Bob Baker Fish has done an excellent interview with Melbourne artist/composer (now resident in Europe), Anthony Pateras in Cyclic Defrost. The article covers many interesting topics, but this provocative quote from Pateras (below) on one of the reasons he moved to Europe might be a good starting point for some polemic discussion here:
"In Melbourne, I increasingly found myself put into this position of being an administrator before being an artist, and I think, for everyone, that has a very negative effect on the work,” he offers forcefully. “As a result, I think the way musicians interact with each other becomes very influenced by that – we all become horrible little products, fucking each other over, cultivating friendships simply to bleed our colleagues for contacts. It has become more about the network and less about the work. We have become administrators, not artists. This is further fuelled by social media, which seems to occupy a lot of the time that artists could be using to make their own work stronger. When you’re forced to adapt to a circumscribed mode of existence, you distort yourself and start prioritising what other people want or expect, rather than what you desire as an artist.”
Does this ring true to you? Do we spend too much time on networking rather than working on our art? I've not lived/worked anywhere but Melbourne, but certainly in Melbourne I believe that networking is a massively important skill to attain if you want to get anywhere in the various art worlds. Please post your comments here.
"In Melbourne, I increasingly found myself put into this position of being an administrator before being an artist, and I think, for everyone, that has a very negative effect on the work,” he offers forcefully. “As a result, I think the way musicians interact with each other becomes very influenced by that – we all become horrible little products, fucking each other over, cultivating friendships simply to bleed our colleagues for contacts. It has become more about the network and less about the work. We have become administrators, not artists. This is further fuelled by social media, which seems to occupy a lot of the time that artists could be using to make their own work stronger. When you’re forced to adapt to a circumscribed mode of existence, you distort yourself and start prioritising what other people want or expect, rather than what you desire as an artist.”
Does this ring true to you? Do we spend too much time on networking rather than working on our art? I've not lived/worked anywhere but Melbourne, but certainly in Melbourne I believe that networking is a massively important skill to attain if you want to get anywhere in the various art worlds. Please post your comments here.
Comments
So, it depends on where you're heading with your work. The trouble with Pateras's comment, true though it is, is that through its particular critical lens, it eds up reinforcing that there is one predominant mode of 'being an artist' in the experimental music community.
And in the end, no one forces you to put your work across to other people. It's not always essential.
Hence, he went to Europe. There's a healthy (& heavily-subsidised) circuit of performance venues & festivals, commissions & all the rest. I'll expect he'll enjoy a great success.
The problem of a creative cultural infrastructure remains. Government funding paradoxically favours european anachronisms like opera & ballet, and invests in architectural edifice much more than programming. Maybe the results of Crean's cultural review will begin to address this - but I doubt it.
Yet I think networking is important for professionals, semi, and non-professionals alike. Jim's point about the lack of cultural infrastructure is really important, and affects all of us who are trying to get our work presented. There have been some programmes in recent years that seem aimed at addressing these problems, like Sound Travellers, although I did not work with this programme specifically. There are individuals in the ABC who provide wonderful opportunities, but having to adapt to the buerarcratic requirements of this organisation can be exhausting.
Generally when our 'stars' like Pateras relocate to Europe or the US, it is sad for us but I think generally reflects well on our scene as a culture that can produce world class talent, but the lack of cultural infrastructure is a big concern.
... the flip side of the coin might be somebody like Lucas Abela. He's partnered with (off the top) the Big Day Out, Falls Festival in Tasmania, Artspace in Sydney. The man loves the whole gamut of performing, touring, staging etc.
Because his work is more conceptual and performative, than strictly music per-se, he's been able to enjoy consistent support from visual arts & inter-arts funding programs. And the admin side of things is really just another aspect of his practice (he finds his roots in vaudeville, rather than the concert hall). Maybe its just a question of temperament?
But because the infrastructure to support these activities doesn't exist, when someone like Ant (I think also of Oren & Robbie with the WIM?, Mark from Synaesthesia - there are plenty more) steps away from the plate, the level of activity & the audience that supports it goes into a decline.
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Yes, ABC radio has been great in this respect. Brendan Walls did some good things with SBS & ABC TV, as well. But again it comes down to a handful of individuals - its not particularly sustained or dedicated.
It's pretty easy to tell who's genuine and who's not especially within such a small circle.
bit of Clinton Green in it, a bit of Pateras, a bit of Baxter, a bit
of Knox, a bit of Hand Made Music. The problem is that those
ingredients come for free. At the point of sale the last person in the creative capitol to get paid is the artist. The location could be ACMI, Brunswick Street or an ARI event. When the creative community realises it’s worth and value and starts to demand it or else: then perhaps things may change. The artists have helped to bring the white table cloth to the cappuccino pavement but they still need to have a second and third job to pay for it. We haven't worked out how to work economically as a community to prosper in the culture we have created. Individualism mixed with survival and self-preservation cancels out the power of the creative group. The community is composed of individuals with similar creative ambitions, which is always going to be hard to capitalise on.
Firstly I don't support any Governments any more; I am an informal voter because the arts have received little money in modern and postmodern times. I’m one of the very lucky artists to have received any grants from Oz Co.
Australia has not had a cultural policy for years or a dedicated arts minister that doesn't share a portfolio luggage on some other marginal wheel barrow being pushed through political back water.
Governments love to sprout about having culturally strong cities
where people are wanting to live, yet many artists struggle and many
skip meals to save money.
Crean's report will only fuel more unfortunate funding decisions,
artists are on the nose financially, we are not trusted with money, and recent history confirms this.
Even more money will be redirected away from artist's personal reach.
In the creative cities where all the artists live, we are controlled
by the land lords and media, until we own real estate nothing will
change.
Art gets written off as a rip off every day in the media, that’s why
the internet is populated by art, for now.
A collective economic approach is the only way, because as individuals very few artists own much and those who do are few and often made it in other industries.
It’s either join the grey tidal wave of poverty as you become a
forgotten 'established' impoverished artist or shut up and keep your job so you can do art on the weekends.