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I try to be all-inclusive, but we all know that that doesn’t always work.  I don’t discriminate against any sort of listeners to the podcast and welcome any and all criticism.  I am unfortunately not perfect.  No one is perfect.  In fact, I think that anyone who appears to be perfect is in major pain and has a seriously flawed disposition.  That being said, I read a blog entry this week that sparked interest in my feeble mind.  Do I shut out people because my podcast is “all gay, all the time”?  First off, I will be referring to Justin’s blog post, so please read!

I do believe that certain pieces of art entertainment are lauded because of their creator, subject, and/or theme.  In Justin’s case, we saw an avant-garde, if you will, piece that was probably meant to open the mind of the Pittsburgh theatre-goer.  Should the content’s subject trump the quality of that content?  When writing a review, I hope not.  Unfortunately, reviewers, when covering topics such as race, may reserve their judgement of the quality of the writing, performance, etc. due to societal pressures.  Honestly, theatre receipts tell the best story, but usually runs are limited in Pittsburgh, unlike Broadway. (Keep on reading…)

Justin brings up several questions of which I will tackle a few as the following four questions: 1.) Are we able to understand and relate to cross-cultural artistic pieces due to a lack of shared experiences? 2.) Is mediocre art given praise due to edgy content? 3.) Should we be comparing art across cultural boundaries? 4.) How much does our own background go into creating evaluations of art?

1. People across cultures have overlapping “shared experiences.”  This basically means that there is usually something that makes us all a bit similar.  Depending on how fine-grained you get we could say that potty training is a shared cultural experience.  In fact many child psychologists look to this level.  The shared experiences that give most Americans something in common would be public school education.  Certain types of experiences will have a greater impact on our viewpoints such as growing up gay or growing up African-American in an all-white town.  All that being said, with no amount of research will a straight white male understand what I went through in my coming out experience.  It is almost impossible to fully understand that experience without living through it.  I do believe that that will create the inability to fully understand another’s experience.  Does this preclude us from gaining an understanding of another’s experiences through art?  No.  I do think that we are able to understand and relate to the experiences of others through art even though we have different shared experiences.  We won’t be able to understand all of the intricacies involved, but if the creator properly made the piece to be consumed by all, there should be little problem.  Justin’s experience sounds like he saw a crappy play.  A good example would be one of the most devastating things I’ve ever seen, the TV mini-series, Roots.  Enough said.
2. Yes.  A piece of art may be seen as new and exciting because we haven’t seen anything like it before.  Honestly, there are many types of avant-garde art which is praised that many will just not understand.  I believe that much of this art is created by people who want attention for their creativity but can’t get it any other way, among numerous other reasons.  My best example is having to sit through a concert by a “post-modern” artist.  This man was a saxophone specialist and he gave this concert by walking back and forth between multiple saxophones and making the worst non-musical sounds by hitting, blowing, and desecrating a good instrument.  Some saw him as world-renowned.
3. Art can be compared across cultural boundaries, but we must be careful.  Bad comparisons from misunderstandings can lead to stereotypes.  Two cultural examples would be prevalent ideas about the artistic integrity of rap and hip-hop music and my favorite, the myth that gay men only participate in anal sex activities.  When describing new types of art we start by using terms created by existing art forms.  This is helpful in creating a way for people to understand the purpose and intent of the new art.  Again, comparisons are very effective if used properly.
4. Everything in my background influences every aspect of my life.  My opinions on every conceivable subject are formed by my own personal experiences.  People had problems accepting the fact early in the game that my podcast is simply the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and experiences of a, now, 28 year old male living in Pittsburgh, PA.  New experiences can reshape the way we see things.  My opinions are constantly changing and so should all of ours’.  It makes interesting, after all.

A special thanks to Justin for getting me on these tangents.  Remember, they are my opinions and you are MORE thank welcome to insert your own in that comments box below.

Tags:   artistic pieces · avant-garde · evaluations · influence · mediocre art · performance · Pittsburgh · race · review · societal pressuresNo Comments