Over the recent decade, the rise of Marvel movies and similar forms of media have conditioned audiences to seek easily digestible content, and increases the notion of hostility against what the general public deem as ‘snobbish’ and ‘hard to understand’ art and media. ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ was a critically acclaimed movie that swept the 2023 Oscars telling an all-too-familiar immigrant tale, however, some audience perceptions considered the movie confusing or too abstract. A low hanging fruit would to pass off these perceptions as an individual’s inability to assess media critically, however the consumption of shallow media is a societal phenomenon that needs consideration.

An unfortunate perception of ‘high’ art, or culturally complex art, is that it is reserved only for the upper class, out of reach to the common person such that it feels as though it is an identity marker to attempt to ‘understand’ such forms of media. This perception of avant-garde art has a spectrum of effects, from being a performance for aspirational individuals to align themselves with stereotypical upper class values, to a signal of classism and deliberate exclusion of an individual’s ability to appreciate art. A legitimate reason to doubt avant-garde art is the usual classification of contemporary art as simply a method to avoid taxes for the wealthy. There are notable examples of this occurrence, however, as with other creative commodities, grifts are ever-present.

The advancement of not only art but other forms that define human advancement is the result of continual progress and innovation. In art, innovations are defined by avant-garde and boundary pushing creatives who subvert the industry norms by challenging pre-conceived notions. Most cases of this will not be well-received immediately, but historically, has inspired a slew of derivatives.

As an example, Maison Martin Margiela’s debut 1988 show at the Cafe De La Gare in Paris went against Paris Fashion Week norms by presenting the runway show, further out in the city than usual. The models themselves were presented in an unorthodox manner for 1988 Paris, with a few of these features remaining iconic. This includes the debut of the infamous Tabi boots that were divisive at the time, along with the face-covering motifs that would continue to be a staple of Martin Margiela’s runway history.

To my point, in 1988 the show deliberately subverted the norms of the fashion industry, and nowadays, derivative works are endless. Needless to say, Tabi boots are receiving a surge of popularity in 2023 and the legacy of Margiela’s face coverings continue from Kanye’s tour performances to Undercover’s Fall 2006 “Guruguru” collection. Currently, at least within the fashion scene, the aforementioned are not frontrunners any longer and have been accepted by the wider community as landmark contributions to contemporary fashion.

Margiela Tabi boots aside, the innovators in a certain field will inevitably cause disruption and may very well incur their work not being well received. However, it is these innovators and their subversion of the standard that allows any specific medium to evolve and adapt to a new frontier. Creative media, just like any other human convention such as language, is dynamic. Dynamism allows human conventions to adapt along with the attitudes and propensities of the society it coexists with.

The overt benefits to general society of avant-garde art is often times a slow burn, although very much worth it. The common view discussed by earlier literature is through a top-down approach. It describes the early adopters and celebrators of the boundary-breaking items, influencing tastemakers and the upper class. Then, derivative works of the avant-garde idea will be filtered into a more digestible form, ready for consumption by the general population. Therein-lies the ‘classical’ process of innovation within an art category.

Whilst it seems logically sound for the most part, a reader can make the assumption that cultural innovation then is highly dependent on the adoption of ideas spurred by the upper class. In a capitalist society, this checks out. The bourgeoisie would have the most spare time and capital in order to expend into areas such as the creative arts. Via a more contemporary lens, we see this occurring in Western culture often, where a fashion micro-trend can be started purely by a celebrity tastemaker wearing a single item.From a less consumerist angle, the proliferation of the avant-garde can inspire horizontally, that is, peer to peer inspiration. This doesn’t mean blatant copy and pasting, but it may influence others to reach beyond the horizons. A familiar tale of legendary artists, writers and other creatives alike is that they often are accompanied by a peer or rival that challenges their own thinking, or inspires them to personally reach further beyond. A common result is the creation of fantastic work that is still celebrated to this day.

In today’s attention economy, where attention and familiarity plays a large role in the perceived value of any commodity, including creative ventures, trusting a tried formula of familiar tropes and approaches is a guarantor for stability. Old and tired ideas are coated in a thin veil of novelty, with any shavings of ingenuity the concept once had erased. Cultural complexity is a device that advances not only the creative media itself, but our ability to perceive and appreciate them. Much like the people that invented it, creative media must always evolve or else it is as good as dead.