"Art, Entertainment, Entropy"

Wallace Stevens’ argument about entertainment media in his article “Art, Entertainment, Entropy” is that entertainment media in the film world is not art but, more than that, is a restrictive force against the advancement of man towards a state of being that is necessary for the human race to survive. The problem with entertainment media is that it “perpetuat[es] a system of conditioned response to formulas” and it destroys the audiences ability and drive to be creative, thus alienating people who could become true artists.

In today’s current state of media with the advent of internet-based forms of media such as youtube and social networking sites like facebook, myspace, and twitter, this critique holds true on a much larger scale, but with some potential flaws.

The influence of entertainment media is now more widespread than ever with these new forms of media. The audience now has the ability to watch episodes of their favorite shows on the computer by downloading them from the TV network’s website or buying them on iTunes and watching them on their computer or their iPod; the same can be done with movies with the new format of the “digital copy” disc that comes with a DVD that can be uploaded to the computer, along with buying or renting the films on iTunes. These “digital copies,” however, usually only come with those movies that are big-budget films that were big at the box office that people, according the entertainment-media moguls, would care to have with them at all times.

With youtube and social networking sites, ordinary people now have the opportunity to broadcast their homemade films on the internet, from videos of piano-playing cats to depressingly bad renditions of famous songs to episodes of their own little web-series that they’ve made; most of the videos, however, are of the first and second types, which are purely for entertainment purposes, stupid as they may be. However, in this day-and-age, these outlets are the avenue that many budding artists, true artists or dreamers born of the entertainment media who may become true artist, have to go down in order to make it big in whatever art world or entertainment media branch they wish to be a part of.

All of this new interactive media is important in order for the advancement of modern art as it is the medium of the future. New artists are already using this futuristic medium to create their art, whether they are creating art as a part of the medium itself, or using tools like Final Cut or Pro Tools to edit their work into the form they want, whether for art or entertainment.