Essay: How to breach the Fourth Wall...

For those, who aren't familiar with this concept.

The Fourth Wall is supposed to be the border between any Artist, and it's audience.
It is litterally, what separates the Painter from the Viewer, the Musician from the Listener, the Writer from the Reader, and so on...
This is a border, which cannot easily be crossed; most Artists prefer to create in Solitude.
On the other hand, what is an Artist without an audience?

Up until now, I covered a lot of paradoxes - including Messages, Followers, Fans, Writers, Listeners (which includes Readers, of course) - trying to tackle this phenomenon.
We learned, that it is hard business, to even communicate; we have to subtract ourselves in the process.
This is not only the case for the Messenger, but also for the Receiver.
And if we even reach that, there is still a lot of work to do, concerning understanding each other.

Breaching the Fourth Wall is a means to this; in fact, it is a rather simple trick.
It involves turning directly to your audience.
An example could be a writer, who starts an adlib conversation with the reader - in the middle of a story; or a stage player, who bends over to the audience, and talks to them; in stead of his counterplayers.
The one-man show is the most striking example of this...

The concept is simple; by letting your audience participate in the play, the story, or whatever, you reach a bigger audience.
In terms of populism, this is easily explained; but does it make our art any better? I dare to doubt this.
From the Artist Paradox (see else where) we have learned, that the opposite is true.
There is a fine line, between the importance of Art, and the volume of it's Audience...

The Fourth Wall is only to be breached, when it makes you a lot of money...