This is a critique on the creative process of crowdsourcing art. The production method is the critque. The decay of the product happens irregardless of the point of consumption. The form is sacrificed in favor of remaining as an idea, a thing of data, a reticent artifact of the moment.
I have banana. Tell me what you want me to draw on the banana, and at 3 pm, about eight hours from now, I will post a pic of the banana drawing. The transaction excludes monetary value entirely. Your idea for my work, and I get to consume the product out of necessity.
This is me stating “I will work for food”. I beg for work, and my begging the public hopefully nourishes me, gives me strength. I produce something people might enjoy. This is the art of slavery. In non-food transactions, the product cannot be used to sustain the worker in this manner. Money, a substitute for something of actual value, can render the transaction void, could even put me in debt, could further force me to produce more banana art than I could possibly manage. A merger between Nikon and Chiquita, it could happen.
If everyone drew on bananas, then bananas would cost a fortune. There would be a cottage industry sprung up to help aspiring artists prepare fruit for rendering, there would be classes, schools, systems of discipline and exclusion. Eventually, the bananas would cease to hold any meaning. They would be frozen, sliced, used as boomerangs in a revolution called the Yellow Rage. People would demand the right to render art on other fruits, which at the time would be prohibited. By limiting this exchange to a single banana, I don’t run the risk of destroying modern civilization.
Farmers producing bananas faster and faster, replaced by robots that feed and repair themselves with 3D printers using material made from bananas. Robots made of GMO bananas making bananas.
Silliness.
What should I draw on a banana? At 3 o’clock, I will announce the winning suggestion, and post a pic.
So, let’s change the world
prepare their fruit for
Fifty State Banana 