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Arts & Communication Artists recreating our world

during the pandemic. Their data showed a surprising world. This is not because artists are superior characters
preference for premium services provided by platforms but rather because they understand the process. He writes,
such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music (p. 17) “the arts represent a body of knowledge that is profoundly
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over free offerings. People were prepared to pay for this useful to society, not only in the content of finished works
essential service! but also in the skills, practices, and disciplines of artists

The digital age in which we live provided an unforeseen themselves.” (p. 129) Notwithstanding the totalitarian
opportunity for artists to collaborate and communicate in gesture of Ibbotson’s claim and one which artists would
innovative ways. For example, Reason reported growth reject, he reveals an important step in how we might
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in online engagement, a factor especially salient for remake our world. As artists move from the fringes and
disabled people. He noted that software applications like work in community with businesses and other social
groups, together, we can remake our world in an egalitarian
Creative Doodle Book helped broker creative expression spirit of shared inquiry and action.
helped both to manage the immediate crisis from imposed
lockdown and to discover new ways of interacting within Artists carry a heavy burden, and such an agenda
these constraints. assumes that artists are themselves emotionally well,
as Whitley et al. argue. This strikes at the heart of this
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The Artwork Archive website noted paradoxically that
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“social distancing actually forced us to get closer, virtually,” paper’s purpose of seeking an exemplar who may be both
a guide and partner in recrafting our world. Other artists
while Drake et al. observed that people gravitated to the have trudged a weary path through disillusionment,
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arts, particularly listening to music, as a way of coping
with the emotional stressors during the pandemic. Of all depression, and hardship, emerging to become significant
the arts available, Bradbury et al. reported that listening voices for others to gain inspiration and encouragement.
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to music was a crucial factor in dealing with the emotional Russian composer and performer Sergei Rachmaninoff
rollercoaster of the pandemic. (1873 – 1943) is an example of a man who suffered a
failure, a debilitating mental health breakdown, and
The arts console, but they also cajole. Beyond the solace recovery to become the most well-known pianist of his
that they bring, the arts also have an important political generation. Rachmaninoff is a useful model due to the
function, playing a necessary part in alerting society to many struggles and privations he experienced throughout
key problems and prescribing possible solutions. Theall his life. Learnings from his story can help us chart a course
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makes this assessment in his summations of Marshall ahead at this time.
McLuhan’s influence as a communicator. McLuhan, Theall Sergei Rachmaninoff’s early professional life as a
described, habitually made sense of popular memes by composer was prolific until the first performance of
reframing them. He notes,
Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op 13, which he completed
“[McLuhan’s] poetic ability that allowed him to in 1895 as a 22 years old and which was first performed in
appropriate phrases from others, such as the term St Petersburg on March 28, 1897. Lasting for almost 1 h,
linearity from Dorothy Lee, and turn them into his writing it and then preparing for its first performance was
own multi-faceted probes or to convert Ezra Pound’s a major undertaking, and it was Rachmaninoff’s first foray
aphorism ‘Artists are the antennae of the race’ (Pound into the daunting world of symphonic writing, requiring a
n.d., 81) into his description of the poet as an ‘early deft touch in handling the large variety of hues and colors of
warning system,’ alluding to the then-topical Dew the late Romantic orchestra. Success in this medium could
Line that used radar to provide early alerts of air or enable him to make his mark as a composer of repute.
missile attacks.” (p. 29) 15 What began with such promise turned out to be a
Such claims place artists at the center of our world, disaster, the orchestra was poorly prepared by the conductor
relocated from galleries, museums, and concert chambers for its premiere, and the performance was riddled with
to town squares and piazzas, rehabilitated from the margins mistakes. As a result, it was panned by the critics, sending
to the warp and woof of political, social, and business Rachmaninoff into a potentially career-ending slump. This
affairs. Unlike business leaders, whom McLuhan assessed failure, depression, and recovery is the story of an artist
as planning through a rear-view mirror, artists warn and who learned to make bold music statements along with the
advise, scoping possibilities for life ahead. necessary skills to deal with the harsh world of organizational

If the arts are so necessary for personal and social politics with its patch-protections and petty jealousies.
well-being and provide cues for change, perhaps they Rachmaninoff is also an apt exemplar for this study
should be center stage of the world we choose to create. because he worked his way through his crisis of confidence,
Ibbotson goes further, arguing that artists should rule the made peace with his multiple motivations, and found a
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Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.2126