{"id":22067,"date":"2019-09-06T03:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=22067"},"modified":"2019-09-08T15:49:50","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T22:49:50","slug":"shrapnel-from-the-war-on-art-by-catharine-bramkamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/06\/shrapnel-from-the-war-on-art-by-catharine-bramkamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrapnel from the War on Art by Catharine Bramkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shrapnel<\/a>Let\u2019s welcome back monthly columnist\u00a0Catharine Bramkamp<\/a> as she shares with us: \u201cShrapnel from the War on Art.\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin twenty years of having been declared king<\/strong>, content seemed to be on the road to serfdom.\u201d – <\/span>The Attention Merchants<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0by Tim Wu<\/span><\/p>\n

With Facebook a hot mess\u00a0strangling any outreach save purchased ads, with Instagram following (since FB has owned it since 2012), what can artists do to be heard?<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media feels less like a free-for-all democracy and more like trench warfare<\/strong>. You must have noticed — the war has escalated, and the soldiers, excuse me, artists, are sacrificed daily in a war of attrition.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are pounded by YouTube ads, bludgeoned with Amazon review requirements numbering in the tens of thousands, shattered by missing hearts on our Instagram posts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is increasingly difficult to keep up with anyone or anything<\/strong>, let alone the Kardashians. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If comparing social media to war seems a little extreme, considering the term \u201cSelfie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Coined in\u00a0Australia, the term\u00a0Selfie was promoted to Word of the Year by the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 2018, there were 259 reported Selfie deaths.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media can indeed kill us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the\u00a0onslaught\/juggernaut of larger corporate interests and budgets, what is an individual writer to do? How do we survive this war?<\/span><\/p>\n

First decide what you love: the War or the Art?<\/span><\/p>\n

The War<\/span><\/h2>\n

The war is all about attention, it\u2019s all about being noticed. Then it\u2019s all about being noticed a lot, then a lot more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the measure of success is to be famous<\/strong>, ceding even a yard of hard won ground is like losing the battle. But is the battle worth the wounds?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFame, or the hunger for it, would become something of a pandemic, swallowing up more and more people and leaving them with the scars of chronic attention-whoredom.\u201d — <\/span>The Attention Merchants<\/span><\/i> by Tim Wu<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Art\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0Art is what we create first thing in the morning before the guns fire up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Art is an expression of the authentic<\/strong>. It\u2019s unique because it comes from the heart and soul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike the rules of engagement, art is almost always difficult to scale.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We do want to scale our gifts in order to help as many people as possible; my clients very much are in that category.\u00a0But the attempt to scare is like the cavalry rushing into machine gun fire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What if, just once<\/strong>, during a calm in the battle, you create the art?<\/span><\/p>\n

Wow, here is my unique vision and here is what I have to say.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n