2HousePlague

It is an old cliché that art imitates life. But when you're trying to appreciate very-long-term trends and shifts that happen in only tiny increments, it pays to back far away from the things in which you are trying to discern those trends and shifts. And, from that distance, it?s clear to me just how true that cliché has proven.

Throughout history, our Art has been a reflection of who we are and what?s going on for us ? even if we don?t know it consciously. For that reason, artists are like the Dreamers of our culture ? through their work, they give rise to ?Dreams? we can all look at (as when we awaken in the morning) and then use those visions ? which will be at times nightmarish, at times beautiful ? as windows to otherwise unavailable insights about ourselves.

That was true for a long time, but I don?t think it?s true anymore. I think Art, in its essential usefulness as bridge to? let?s just call it Alternative Experience, has been replaced by something else.

Let?s consider how we got here.

I think the power of Art is bound up in the ways in which, and the degree to which we are connected to other people.

At the end of the 19th Century, Freud and the advent of wire-based communications technologies brought a sense of instantaneity, fleetingness and greater personal subjectivity to the human experience than at any other moment in human history. Before then, I believe, people imagined others living in far-away places of the world as either very similar to themselves, or, otherwise, as so dissimilar as to be able to completely disavow their existence in Abstraction. Art was, therefore, quite free to serve us in all the ways we needed it to, because there was little to contradict it in the form of actual information from Other Places. But, when a degree of ?remote verification? became possible by way of transformative new communications technologies and faster modes of transportation, it became more difficult to indulge our fantasies of Alternative Experience. At the same time it was becoming more popular to think of the Mind as the ?maker of a personal reality? instead of as ?the perceiver of a shared reality?.

100 years ago, the effect to Art was the unleashing of a bold diversity of expression that reflected both the Terror of being alone and the Power of being alone. Psychoanalysis and the thinkers, philosophers, writers and artists it inspired, bestowed unprecedented power on the Individual, by telling everyone, basically -- "It's all in your head."

This trend continued aggressively for 100 years. And art was an important catalyst. By the 1960's, so many people all over the world had simply stopped trying to measure their thoughts against pre-existing standards, that the Liberals (those people prepared to live with questions, and make things up as they went along) and the Conservatives (those people for whom happiness required participating in Vested Systems of Behavior) had come into violent conflict.

Though it was occasionally ?relieved? by episodes of collective tragedy and collective xenophobic/nationalistic revelry, the tension never really went away. Instead, the Human Horror it had become impossible to deny ? for it being everywhere in pictures and films made by photojournalists who traveled to those places where Horror happened ? became internalized in Us. The devaluation of human life bred cynicism and Existential Boredom in the Haves, and despair in the Have-nots. The feeling of global connectedness initially fostered by ?broadcast-based? communications technologies was displaced by a feeling of isolation. As television programs and commercials came to dominate the collective sensory experience of the ?Advanced Nations?, it became easier to pretend that nothing which came to us via Television was real. Art, in response, was overrun by Synthetics and Surrogates of all types, which, even from the greatest of artists producing at that time, did little more than stir a vague, introspective melancholy. Had this trend continued, we might today be living in a world pervaded by Selfish Apathy, instead of Xenophobic Paranoia.

But something happened in the early 1990?s that simply changed Everything. All of you know what I am talking about ? so let?s just say that the desire to connect our ?tools? to each other and to centralized resources ended up connecting all of Us to each other.

Able to ignore the hypnotic lure of Television for the first time since its introduction 40 years before, more and more of our time was given over to computer monitors, instead, which (by way of the Web browser) gave the power of experiential self-determination to millions of people who had never dreamt of such a thing. Suddenly, exploration and discovery could happen at any moment. Whatever the physical circumstances of the User might be ? whether a paraplegic senior living alone on Prince Edward Island or a Somalian orphan ? if they had Internet access, they could be a bona-fide Participant in the Biggest Thing Ever.

I think most of us who?ve been online for a long time have forgotten just how much we got practically overnight, practically for free. It says a lot that we take it for granted now, and never dare to think what our lives would be like without it. But, it?s never been easy to see oneself from up-close.

So, what IS the state of Art on a planet overrun by a Network? Are we closer together, or farther apart? Has ?virtual? connectedness increased our feelings of empathy towards other people, or has it reduced them to mere pixels on our screens? Where is Art? Where are we seeking our Dreams?

We?re forced now to consider what it means to ?connect? with someone. Since the advent of photography 150 years ago, we?ve been staring vacuously at other ?people? in print and on screens, and learning that they are NOT really ?there? in the only way 100,000 prior years of human experience had taught us matters. It used to be that a person had to be in the same room, or at least likely to be in the same room with you in order to stir you or stimulate you or threaten you. But that is obviously not the case anymore. We are learning to build relationships that are important to us, that fully engage our emotions our ?spirit? ? even though there hasn?t been ? may never be ? a physical meeting. How did that happen? How did it happen so quickly?

It can only be that we have migrated so essential an aspect of ourselves into so strange a place and so strange a form ? so quickly ? BECAUSE IT FEELS REALLY, REALLY GOOD.

Whether we want to admit it or not, at some point in our development as a civilization, Art began to fail us. Perhaps this happened simply because Art became inaccessible to most people ? either because it was locked up in museums or because it had become irrelevant to us, though it ?hung? everywhere.

It?s clear that something was starving in us, and that the Online Revolution that began only a decade ago, somehow, provided that essential nourishment we?d been wanting for.

If you?ve ever read Sigmund Freud, you know that he believed that Sex is everywhere and in everything, that it gives urgent motivation ? vital animus ? to all that we do. If you believe that is true, and I think it is ? though I broaden ?Sex? to include many things not immediately associated with sex ? you can begin to guess why Art was failing and why the Internet SAVED us.

The Starvation I am speaking of has been worsening for so long that there isn?t a person alive today who could say they?ve noticed it ? however long they?ve been alive. We?re talking about something happening over hundreds of years, in very small increments. As our civilization developed, as our societies grew larger and more complex, individuals began to lose their bridges to Alternative Experience ? bridges they once sought out in Art.

Now, I am going to suggest something to all of you that is extremely controversial, but also extremely powerful. I hope you will be more excited by the power than daunted by the controversy.

I know many of you have an inferiority complex, as professionals ? perhaps even as people. It?s hard as hell to work in this business, under the constant barrage of judgment and condemnation we suffer without getting a chipped shoulder. We are frowned upon from so many directions, never see the service we provide to our customers characterized in a positive light, never hear from our customers how happy we make them ? unfortunately ? because our society condemns their consumption almost as harshly as it condemns our production. At the end of the day, we have only each other to turn to for understanding and approval. You think there?s any equivalent to GFY in the clothing business, or the medical profession or among shoe retailers? Of course not ? those industries haven?t been forced into the kind of cohesion we have for being as oppressed as we have been. I tell you, that cohesion is our greatest strength ? but we have been persecuted so long and held apart so long, we are almost at a breaking point. We desperately need a new idea, a new way to see ourselves, an answer we can give with pride when a PTA member asks us what we do for a living.

My suggestion is this:


(contd.)

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2HousePlague

I think we have been too ashamed of how much money we make, too afraid of those who would take it from us under the false pretense of ?protection? for some ?mythological victim? we are told we?re responsible for injuring, too afraid to stand up and assert positive things about ourselves and what we do.

We have been defensive and insecure ? but that must STOP IMMEDIATELY.

?Times change.? ?Definitions change.? "Standards change.? Lately, whenever we hear those words, we brace for bad news. But I say NO! If an ?artist? can put a pile of dog shit on a coffee table and call it Art, we can sure as hell make an argument for what we have to offer the lonely bus driver who comes home at the end of a long and fucked up day to get himself a little Alternative Experience.

The definition of Art, and in it, the assertion of our most undeniable right to offer what we offer, lay NOT in the way, but in the EFFECT.

We provide something necessary, something good, something we should be thanked for.

The truth of that begins in how we feel about ourselves. I am so grateful to this community, to this incredible "place" we come to with such - dare I say it -- hopefulness every day. We argue, we laugh, we appall, we celebrate, we share -- in short -- we LIVE on GFY, in a manner never possible before this moment in history.

Clearly, it is possible to derive something essential while staring at a screen. We know it. Our customers know it. Even those who oppress and condemn us know it. I know it. All that remains is for all of you to feel and believe the truth of that, and to radiate it wherever you go.

The First Amendment has long given idealism and righteous vitality to our cause. But lately, it seems just a shield we're hiding behind. We're acting like a bunch of loophole-whores, looking to beat a murder rap with an insanity plea. You think that doesn't send a message, you think that doesn't smell like fear and criminality to those who do nothing but bide their time and plot and seek allies against us, wherever they might come from?




2HP

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tada!

Manowar

Congrats on the 3k dude

Nicky

first of all congrats to the 3k! Im going to read now.....

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eroswebmaster

LOL sorry there might be a few "artists" in this industry..but for the most part there are nothing but a bunch of unoriginal rapists of ideas, soul less sycophantic sheep goose stepping all to the beat of the same drummer.

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EroticySteve

Could this be 2HP's Presidential Platform in 2008?

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Scott McD

Didn't read that but congrat's !!

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skillfull

congrats for the 3k ;)

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FilthyRob

Nice post, congrats on 3k

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Mr.B.

Congrats on the 3k!!

Rui

a bit harsh don't you think

Anyway 2HP nice post, you got a thing with words

cashengine

art would be to capture reality....or fantasy...and put your twist on it....porn is big business and when there is big business there can be no art....who cares what you do in your bedroom or on your computer....there should be freedom to do whatever you want with your winky as long as you dont hurt other people....and girls can sell it....but its not art....jeez

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flirty

i know it's worth reading but i didn't read

congrats anyway.

Phoenix

Go tell it on the mountain

luv ya man

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CCBill-Andy2

Very insightful... At the very least, it's a glass half full approach - which, in my opinion, is a much better way to walk through life.

CCBill-Andy2

No congrats to me on my 13th post? Geez...

Downtime

totally agree on that, and enjoyed the read jack.

congrats on 3k!

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V_RocKs

3K yippie.... to long a post for GFY.... <-- notice 3 letters...

2HousePlague

lol -- thank you for making a rare appearance, andy -- i appreciate it very much.

as for the congrats, if you'll give me some warning, i'm prepared to congratulate you for each and every post you make --

you want me to go back and bump your first 12 -- ? -- lol



2HP

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tada!

pradaboy

congrats 2HP

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tranza

You didn't write all that???

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tranza

And you don't expect us to read all that, right?

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Just_Dave

Congrats on the 3k

jayeff

Nicely argued, but certainly if you are talking about porn and not erotica, what we are delivering cannot qualify as art just because, like art, it consists of visual images. Porn is a purely commercial product quite specifically intended to appeal on an entirely different level.

Should we stand up for ourselves? Yes of course, but for there to be any point, we need to put our house in order. I was flicking through some TGP's this morning: of the twenty or so that I went to directly from SexTracker, three had b*astiality and inc*st categories, and one r*pe too. The biggest TGP's may themselves be clean, but click a trade and then one of his trades... the point is that sectors of our industry which are illegal in some countries and distasteful to most of us, are not many clicks away once someone ventures into our territory. And on most of these sites are many of the same sponsors as appear on the mainstream sites (and of course in everyone's email every day).

Sure, there are people who would throw a blanket around a classical Greek nude statue, but these are not the people we have to fear because they are regarded as the lunatic fringe by the vast majority of the population. Our biggest problem is that so long as we refuse to distance ourselves from those who peddle extreme material, we are doing most of the work for every half-assed politician and social reformer who wants to make a name for him/herself.

It will be 5-10 years before this industry matures enough to recognize it needs to organize and for there to be enough professionals to make it happen. Until then we will continue to be the cause of most of our own problems, and meanwhile, although we should indeed stand up for ourselves, the financial cost alone can make that impractical.

Tala

Fuck YES j-baby! w00t!

Well put. Sure you're not a writer for hire? Damn, the competition is getting fierce.

Congrats ya post whore.

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NY_TIM

Yo, I aint reading all that shit but congrats on 3000..

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sickkittens

Anyone got the Cliff's Notes?

Congrats.

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Napolean

great post

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Violetta

Nice post. Congrats!

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AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Since I don't have the luxury of having the time today to analyze and deconstruct your post in detail, just let me start by saying, thanks for another interesting and thought provoking post, and then I'll make a few points in response to some of what you wrote.

The speed with which technology is emerging and transforming is indeed incredible. The tools at our disposal to reach large masses of people was simply unfathomable a generation ago.

Like many tools, the technology can be used for good or evil, or any number of other purposes.

You began with a cliche, art imitates life, so here is another one, this time from Marshall McLuhan, "the medium is the message". This medium, the internet, has vast potential to either empower us or entrap/imprison us. If we don't learn how to make it do the former, the latter will take us over before we know what has happened. The battle lines are still being drawn.

Moving on, not everything visual is meant as art. Much of that is due to the motivations of people who are behind the various web creations that inundate us. The plain and simple truth is that for many people, the web is only a means to accumulate wealth quickly and easily.

If they feel a need to hire a designer to add a window-dressing to increase profits, they add it, but creating an aesthetic looking site is not the main motivation. I think that this is why so much of the creative output we see in the adult business is cookie cutter in style.

I think the fact that the technology is new, and more easily embraced by young people who are unencumbered by the same necessities of life that already established older people have to cope with (kids, mortgages, etc), is also behind some of this. The lack of maturity among many in the adult industry is apparent in so many ways.

To a generation over-stimulated by video games and a plethora of media that assaults their senses with blatant appeals to greed and putting personal satisfaction ahead of community, the place of art in culture has been severely, although not altogether, diminished.

True artists always form a small percentage of most societies. As technology throws more visual information at us at an ever frenzied pace, the ability of the true artist, particularly those that work with their hands in an intimate way, to be noticed becomes increasingly more difficult.

Erotica? What's that? Sure there are some of us that try to blend in erotica with the imagery we create. But for many it appears to be all about getting attention (traffic) by whatever means works - since there is so much content on the market, the current method seems to be by being using ever more extreme or shocking content.

The people that create this extreme content can hide behind a video monitor in anonymity, although they will frequent places such as GFY in search of recruits or validation for creating content that they probably know is less than acceptable to most people in society.

There are people creating some very artistic and erotic web sites that are also making good money, and there are others that don't. Basically, there are some artists that don't mind being starving artists if they can remain pure and true to their art.

Personally, I fall somewhere in between. I put a lot of work into what I do, and so I like to have some financial reward for that, since that is what enables me to grow and expand my infrastructure, increase my tools, and add more colors to my palate. Ultimately it allows me to refine my technology driven art and reach more people with the meanings embedded in my creative output (be it web, DVDs or whatever).

Although I am untrained as an artist, I strive to bring a certain aesthetic to everything I do, and I constantly try to expand my creative boundaries. It's painfully slow at times, but as I achieve each new plateau I feel a great sense of accomplishment and more freedom than I ever knew before in my previous endeavors.

Like you I appreciate the sense of the community that GFY offers, although I think it has the potential to be even better and be more than it is today if the moderators want to do that. Sure, lots of what is posted gets under my skin (mostly mindless flaming, misogynist/racist bigoted posts and gross/violent pictures), but that is more than made up for by the laughter, and especially the sharing and caring that many demonstrate in here.

Well, I am certain I have rambled on long enough for one post. Just wanted to share a few thoughts which your post inspired.

Congrats on the 3,000k and keep up the great posts.

ADG Webmaster

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Art.

We all celebrate our own arts.
Be it Biz, graphic design, Photography, accounting, harnessing traffic...

Its all art.

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The dream is seeing there is so much more to do."

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Halcyon

I'm with you, brother. That piece deserves a more permanent place of publishing (and much futher contempation by me)

Personally, I see the intersection of the erotic frontier and the digital frontier as being the most fertile ground for artistic expression there is.

Sex connects deeply. Someone who would never walk a labrinth or meditate would surely be able to discuss the transcendece of sexual climax. And someone who feels no spiritual connection to their neighbor can "connect" to a cam girl half way around the earth. In these ways porn can be a "back door" to spiritual evolution. And isn't that exactly what great art facilitates?!

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Vitasoy

Congrats on the 3k, keep it up

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2HousePlague

hey -- np -- anytime, that's why i show up to work here every morning --

dude -- you're in SF -- we should hang -- we'll go have dinner with xpays and gary kremen -- -- lol


2HP

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tada!

nofx

Freud also said that all males want to have sex with their mother, the Oedipus Complex.

lovely rant btw and congrats on the 3k

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NTSS

Dizzy and horny at the same time. Congrats on 3k!

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Nismo

It makes me feel happy in my naughty area.

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AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

I feel like such a technocrat compared to you when I read your writing. Damn, you are in touch with your sensual side. I have spent too many years reading dry product/technology literature and historical/political ramblings that I still have yet to fully develop my erotic voice (if I had one, I hope it would sound like Barry White, hehe...yeah, baby).

I seriously need to consider dying my hair pink, LOL.

Nice post.

ADG Webmaster

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2HousePlague

lol -- me too -- note the file name --


2HP

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Halcyon

Thanks, ADG! Let me know when you want to start trading hair dye tips. ;)

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pornguy

That image makes me feel like dancing.

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AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

Sure...right after Sy Sperling gets back to me, I'll give you a call. LOL.

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sniperwolf

congrats and I 'm nt afraid okay!

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subVERSION

All my praise goes to you Jack. If at any point in history there is a documented change, there is a spearhead to that revolution. You my brother, are on the fore font of that movement. I'm beholden to you.

We should know by now that a man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting, nor by thinking about what he will think when he has finished acting. A man of knowledge chooses a path with heart and follows it; then he looks and rejoices and laughs; and then he sees and knows. He knows that his life will be over altogether too soon; And that we all share a part of this reality. Why not chose to make it as it should be.

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nastyking

One of the best things you can do on GFY is to read Jack's posts.

Congrats on your 3000 Posts. You are a great enrichment to this board

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2HousePlague

ty --



2HP

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tada!

reynold

Cock-throbbing 3k post... ;)

wildgirl

congrats on the 3k dude, nice posts

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TurboAngel

Congrats babe!