Art in the abstract – Culture Camp

Such a good session: artists, audience, appreciators, bureaucrats and business come together to socialise and speak productively about issues surrounding art and culture in the community.

The loose organisation of the “unconference” through IdeasTransform allows attendants to assemble their own agenda and talk about things that are important to their communities. As an arts administrator said, the idea, to her, is difficult for someone who is used to structure but this conference is about arts and culture which is structure-free and tends to dictate it’s own agenda in the moment of assembly. Organising large groups of creatives can be like herding cats: this format is ideal.

Communication between these groups can be curious. The artist (visual, performance and music) rarely communicates directly with their audience, but rather through their medium. Bureaucrats and business people rarely are the audience of the artist in a communication role either.  To an artist, the art is the real, the tangible, the communication and the politik of funding and policy is an abstraction necessary to be able to work. To the bureaucrat or business person, the funding, the bottom line and policy is the tangible and the process of creation is the abstract. To have these groups gathered in a room, trying to communicate through these barriers was a difficult task. However, sometimes business has no place in the world of the arts.

Not everyone’s work will or can be displayed at Scotia Tower or on the wall of the local cafe. When we speak of art in a strictly business model, the process of evaluating art according to its monetary value becomes paramount. When business controls art, the innovation falls behind the monetary value. Art challenges perception. Art often challenges dominant ideology. If art is controlled by that ideology, will there still be space to explore alternatives? Corporate culture is a frequent challenge to art, but if art comes under the control of corporations, where will be the platform for the voices of dissent? Is art as a “service industry” really appropriate? A great friend told me that truly great art over the ages is made truly great by its ability to continuously challenge us. It’s appeal is in its intrigue.

I tend to see art much the same as many scholars see technology: it is deterministic. Art, like other innovation, moves at its own pace outside of market and societal control.  The funding of art through arts oriented and artist directed organisation is critical for the ability to continue seeing the innovation. Artists will always make art. Like technology, it cannot be suppressed entirely, but the process of creation can be hindered without funding or if funding can object to art that doesn’t fit into a corporate morality.

As for the sessions of this particular conference: I attended three sessions that ranged in critical value for me. The mapping session in the morning created a map of cultural spaces in the city and their importance. Spaces ranged from cafes, to galleries, to theatres. People moved beyond seeing just art as culture and started to express cultural landscapes as places occupied in their every day existence. On the map were key markets, parks and natural spaces, restaurants, pubs, schools and many other spaces that matter.

The second session was about the “End of Empires”: a solidarity building session for artists. The MT Space‘s Majdi Bou-Mater  brought a similar concept into the Coalition Of Performing Artists after the attempt to save the King St Theatre failed. The idea was that due to scarcity, artists hoard resources. There was an appeal for the case of sharing resources and knowledge rather than hoard and jealously guard these. The performing artists of the community have already started this process of solidarity and it was interesting to see the demand for this beyond the borders of just the performing community.

The third session I attended was concerning culture as a part of the service industry. This concept may be another blog entirely, and definitely the subject of a few academic papers.

After three sessions, I was done for the day. I retreated for a coffee at a local cultural hub, and digested my thoughts for hours.

Here are some photos of the day:

Brock facilitating CultureCamp

Mapping session: priority determined by size of post-it note.

Discussion on Ending Empires.

"End of Empires" discussion

Art and culture as a service....

The Do-0cracy discussion?

Other blogs about Culture Camp:

RQ – a recap on Culture Camp

cynovation – an intellectual critique on a session

Tagged: art, city hall, culture, culture camp, downtown, kitchener, kwcc, matter of taste, unconference

Posted in: art, unconference