Is it Art or Content?
Hey there. Shitty night? Yeah, me too. What’s with all the shitty nights lately? Regardless, I hope you’re okay and there’s nothing so broke tonight that it can’t be fixed in the morning. My circumstances? Who knows.
Pretty much told a kid today that I really care about that one of the YouTubers she loves is producing crap. Yeah, I didn’t say it quite as blunt as that, but it really was the point. I think the thing that stung was that I was made it sound like she doesn’t like good things. I know I’m going to hell, but honestly, it suddenly made a lot of sense of what I’ve thought was her weird taste in things. The thing I suddenly realized was that she likes content, not art.
Yup. I’m going there. Hang on to your butts, Gen Alpha. I’m gonna do a little slamming on your skibidi brain rot or whatever it’s called.
I’ll forego the details of this tween’s idea that brilliant works of art are just whipped up on a weekend and uploaded to YouTube or Twitch. It suddenly made sense of why she thinks The Owl House and Scott Pilgrim are two of the most amazing works of art ever made. It’s because she’s used to content. Constant content creation.
Don’t get me wrong. This entire trend of pumping out half-realized content was happening for a long time. I love Johnathan Coulton and his song-a-week phase. There’s a whole train of thought of getting out all your bad ideas when you’re developing skills and craft. That way when you get to doing the things that matter, you’ve got the sea legs to navigate any storm that comes up. However, in the end, it’s still content not art.
I’m drawing a distinction for one really clear reason. As much as I was an ass for hurting her feelings about what she felt was really good creative work, I felt hurt that she couldn’t even mildly respect talented people who work really hard on and off stage to turn something that could just be pumped and dumped on the internet into something thoughtful, aware, and ultimately meaningful. That’s art. It’s studied. It comes from loads of experience. It takes hard work and discipline to see it through. I hope it’s what I’m making here.
I want to balance the level of content and the level of art on this site. I now have dozens of crazy AI rendered versions of my art. I am attempting to pump content as well as have time to make something really profound. I’ve used AI to make much of the content portions of this site: the banners, the icons. Yes, I’m going to sell digital downloads of some of the AI rendered artwork too. It won’t be for much. Like an impulse buy. Who knows? Maybe someone will enjoy it as a phone wallpaper or something.
I guess what misguided attempt to justify my rudeness to a 12 year old actually is, is that content is not the same as art. Art speaks to all people regardless of age or their level of ‘sophistication’. Art is something that you don’t need a YouTube influencer to tell you to appreciate. (I’ve heard about the addictive effects of short-form media on podcasts, but only just realized this is who is informing said 12 year old of what’s good.)
I hope and pray that what I’m really doing on this site is building something that’s going to connect with people. Something beyond simple content dumping. Johnathan Coulton didn’t make a song-a-week work because someone on YouTube said he was a brilliant genius. He had the talent and the chops to bring to every song. Years of hard work and an eye for quality. I hope I do too or else… what the hell am I doing here?
It’s not easy. I don’t have any YouTubers telling everyone to come check out my site and how good stuff is. I struggle everyday I’m doing this with thoughts of total inadequacy and lack of confidence. In my heart, I know I’ve got something to say. I’ve got a story to tell. Something that resonates. Right? Right?! I can’t be just a content site. I’ve got to do something artistic. Maybe that will never be this 12 year old’s bag, but someone out there must be able to appreciate the hard work.