Corporate Windmills

The image of the windmill scene constructed of corporate logos is an excellent cherry-picking which agrees with the McLuhan quote. The image deals with power and the nature of power in our culture. Windmills are of course a source of power, and it is appropriate that the windmills are made out of corporate logos because it is corporations that hold the power in this country. In this regard, McLuhan’s assertion that the arts anticipate future social and technological developments is spot-on. Here the artist is warning us against consolidating too much power in too few hands.

So, artists have some inborn ability to predict the future and save us from ourselves? I doubt it. For any piece of art that accurately prophesizes some evil, there are a hundred pieces that range in importance from tripe to “mere” self-expression. The McLuhan quote also implies that once an artist has created something that portends some social ill, we hop right on fixing it because we now know that there is a problem coming. I would like to see some examples before I buy into it.