This paper addresses two interconnected topics in cultural and environmental thought. The first section examines the argument in Born Under Saturn that the Middle Ages produced a new paradigm of the individual artist-genius, tracing how this shift isolated artists from community craft traditions and excluded certain groups — particularly women — from the category of creative genius. The second section explains the tragedy of the commons, illustrating how shared natural resources become depleted without regulation or ownership incentives, and distinguishes finite natural resources from infinitely replicable digital goods, arguing that the commons problem does not apply to the World Wide Web in the same way it does to physical environments.
According to Born Under Saturn, over the course of the Middle Ages, a new paradigm was born. Before this shift, in the ancient world, artists functioned anonymously. Artists were seen as craftsmen who produced works — often in a fairly formulaic manner — for specific religious and civic purposes. In the Middle Ages, artists as individual creators with unique visions became more important in culture. Gradually, the reverence for the "magic object" became transferred onto the artist him or herself.
There are some perils to this paradigm. First, it tends to isolate the artist from any sense of community. The technique, craftsmanship, and assumptions about what constitutes art become disengaged from the production of the work. Artists are seen as "natural" — either born with genius or not — rather than as individuals who are trained and shaped. This mystification of the artist's character can lead to certain persons being excluded from the possibilities of generating art, or denied the cultural right to create, simply because they fall outside the category of recognized geniuses. Women, in particular, have historically been shut out by this logic.
Ideas are not generated in isolation. Even if an artist may arrive at an idea while sitting in solitude, the artist is still a receptacle of cultural ideas and conceptions shaped by the world around them. The reception of the artist is also highly culturally bound. What we think of as genius is shaped by what we learn is "correct" artistically, and although some artists may move culture forward by enabling us to conceptualize art in new ways, there is a discernible progression from one idea to the next. Nothing comes from nothing.
What might appear to be a problem — or simply a mess — to a nineteenth-century viewer might look like great art to a twenty-first-century observer, simply because that observer had been schooled in the artistic techniques of twentieth-century movements such as Cubism or Abstract Expressionism. Cultural education shapes perception, and perception shapes what we recognize as genius.
"Policy solutions to prevent overconsumption of shared goods"
"Why the internet does not deplete like natural resources"
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.