technology and resources that profoundly improves our human experience. This Digital Age of Consumerism makes and breaks standards all of the time as technology changes. As an artist or in my case a digital artist, making that spark of flint into a star with enough gravity to create a solar system seems to be one byte of data in the worldwide web of information but remains a beautiful, and ever-present goal.
As digital creativity continues to evolve to meet emerging technology, awareness and adaptation are key virtues that any digital artist must strive to maintain. However, in this Era, these virtues are applicable regardless of profession. Design is a tool. Therefore logically designers fulfill a specific role with their natural and learned skills. We are the manipulators of societies, cultures, and ultimately civilizations. Expression is fused with our humanity, and the arts have demonstrated a vital, persistent need throughout our history. With the Electronic Age lowering the time of communication/interaction experience worldwide, I feel digital creators must remain hyper-aware of how their role is being applied and their effects–almost like learning to see every tree on both sides of a speeding train. The more aware we remain and responsive we are, the more effortless it will be to not only create but ideally better our expression, communication and impact on society.
I choose to aim for the ever-present goal of a new standard with every project. Sometimes, the best inventions are unintentional.
Best Regards,
sk
June 11th 2013
Taken from my professional portfolio site
xoxBOH
bassgeisha
