Keywords: duty, usefulness, creativity, evaluation

NB: This article is the English version of the Japanese paper, which was online on December 23rd: https://note.com/adphilandart897x/n/na5f6038a8c06 

Acknowledgment

My first article, which came online on December 17th, got many more “likes” than I had expected. I was amazed at the result, to be honest, and at the same time, I was glad about it from my true heart. I want to thank all the viewers without knowing how I should be thankful enough. Although I want to keep saying thank you for your good reactions each time, it might not be realistic. Nevertheless, I’ll have the same great emotion, so it would be great if you understood.

Duty of artists as such

People always seek an occasion to improve their careers. That makes them think there are helpful things, and they must search for them. But, on the other hand, such things, like abandoned broken automobiles, seem unnecessary because they won’t work and ordinary people don’t need them anymore. That seems to be true. Besides, they still haven’t realized the importance of something at the same time…

An abandoned mini-van in a yard

Walking between two rice fields

I was walking a path between two rice fields for leisure the other day. The weather was fine, and it was getting colder as the season turned from autumn to winter. On the way, I found an automobile that presumably hadn’t been used for a long time. The white body was covered partially with moss and dirt, the windows weren’t clear enough to see the interior, and it lost its function as a mobile transport system. Probably, it was because of the owner that the inside of the mini-van was full of trash and rubbish. It wouldn’t work anymore. Therefore, I guessed he left it abandoned since that will cost to recycle or repair.
In the beginning, I felt nothing special about the car. Narrowly, I couldn’t care less about its future of it. This old van will no longer be alive again. That was all I felt, but I occasionally took a picture of it for my impulse. I thought it was at least for my memory, which would work well later.

The art to live


After returning home, I turned on my laptop to watch an interview with active artists in East Japan. They settled in the north of a rural Kanto province, especially in the mountainous countryside. Their work had features based on their concept “The art to live” that expressed mainly the scenic landscape of the surrounding nature. Their artwork motivated me to get involved in their talk during the interview. It unintentionally became a philosophical moment for me, so I want to write it down in this article.

Responsibility of artists

First, the interviewer asked them why they had been engaging in their concept. It is based on their experience after quitting their first job at a Japanese company. Then, they traveled through Africa, which was mind-blowing for them.

While they were staying in the southern part of Africa, they had a massive interest in building a house with mud. It took them ten days, although the average local was supposed to make one only in 3 days.
Then, one of the locals questioned how the artists had been living in Japan. As the artists said, the local man laughed because it wasn’t imaginable for him that they had been making money for a living.


Based on their experiences, they launched a project regarding community building and local vitalization in the northern Kanto region, where its population has been decreasing. They wanted to live as the Africans lived, so they set the theme mentioned above. They insisted that art was somehow away from our life in Japan, but they felt they must connect it with our living because those Africans they met taught them unintentionally they should have done so.


Thus, they started their project. The first step was to build an atelier and residence, so they bought a house at a reasonably low price by using a vacant house databank. Then, however, they had to renovate it since the house wasn’t used for a long time. Therefore, they began to collect materials to strengthen the structure and to create some artworks for decoration. Thus, they realized one thing by doing that thing, as the quote below shows:

To understand what they mean by the quote more deeply, I’d like to delve into my understanding of that. As far as I heard about the interview, I want to add some topics regarding it:

What is “necessity,” after all?

We often talk about efficiency for work, for example. Then we usually begin a discussion if a task is necessary. In another example, we check the necessity of the material if its function will satisfy our demand. Or, some students wish to study law, economics, or engineering just because the job supply concerning those subjects should be more than that of philosophy or art.
But, then, who will determine if something is useful or needed? We are apt to think that it’s someone tremendous or in a higher position (i.e., recruiters, chiefs, or CEOs). Still, I’m highly skeptical if we have ever asked somebody like them whether they need us (Except when we check the requirements or qualifications for the position, we usually don’t do such things each time). Therefore, the idea of necessity is naturally dependent on what we wish to have, so it’ll change in various ways, and then, it’s not a fixed or firm idea as we may imagine.


Asking why causes negativity

As most native English speakers may agree, asking the reason why someone has done something contains a hint of negativity. Dare to clarify; a speaker asks you a question with “why” since the one doesn’t know or can’t find any reasons to verify the cause. Hence, this question contains a particular nuance of blaming, which leads to being neither constructive, communicative, nor cooperative. Nothing will be useless if we can change our minds, and the artists are conscious of it.


Strive to be useful, but how?

In general, working hard is a virtue of modern society. Apart from being sophisticated, contributing to an organization through efforts will pay you back, like career improvement. In addition, you’ll make more money, which will get you a better life. Therefore, doing efforts and services are essential mindsets not only for business persons but also for ordinary people. So far, so good.


Then, have you ever imagined explaining what such “contribution,” “effort,” or “service” is in the context of social matters? I strongly predict it can be tough to make any clear-cut. But, since such ideas result from specific causes, you can consider them useful or helpful. Still, it has never meant to be able to create a theoretical framework for defining usefulness.

At most, we may manage to reach our pseudo conclusion that it’s up to those who may concern.
Still, it’s worth it anyway because the definition of usefulness requires someone who can evaluate if it’s worthy, regardless if they’re not general or unified ideas.

Dead? Still to be alive again

Back to the story of the abandoned mini-van, I decided to take an artistic photo of it since that interview inspired me.

By the way, I show some pictures I edited by applying the same method to edit photos. I hope you’ll enjoy watching them:

Closing remark

This article was about my experience and idea to change the point of view. Necessity isn’t a static feature that will stay being same. It’s rather dynamic that we can change it if we wish. It’s at least the duty of the artists, but we may apply it for our better daily life. Have you ever evaluated something useless as useful ones? Have you ever encountered an inspirational moment to take something as artwork? What are the things that you always need? Find the value for more items and kinds of stuff to get more of it: Be constructive and creative.