Vibes as Art
Vibes are the predominant art form of late stage capitalism. When the world moved from selling us “things” to selling us “experiences,” vibes were everywhere. Even art itself morphed, in popular understanding, to the “Art World.”
On the positive side, vibes are democratic. The tools to create them and distribute them are at everyone’s fingertips (ie this zine). There are no strictures of form or contents that have stymied other types of creativity (isn’t it insane there is an official way to make a pizza?). There is an interesting purity in someone putting effort into creating a feeling for another person. Every time someone reaches for a candle to “set the mood” they are creating a highly localized and ephemeral piece of art. If it is a spectrum, then we have the candle on one end and installation art like Christo or Olafur Eliasson on the other.
The Oxford English Dictionary (hahahahhahaha) defines Art as “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Vibes fall squarely inside of this expansive definition. So what? What help is a label of a label? How does that help us better understand our experience and urges?
Globally, what we have here is a failure to communicate. With individuals feeling their means of expression are limited to conventional mediums (painting, poetry, screamo, etc), we have a repressed source of creativity. Not all of it will be good and even less of it will be interesting. But the law of large numbers states that the bigger the haystack the more needles we will find.
Art has always been an evolution. Take painting, from cave drawings to the renaissance to abstract expressionism, as an ongoing assimilation of earlier works and genres. When we think of Vibes as these multi sensory collages (either intentional, unintentional or natural), they are incorporating discrete elements and influences and presenting them as something new, and more approachable, as whole than their parts.
So let’s acknowledge and celebrate the fine art of putting on the right playlist, messing with the dimmer, talking with your hands to make sure everyone gets the point, etc. If we all had a chance to get on each other’s wavelength, wouldn’t things get a little more interesting?