This was my first attempt at some creative disruption of the State of the Arts Conference, though nowhere near my last. It was all part of the State of the Arts Flash Conference.
13 Ideas I Want To Kill
1. The artist (a word I hate) as lone oracle, dispensing their unique vision to those perceptive enough to appreciate it.
2. That fantasy equals escapism, and only overt social commentary is valid.
3. That we must reflect on our own culture, and not seek to understand different times and places.
4. That creation happens in the mind, not the body.
5. Self-expression.
6. That art is difficult, intellectual, different from anything else people do for pleasure.
7. That institutions are necessarily restrictive, and freelancing liberating.
8. That composition is more creative than execution.
9. Branding.
10. That the making of experiences is usefully comparable to the making of objects.
11. That what you do matters more than how you do it.
12. That concept matters more than skill and that the skills of artists are any different from the skills of cooks, or builders, or engineers.
13. The artist as entrepreneur.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
13 Ideas I Want To Kill
This is my first attempt at some creative disruption of the State of the Arts Conference tomorrow, but almost certainly not my last. It's all part of the State of the Arts Flash Conference, and you can be part of it too.
13 Ideas I Want To Kill
1. The artist (a word I hate) as lone oracle, dispensing their unique vision to those perceptive enough to appreciate it.
2. That fantasy equals escapism, and only overt social commentary is valid.
3. That we must reflect on our own culture, and not seek to understand different times and places.
4. That creation happens in the mind, not the body.
5. Self-expression.
6. That art is difficult, intellectual, different from anything else people do for pleasure.
7. That institutions are necessarily restrictive, and freelancing liberating.
8. That composition is more creative than execution.
9. Branding.
10. That the making of experiences is usefully comparable to the making of objects.
11. That what you do matters more than how you do it.
12. That concept matters more than skill and that the skills of artists are any different from the skills of cooks, or builders, or engineers.
13. The artist as entrepreneur.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
A One Minute Manifesto On The Politics Of Proximity
Theatre is a democratic art form; democracy is a theatrical form of government. They developed in the same place and pretty much the same time, they’re products of the same world view. If the rise of the mass media has been bad for theatre, it’s been bad for democracy, too. Increasingly, the social digital media are proving to be good for democracy; they’re proving it on the streets of Cairo even as I speak. It’s tempting to believe that they could be equally good for theatre.
But it’s not Twitter and Facebook that have Mubarak trembling in his presidential palace, though they’ve helped to spread and coordinate what has; it’s the Egyptian people, in their thousands, united by the same impulse.
Digital networks are fragile, and they don’t belong to us. The more we use them the more complicit we are with the corporations that control them, and the more vulnerable we are to these corporations. They can help us connect, but they can also cut us off.
Long before oppressive regimes started restricting the social media, they were reading the Riot Act. People gathering together for a common purpose are the most powerful force in history. When so many of our interactions are mediated and mined for profit, what could be more radical than connections that cannot be commodified? What could be more radical than meeting together, in the same place, and paying attention to each other?
But it’s not Twitter and Facebook that have Mubarak trembling in his presidential palace, though they’ve helped to spread and coordinate what has; it’s the Egyptian people, in their thousands, united by the same impulse.
Digital networks are fragile, and they don’t belong to us. The more we use them the more complicit we are with the corporations that control them, and the more vulnerable we are to these corporations. They can help us connect, but they can also cut us off.
Long before oppressive regimes started restricting the social media, they were reading the Riot Act. People gathering together for a common purpose are the most powerful force in history. When so many of our interactions are mediated and mined for profit, what could be more radical than connections that cannot be commodified? What could be more radical than meeting together, in the same place, and paying attention to each other?