ARTISTS AND ARTISANS

In the advent of technology, it is remarkable what has now been made possible. With a
click of a button, an array of overwhelming information is made available, informing every
aspect of human life. In the fast-paced and highly complex 21 st century, there is a real and
nagging fear that soon, everything may very well be replaced by computers and robots that can
arguably do things with more precision, at a shorter amount of time and less capital in the long
term. This nihilist notion is contested by what are arguably the most resilient qualities of man,
which is his creativity and imagination. And as long as there is a cultivation of both of these
qualities, no robot or artificial intelligence can replace man just yet.

The arts are one of the most significant ways in which we try to grapple with how the
present unfolds. In Robert Henn’s The Art Spirit (1923), he stated that “Art when really
understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things,
anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing. When the artist is alive in any person, whatever
his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.
He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for
a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book he opens it,
shows there are more pages possible.” There is a gap when one continues to persist with the
idea that art is something that is detached from the everyday. In what has been reduced to a
blur, it became more integral that man pursues a better understanding of the world where he
lives. One of the avenues that makes this both possible and exciting is the engagement with art
and culture.

Let’s Get Down to Business

In Peter Drucker’s seminal book Post-Capitalist Society (1993), he stated that “the real
controlling resource and the absolutely decisive factor of production is neither capital not land
nor labor. It is knowledge. Instead of capitalists and proletarians, the classes of the post
capitalist society are the knowledge workers and the service workers.” Arguably, one type of
knowledge that fuels the 21st century is creativity. This is evident in the recognition that
professionals in the creative sector are integral drivers and movers in society and an integral
segment of this sector are artists. But who are they?

Artists treaded a long history. Their roots can likewise be traced in one of the major
milestones in human civilization. In the first episode of the video series, “New Ways of Seeing,”
a project by The New York Times’ T Brand Studio and jewelry giant Tiffany and Co., art critic
Jerry Saltz (2016) underscored the significance of not only the discovery of the cave paintings,
but also the paintings themselves. He asserted that “these first artists invented a way to get the
three-dimensional world into two dimensions and attach value to their own ideas. And all of the
history of art flows forth from this invention.” He is apparently referring to the drawings and
painted images of animals, hunting scenes, and a variety of symbolic figures created during the
Stone Age. Examples of these are scattered all around the world, from France, Spain, Namibia,
Australia, and Argentina to name a few. Of course, these works were not yet subsumed in the
highly systematize art world, let alone considered as “art”.