Joe Mills

The Consumption of Art

The ongoing theme throughout much of my artwork has been the battle between consuming and creating. While my artwork does not speak to this theme directly, it is certainly the reason why I create. Our world bathes in consumption. Over the past two decades, I feel it has taken an unnecessary perch atop the minds of the people in the United States and the world. I believe that if you are only a consumer, you lead a very empty life. You go to work. You come home. You buy a bunch of stuff. You go back to work. We have gotten away from the power of creating. (I could go on an on about the importance of arts education in our schools, but that is an entirely different subject.) Creation and creating have been such important part of my life that I refuse to abandon it as I grow older. The arts have so enriched my life that I believe that I owe it to myself to create. While consuming is a natural part of life, it should not be…well…all-consuming. People should and need to create.

Which leads me to my point today…if I expect to sell art, aren’t I asking people to consume? It is one of these questions that just sticks with me. If I am denouncing consumption in one breath, aren’t I being hypocritical by asking people to buy and consume my artwork? To put it simply, I don’t think so. I think anyone who enjoys art will feel compelled to consume it at some point. And if that means you have to use money, I think that is the expectation of the artist. If I listen to a new song on the radio, is it wrong to purchase the song and the album? If I like an artist, shouldn’t I be able to buy a book of their work and purchase a ticket to see their work at a museum? Now consuming for consumings sake certainly brings many other issues, but I think art needs to be consumed to an extent because the image of the starving artist is cliche. It is possible to be successful and financially secure as an artist, musician, dancer, or actor.

One of the examples I always point to in my head is the show The Wire. I think television is quite possibly the ultimate consumed item. You have to buy a television. You have to buy cable. And, people spend hours of their life watching television. I’ve made it no secret that The Wire is my favorite television show. If you believe that television should, on its best day, be considered art, then you have to think about what makes a television show great art. Personally, I believe The Wire is great art. While shows like Jersey Shore and The Bachelor and Jon and Kate Plus Eight are the kind of garbage the networks shovel out, it is important to note that it is possible to create great television, or great art, on a medium that is highly consumed. I made it a point to purchase the boxed set of this show because I wanted to support what I believe is great art…not just add another box of junk to my shelves. I don’t want this to sound like an advertisement for The Wire, but it helps to illustrate my point. Great art can and should be consumed. So, am I asking too much for people to buy? No. It just depends on whether or not people think it is great or not…

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Open Source Hardware

Wired recently had an article about the Arduino board. Open source software is not a new concept to me, but this one was. Here is a quick explanation about it from the Wired article:

That’s because the Arduino board is a piece of open source hardware, free for anyone to use, modify, or sell. Banzi and his team have spent precious billable hours making the thing, and they sell it themselves for a small profit — while allowing anyone else to do the same. They’re not alone in this experiment. In a loosely coordinated movement, dozens of hardware inventors around the world have begun to freely publish their specs. There are open source synthesizers, MP3 players, guitar amplifiers, and even high-end voice-over-IP phone routers. You can buy an open source mobile phone to talk on, and a chip company called VIA has just released an open source laptop: Anyone can take its design, fabricate it, and start selling the notebooks.

I continue to be flabbergasted at the continued success of these open source ideas. When most companies are so focused on making money at any cost, it is refreshing to see these open source companies have any kind of success. It breeds a sense of working together and collaboration. The reason open source pioneers like Linux and Apache have lasted so long is that the focus is on the best working product, not the bottom line.

I guess it doesn’t make a great “business plan” but I wish these kinds of companies were more prevalent in our society.  Or, the companies that already exist had some sense of working together. As consumers, we deal with so many propiertary items and closed systems (hello…iPhone) that it feels like the only reason we are given the “choice” of buying all this extra gadgetry is to increase the stock prices.  Why can’t all the plugs I have just be universal? Why can’t I switch phone services without it being a huge ordeal? I guess all of this requires some cooperation on the part of the consumer, but I think we are entering a part of our history where we just can’t throw money at every consumer good that hits the market. With this kind of collaboration from company to company and company to consumer, I think we can have better consumer goods and more profitable companies. I guy can always dream…

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Zappos…A GOOD Consumer Story

I tend to be very anti-corporate, but I really liked this story about Zappos that reaffirms my faith that their are good people out there. I found it on the Consumerist.

When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s going against corporate policy.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.

You just don’t see that very often.

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Becoming Adult

I love this quote from Becoming Adult…a book that one of my favorite author’s, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, worked on:

We mainly train them (children) to be consumers – of abstract information, entertainment, and mostly useless products – with too little regard for concrete, active engagement with the environment. What is needed is an opportunity for youth to experience the joys and responsibilities of making things happen, without being permanently drawn into monotonous work.

I think I post things like this a lot, but the more it is ignored…the more I believe it.

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Stuff

Why do we like stuff so much? I was at my brother-in-law’s apartment recently, and this thought I have had before popped back in my head. He is 21. He is in college. And, his apartment is devoid of stuff. Yes, his roommate has the unnecessary 60″ flat screen television, but they have no pots and pans. They barely have any dishes. Decoration is sparse. And, they wash Solo cups to drink out of. Does this anger them? No. They just don’t care. It makes think of my days in college when I had limited things and I was perfectly content. Now…stuff…all over the place. Actually, I don’t think my wife and I have done terribly, but it just seems that as you get older, you want more stuff. It is like the stuff will make you happy when you know it won’t. It is not like I’m advising a return to college, but why was it alright back then and not now? Since I have money, am I supposed to spend it on stuff? You have to maintain it. You have to store it. You get mad if it doesn’t work or breaks. And eventually, you are going to get rid of it. I used to be a big collector when I was a kid, but not any more. I’m glad I have my collections, but I try to keep that to a minimum nowadays. The collections I have now or almost all digital. All the purchases I make are usually made on things I expect to use. Plus, I have found that if I wait to buy something and decide if I really want it, I end up liking the purchase more. I don’t need any more stuff.

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Amazon: DRM Free Music and The Kindle

Jeff Bezos looks like he will be very busy in the next couple months. First, they are opening a DRM free music store this fall. Why is this a good idea? This is something that I feel that the record companies, movie studios, and television studios don’t get…give consumers music, movie, and television downloads in a flexible format that lets them decide what they want to do with it and they will buy. Why do they think a lot of people illegally download this stuff? Yes, they can get it free, but it also allows them to use it as they see fit. I believe that is a big plus. When people buy CDs and DVDs, they can play them as long as they have some kind of player. Why must I buy your specific product or program (hello…iTunes) to play the music I download from you? Why can’t I play it anywhere? What’s the big deal? These things go obsolete all the time and then you are stuck with a bunch of music or movies that can no longer be played on the obsolete product or program. A waste. I hope Amazon is successful…although, the article state that not all of the record companies have signed on yet.

And, Amazon has their own electronic book reader called the Kindle coming out this fall. I would LOVE to get one of these. You don’t have to keep buying books and it is portable…great! I always feel, though, I will want to buy a book that is not available on the reader. It sort of defeats the purpose. What is I want to read a book that was published in 1992? Will it be offered? This is a big handicap…in my opinion. Once again, I hope they are successful, but we will see.

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The Corporation

I’m surprised this movie has not gotten more play in the United States. Anyway, here is a description of The Corporation from Wikipedia:

The film charts the development of the corporation as a legal entity from its origins as an institution chartered by governments to carry out specific public functions, to the rise of the vast modern institutions entitled to some of the legal rights of a person. One central theme of the documentary is an attempt to assess the “personality” of the corporate “person” by using diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV; Robert Hare, a University of British Columbia Psychology Professor and FBI consultant, compares the modern, profit-driven corporation to that of a clinically diagnosed psychopath. The film focuses mostly on the corporation in North America, especially in the United States.

I have always been very critical of corporations, and this documentary puts it all in to one nice, neat little package. As the description explains above, it looks at the history of corporations and examines how the destruction they have cause in our modern day society. The arguments are compelling. The examples are jaw-dropping. Although this is an historical example, I was surprised to learn that IBM used to sell tabulation machines to Nazi Germany so they were able to keep track of people in the internment camps during the Holocaust. Or, that Coke could not actually sell Coke during that time so they specifically created Fanta Orange to sell to Nazi Germany. It makes me shudder to think what corporations might get away with today…oh yeah, environmental dumping, sweat shops, corporate layoffs…

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Who Killed the Electric Car?

So, just a couple days I write about an electric car hitting the streets in 2009. Then, I watch Who Killed the Electric Car? Wait…there was an electric car? Now, I feel silly.

I said I wasn’t going to talk about movies for a while, but I have been on a documentary kick the past couple days, and I have been impressed by all of them. Who Killed the Electric Car? follows the production and eventual destruction of the EV1 produced by GM. To make a long story short, the EV1 came about because of the Zero Emission Mandate created by the California Air Resource Board that stated that by 2003, 10% of the cars sold in California should have zero emissions. The EV1 was produced in 1997 and eventually taken off the market and off the street in 2003. Who Killed the Electric Car? examines why it was eventually “killed”. The documentary points to many factors including the government, oil companies, hydrogen fuel, and the car manufacturers.

I could spend paragraphs talking about how well I thought this movie was made and the amount of research that went into it, but I’d rather say that this is a sad story. It is sad that in this day in age when it seems SO possible for an electric car to be produced, so many people are resistant to the idea. Why are they resistant? To save their own butt. Big oil is always going to be resistant to this. Car companies are always going to be resistant to this. Why? To go full speed ahead making electric cars they would have to think of someone other than themselves. They want to protect what is there’s. They want to protect their money and what they have gained instead of looking at the bigger issue here. Gas powered cars are bad for the environment. Gas powered cars make us dependable on foreign oil. Those two things are bad things…plain and simple.

I am going to be getting rid of my Honda Civic here in a couple days so I become part of a one car family. I will be taking public transportation while my wife uses the car. I hope that when I need (or want) a car again, I will be able to buy an electric car. Hopefully, people wake up by then.

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There is Hope for Humanity

If you not seen this news clip about a woman in Florida trying to scam a grocery store, take two minutes out of your life…it will be worth it.

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Maybe I Should Stop Going to Best Buy…

I still think articles like this about Best Buy from the Consumerist have to be put under the umbrella of consumerism…among many other umbrellas like illegal, immoral, and evil. Companies try to sell enough in order to reach their “numbers” for the week, month, and year. If they have to deceive the consumer, lie, and defraud the American public to reach those numbers, there is obviously something wrong. In my opinion, this has its roots in consumerism. The idea is to get the consumer to buy, buy, buy. If they don’t buy, well, they need to figure out another way to get your money. If it is illegal, so be it. Shameful.

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