Massive Re-definition

Highlights from Ben Cameron's incredible TED talk...

- Technology is the biggest competitor for leisure time.
- A typical entering University student arrives at college already having spent 20,000 hours online and 10,000 playing video games. Video games outsell music and movie recordings combined.
- Cultural consumers are used to downloading on the internet, 24 hours a day, for $0.99 a song, or for free.

There is a seismic redefinition of culture and communication taking place.

Adrienne Rich: We are out in a country that has no language, no laws, whatever we do together is pure invetion, the maps they gave us are out of date by years.

We are engaged in a fundamental Reformation. Thanks to the invetion of the internet, web technology, mini-cams and more, the means of artistic production has been DEMOCRATIZED for the first time in all of human history. The means for artistic distribution has been democrotized for the first time in human history, too. YouTube, Facebook, etc., you have worldwide distribution without leaving the privacy of your own bedroom.

Massive Re-Definition of the cultural market, where anyone is a potential author.

In the entire world, audience #s are dropping, but the # of art's participants are exploding. Pro-Ams-- amateur artists doing work at a professional level- are becoming widespread. They are radically expanding our notions of a potential of an aesethic vocabulary. They are challending and undermining the autonmy of our cultural institutions.

We live in a world defined by participating, not consumption.

Now we have the rise of the professional hybrid artist.

We, in the performing arts, will be more important than ever before. Buisness leaders will depend more on emotional intelligence, the ability to listen deeply, empathy, to articulate change to motivate others, especially now.