Authentic; The Antidote To The Contrived Artist

Bands play music, and compose songs. Writers, well, they write. Forms of communication, of course. Places to hide? Absolutely.

To use J.J. Abrams’ term, the artist is a mystery box. A successful artist communicates in a way that is exceptionally evocative. Such connection builds a desire in the audience to know the mystery man. For the audience, the artist is the Mystery Box.

Listen to J.J. Abrams’ TED video. He essentially says that his art is a mystery box which gives way to another box and then another and so on. Artists who have a static web presence and make no effort to communicate with their audience devolve to one unchanged mystery box. They become boring.

People Magazine, and that ilk (that ick?), elaborate on the mysterious qualities of a mystery box. When the life of an artist is in flux, they detail the drama, and narrate change to the mystery box. That change is essential to engaging and building audience. Most artists would rather hide than voluntarily detail the mysteries of their life in the mystery box.

So a couple of points. Don’t hide. Have and active web presence. A piece of great advice from Maki at Dosh Dosh:

The most important thing to do is to blog as if no one else was reading you. Know that the most crucial thing you need to protect is your authenticity. Know that your voice will change as you accumulate more unnecessary knowledge. As you realize that people have expectations. As your blog becomes a profitable asset.

None of the existing meta-blogging guidelines are necessary. I say this from the perspective of someone who has imbibed marketing and PR principles for years. Advertisers, peers, industry customs and societal obligations will affect the way you write. It will tame your voice and narrow your perspective.

Art is contrived. Authentic contrasts with the controlled, planned nature of most artistic expression. Authentic is spontaneous, captures a certain wildness, and chaos. That contrast, and the different quality of bonds evoked by authentic expression, help artists significantly improve the quality of their relationship with the audience, and in fact the size of the audience.