we also had several opportunities to be pensive, questioning and considering. lying in bed, thom and ben discuss as artists, how do we summon the courage to give to the world a product that ultimately will outlast ourselves? once released, we no longer have any control over its fate. we try to keep a grasp on our art during our lives, yet after our death what becomes of it? vincent van gogh, ian curtis, william shakespeare; all became fetishized posthumously, and so their art is reaching new areas of humanity every day, being interpreted in and affecting the individual receiver in more ways than its creator must ever have imagined. there are only two possible ultimate fates that art succumbs to - it either winds up loved and protected for all eternity, studied by scholars and appreciated by all who know of it; or it becomes destroyed through either neglect, malice or accident. take last year's fire at the glasgow collage of art, for example. hundreds of pieces, each one delicately crafted by an artist who hoped for it to be successful, appreciated, all gone in an instant due to one simple, fateful mistake.
yet, somehow even more tragic a fate to me is for art to be left to ruin. that a piece of work one or a group of persons has created in the hope of it being realised by others who saw, heard or otherwise experienced it, could be doomed to spend eternity alone, thrown aside by the unforgiving public in favour of works that are 'better'. there is plenty of shit out there, shit songs written by shit bands. yet it must also be remembered that there is always, always good art that if found would have never been forgotten, yet was never known by enough for it to be revered. this has always been a tragedy of art, yet is becoming increasingly relevant in this internet age: as we become overloaded with so much more information than before and at so much quicker a pace, it is becoming so much easier to ignore great art. soundcloud is home to billions of songs; it is physically impossible to listen to every one in a single lifetime. this means there are an incalculable number of creations that you will never know. most will be forgotten due to their lack of quality, yet a huge number of fantastic songs will also suffer this same, unfair fate.
how many great songs has nobody ever heard? how many great songs will nobody ever hear?
thd