Written by Matt Prosser
When we speak of culture, we speak of commonality. If one were to suggest a piece of art to be rousing, another may conjure thought of troughs and peaks, booming drums or piercing words. You can imagine the orchestra, soft and sweeping, lifting from melancholy to moments of epiphany and elation. Vivaldi's 'Spring', Python Lee Jackson's 'In A Broken Dream', emotive and impactful crescendo barrelling down on the listener in a relentless assault against the barrier to the quickening beat of their heart and the sharpening intake of their breath. We know that when we are roused, we feel hope. We feel that overbearing intimation from every inch of reality that greatness may be not only achieved, but lived, if we should be bold enough to submit.
All of this, from one word. Rousing.
For art is the language of emotion, our means of imparting upon each other those machinations of our mind so profound that they drive us and compel us to live greatness, so massive that only with the enormity of the zeitgeist may we compress them in a way that somehow they may be imparted.
As cultural actors, we find ourselves with a choice of palette to be used when creating. We look to the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, and choose which shared meanings we use to release our essence to the winds of humanity. As cultural activists, we have an opportunity to use our lexicon to imbue work with qualities that both engage and inspire, and information that will infer our convictions and perhaps encourage consideration of our perspective when our audience pick their own palettes.
And we often do. Art is the first port of call for those looking to make a statement, whether that be an opinion piece such as this or any other medium for expression. One can only imagine how many heartfelt poems and paintings have come from our youngest generation as they beg the world to allow them a future. And they matter. For one, they hold genuine artistic value and reflection of our era, and if nothing else their volume demonstrates the will of our inheritors.
Though, without diminishing the power of cultural work born solely of activism, it is the work most celebrated for its artistic brilliance and significance within its discourse that rings loud and true. It is when a person creates something beautiful, carrying their conviction and their morality with them, that instead of being carried by the wind this art instead creates its own storm.
The lines here blur, in my opinion because of the propensity to entangle art and act found in our most innovative creators. Banksy paints a wall; the world bleeds with the artist and feels the pain of the scene he depicts.
Bob Marley stood up on stage to play a concert two days after having been shot, singing songs of utter beauty entwined with themes of social justice; he cemented himself in the conscience of humanity.
And this is our onus. When we find passion within ourselves for the plight of betterment, we can choose to take that with us into what can often be more vain and selfish a desire to create a particular image when speaking to the world. David Attenborough has no obligation, when educating us regarding this most startling and wonderful world we have been born from, to then tell us it is in danger and worth saving.
It seems to me that we are more easily enchanted by inherently human things. Perhaps it is for sake of our climate only being accepted as a significant issue in the past few decades, or perhaps it is simply easier for most to empathise with a person than a tree, tellurian as both may be.
We have our trailblazers, those who do not have to, but choose to paint a picture of a better world with their palette in the hope that we see it and share in their idea of beauty. But we need more.
You could be rousing. You could speak to the hearts of your audience whilst their minds are busy laughing, or crying. You could conjure joy, present poignancy and detail significance. Weave your spell in such a way that as it hits, the receiver knows that the person who created such beauty believes that a world which provides it is worth saving.
Reference List
HEGEL, G.W.F, MILLER, A.V., FINDLAY, J.N., & HOFFMEISTER, J. (1979). Phenomenology of spirit. Oxford: Clarendon Press
LAWSON, T., GARROD, J (1996) Complete A-Z sociology handbook. London: Hodder & Stoughton
WARBURTON, N. ed. (2005). Philosophy: basic readings. London: Routledge
HALL, S. (1973) Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. [Online]. University Of Birmingham [Viewed 18 June 2020].
Available From: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/history/cccs/stencilled-occasional-papers/1to8and11to24and38to48/SOP07.pdf
BANKSY (2005) Banksy wall and piece. London: Century, The Random House
STEFFENS, R. & JOHNSON, L.K. (2018) So much things to say: the oral history of Bob Marley. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company
Our Planet., Full Series (2019). [Online]. Directed by Adam Chapman, Hugh Pearson, Huw Cordey, Sophie Lanfear, Mandi Stark & Jeff Wilson. Bristol: Silverback Films. Available from: Netflix.
This post was written by Matt Prosser.
I'm a writer, speaker, and musician in disguise as a retail worker - trying to write, speak, and music my way to a better world and more comfortable clothing. I've written a lot but shared too little, though that's something I'm trying to change.
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