Step 1 of Winter Project

The question that I am interested in exploring is question number 1: How has our relationship to art changed by virtue of the fact that new media allow us to more easily be producers as well as consumers? (If, indeed, you find that it has).

The fact that new media allows anyone to be a producer diminshes the basic need for talent. New media can produce a great sounding song that has no actual talent behind it, besides a computer savvy person. There may be no actual bands playing the instrumentals or a person behind the voice that comes through our speakers. Our relationship to art changes because we are appreciating a form of art that is only virtual; it does not exist in the physical world. Many singers cannot perform live concerts because they do not have their aid of technology by their side, allowing them to create a voice for themselves instead of using their own.

This new relationship to art leaves a slight divide between singers with musical talent and those whose records have been technologically created. This divide is not always easily spotted though. For example, I would consider Alicia Keys a greater artist, in a sense more "real", than Heidi Montag. The new accessible media has made it difficult to determine the actual artistic ability of the artists by clumping them all together into one category. In this category, the media has made the recording artists both famous and rich. Talent or no talent, both groups of artists become one - each becoming successful in their own way.

Our role of producers allows us to put our own input in this high-tech media stream, entrancing us even more to the artists. Anyone now can become a dj and create their own songs, allowing them to more easily relate to the artists that the media is advertising. The divide between the talented artists and the technology-created ones leaves a gap for the public to play a new producer position, giving them hope to acheive the stardom status.