Going Corpro

Here is dance video. I guess I would call it minimalist breakdancing; it's also an advertisement. This dance troupe does something pretty creative and cool - are they like the monkees, formed by a company for a purpose, or are they like blue man group, formed for the work and then later popular enough to have a viable commercial career? Here is another Youtube video, of a giant piece of artwork (in bed with physics) that can walk under motive power from a gust of wind. This thing certainly cost a pretty penny to build.

At Craft Congress this weekend, Becky and I argued a bit over the idea of corporate sponsorship of indie efforts. It's an interesting issue.

Scion spent a bunch of money sponsoring music events and throwing its swag everywhere in the hip hop community, and there's been a recent backlash against it. They have been sponsoring arts events for a while now as well, including the CC itself. It's interesting that their involvement there was much more low-key; they in fact did not want their logo on materials or branding present in any way. They had an art gallery briefly in hayes valley san francisco. I went to an opening at that gallery; there were cars in the middle of the room, car seats with video games in the corner, and branding everywhere. We ended up getting into a protracted disagreement with security after the opening had ended because they kept trying to empty the public sidewalk outside of the gallery. It was overall a pretty opressively 'corporate' experience. So what has changed from their gallery last year to the Congress today - is it the very different nature of the event? Has the company learned from the backlash, or is it a calculated move to affect the hearts and minds in such and so a way? Does it much matter if the only difference made in your life by their presence is the fat wads of money they give you? Maybe.

When I was in high school I was accepted into a prestigious state-funded summer arts program, Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. We all arrived for our five week program brimming with artistic idealism and a sort of awe at the idea of being part of a community consisting only of artists. A piece of work was collected from each of the visual artists to put on an initial 'portfolio showing', but we were shocked to learn a restriction: no nudes. The state was unwilling to compel its students to view representations of nudity. A nasty feeling crept into my guts to learn that similarly, the literature students were restricted from reading explicit poetry. The dance & acting students could only go so far. Obscene songs would not be allowed. I spoke with the administration over the issue to learn their concerns and generated a solution - an additional show where attendance was not mandatory. The administration encouraged me to do it, giving me an empty studio to occupy. My two 'uncensored' shows were a success - students were able to produce and perform work that would have been forbidden. Alix Olson baked me a cake. The lesson that I took away from this experience, which stays with me to this day, is the idea of how much can be accomplished by working with established authority, on your own terms.

A strange undercurrent of the new indie crafts movement is the sponsorship of events that many promoters are seeking and accepting. Is this a compromise of the integrity of what we do, or voluntary sponsorship of the arts, good citizenship on the part of corporations? I think each case is different, and each relationship must be examined with care. I also think that the arts have never been lucrative, and the idea of corporate citizenship acts must be considered because those big entities are not going away, and they are not going to stop having all the money. The fact of the matter is that money is the way that our society places value on time and at some point if a profession does not include any money the practitioners of it will not be able to sustainably establish a career. Career span allows an artist or artisan to hone finer points of craft and understanding, allowing these fundamental aspects of our culture to move forward, making progress the same way technology or medicine must progress. The anarchistic bent inside of me looks forward to a time when we can all support ourselves diffusely, through person-to-person interactions. If in the meantime I can get a hand up towards this goal without being asked to compromise my goals, I am going to examine the hand stretched towards me for filth and then, detecting none, grasp it firmly and reach upwards.