ArtiFact #41: Is YouTube Destroying Art? | Alex Sheremet, Ezekiel Yu, Dan Schneider

Art YouTube ranges from academic to street, high-brow to low-brow, natural, performative, good and bad. In ArtiFact #41, writers Alex Sheremet, Ezekiel Yu, and Dan Schneider tackle some of the more popular art YouTube channels, dissecting their arguments, assumptions, and presentation. Our questions include: how does YouTube incentivize poor artistic judgment and packaging? Does overly performative criticism damage the field? What is the difference between criticism and sociological critique? Is “honesty” really the most important quality in a critic? Is worrying about the commodification of the arts self-defeating? Plus: comments on Banksy, Kurt Cobain, Andy Warhol, Marxist theory, & more.

This conversation can also be watched on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RHNRHLHa8yg

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B Side topics: Ezekiel Yu’s development as a writer; yes, every writer writes from experience; the before/after when figuring out how to write; Alex’s video essay on Robin DiAngelo; in praise of Laura Woods; artistic competition; why Milk74 is an interesting YouTuber; PhilosophyTube sucks; Vladimir Vysotsky’s worst songs focused on street culture; Zeke’s religious transitions; truth vs. privacy in personal memoir; how having less time allows you to do more; art as therapy is good if there is a worthwhile art-object that comes out of it; Alex and Zeke discuss their guilty pleasures; Kwame Brown & natural conservatism; Andrew Tate, JustPearlyThings, & others with failed relationships give relationship/marriage advice; why Red Pill men are effeminate; tackling a bad video essay on Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”

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Timestamps:

0:00 – the pitfalls of “art” YouTube; voices & affectations; how good art channels become bad; content vs. personality; Zeke mispronounces ‘automachination’

13:07 – Steve Shives is wrong about “honesty” in a critic; subjective preferences in the arts vs. objective evaluation; sociology vs. criticism; taking oneself out of one’s criticism; a critic’s honesty is the minimum standard for criticism; how Steve Shives switches between critical and emotional language; why Dan Schneider, on rare occasions, goes for bimbos; is this an exhortation to “not try”?

52:58 – The Canvas YouTube channel; performative discussions of art; Alex describes the culture shock of getting into college; how authority, museums, etc. dissuade artistic critique; the arts do not require mystique; dissecting The Canvas’s Aesthetics vs. Cognition distinction; art vs. artistic context; the passing off of negative qualities as positive traits; Noble Savage myths of art; separating art & self; how time levels, resets artistic baselines; 

01:36:38 – The Canvas on Banksy, Andy Warhol, Marxist theory, & Kurt Cobain; too many sources can compromise opinion; the commodification of art; the art audience; Alex: commodification is a side-show next to the actual production of, & work ethic in, art; so-called “artistic problems” and “artistic concerns” are self-made, rather than genuine issues; why artists & non-artists often justifying not creating art

Tags: #art, #podcast, #artist, #kurtcobain, #banksy