Cultural 'experiences' as consumption

[Thalia]

Hi there!

I really hope some of you are willing to share your thoughts about this subject, because, frankly, I feel quite confused about it, not sure if its mainly a personal problem I have or a relevant analysis about people in this society (or if it even makes sense to differentiate)

Anyhow, the thing is, in the last couple of years (I am 21, so ‘a couple of years’ is a significant amount of my being this planet so far) I have become steadidly more alinated from what you could call ‘seeing’ culture - watching movies, listening to music (live or recorded), reading fictional books, going to the theater, etc. It’s not just that it’s not ‘my thing’, it’s more that when I am the witness of a theatrical act or in the cinema i feel pacified, a bit numb. I have become more aware of this ever since I read about Jensen’s toxic mimics - that watching a play, or even acting in one is a toxic mimic of a situation where theater is engaging and including - where the distinction between actor and audience is non-existing or non-sensical, because theater is alive and not a ‘thing’ to be done and watched (and judged).

I know that a lot of people would disagree, saying that music, theater, art, etc. is meant to be engaging, making people think and feel - but the purpose is not to make people DO things, and especially not to get people to believe that they don’t need professionel deliveres of culture.

I’m beginning to think of this as another way our current culture is making commodities out of everything. - you don’t live or make culture - our society, and our language, treats culture as something you watch, something you buy. It’s an industry, and it does not matter if were talking about big, commercial movie studios or small indie bands - it’s still a product to be consumed, an you don’t create stories WITH people - in fact, there exist laws precisely to prevent you from ‘stealing’ people’s cultural products.

• product that, like everything else, are constantly being judged. Everytime you watch something, you try to value it, you try to figure out if it ‘works’ - if it does what it is supposed to with you. They have a very specific meaning attached to them, and your role is to find that meaning (and somwhow e ‘moved’ in the process) via dechipering all the metaphorical or aestethic ‘layers’. I hate that - I feel like I’m being manipulated, like they are trying to restrain my modes of thoughts.

The reason why I put this in ‘grief and praise’ is that this is all causing me distress in my everyday life - I live sorrounded by people who treats this consumption as a enriching and honourable thing - people who would resent the very framing of watching a movie or a play as consumption. I love the people live with, and I want to share things, but I find it increasingly difficult to share this particular way of being with them - i get confused, stressed and bored - I don’t feel I’m leaning anything, and this is particular frustrating, because I know i SHOULD, that it makes very little sense to reject so common modes of communication and sharing of ideas. And yet, it does.

Any thoughts about this?

[Pathfinder]

Thalia,

I hear you on the consumptive qualities of modern culture including books, television, movies, and even theater. It’s amazing to contemplate that not so long ago (and maybe soon again) all culture was something everybody made and contributed to. Take music for example, even if one was not musically talented, in a small village setting pretty much everyone made music because that was all there was.

A friend of mine just got back from Ireland, and he spoke of one of things that touched him the most was that everybody (even those with very little talent) made or played music especially in the pub scene. I have very little natural musical talent and yet I love being a part of a group singing or making music. It feels like it is something in my bones to do.

Storytelling is even more the case. Stories are now something we either read or view (tv, movies) in a totally non-participatory way. Compare this to the idea of the family or clan gathered around the fire or hearth sharing stories of the day and then different people in the group sharing stories full of history, connection, myth, magic, and the natural world.

So, I hear you. As for solutions, there are definitely some very cutting edge theater groups experimenting with improv and audience participation. There are storytelling guilds in lots of major cities. I even have a friend who is a bass player who is trying to change the whole audience/performer dynamic by moving in and through the audience as he plays.

Maybe there’s hope. Maybe in five years there won’t be movies or television or “popular” music and the only culture we will have is that what we can express to each other around a fire at night.

[chase]

Youre definitly not alone here, Thalia! Ai have the same misgivings.
Pathfinder: great description!
Mai friends and ai are starting a music-based group (ai hesitate to call it a band - even though thats what it is - “band”: a small group of great apes, especially humans - because it has too many connotations of what a musical band must be). Ai think we’ll be doing a lot of improvised songs, so there is potentially lots of room for audience participation and ai think ai’ll be actively encouraging it, ie. having extra instruments for anyone who wants one and telling the audience to join in when and if they feel comfortable, with clapping, stomping, screaming, talking, shrieking, howling, singing or anything else they can think of. Oh and most, if not all of the instruments are very simple and mostly percussive, cause most of us dont actually have musical training and so the audience wont be intimidated and not grab one.

[incendiary_dan]

I get a bit of where you’re coming from here, since I hate all of the sterilized, manufactured crap that passes as art and entertainment in our culture. At the same time, though, I think we can’t get too ornery about performance arts as a whole. It’s great to encourage people to play music and tell stories and stuff of their own, but not everyone does this. Some people aren’t confident or practiced enough, or just don’t want to do it themselves. Even those that do need to sit back once in awhile and not participate themselves. We just need to appreciate the art of other independent and small scale artists, and not treat it as a consumable.

So I guess follow the bumper stickers: “Support Local Music, Sleep with a Musician”

[Willem]

Thalia-
I totally get you too. I practice a form of collaborative storytelling called “storyjamming”, which has no audience, and nobody records. We carry away the stories and experience of what happened inside us.

Also more and more of my friends have gotten involved with the “old-time hill music” scene, fiddles, banjos, and commmunity square dancing, as opposed to the blue grass scene (which usually involves bands, soloing, and $$$).

Of course what Dan says make sense too; in fact, I’d suggest that the only way your friends will figure out what more lies in wait for them if they start creating their own art, would involve someone like you starting a storyjam session, or asking folks to help with simple instruments and such.

Also a fellow artist and cultural creative, Nala Walla, wrote something cool on all this, check it out:

“The Bodybased arts as Center of the New Village”.

For storyjamming resources you can poke around mythic-cartography.org, or themythweavers.com.

for “old-time music” community, well, you’ll just have to hunt them down.

as others have suggested, i think it works great to hook into someone else’s energy and ride what has already started in your area.

[jhereg]

I love “old time” music! I’ve noticed that it’s really being picked up by a lot of folk in recent years, which I’m very glad to see.

Something I find kind of interesting is to try to put together fairly simple instruments myself from whatever I find. For example, the other weekend, I puttered around w/ an empty soda bottle (plastic) to make a real simple ocarina. It worked ok. I think I might try it again sometime, but hopefully I can increase the range.

I find the entire exercise of playing around with something and learning what kinds of sounds it can make to be a lot of fun and full of surprises.