> It's been a bugbear of mine for a while that in a world with so many pressing problems, where democracy is failing us, that artists have a huge responsibility

> It's been a bugbear of mine for a while that in a world with so many pressing problems, where democracy is failing us, that artists have a huge responsibility to stand up and do something about it, rather than walking away from the mess and building more abstract installations. This description reminds me of John B. Calhoun's "beautiful ones" [1] (the "mouse utopia" experiment). If any readers are running across this for the first time, be sure to read the Smithsonian's article with a caution about imputing too much predictive power from Calhoun's findings to human behavior and settings. [2] Of particular interest to our current social web-saturated world, is one modern researcher's related Calhoun-like experiment translated to human participants concluded that "Moral decay could arise 'not from density, but from excessive social interaction,'" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun [2] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-mouse-utopias-1960s-led-grim-predictions-humans-180954423/?no-ist http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-mouse-utopias-1...