Intentions and outcomes
People have been talking about the nature, purposes and effects of art at least since the time of Plato and Aristotle and yet humanity does not seem to have reached much agreement about this abiding preoccupation. On reflection, that is probably something to be grateful for, since it is the lack of consensus about what it is, and what it might be good for, that keeps art alive. Art eludes us like a wild horse, full of beauty and promise but never truly mastered, even when it allows a ride, however brief, however exhilarating. Our expectations of art, like the ways in which we practise it, change from time to time and from place to place. It doesn’t mean the same things in Belgium, America or India: nor does it mean today what it did a hundred years ago. But there are consistencies, nonetheless.
from ‘Music for Social Change’
Re-reading this text, it struck me as rather dense, perhaps because it deals with questions I have thought about for many years and might have needed more pace and time to explain fully. It’s mostly concerned with the false assumptions about art and people that lead funders (and often artists) to conceive, plan and evaluate arts projects in ways that are misleading or worse. At the heart of it is Socrates’ undeniable perception that ‘it’s beyond [people’s] capacity to make anyone either wise or foolish’ (in Crito). Artists don’t control the outcomes of their creative activity, thank goodness, but too often they behave as if they did, with very problematic results. The text questions the very idea of ‘impact’, and the inequality it embodies. It concludes by making a case for moving towards probability as a way to monitor and understand the outcomes of creative work.
Music and Social Change: Intentions and Outcomes v.2 (10/22) was originally presented at Handelsbeurs in Ghent (Belgium) on 6 October 2015 at the first International Symposium of the SIMM (Social Impact of Making Music) research centre of the Ghent University Association. This version was published on 7 October 2022 at https://miaaw.net
François Matarasso 