Bombarding Unwritten Rules: Reshaping Art Evaluation and Public Cultural Practice Through Transparent Rules

Using open, fair, and verifiable rules to reconsider art evaluation, cultural creation, and public responsibility

Bombarding Unwritten Rules: An Ongoing Discussion of Creation, Responsibility, and Public Culture

Foreword

In an era of rapidly expanding globalization and digital communication, images, art, and cultural production are influencing public understanding at an unprecedented speed.

At the same time, questions about how to establish more open, fair, and verifiable systems of cultural evaluation, how to encourage creativity and protect innovation, and how to promote constructive interaction between art and society have become major concerns throughout the global cultural community.

Bombarding Unwritten Rules is one of the important texts produced through the CPL City Photography League’s long-term public culture research program.

Drawing on examples from photography, painting, calligraphy, seal carving, literature, and social practice, the book examines artistic creation, cultural evaluation, social responsibility, and public value. It explores how creators can respond to their times, document reality, and participate in the development of public culture.

As a cultural research project open to society, Bombarding Unwritten Rules focuses not only on art itself, but also on the relationship between art and public life, as well as the practical significance of cultural creation in social development.

About the Book

Bombarding Unwritten Rules develops its discussion around the principles of openness, fairness, and verifiability.

The book argues that the development of cultural creation should not depend solely on identity, seniority, market promotion, or closed systems of evaluation. Greater attention should instead be given to the work itself, public contribution, creative ability, and social responsibility.

Based on this understanding, CPL has proposed an open comparison mechanism described as “showing all the cards, comparing real achievements, and eliminating intermediaries.”

Through a more transparent approach, CPL seeks to return artistic evaluation to a level that the public can understand and participate in.

The book includes numerous cases involving photography, painting, and public cultural practice. These include the long-term free distribution of Photography News, the City Photography Congresses, public image initiatives, photographic documentation from the Laoshan front line, on-site visual documentation following the Wenchuan earthquake, rural public-benefit photography projects, and a range of cross-regional cultural exchange activities.

Together, these cases form a path of development extending from individual practice to public action, and from visual documentation to cultural construction.

Creation Is More Important Than Conclusions

Bombarding Unwritten Rules does not attempt to provide a single standard answer.

Instead, the book continually focuses on creation itself.

When established experience, habitual thinking, and traditional evaluation systems become boundaries that restrict creativity, will anyone still be willing to raise new questions, test new methods, and assume the risks and responsibilities that follow?

From the five Eastern arts and Panda Script calligraphy to artistic practices such as “Real-Name Landscapes” and “One Painting, One Method,” the book repeatedly emphasizes one central idea:

The development of culture has never depended on simply repeating existing experience. It depends on continuously exploring new forms of expression while respecting the foundations of history.

Creation is both the responsibility of the artist and a source of momentum for the continuing development of culture.

From Images to Public Culture

In CPL’s practice, images have never been merely tools of documentation.

They are also a public language and a medium connecting cities, communities, and different cultural groups.

Through the long-term organization of City Photography Congresses, public image initiatives, urban visual heritage preservation programs, and related projects, CPL continues to encourage the participation of images in public life.

It also seeks to establish cultural collaboration mechanisms that are more open, shared, and sustainable.

The concern of Bombarding Unwritten Rules is therefore not limited to artistic forms themselves. It also examines how culture can maintain its creative vitality, respond to practical social issues, and continue to generate public value in a rapidly changing era.

Conclusion

Bombarding Unwritten Rules is a long-term observation of creation, responsibility, and public culture.

It records the continuing reflections of a group of cultural practitioners on the relationship between art, society, and their times. It also presents a path of development leading from visual practice to cultural action.

For CPL, creation is not a privilege reserved for a small number of people.

Anyone willing to observe reality, document the times, and participate in public affairs may become part of cultural creation.

In the future, CPL will continue to promote the coordinated development of images and public culture through City Photography Congresses, public image initiatives, urban visual heritage preservation programs, and related international cooperation projects.

To preserve memories for cities, records for society, and verifiable and inheritable public cultural assets for the future.