Thoughts of Popped Corn

Popular culture seems to be a big buzz word these days. No work is more representative of this the The Big Bang Theory. A unique amalgamation of ideas and concepts that has produced a 10 season series that remains highly prevalent in people minds. It's a situation comedy, with characters who drink deeply from the various pools of popular culture. The boys Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Leonard constantly refer to various films, television series video game, comic books, and animation. Interestingly enough this is very much a picture of popular culture as it was 20 years ago not of what popular culture is today.

I am of a generation that was still young when pop culture was a heavily segmented thing. Cultural elements did mix together but usually only along few isolated lines. Animation spawned toy lines, films had video game tie ins, these types of limited spreads. This lead to culture being much like a series of lakes and rivers. The organisms of ideas were limited to lakes of culture and to those who could access and drive to seek them out. The lakes of culture then feed to others through small channels, leading to proliferation within the various bodies. Every once in a while, a river would meet the ocean of culture, and an idea organism was allowed to reproduce and expand in the minds of the masses. Much of this was due to technological constraints. Computers were not as sophisticated as they are today and they were certainly not as readily available. The internet existed but was still obtuse to society at large and as such ideas and culture had fewer outlets to reach mass audience. As a collective body we were limited in the types of images, sounds, and ideas that we could bring to life and business sought to contain these ideas in the various pools for their own gain. This truly came into focus for me while recent watching Jodorowsky's Dune, a stunning documentary which looked into the mind of a man who dreamed of images which was limited by the bound of his cultural lake. But now, as the internet continues to spread and gain acceptance, the land between the lakes, rivers, and the ocean have all but eroded away. Unlike the popular culture of The Big Bang Theory, now we are in an era of incredible cultural evolution.

With the erosion complete ideas now freely mingle between individuals at an incredible rate. One could liken it to the Cambrian era, where life exploded it to multicellular life. Within the new mega ocean of culture, idea organisms are meiotic. They are combining, reshaping and producing mutations good, bad, and curious. It is truly stunning what ideas and images are evolving in the ocean of culture.  In today's cultural ocean the images Alejandro Jodorowsky dreamed could be easily realized in a variety of mediums. Culture is evolving right before my eyes and while I look at it in awe I cant help but look in wonder and with a critical eye. I look back at where I have been and I believe attending Art school, working as an artist in the entertainment industry, and a long time patron of various aspect of popular culture has given me a unique perspective on these things. Ironcially that "unique voice" is now but a small drop in the cultural ocean and while much of what I say here may go unheard, like an organism I am compelled to let my written thoughts reproduce in the cultural ocean. I am but a small piece of popped corn in a larger bucket.