by

“The power of art to reveal the dominant consciousness and challenge it”

Christina Bieber Lake:

When it comes to our experience of the arts, the twenty-first century is unprecedented—and weird. We have greater access to more works of art than ever before, and it is glorious. We can pull up almost any text or painting on our smartphones in seconds. We can discover new artists and listen to entire albums on Spotify. We can even watch complete performances of operas and plays on YouTube. But this greater access has come at a cost so ubiquitous and invisible that it is easy to forget we are paying it. The cost is that nearly every experience of art that we have is heavily mediated and controlled, shifting the source of our pleasure in the experience from gift recipient to consumer and critic. With that shift we become less able than ever to experience resonance—and the transformation that potentially comes through it.