As the decade comes to an end I can’t help but reminisce where we were 10 years ago. So many of us strangers existing in our bubbles and now we are the future we never saw coming, the future of a society like none before. Our solo bubbles have burst and we are all in this together now. The world is on fire, children are not going to school because we have not protected their future and world leaders in tangerine shades continue to deny liberty to all. Families separated at borders, civil rights being violated so those that be can stay in power, islamaphobia, racism, rape culture, the list goes on and on when addressing the poisons we have gifted the children of the future. What a hostile environment, this system is broken and unbalanced and we must fix it so that the future has a safe space to prosper in.
So I call to arms the following:
let’s make sustainable art
Let’s make bad art
Let’s make good art
Let’s stop making art (let’s go on vacation)
Let’s throw away all books on composition and start again
Let’s make self care guilt free
Let’s stop praising abusers who have been given power through acclaim as saviours, say no to false gods
Let’s support young artists, their future is our future, but it is theirs longer than it would ever be ours
Let’s tell black kids that it’s okay to be an artist, the world is yours for the taking
Let’s tell all girls your voice has power to change the universe nevermind the world
Let’s tell future generations “In the beginning god created Beyoncé, the end”
Let’s continue to expand our greatest gift, our capacity to be extraordinary.
Let’s critique with progression in mind
Let’s go beyond genre
Let’s say no to spectacle
Let’s say yes to spectacle
Let’s find balance in our morals, ethics and practice
Let’s become artistic directors to make a difference and never for the ego and never for the capital. Positive change that benefits all
Let’s make new techniques
Let’s say no to the monetisation of accessibility to art
Let’s be active never passive
Let’s be sensitive
Let’s be sad (together)
Let’s be happy
Let’s be fully functioning sentient human beings that wake up, poop, eat, drink, dance, breathe, fail, laugh, cry and eventually, sleep.
Lets speak up
Let’s let others speak
Let’s protect our trans brothers and sisters
Let’s check our individual and societal privilege
Let’s dance
Let’s be comrades
Let’s say no to conformism
Let’s be daring
Let’s be careful
The future is new, the future is unknown, because of this, the future is better if we act now. Our actions now determine what kind of world we leave for the next generation. It is up to us to fix it, we may not have broken it but neither did those that will come after us.
I hope at the end of the next decade the world is better off because of what we do from this day moving forward.
“Sometimes the most powerful revelation one can have is that circumstances have changed.” - Leonard Mlodinow, Elastic.