The Death Of The Artist...

Please take the time to read the entirety of this fascinating piece from The Atlantic - "The Death of the Artist - and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur." It covers a nice bit of history regarding the term "artist" and how society changed over time to revere the term as less of a craftsperson and more of a higher thinking privilege of expression.

The more engaging aspect of the article is the idea that the current definition as we think of it is certainly dying and being replaced with more of a practical Creative Entrepreneur. It sounds loaded with buzz words but it makes sense - it's not enough to make the work, you must work the audience as well.

Creative entrepreneurship, to start with what is most apparent, is far more interactive, at least in terms of how we understand the word today, than the model of the artist-as-genius, turning his back on the world, and even than the model of the artist as professional, operating within a relatively small and stable set of relationships. The operative concept today is the network, along with the verb that goes with it, networking. A Gen-X graphic-artist friend has told me that the young designers she meets are no longer interested in putting in their 10,000 hours. One reason may be that they recognize that 10,000 hours is less important now than 10,000 contacts.

Much of that sounds at odds with being an 'artist' but it's part of the changing nature of the word. Maybe it's always been this way - it's Who You Know not What You Know, right? But I think the nature of the Internet is really pushing that notion further, for better or worse.

Will the definition of "artist" be pushed further into the misunderstood loner or will we begin to think of an artist as someone who truly understands The Hustle and actually connecting with an audience? And by that I don't mean tweeting and posting at an audience, I mean actually being the head of a community. I think it's more likely than not.