Fine art is punk

For this post, fine art is contextualized through the lens of lifestyle, creative foundation, & downstream cultural patterns.

The fine in fine art is of significance here. Let’s use that word to illustrate pointedness. Within this we should think of refinement, surface area, etc. If you subscribe to the belief that everything is created, then fine art is a conscious decision at the ground layer of existing as an individual.

Working from the graphic above, the theory is as follows:

1. the unrefined individual is messy with energy spend

2. this messiness shrinks the surface area of their output

3. correction of this messiness expands surface area of their output

4. continuance of refinement eventually expands to their local max energy spend

5. further continuance results in control of their creative output, max, & direction

Journal.

A week of journaling in the morning and before sleeping. There is a reason Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself. There is a reason mindfulness gurus LARP about it. It works.

The base layer of fine art must start at the lifestyle habits of the creative (in this essay creatives are any individual that creates their day - thus every capable individual).

This is the only way (lifestyle habits) to expand energy spend to current local max & beyond.

https://twitter.com/0xlght/status/1650534784119222275?s=20

The thoughtfulness aspect of refining energy spend and local max is what makes this punk. The marketing aspects of grindset culture are similar, but not congruent. The former is about mimicry, the latter is about individualism.

To refine energy expend is to refine your day to day. To refine your day to day is to refine your present, future, and understanding of the past - thus refining time itself.

Progressing to layer 2 of our working theory:

6. “everything is plundered” - macroblank

7. this means uniqueness is in curation/combining of common elements

8. adherence to this law provides creative freedom of expression

9. this new found freedom radically empowers a new output signal

10. the output signal is an upgradeable/trainable aspect of the self

Blockchains make this quite simple. Let’s look at XCOPY who has made their entire discography cc0 (free to use in the public domain). You can browse their work here.

https://xcopy.art/

Now let’s look at berk.eth’s Copymint Allies project. A dapp that allows anyone to mint an NFTs metadata image to their own wallet. This means that I can mint all of XCOPYs existing work to my own wallet without buying from them.

https://twitter.com/berkozdemir/status/1589303368505528320?s=20

Some will say their is nothing unique in copying XCOPYs work image for image, but the chain proves this false. The entire creation includes:

• the image (same)

• the wallet (unique)

• the hash (unique)

To some this will be semantics, but I challenge them to read this great thread:

https://twitter.com/puntedDecision/status/1486553689036890118?s=20

In a world of copyright, DMCA takedowns, IP suits, DSPs, and more - the onchain art world births a different discussion. The wallet and the public ledger are the arena of proof and provenance.

If I wanted to steal every image in XCOPYs portfolio I still wouldn’t be able to steal from them. The chain makes it abundantly clear who is who.

This means creative freedom has been unleashed. To remix the creative library of human history is already how creatives have arranged their pixels and colors. Now there are less legal hiccups inhibiting human expression. We are at the forefront of an art world where “the idea itself is valued.”

This is the most punk scenario of creative expression to date.

Combining the two verticals (lifestyle habits & creative foundation) you should now see how this is counter-culture to the downstream. In an era where the news tries to tell you what to concern yourself with, the social feeds try and tell you what is important, and the digital neighbor tries to tell you what life is about, a fine art approach is punk.

Again, fine art is being contextualized as a conscious decision at the ground layer of existing as an individual. One that tackles refinement, surface area of energy spend, and creative output.

Not only is it punk; it is a key to your most enjoyable self.