the artistry gatekeepers
the clock strikes hourly
Caistor Parish Church March 15th @ 13:44:59
Be creative in your own way
“The Iron Law of Oligarchy,”
Sociologist Robert Michels spent much of his career studying the dynamics of power in organizations.
His research resulted in a startling conclusion known as “The Iron Law of Oligarchy,” which suggests that all organizations, regardless of their original mission, structure, or how democratic they aspire to be, inevitably evolve to serve the interests of a small elite.
Since its publication in 1911, many studies have attempted to seek exceptions to the Iron Law. Very few such exceptions were documented, and the Iron Law remains one of humanity’s most inconvenient of all inconvenient truths.
I was reminded of the Iron Law recently when a friend shared with me his experience of attempting to apply for an art grant. His art, like mine, is based on photography of natural subjects. To the learned eye, his work is indisputably distinctive in style within what laypersons may refer to generically as “landscape photography.” His application was rejected, in part, because his work was perceived as “aesthetic” and “convenient,” with the admonition that he should strive to get a sense of what’s being done in “contemporary photography.”
Put another way, a public institution proclaiming to promote art rejected an artist on the premise that his work is not sufficiently similar to that of other artists, not provocative or obscure enough, and too pretty.
—Guy Tal
Or, as Kafka put it, “Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.”