Authentic Conundrum
Can human behavior be quantified? Social scientist would answer, yes. Raw data is collected, analyzed and formulated into a conclusion that narrows actions and responses down to an almost certainty. Our capitalistic society is built on forecasting and prognosticating of multinational corporations based on the same raw data used to quantify human behavior.
These algorithms anticipate your every need and desire, then deliver them to the palm of your hand or doorstep via drone delivery system. The outliers of these equations are a small percentage of the population that buck the system, brakes trend and creates something seemingly organic and original. This originality is quickly identified by the masses, only to be consumed and homogenized as something plastic and synthetic that falls short of the original. Such a craze causes businesses to try to look for and anticipate the next outlier that will surface. Which begs the question, does such a quest produce real authenticity, or is it something that could have been predicted? This enigma prompts a larger question, is there such a thing as authenticity and if so, at what point is it lost?
Many entities and people base their livelihood on these predictions of human behavior. Schools and Universities use such data to equate the success rate of individuals, admitting those that fulfill a school’s criteria of what makes a successful student. Today’s athletic scouts use new metrics and analytics to anticipate the potential success rate of future athletes. It has been theorized by the Futurist Manifesto that states, there is no original ideas beyond a certain age saying that youth “possesses a kind of originary naiveté… When we are no longer children, we are already dead.”
In other words, when we as creative humans reach the age of maturity, the ability to see the world anew and conjure original concepts has ended, as experience and knowledge set in. If it is evident that human behavior can be foreshadowed, is there such a thing as authenticity? How can we rightfully answer this, in a means that seems to equal genuine free will? When modern art and culture seems calculated and homogenized, how can we truly know where authenticity resides?
In tackling this quandary, one must ask what is behind motivating an idea. Whom are you looking to reach and what disruption are you attempting to cause. When examining the world of art and design for example, history seems to repeat itself and most ideas seem to echo the past. Today’s parents bestow upon their children affectionate characters and toys from their own childhood, creating an inauthentic upbringing for today’s childhood. We find pleasure in the familiar and often times fall into the fallacy that what we perceive as an original idea, has in fact been planted by the result of exposure such as the phenomenon of cryptomnesia.
Is their anything new to discover, or are we merely remaking and redoing works from our past? Are artist and producers creating any authentic works? And if authentic work can be created, as in those outliers spoken of earlier, does such artist and producers reach a tipping point where they lose authenticity and the honesty in their work?
As outlined, quantifying human behavior churns net positive results. Since this seems to be the case, a formula must exist that can be used as a template to produce such results. This formula, upon discovery can be used to create work that is sought after. Some of the most prominent artists have been in question of such a formula. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kurt Cobain to name a few have been scrutinized under this notion. Their brilliance, although regarded, has also ushered many to query their authenticity. It is perhaps in their untimely exit, that the concept of the formula is confronted. For when the formula consumes the authentic artists the damning question is asked; is it better to burn out, then to fade away? At this point, does an artist or producer make the choice to capitalize upon such a formula in where authenticity dies? This existential hypothesis can be asked of any artist who finds themselves in the crossroads between authenticity and formulaic results. It answers the question that art does indeed imitate life and not the other way around.
