Recently, I told many of you on my Facebook page that I was going to do a post about the newly released Guggenheim show "Play" that's a partnership between YouTube.com and the museum franchise respectively. I must say that I'm disappointed in show. But first let me support my opinion with some caveats. There is indeed an amalgam of wonderful work here, the Guggenheim simply miss the understanding that by allowing YouTube to be the platform so should the content be from the people. Pure user generated content (UGC) is what most of YouTube is actually filled with. Instead we got filmmakers (all do respect going to your ability and craft) using YouTube to submit work. It felt like most of it was slickness over core content. I wanted raw and I got polish. I guess (I hope), that this is the transition into using social platforms as a vehicle for art, so they sought the safe route in so doing. Ergo we received the most digestible content. But sifting through the majority of it feels like a bag of animation student demo reels, project short films from advertising agencies and music videos that MTV simply won't play anymore. I'm very bummed.
- The Guggenheim
- Concept defined here
- The YouTube "Play" Website with videos
And for haters to my opinion I can say honestly "no" I did not watch ALL the videos and I'm not trying to say that I disliked the content. I disliked the outcome of what (in my humble opinion) SHOULD have been driven by art using technology and venue. Not a venue using technology as a submission form. Some of you might be asking yourself "what's an ad dick know about the fine art community anyways?" Well I was born of two fine artists. Both former professors at the now Ringling College of Art & Design. I've curated shows, hung shows, witnesses countless gallery openings and have embraced my local art community as based I can at this time. It just didn't see anything that shook me or touched me like witnessing powerful work for the first time.
I just feel that it should have embraced the artist with minimal means as "a tool to express." Indeed there is a miniscule amount of that work in the chosen selects but not enough. The opportunity to create something that could be seen on a stage such as the Guggenheim is once in a lifetime I agree. But the body of work felt as though it choked out soul-stirring content for standard television fodder. We received nothing short of the Guggenheim/YouTube film festival. Too bad.