Can you not see? … portrait of Ai Weiwei in 2012. Photograph: Gao Yuan

Royal Academy puts the Ai Weiwei artwork on its latest crowdfunding campaign as a supportive idea but do the crowds really appreciate art? and Jonathan Jones from The Guardian asks many questions about crowdfunding projects on arts like But what if the RA was mounting an installation by a less famous artist? Or trying to raise money for a less popular art form such as oil painting, say?, Where exactly, in history, are these wise crowds?, Do you mean the hordes who joined the first crusade and immediately started murdering Jews? The mobs who attacked Catholics, immigrants and foreigners in the 18th-century Gordon riots? Or the people who join in social media attacks on supposedly outrageous remarks by some poor sod or other?

Crowdfunding is typical of our time, in that it is a universally acclaimed good thing that actually reveals many problems if you pause to think about it for a second or two. Like trial by social media, sharing your life on Instagram and letting Apple choose your music for you, it depends on the fact that none of us actually have much time to think about its flaws – I, for instance, am too busy trying to break Apple Music by naming my music favourites as Wagner, Neil Young and the Muppets to worry about the fate of Tim Hunt......Continue Reading

> via theguardian.com/international