Whether you realize it or not, art is everywhere. Indeed, your daily routine probably already includes some form of art in one way or another.
Whether taking the bus or driving to school, the details and designs of these vehicles were created by artists. The music by your favourite artists flowing through your headphones is art. The advertisements, the buildings around you, they were all designed by artists.
With art so normalized with every aspect of our lives, it’s no surprise that the general population constantly overlooks this medium. But because art is so easily overlooked, it means that when art suffers, no one fully understands why we should care.
Last August, the Edmonton Public School Board shared a list of banned books exclusively with CBC News. With the list spanning 200 titles, it included many such as The Handmaid's Tale and Brave New World. Both books have been subject to censorship throughout North America because of sexually explicit themes and violence.
However, both books are highly acclaimed for their portrayal of themes related to oppression, societal standards, and gender roles that are detrimental to humanity. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood depicts a dystopian future where a patriarchal, totalitarian government reigns. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley also details a dystopian future that exaggerates the problems we have in the real world with outlandish technologies.
These books were essential in bringing forward sociological theories and principles that helped shape how people view and understand the world around us. By criticizing the issues that exist in entertaining yet digestible mediums, it helps people stay informed and truly understand the world around us.
Yet, these books were boiled down to nothing more than "sexual themes" and "explicit violence," and therefore should be undermined and ignored. Although there is some truth to restricting younger audiences from these themes, banning these books altogether sabotages the artistic integrity behind these messages.
Even worse, a school board in Austin, Texas, used AI to learn which books had Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content. The news was discovered by one of the founders of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, a non-profit organization that fights book bans and for student rights in Texas.
Besides the blatant issues behind censoring "DEI content," using AI to censor art is a slap in the face. Using a tool that was created by usurping existing arts and technologies to oppress content made to educate the masses highlights why it is important to save the arts in the first place.
An aspect of being political is to adapt the human experience into something digestible, where a major idea is simplified into something exaggerated for its ideals to be understood. Then, is it not fair to assume most aspects of art are inherently political?
In 1930, Disney, originally Walt Disney Studios, released multiple propaganda cartoons during the Second World War and the Great Depression. One of the most well-known cartoons is Der Führer’s Face, a short cartoon highlighting the day-to-day life of a Nazi Donald Duck working in a bombshell factory.
Released in 1943, the propaganda cartoon was satirical, featuring a miserable and constantly anxious Nazi soldier remaining patriotic to caricatures of fascist political symbols.
During these periods, these cartoons were an essential piece in maintaining high morale when the state of the world was uncertain. An interview with Kirsten Komoroske with Smithsonian Magazine, the executive director for the Walt Disney Museum, sees these cartoons as a “feel-good place.”
The world of Disney is seen as "an upbeat place to take refuge,” she said to Smithsonian.
Music is able to convey a similar message. For instance, from the mid-1950s to the late '60s, the Civil Rights Movement brought into fruition art that critiqued and challenged oppressors.
Cultural critic A. Loudermilk wrote in a 2013 study of jazz artist and activist Nina Simone, noting she released many songs that became representative of the Black experience during this era. Old Jim Crow, Mississippi Goddam and Strange Fruit, for instance, take on racist stereotypes, such as blackface, or revamp an existing song to coincide with the political movement.
Loudermilk cited interviews with Simone, who said many of her anthems for the Civil Rights Movement went unacknowledged for some time despite their impact.
"I was desperate to be accepted by the Civil Rights leaders, and when I was, I gave them 10 years of singing protest songs. In turn, it was the only time I've been truly inspired by anything other than ... Mozart, Czerny, Liszt, and Rachmaninov," Simone said.
Music was her platform to uplift the minority. By tying elements of systemic oppression into her music, she was able to create her mark in history and, consequently, the message of her music.
With traditional news slowly dwindling and the general population gravitating to social media and leisure, it’s more important than ever for people to remain informed and educated. As free media becomes a foreign concept, it highlights why artistic criticisms are essential in the first place.
Throughout history, art has been, and always will be, a symbol of speaking out on the deeply ingrained issues within our institutions. With corruption and genocide on the loose, famine and war running rampant, sometimes there are no ways to verbalize brutal hardships.
But we may hear or see them through creative expression.
Art is awareness, and the medium is the message.
