Comments on: Corporate Art — Part I (An Introduction) http://www.protozoic.com/2005/03/13/corporate-art-part-i-an-introduction/ unicellular thoughts Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:16:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: loki http://www.protozoic.com/2005/03/13/corporate-art-part-i-an-introduction/comment-page-1/#comment-968 loki Mon, 14 Mar 2005 18:10:06 +0000 http://www.protozoic.com/2005/03/13/corporate-art-part-i-an-introduction/#comment-968 <p>You raise an interesting point when discussing the problems that face the artist who wants to makes a living (or at least a subsidized living) by way of their art. In order to do so, the artist must on some level approach their art with a business mindset: promoting it, looking at and evaluating current trends, etc. In writing <em>Sanctuary</em> (1931), for example, William Faulkner indicated he made a “thorough and methodical study of everything on the list of best-sellers. When I thought I knew what the public wanted, I decided to give them a little more than they had been getting; stronger and rawer – more brutal. Guts and genitals” (Joseph Blotner, Abridged 233-234). In other words, those trends that Faulkner felt were sensationalistic, were the same ones that could lead him to commercial success. Though not a "corporation" in and of himself (though perhaps Faulkner scholarship could be said to be one on some level), Faulkner had the same economic goals as most corporations: financial ones.</p> <p>What you label as "corporate art" on the other hand (or at least in you own creation of it) is not so concerned with wider commercial aspirations. Ironically then, the nomenclature "corporate art" doesn't denote a group's set of financial goals, but rather the actual items that one creates "corporate art" out of.</p> <p>I wondered though, do you extend the definition of "corporate art" only to the the use of supplies and tools specific to a place of business operation? For example, when discussing Oahn's transformation of the 1.5-ml eppendorf tubes into origami flower vases, I'm guessing that the 1.5-ml eppendorf tubes are supplies special to, or representative of, the biotech business you work for. A person who has personalized their desk with pictures of their cat, and cartoons from the Sunday comics, isn't however using supplies specific to that place of business operation. They are decorating and transforming their work place, but they aren't using supplies and tools available specifically too and/or somehow representative of the processes of that work place.</p> You raise an interesting point when discussing the problems that face the artist who wants to makes a living (or at least a subsidized living) by way of their art. In order to do so, the artist must on some level approach their art with a business mindset: promoting it, looking at and evaluating current trends, etc. In writing Sanctuary (1931), for example, William Faulkner indicated he made a “thorough and methodical study of everything on the list of best-sellers. When I thought I knew what the public wanted, I decided to give them a little more than they had been getting; stronger and rawer – more brutal. Guts and genitals” (Joseph Blotner, Abridged 233–234). In other words, those trends that Faulkner felt were sensationalistic, were the same ones that could lead him to commercial success. Though not a “corporation” in and of himself (though perhaps Faulkner scholarship could be said to be one on some level), Faulkner had the same economic goals as most corporations: financial ones.

What you label as “corporate art” on the other hand (or at least in you own creation of it) is not so concerned with wider commercial aspirations. Ironically then, the nomenclature “corporate art” doesn’t denote a group’s set of financial goals, but rather the actual items that one creates “corporate art” out of.

I wondered though, do you extend the definition of “corporate art” only to the the use of supplies and tools specific to a place of business operation? For example, when discussing Oahn’s transformation of the 1.5-ml eppendorf tubes into origami flower vases, I’m guessing that the 1.5-ml eppendorf tubes are supplies special to, or representative of, the biotech business you work for. A person who has personalized their desk with pictures of their cat, and cartoons from the Sunday comics, isn’t however using supplies specific to that place of business operation. They are decorating and transforming their work place, but they aren’t using supplies and tools available specifically too and/or somehow representative of the processes of that work place.

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