Video Worth Watching: Tom 14-Pretty Cool Interviews
Tom 14 – Pretty Cool People Interviews from submarine channel on Vimeo
Tom views his art as a form of social action. Ethical issues aside, Tom’s work does bring up the question, “What role does art play in effectual social action?” Maybe more specifically, “What is the place of art in current Christianity?” It seems anecdotally that through most of history [at least Western history] artist have been on the cusp of societal change, especially in the church. What about today?
Themocracy
I’m usually not an artsy person, but I could appreciate a lot of what he was saying.
I liked that it was in Spanish. I haven’t heard a lot of Spanish in a while.
Was that a Beastie Muchachos video in the middle there?
I don’t think we should do art for the sake of doing art. I think people who are into art should incorporate their faith into their art. I think this will happen with those who have relationships with the Savior. The guy in this video feels passionately about something, so he acts on it through the channels that are available to him. So to should the Christian.
In America, I think there isn’t too much of an outward expression because of the isolated nature of people’s lives. But I think a lot of people, especially younger people, want more.
I appreciate politics and talking about them, but I am ashamed to look over my past few weeks/months of posts to see how many of them I get worked up about things like that, yet rare is the post that I pour that energy and conviction into (or out of) my faith.
The arts in general (music, acting, painting, etc.) have been effective catalysts. I think it sucks that the church tends to microwave the brilliance of secular artistry instead of being original.
great thoughts guys.
i am not an artist! i wish i was, but i am not. i do however appreciate art(ist) and think in some sense that i can tell the difference between art (whatever that means) and junk. i’m sure some would argue that art is very much a part of the current mainline (whatever that means) typical (who knows what that even is) christian experience. i would argue that mediocre, canned music and that couldn’t have passed for current 20 years ago and grainy, bulk purchased clip art can hardly considered art. There is something about art [the arts] that can be moving, even to a non-artist as myself. i also think there are plenty of young christian artist expressing themselves in exciting meaningful ways. i’m just not sure there is always an open door for them in churches. i wish i had a solution, but for now, talking about it is all i can offer.
Interesting, related post on Xanga:
http://weblog.revelife.com/revelife/679868458/why-christian-art-misses-the-point.html
That’s a good article.