#caitlinsmyth

The average attention span of a person nowadays is 8 seconds. This has been a steadily slippery slope since the digital age started and now with the massive overstimulation we all get daily (we spend around 9 hours a day looking at screens) it’s getting a bit ridiculous. The average time people spend in exhibitions has decreased significantly.

These facts and this discussion came up the other day when I was speaking with a conservator who was telling me that conservation of art at the mid level (not Picasso’s and Rembrandt’s but Victorian watercolours and prints) is slowing down. People just don’t collect this art nowadays, it’s not popular, and we specifically flagged the feeling that it doesn’t grab the eye or the attention enough against all the more modern and even more digital work that is coming through that is often not as subtle.

There will be many reasons these changes and why they are happening but one that has to be a contributor which I’m interested in (because it relates to all the marketing info I preach) has to be the rise of the digital age messing with peoples attention span and attention to detail. So specifically I wanted to touch on this, air some thoughts, but keep it brief so that possibly it kicks off a look at wider reasons for changing art tastes. So, let me talk about the area I know best and am most interested in.

We now work, watch, and interact more and more via digital means, and those who what to grab our attention are changing how they deliver information to make it as easily absorbed and attention grabbing as possible. Nowadays digital marketing is now most effectively delivered through video, videos need to be under 2 minutes have the best chance of being watched in full. Memes, bold statements, simple images, bold colours work best - people are even colour theming their Instagram accounts which is not that surprising considering the number of people now picking up being an interior designer as a new ‘hobby’ (or fitness blogging / instructing but that is another rant of mine now relevant here).

So the fact that I have not yet inserted an image into this blog means, if you’re still reading, you’re either very fast or have avoided the general norm.

This change in our ability to really see, look, absorb and form a more in-depth opinion (things I think will be lacking on a shorter attention span) has to have had some affect our on the art we’re drawn to (again, along with many other things like culture, trends, styles, how lucrative a piece is etc etc, but stay with me while I focus on this one small idea that go me fired up).

So these changes, do they affect our ability to appreciate more subtle art work.. I certainly now have to actively avoid skimming through exhibitions. If we’re not instantly grabbed by something visually do we assume we don’t like it and why is that view point now acceptable? Have we stopped thinking it’s ok to not give things more time? And you can translate this to most interactions, Tinder - judge someone in 10 seconds, Twitter - have an opinion in 140 character, Facebook - don’t post WORDS it bores people, post images and videos under 2 minutes… I could go on.

Remember that I’m focusing on the audience there and not on whether social media and online promotion should be necessary for an artist to build a career - this is another discussion altogether with a hundred other variables…! However…

The implications of our waining attention spans, I think, has to be a contributor to the art styles that are now more popularly collected. I think this is likely more noticeable at the commercial level, I visited a successful commercial gallery I used to manage years ago and the art displayed seems more bold in colour and style, possibly more easy digestible and attention grabbing, there were also artists who were represented back when I was their and some of them you can see the style has changed to be bolder in colour or now include play with text…

Although, of course the industry and tastes will progress and change over the decades, I think it’s interesting to consider how one of the biggest social changes we’ve seen in the last 100 years - the beginning of a digital era -  has and will change what people are drawn to with visual arts. Really the first generation which has not lived without the internet, mobile phones, personal computers and laptops etc is now reaching adulthood and as their opinions start to carry more weight in society I think most creative industries will be seeing even more drastic changes in the years to come. As a new generation of makers and members of the audience come through the question is how will things develop further in terms of consumption and production of art and will this leave more subtle work or older work falling away and not getting the attention they deserves Is this just a natural process or is it sped up because the information we consume and the attention span with which we consume it is now ten times faster?

A few months a go I came across a vinyl of a chocolate shop stretched over the front of a disused shop just off North End Road. It had details that led to me to the Hammersmith and Fulham Council website and one of their representatives - Nicki Burgess. 

The project entitled Love West Kensington is run by a group of locals and council workers and is part of both Mary Portas's scheme to regenerate our high streets and a Government scheme to reinvigorate empty shops. Love West Kensington aims to make the windows of disused shops on North End Road (West London) look more appealing, which in turn they hope will draw new business to the area.

I immediately thought this really is a great idea. But of course because of my involvement in the arts it got my mind mulling over the possibilities of what you could achieve by involving local artists, promoting them and the area - the project inspired a whole host of ideas.

So I contacted the council to see if they wanted any help with the project and possibly a person working in the arts to offer their time and knowledge. The enthusiastic response from Nicki was great to hear (so often in this industry to I get used to little or no response even when asking for nothing!).

I was immediately meeting with Nicki who runs the project and discussing the next vinyl with them, and boy was this one right up my street. The newest vinyl would be celebrating the Nashville Rooms which was an infamous music venue through the 70s and 80s based in the West Kensington end of North End Road (it is now the Famous Three Kings pub). 

The Nashville Rooms have a long history hosting many rock and punk gigs between 1975 and 1980. The vinyl records in the window dressing design highlight some of the famous bands who played there and the dates they played. Bands include U2, Joy Division, Sex Pistols, The Police, The Jam and Simple Minds (to name but a few).

My interest in the subculture history of London was first ignited by my work on the exhibition LLOYD JOHNSON: The Modern Outfitter at CHELSEA space. I'm fascinated by the history we have in West London - Kensington Market, Worlds End etc etc and how we can bring some of that cool back to the area. I did my homework and advised on elements of the design work as best I could - even had a stab at photoshop which is not a forte... And the results are featured below, it was great to see it finally installed and I have to say (although I'm biased towards anything celebrating subculture) it's my favorite on the road so far. I love that it has local cultural relevance alongside a design that can be enjoyed by people who know the venue and don't alike.

I think this particular vinyl really touches on a bigger idea of how West Kensington can celebrate it's history as well as its present through creative means. I'd love to see the area become a hub of creativity and creatives - art maps, pop up exhibitions, studios... My ambition and imagination run away with me... Watch this space though - I can't wait for the next vinyls and I hope the project can grow into something which really brings new people to the area and gets them to engage with it.

86 North End Road - before

And after!

I just read this great article on the Guardian online all about end of the ‘hipster’ trend. It talks about how the original concept of the hipster - a subculture of men and women that value independent thinking and counter culture - initially used in the 40s in reference youths that fought the norm - listened to jazz music, followed their own path wherever it took them. It now has become a general description of anyone who wants to look, think and behave in a certain way, key areas being for men; sporting a large beard, turned up jeans, tattoos etc and for women; stripes, oversize denim jackets AND jeans, thick rimmed glasses, hat perched on the back of ones head, big sweatshirts. It also touches on the now negative connotations of being  a certain type of hipster (the apparently fake one…) - trying too hard, going through the motions, living on mummy and daddy’s bank roll etc etc. 

It got me thinking back to the Lloyd Johnson exhibition I worked on at CHELSEA space - based all on the rocker clothing designs of Lloyd Johnson - a clear mod. The rockers and the mods both followed these trends to break away from the post war government and society they were brought up in.It was such a new concept that to actually commit to the movement in any way meant you could only go whole heartedly fourth into breaking cultural rules and you were making your own clothes and searching for elusive literature and music and events you needed for the ride.

This got me thinking, are we viewing these new trends and the people who follow them in the same way as older trends have been viewed - as forward thinking avant garde styles and people who are trying to view the world in a new radical way. When really maybe we should be viewing them differently… For me a lot of the newer trends I see, hipster, normcore etc etc have been born during the internet culture, where more and more information has been available to anyone who wants to find it - Google current fashion trends and you get 54,600,000 results. Specifying to hipster trends still results in 7,640,000 hits, that’s a pretty confusing place to try and find your voice.

We’re overloaded with magazines, social media and the internet which all depict what is the most cool and avant guarde ways to dress, think and be seen and we now have everything possible available to us at the drop of your hat. I think it’s this overload that has changed the way we find our styles. No longer are people trying to push the boundaries of their lifestyle and using a trend to define what they believe in and explore new ways of thinking. Instead these new trends provide a way for people to find a place and a community to define themselves by. 

Yes this seems less rock and roll and for a while I’ll admit I was saddened that my generation looked unlikely to make any leaps forward in culture. But instead we’ve hit this technological revolution and we’re all fighting to acclimatise and find a place within a world that is much smaller.  

So my new perspective on trends - hipsters or others. Is that this is my generation’s way of coping with a quickly changing world, finding a sense of community when we don’t talk to each other anymore and when someone on the other side of the world can be as close as your mates on the other side of a city. So we don the clothes, the accent, the interests and exist as a part of something until we know ourselves better in this overloaded world….

Don’t blame the hipster, they’re just trying to fit in…!

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