Art and Artists In Society

In my opinion, McLuhan expresses some very strong ideas that can lead to deeper, more in-depth thoughts. The first thing in this quotation that is a little uncertain is what exactly McLuhan means by arts. I personally see the arts as anything created by an artist, which means anything created by man. Therefore, the arts are paintings, architecture, sculptures, drawings, but also other things, such as new technological systems and computer software. Anything that is man-made and constructed with care and purpose can be considered art. To me, I can understand McLuhan’s point that art “acts as an early radar system” because it exposes us to what is yet to come. In my eyes the artist, who can be any or every one of us, looks to the future, and that is where his or her artwork comes from. The artist targets things that haven’t happened, but they open our eyes to it so that we might be prepared if it does.

Because McLuhan acknowledges that art is an early warning system for all humankind, the next question to ask is what art is warning us against. I think this is a question that is impossible to answer because it is can vary so much from artist to artist. For example, in the short story we read for class called “The Lottery”, the author presented a society through the art of writing, which warned us of the surprising tradition of this village: public stoning which was decided through a lottery. While this story warns us of the societal normality of stoning, other works of art warn us of things entirely different. For example, a certain painting may warn the viewer of a war scene or a battle yet to come. Another short story may warn of futuristic ways in which the world may function, such as “Harrison Bergeron”, in which everyone in the world is equal until one man decides to try to break the trend. Therefore, I think it is easy to see that the artist plays a very important role in the culture of our world by expressing, sometimes, new ideas that influence our outlook on life, which affect the media. Artists are intimately intertwined into the systems of our world and media which influence us every day. It is because of the artwork produced by artists that our society processes ideas as it does, and individuals function as they do.