The proximity of what she does to...

Does the highlighted sentence want to say "new significant (important and major) artists began to think that how close what they do is to the productive means of society"?

Context:

He claimed, “We are now in transition from an objectoriented to a systems-oriented culture. Here change emanates, not from things, but from the way things are done.” The new needs or concerns that animate art after cybernetics have to do with “the creation of stable, ongoing relationships between organic and nonorganic systems, be these neighborhoods, industrial complexes, farms, transportation systems, information centers, recreation centers, or any of the other matrices of human activity.” The new “artist of significance” began to think about the proximity of what she does to the “productive means of society.” (https://books.google.com/books?id=luS97efEY10C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=%22The+new+%E2%80%9Cartist+of+significance%E2%80%9D+began+to+think+%22&source=bl&ots=GH4yQxaCMx&sig=l__mq9W32lGYl2NxuVYM414X7Q8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiK1ankif7VAhXLvhQKHVjnARIQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%22The%20new%20%E2%80%9Cartist%20of%20significance%E2%80%9D%20began%20to%20think%20%22&f=false)