Selling out

Film Stuff podcast

Today we deep dive into the relationship between art and commerce. We start with a discussion about why it looks like every YouTube video is the same. Next we talk about how it's not enough just to make art. You have to be a skilled promoter and business lady and community builder too. Lastly we talk about how hard it is to strike that balance between on one side, making art that's true to your vision and on the other, making concessions that make your art appealing to consumers, clients, and investors. Both of us agree you can't deny the commercial element of the art you make, but you also can't be enslaved by it. Before you get too down about the inevitability of compromising your vision and conforming to the almighty algorithm, we offer some words of hope. We went over a lot in this one. Here's some notes, thoughts, and further reading: • We mentioned that YouTube doesn't publish details about its algorithm. Most social networks don't. There's a few reasons why it can be problematic that companies are allowed to treat their algorithms as proprietary trade secrets. ProPublica roughly outlines a few of the big ones in their series "Breaking the Black Box." It focuses mostly on machine bias, but there's other reasons too related to privacy, censorship, anti-trust laws, and something called "the right to be forgotten." I'm sure we'll eventually do a whole episode all about algorithms. https://www.propublica.org/article/breaking-the-black-box-what-facebook-knows-about-you • Matt Gielen of Little Monster did a great in-depth analysis of the YouTube algorithm if you'd like to know more about how trends spread on the platform http://www.tubefilter.com/017/06/22/youtube-algorithm-research-cracking-the-code/ • That great article from The Atlantic that Leigh was talking about is called "The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur" and you can read it here https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/ • Soo Zee brought up a great point about patronage that we weren't able to include: art has historically been a commercial venture. For centuries, artists only survived because wealthy nobility and clergymen commissioned their work. It's a romantic idea that an artist should focus on the art and leave the selling of their work to someone else, but in reality art has always been commercial. Patrons like Leo and Gertrude Stein who enabled the work of many modern day masters do exist, but it seems far more often benefactors were either wealthy institutions like the crown and the church, or generous (concerned?) family members like Vincent van Gogh's little brother Theo.