One of the most exciting things about the evolution in content distribution that’s happening now – scratch that: the revolution – is that content providers (otherwise known as “artists”) no longer have to limit their output to the kind of work that a megacorp feels is unchallenging enough to safely market to the masses.
But masses don’t consume art; people do. You do and I do. Each work of art is an individual opportunity for one person – the artist – to have an exchange of ideas with another person – the viewer or audience member. You or me. The megacorps that have, until the upheaval caused by the webbing of the planet, claimed for themselves all the control, and therefore all the access and the product, of these interchanges are scrambling to maintain a foothold on the increasingly shaky ground. Meanwhile, the control they’re losing their grip on is fragmenting and falling down around their feet, and being reclaimed by its rightful owners: the individual artists.
Case in point? David Lynch, who’s always been a maverick as a filmmaker and artist, has nonetheless always had to rely on the entrenched machinery of the established distribution system to get his art out there, so that you and I can interact with it. His work had to be big enough, in other words, to be worth the time and effort it took for a major studio to market it. If there’s no potential for profit, there’s no incentive to sell it. Because of course selling it has always been the only option.
So let’s raise a glass to the continuing dissolution of the old distribution model while we enjoy one of the many, many fruits of the process: these odd and beautiful little interviews with real people at David Lynch’s youtube channel.
Start with my favorite, the man whose life was changed by a visitation from the spirit of Stevie Nicks, and work your way through the rest of them. You’ll be glad you’ll did. You’ll be puzzled, and maybe a little disturbed, but glad.
