Artists have always had a tendency to stay outside of games played inside the system. Watching, interpreting, searching for better alternatives to what is being offered by the coach to all the players of the teams. Now, we do get involved with politics, economics and culture, but usually such involvement happen on our own terms.
Seeing how most games are played by rules that were established long before any current player was even born, be it law, legislation or any other social game we play as people, usually the way to play along is to learn the rules, at least the basics if not memorising the whole rulebook, join a team and then train until one becomes good at what he or she does.
But artists tend to look at the rulebooks of various games, maybe copy a few from one and apply them to another one. Sometimes for fun, sometimes to disrupt the game and sometimes to win by thinking outside the box. The question is, with almost everybody agreeing to play by the rules, where does that leave us when wining is concerned? Because while winning a set can give us the ability to win the game, if not played by the rules, we risk forfeiting our position to anyone who may challenge us, that has gotten to where he or she is the old fashion way. The “right” way.
In a society that has been built up on both following and breaking rules of play, behaviour and manner, where does that leave us? WhileΒ not playing by the book may give us the ability to see the faults in superficial or outdated conduct and even have the tools to show these discrepancies, can we also expect others who never stray from them to place us alongside themselves when we decide to play? Or should we think about the possibility that for some we are nothing more than colourful canaries in coal mines, given a space to sing beautifully until someday we can no more, while those in the offices above the shafts can’t but win whenever we do.