The Art of Living

Dumbed Down and Multimodal: The Extinction of Art

by Dana Raye Barnaby

We are here… standing on the precipice of a world soon to be utterly dominated by technology. And while some humans may be ready to truly embrace what’s coming - as inevitable - I’m not sure I am, nor will I ever be ready to accept what the machine wants from us - conformity.

There’s a moment in every artist’s life when they must make that choice - stay comfortable and adored, or risk everything to grow.

When Bob Dylan went electric in 1965, it wasn’t just about a guitar. It was a declaration. A rejection of the box others had placed him in. Many wanted him to remain a folk icon forever - safe, celebrated, and static. But true artists don’t seek comfort. They chase discomfort. They push boundaries. They evolve - and by doing just that - Bob is the only musician to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - but of course, he chose NOT to attend the ceremony.

To me, the most revealing truth in the entire Bob Dylan narrative - beautifully captured by Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, is found in his quiet observation: ‘Everyone asks where these songs come from. What they’re really asking is why these songs didn’t come to them’.

And that’s precisely it - the greed that underpins a society teetering on the edge of a technological unraveling. In this modern world of shameless self-promotion and hollow proclamations, it’s wealth, fame, and power that seem to carry weight. Artistry, craftsmanship, and individuality have been dismissed - relegated to the pursuits of the broke, the tortured, or the irrelevant.

What does it say about a culture when, by 2025, being an artist has been reduced to nothing more than a side hustle?

Hollywood Needs A Shakespeare

Ted Gioia, a profound and prolific essay writer on Medium recently wrote of the need for a modern-day Shakespeare in Hollywood - someone who not only masters the craft but redefines it in a way that shakes the foundations of popular culture. But would such a voice even be allowed today? Or would they be told to tone it down, shape it into a shareable reel, and make it “multimodal content” for brand partnerships.

Remember that Netflix recently instructed their writers to dumb it all down and write as if the audience is watching with one eye on their phones - pathetic…

This is the sickness that creeps into our culture: art is being replaced by content and the artist’s role is being diminished - from provocateur to algorithmic pleaser.

But what is the purpose of art if not to stir, challenge, and disrupt? To force us to see the world not through a monetized lens, but a human one?

In Hollywood today, executives no longer want artistry. They want repeatable formulas - Universes, and  Franchises. This content, also known as ‘evergreen IP’, can be sliced, diced, and distributed across platforms in tidy, money-making fragments.

Just last week - I was asked if I thought my romantic comedy had franchise potential. I assume that would have to include a misconstrued break-up, or worse a Three’s Company misunderstanding that drives a wedge between lovers - just before the act break. No thank you…

Real art can’t be franchised. It isn’t designed to conform. It’s meant to confront.

If Dylan had listened to the boos that night in Newport, we may never have seen the release of Highway 61 Revisited - described as one of Dylan's best works and among the greatest albums of all time - ranking No. 4 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list in 2003. He became “the voice of a generation” not by conforming, but by standing out as an artist - undeterred by the masses.

If every artist conforms to the tastes of the market, what do we become? A civilization of content creators chasing trends, while the soul of humanity quietly fades.

Great art always survives the test of time - regardless of the forces that try to silence or sanitize it. Just as the fig leaf campaigns once tried to conceal Michelangelo’s ‘David’ in the name of propriety, we now live in a digital age of censorship by commodification - where algorithms decide what is seen, and marketers dictate what is made.

Yet true art endures - as it did in 1912 when the fig leaf was finally removed from ‘David’ - allowing the artistic statue to once again be displayed as the artist originally intended - beautiful, raw, and unfiltered. Real beauty cannot be reduced to a trend or dressed in fig leaves for mass consumption.

I’m pretty sure Banksy would agree - if we actually knew who he was. But maybe that’s the point. He’s provocative and untouchable because he refuses to conform to the machines.

That’s what makes him dangerous - and perhaps, a "voice of a generation" artist.

Thank you for taking the time to join me on this journey of reflection and storytelling. If these words have resonated, you might enjoy my second series of essays called, The Vanishing Gentleman.

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