Art as a political/social platform

I agree. I think that while today's art is largely a product of desublimation as discussed in lecture, art is also more than just merely an acceptable outlet for advertisements to extend themselves to the general public. People see art in different ways as art is not an evidence- based statement but rather is an outlet for the mind of people viewing the art to see what they want in it. For this reason, art does play a part in commercial society in order to appeal goods to a variety of audiences but the art itself means more than what it is being depicted to promote in my opinion. As well, art can bring communities together through commercial or non- commercial outlets such as painting classes at community centres, or the giant decorative orca statues with sponsors that Vancouver placed around the city several years ago.

1) I agree with you both that art cannot be so readily dismissed as a product of desublimation. This leads me to believe that Marcuse's concept of repressive desublimation may be be an overly simple diagnosis of the role of art in society. Take technology as an example. Designs and artistic ideas are transformed into everyday objects that are gratifying and instantaneous. Marcuse would say that this is repressive for art and very much so, for us, because it is dominating us. However, we do not feel that it is repressive. Instead, we are completely trapped in illusion of feeling like we are liberated, the world is our oyster, we can have control of time....etc. We don't feel repressed. We actually feel quite content and comfortable. I think that this can be brought back to Evelyn's point of how art is not all repressive and can provide more to people like bringing communities together.

2) I have a question (on a slightly different note). Is it possible for non-commercial outlets of art like fostering community to counterbalance those repressive commercial outlets like commercialism of art?