Thursday, April 05, 2007
Art department redux
I vaguely recall Creative Departments were called Art Departments once. In these days where ideas can come from anywhere, even planning, and given we're all creative really, perhaps there really isn't any specialness being called the Creative Dept. Some time ago I wrote about renaissance agencies - truly integrated, visionary, energetic and scalar. Crispin Porter talk about advertising rebranding to the Media Arts. So, surely an Art Dept would be more respectful and descriptive of that department's role in the creative process?
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Yes they were called art depts. That's what they did, make artworks, but somewhere along the way they became convinced that only they were the creative ones, like alchemists protecting the secret of base metal transmutation. However, the ability to make artefacts, has now been placed firmly in the hands of ordinary people.
Nearly 100 years ago artists were pushing for the democratisation of creation and artefact. Reducing the importance of the artefact and removing the traditional hidebound master/apprentice/alchemical skills approach where only certain gifted people could be creative. Marcel Duchamp wrote in 'The Richard Mutt Case' about his (in)famous urinal in a gallery that "whetehr Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its usual signifciance diappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object"
The notion of a renaissance agency is interesting because it reflects the fact that the explosion of media technology has enabled a situation where lots of people engage in creative acts and therefore the nature of the artefact is changing. It reflects the fact that in common with the new creative landscape the agency landscape is changing and that everyone within an agency has to begin to become multi skilled and more importantly everyone has to have a hand in creativity. In the renaissance agency everyone has a responsibility to 'create a new thought'
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