What effect will Blockchain & Steemit have on the world of art and the creative community?
Throughout history, art has always had to be subsidised. Usually by the wealthy in our society. From the Catholic Church patronage of artist such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Bernini during the Renaissance. To the large scale corporate investors during the 1950s, financing work from Warhol, Rothko and Koon’s. Hollywood is probably the best example of an entire industry created around the Production and Distribution of artistic work.
These walls of Hollywood have been shaking, under the rise of the Internet, and the technological advances of the Digital Revolution. Piracy has forced studios and investors to stop taking risks, choosing only large scale big spectacle pictures to drag people into the cinema. Streaming has also meant that people no longer need to leave the comfort of their homes to see top-class storytelling.
This has all been to the determent of the artist who struggles to have their work reach an audience and must first get passed the doors of these large-scale distributors. But, now with the arrival Blockchain & Steemit, for the first time in history artists have the power to create and connect their work to an audience. And through that connection create a revenue stream that allows them to operate independently; this is a massive leap forward. In my opinion, this is something that will change not just the world of art, but the world itself.
Traditionally, artists have always been very secluded people. After all, most creative practices demand seclusion to create. But, artists also have a great ability to connect with the creative community around them. And when this happens, at the right time and under the right circumstances, great things will emerge. Think of the Greenwich Village Beat writers of the late 1950s or similarly the French New Wave filmmakers in Paris.
Unfortunately, over the last fifteen years with the creation of the online sphere, art has been devalued across all platforms. Whether it be the music industry, film industry or the world of photography and paintings. Art is no longer a physical entity. People listen to music on Spotify, stream movies through Netflix or Hulu and will even view most works of art on Pinterest rather than in a gallery.
But now it would seem that the tables are turning. Now, through Steemit, artists have the ability to create their work and showcase it to a mass-audience not just in their surrounding area, but across the globe. Now, we can create our own Community, that will allow us to connect directly with people and most importantly with other artists.
And, how fitting it is, at a time when the world seems so divided on so many issues. That now, artists can create a community through what art does best - showing us our shared human experience through a common visual language.
