First things first, by the word art we mean every product that is produced with the touch of creativity and not just art as in paintings. We are humble enough to consider music, drama, fiction, animations, poems, etc as art.
It seems obvious that without art, the most important thing we would be missing is entertainment. Life would be like a party with no music. Nonetheless, there are more complicated issues and circumstances that we would experience in the absence of art.
If we generalize the division of our mind or psyche (not the brain) into two parts, we are left with the conscious and the unconscious. But what does it has to do with art? Well, everything that falls under artistic creation or creativity is an unconscious expression.
With that being established, let’s look at 5 scenarios if we stop producing art
No expression for our creative selves – Art is the language of unconscious emotions. Some people are innately creative and some see creative endeavors as just another hobby. We cannot see creativity as a trait in people as a category; it’s a spectrum on which people are spread. We recognize people as artists when they’re on the extreme end of creativity and are exceptionally good at it. No matter where people lie on the creative spectrum, indulging in art helps them to express themselves in a way that they couldn’t, via languages. We as humans are not capable enough to conceptualize every minute of psychic thought, emotions, and processes into words, but we have art at our disposal to help us. Why a poem or hopelessly romantic song performed by the romantic partner is considered a better expression of love than anything else? Art is like the bridge that directly connects the emotions of one or more people to others. If we were to stop producing art, we’d miss out on this beautiful mode of expression and fail to express our wholesome selves.
No necessary realizations - Art can deliver those meaningful messages that words cannot. There is a limit to which we can rely on other people to tell us what we need to fix. They’re hardly aware of the exact dynamics of your psyche and they’re humans too after all. Movies especially are the kind of art that makes us realize our deepest shortcomings and flaws. They help us reach that point of realization before we know it. This is because the process is not conscious; we unconsciously pick specific parts that matter subjectively and make sense out of them.
No catalyzing - There is a reason why we prefer listening to hardcore or upbeat music while working out. Music not just necessarily increases energy but can exponentially increase the intensity of any emotion. It’s almost as if there’s a button of emotions. Art, most evidently music smashes that thing until it reaches its maximum limits. Undoubtedly a sad song makes a dull night much worse. And at the same time, it can push you to run an extra mile when you just think you’re done.
No answers to complicated questions – We have to admit that there are certain queries in life that are too complex to resolve. Let’s take for instance a very clichéd example of what is the purpose of life? We know that there is no definitive, factual answer to that. There are only perspectives that we gather and formulate from hearsay. Here too, art lets us subjectively investigate these curiosities and construct our own individual philosophies to live by. For example, a movie about a weak boy that works hard and protects his friends and family could be interpreted differently. For some, protecting your loved ones could be realized as a priority and for others working hard might hit exceptionally. To reach individual conclusions is difficult without art. We would be left with unresolved crippling thoughts that would haunt us for life.
Insane scientific and technological advancements – It couldn’t be the case that there’s not even a possibility of discovering some benefits of losing art. Not producing art obviously means ceasing to consume art. This is important to note because if we stop producing and consuming art, we’d stop caring about everything obscure. We’d be like robots that know nothing but facts and the best possible ways to use facts to our aid. This is why we tend to avoid anything like music, series, movies, fiction when we are in the productive, work zone. This is the time when we don’t want ambiguity, we work with facts, and we know what we’re doing. But imagine the same thing for a lifetime without knowing what fun means. Sure there is a possibility that we’d achieve more than the greatest control over resources but without ethics. We’d advance but without knowing where and why. There could be disastrous consequences of the same as well; not to mention the nuclear weaponry inventions. Arguably we’d reach full limitations of our intellectual potentials but the question still remains, do we want to trade art and entertainment in exchange for that?
Conclusively I think there is a long way before we can dare to let go of creativity and art. Not only we don’t want to but also because we are not even close to being capable enough to do that.
