Muse magazine's Perry Lam: 'Art is manipulation'

Perry Lam wants us to wake up and smell the BS. As totally passive receptors of information, we are being 'manipulated' into seeing and believing whatever cultural creators want. It's time we became aware of the various techniques employed by creators in 'manipulating' its audience, whether it is through art, commercial advertising, or even in government policy.

Editorial director of Muse magazine, Lam will enlighten us on how we can go about piercing through the smoke and mirrors at a panel discussion titled "Against Manipulation -- The Role of the Critic in Empowering the Audience." Joining Lam will be theatre director and Academy for Performing Arts Dean of Drama Tang Shu-Wing, as well as veteran investigative journalist Christian Caryl.

Before the event takes place this coming Monday, CNNGo gets Lam to clarify just what he means by 'manipulation' and whether or not he thinks we're being taken for a fool.

Perry Lam: "Art is a form of manipulaton. I mean it in the best sense. Hitchcock was one of the greatest filmmakers on earth and he admits he is a manipulator. He creates an emotional response in the audience and controls the audience in this way.

In society manipulation can come from all directions and in different guises. For example, merchants sell their products by manipulating people to want to buy the products. The government selling its policy to the people is through using the art of manipulation. Politics is nothing if it is not manipulation. In a dumbed-down society, manipulation is omnipresent. Under these circumstances, cultural criticism has a function and a responsibility to increase the audience's defense against manipulation by making the art of manipulation apparent. 

people are being conquered and even colonised by manipulative art

— Perry Lam

By 'manipulation,' I mean 'persuasiveness.' How successful artists are depends on their persuasiveness. What are the techniques behind these persuasions? I want to create a sense of urgency on the part of the audience to see that if you are going to get yourself out of a totally passive relationship with art, you need to be more aware of the technique of manipulation.

A keen sense of awareness of how art works is beneficial to the audience and to the artist. If you are facing a dumb audience, one that cries easily when you want them to cry, laugh when you tell them to laugh, then good art will not grow from that audience-artist relationship. 

Art at its best should not just be about manipulation. It should be about exploration, examination, and discovery. It should make us aware of many things, not just putting us in a passively responsive way. But much art in Hong Kong lacks this. For example, Jim Chim Shui-man is considered a bona fide artist, a critic of mass society and of mass entertainment, but if you examine his work closely, you can see that his work is 80 per cent manipulation and 20 per cent exploration and criticism.

Cinema is considered Hong Kong's most important cultural export, but films are a cultural product that you pay for. Is it entertainment or art? The line is not so clearly drawn, but it is exactly because in our post-modern society you cannot draw clearly defined lines that we need to be aware of sources of manipulation. Otherwise, Hong Kong people will be conquered by manipulation. Just look at TVB's cultural hegemony versus its popularity. It's TV dramas get incredibly high ratings and films like "72 Tenants of Prosperity" can gross HK$20 million -- people are being conquered and even colonised by manipulative art."

The Role of the Critic in Empowering the Audience

A discussion about arts and culture coverage in Hong Kong
March 8, 7 - 8:30pm
First come first serve seating.

Perry Lam, Editorial Director of Muse, regular columnist for Yazhou Zhoukan, Hong Kong Economic Journal and Southern Metropolis Daily, co-host of a RTHK talk show.

Tang Shu-wing, Dean of Drama, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. As a director, he has directed over 35 productions of drama and dance.

Christian Caryl, Muse Magazine Critic-in-Residence, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Contributing Editor at Foreign Policy and Newsweek , Senior Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, contributor to The New York Review of Books.

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