ARTIST NEED NOT APPLY

reprint from MARCH 5, 2010 

Open Salon

(google images)

My wife and I were enjoying dinner at a popular cafe called The Piano Lounge. A little girl at the table next to ours said in a loud voice, “Look! A ghost is playing the piano.” We all looked at the piano and sure enough a ghost was playing a tone. It was a player piano.

As we watched the keys moving up and down to the beat of the music my wife asked the waiter, who was waiting to take our order, “Is the piano player on a break?” “No there is no piano player.” Then in a proud voice he exclaimed, “That is our new player piano, it does not need a piano player.”

Later that evening we checked out the clubs and discos in the area and not one of them had live entertainment. All of them used recorded music. So what happened to the musicians and singers? Are they all performing on the streets with the mimes and beggars?

Then the real question hit us. What about other artist, novelist, journalist, play writes, screen writers, painters, actors and photo journalist? Have they all been replaced by hi-tech?

We examined each of the above listed artists and this is what we learned:           

Novelist: Authors of novels have always had to fight against censorship and publishers that did not pay them their royalties. When publishing on demand gave authors an outlet for their work, the main stream publishes purchased the E-publishers. We believe that many of the novels that are published by main stream publishers are written by institutionalized persons and company committees.

            Journalist: Many newspapers openly state that they “Haven’t paid writers in years.” Since people are bloging and twitting as well as submitting articles via the internet, therefore newspapers and magazines don’t have to hire or pay writers.

            Photo journalist: Thanks to the new IPODS, the TV news has no use for Photo Journalist. Free photos on the internet also provides the rest of the media’s need for  free photos.

            Actors: Computer generated characters and animated 3D movies eliminate the need for living actors in movies.

            Play writes and screen writers: Most plays on Broadway are re-runs and most movies are either sequels or written by corporate writers.

            Painters and other fine artist: Dead artist work has always been worth more money then the work of living artist. Now you add computer generated art and you find artist sharing the same street market with the mimes, musicians, singers and beggars.

Could this be the end of human creativeness? Have the machines won? Does anyone care? We no longer communicate directly with other humans. We hide behind our laptops and blog and twit each other through a void.

            We need to ask the owner of the Piano Lounge and anyone else that blocks artist from working, “Where is the piano player and the rest of the people that used their talents to entertain and motivate us.

AUTHOR TAGS:

artists