We are apparently all mindless worker bees, drones. Ray La Montagne is on ABC today playing a few songs spilling his words of wisdom about how senseless and mindless people are going to work every day, doing meaningless, time-filling things, going home, sleeping, and that he guesses these people haven’t touched the reality of life so they don’t know any better.
Look as a teenager I was brought up with this idea too; hate the system, hate the mindless corporate scum, they’re just drones. It’s depicted quite beautifully in John Brack’s Collins St, 5pm, and anyone who catches Tram 86 or 96 (i forget which) gets this diatribe spat at them by the abusive homeless guy that harrasses travellers each morning. But it occurs to me these days that this is a very 1950s anti-conformist attitude, it’s SO fucking out of date. Back then, the beatniks were rebelling against an emerging consumerist society a society that is fully developed today, a society we are trapped in. but the beatniks in their day, they still had church, neighbourhoods, and communities. We don’t.
Many of us, not all of us, but many of us depend on work for social contact, for some kind of connection with other human beings. You take work away from us, and we are completely isolated. We rarely talk about the small family units, the loss of the neighbourhoods, the dismantling of community services and the isolation of living in cities. This is not something that successful musicians understand because their job description requires that they are excellent social networkers, so they fit seamlessly into whatever community they need to, in order to be the artist they want to be. How many ‘drones’ are people who used to dream of a career as an artist of some kind, and had to give it up and find an actual way of sustaining themselves in this world? How many things that these artists and musicians depend on would no longer be there if us ‘drones’ abandoned our dronish ways and led our lives like butterflies?
I’m not a fan of schools and therapists molding people into little cog-like citizens that support a status quo. I’m not into popping out kids like ping pong balls. And i’m not a fan of the working hours required to make a living, the way that work, travel and needy children take up valuable thinking and creative time. There literally aren’t enough hours in the day. It’s an incredibly effective way to keep the populace from caring too much about things like art or politics or the direction we’re all going. Office work does stifle creativity, but don’t blame the worker for how the system works, we just try to fit in as best we can so that we survive and get whatever it is we need – security, family, space.
I’m not leaning on family, or my partner to slave away in The System while I fluff about. I’m not the artist who got half rent in our share house ‘because she couldn’t afford it otherwise’ while I paid 1.5 rent because i had a full time job in a fucking call centre. Why am I subsidising her? I’m a musician, I should be subsidising my own work, not her shitty attempts on a canvas. This happens all the time, you talk to the beatniks with their inability to process the idea of an office job and you find out how other people are subsidising their lifestyles. Lucky them. or… unscrupulous…
Today most of us spend more time with the people we work with than anyone else, and more workers than not are completely cut off from any form of solid community. We talk all the time about how workers will work 21 different careers in a lifetime, we don’t talk about that meaning they traverse 21 communities in a lifetime, never fully holding onto a single one. But these transient relationships offer support and encouragement that is all too rare in a modern lifestyle.
PS. i know i’ve been doing a lot of ‘hating’ on my blog here lately and it’s not always so palatable, and i can’t always put it in the context it deserves, often i’ll say i’m talking about ‘musicians’ but really i’m talking about the people who do what i’m talking about, which is not necessarily all musicians, nor exclusively musicians. I’m just processing, thinking critically about what i’m being fed by other people, by the media, using this blog to reinforce my own opinions. You’re not supposed to agree with all of it.
mmm yeah, people work to do the things they want to do. and now we have cool jobs. people do some really fucking cool jobs. i wonder how they arrive there? sometimes luck, i guess. if rent was free, and you could just get the gear you wanted, i probably wouldn’t work, id just do art full time. but you do have to pay rent, and afford gear. so you need a job. until a ‘break’, or whatever. but yeah. what we spend our money on is important i guess. it’s very tempting to be more indulgent with more cash i guess. staying away from booze will certainly save cash. and ditching all forms of media input will save money too. by that i mean movies, concerts, records – anything you buy which is essentially mind food. but its nice to have those things, we go out and buy books, or we see films and they sustain us… but if the impetus is there… i think you can throw it all away… for a while. in that sense the artist is far more less sociable than the usual types… so you’ll stay alone even more just creating whatever it is you do. i think it’s very hard to finger people and and say ‘you’re consumerist/conformist’ these days… get down and talk to a real estate agent, a banker, a whoever… they probably actually go to plays on weekends, enjoy rock climbing, love sigur ros and sometimes fund independent films. i find this a lot these days. you really can’t judge anyone, because all in all, people are getting more and more in touch, everyone wants to find the creative side. but i geuss some people just aren’t born with it. i know some dudes that actually find demolition highly exhilarating.
but on the topic of community, yes, i agree. it’s something we need more of these days. and it’s kinda reuined by ‘commercialism’. and it’s funny in one way it’s really dominated by sound. for instance we probably wouldn’t go hang out at Strike bowling bar because of the music that gets played there. same as any bar or club. sound defines cultures. but it’s definitely something i think about. creating something of an art ‘church’, if you will. and in a way maybe it’s why i go to doofs. i used to get pretty off chops when i first started going to them… but now it’s pretty easy to just mingle around and just see a lot of people I know… you do form your own communities amongst crews out there.
but i have an idea for something kinda like a muso jam room. but more for artists. i always liked the concept of ’shredders lair’, from the ninja turtles. there’s a lot to be said for the ‘drop-in centre’… but drop-in for big kids. most of how we connect to people can also be thru classes and courses and stuff.. but it costs money… Actually, yeah. It’s called… a ‘cultural centre’. I’d actually like to make one. In the future. Some time. But so gnarly like the arts centre. A bit more like shredders lair meets revolver band rooms. Something.
woops, i meant to say ‘not so gnarly like the arts centre’..
more like a shredders lair art studio library
lol
i agree with everything you’re saying, i mean i’m a librarian, and that’s giving me security, but there are so many creative librarians! musicians, artists, gallery owners, all kinds! it’s a great job in a way because you’re in touch with this vast source of culture. you definitely can’t pin point people, and i don’t know how some people get the cool jobs, one guy is in Rare books at the State Library, that is a seriously cool job, other people are bookers for venues… and so on… but everyone can’t have jobs like that. sometimes it’s luck, sometimes it’s immersion, you’re already so much a part of that scene that people sort of institutionalise you.
actually cutting off from culture is one thing i can never do completely… i suppose in a way i do, which is why i’m like “who are all these bands?” when i turn on the radio now, like a cultural alien, certainly the isolation thing i relate to. people don’t get how GREAT my christmas holiday was because i wrote SO much music and learnt heaps more about my synths, they’re wondering if i ever spoke to a human being the entire time. but books in particular, and some GOOD tv really intellectually stretch me, which makes me want to create… fill the bucket. then use the paint for your own work. so i tend to never completely cut off from that, especially sci-fi, i guess it’s my placative drug.
I had this idea, but I could never do it because i don’t have the skills to get it off the ground on my own, but I wanted to create a place where all the people who work in the city could go after work and ‘create’. it would have cheap small rehearsal rooms out the back, and artist studio spaces by the dozens, lockers for people to keep their ‘art stuff’, and lots of comfy places to crash and work together, share ideas, and classes/lessons/workshops if people were feeling a bit flat and needed new input/ideas/methods. if it were right in the city, say above the Melbourne Art supplies store or somewhere near there, then all the people who come into the city or through the city to work/commute could go there on a regular basis and ‘live their other life’ it’s like a Gym, but for artists. and much cheaper.
it’s a more commercial idea than what you’re talking about, i guess it’s based a bit on my call centre life, or the revolver rehearsal rooms which always intimidaed me and i assume are a bit on the expensive side, and visiting sticky which is quite businesslike in the way it supports creativity and gives people a space to create together, or just talk. just be. the fact that the idea is a bit commercial – but it could still be a non profit – might make it less intimidating in a way (i’m going way off track here) because someone like me who would be intimidated, and feel they don’t fit in, could pay for classes, and just meet people that way, and the act of paying a few dollars makes me feel i’m allowed to be there even if i have a perception that i’m ‘not as artistic as others’. And it could still be free for people who can’t afford it. there’d be lots of free stuff going on i guess too. and there’d have to be a gallery space, one that didn’t charge the artists rent, just took sales commissions.
This goes back to what you were saying about the sports culture – Gym culture is part of that to me. it’s this place where people can spend huge amounts of money to ‘be sporty’ and be taught how to be sporty, pay someone to be a sporty mentor, and be part of a sporty community (only most gyms aren’t very ‘community’ because they’re very profit driven.)
But imagine if there was a chain of Art gyms all over the country. and it was super cheap, and it was a space to meet people, you didn’t have to pay anything, there’d be free coffee, tea, biscuits (like the athaneum library). and the common goal would be to expand your mind, rather than discipline your body.
invite me if you get this muso jam room happening. i’ll bring my synths and casios
haha,
hey lu… nah the idea i have is much like exactly what you said. awesome!
i just use the ‘jam room’ metaphor to illustrate what is missing in the art world – like you said – ‘art gym’… hehe, cool
I’ve thought about it a lot. Actually Lu, if you ever want to team up and work on it, i’d be mad keen. I totally agree with the upstairs Art shop thing.
Although I’ve imagined somewhere more central, for instance, like one of those huge vacant shops, right in the middle of Smith St. Location is everything really.
It’s funny. Musicians can’t find permanent space, lockable permanent practice spaces on the cheap, and artists don’t have short time spaces for hire – like musicians do at revolver.
But I’ve heard you crying out online before for somewhere to go and chill b4 – i think a lot of people get this feeling. You don’t want to go to a cafe, you want to go to an art gym. not the library, the art place. haha
but i have certainly imagined it in more of a ‘commercial’ sense. ie, you couldn’t just have a place there coz how do you pay rent? it would hav eto be fully funded otherwise, and then you’d run into all these types of ‘rules’…
So i imagined it to be… actually I imagined it to be a much more open space. It’s kinda like a net cafe, but it’s not the focus. Because even now a net cafe is no longer a viable business model. So I imagined it to be a twin space. Out back, one big open, modular space, with moveable tables, and hireable gear. You could sign up to be a year long member and have bookable access all year, or, you could just day rates, half day rates. It’s lit well, there’s plants and it’s a modern design. Good, casual volume music. The front space is the net cafe, more comfy, drinks, coffee etc. But since its 2010, there’s no desktops. You need the net? here, grab a laptop. Here’s an iPad.
Then at night time it becomes an event space out back. Or it can be short courses. But the main income comes from the ‘desk real estate’ and these night time things. You don’t want ‘cafe’ or ‘net’ to become the focus. But the ‘culture’.
COz if you go to a cafe, you hav ethis little table. YOu can’t spread out. But a lot of people want to go to cafe’s now, and work. SO it expands that out. AT you could be open till like, 5am. ANd don’t do booze. It’s just like all these night owls in there working away.
SO i kinda imagined this incarnation to be more computer people. Drawing. Desk people.
It could work i think. And I think i’m passionate about creating it as a business…. because mainly for me… the idea came up trying to dream of a place I would actually love to work. hehe!
But i dunno i don’t think I’m ready to make it yet . I’ve got a bit of a life plan… but not even, probably not even for another 5 years could i commit to such a thing, or try it out. i dont think
And by then the world could be pretty different.
But i love the idea. Maybe we could team up one day heh??
the other thing is too… usual art studios… they can be quite ‘clicky’ and also… somtimes you can’t go to your space all the time, everyone wants a studio, but then no one ever actually spends anytime in them… so with the art gym you dont have to make a commitment financially as you would in a full time studio, you just go when u need
yeah exactly, you could have these big deep lockers that people can put canvasses and boards and things in, and that’s their permanent space, but the studio’s are booked by the day/hour/afternoon.
when i used to go to rock n roll high, they had 4 rehearsal rooms, one big one and 3 tiny ones, with shitty amps and kits set up in them already, and it was $6 an hour per member i think. or $3? i can’t remember, but it was super cheap. you just turned up with your guitar or your drum sticks. Maybe that’s what Revolver is like.
i’ve never done something this entrepreneurial, and i’ve sort of said I couldn’t do it on my own, it’s just been at the back of my mind, but yes I’d definitely be up for something like this.
your idea sounds quite modern and chic very much like a Gym, i guess i was envisaging comfy couches and stuff, but you do have to be careful about it becoming cliquey. Even sticky has issues with it’s staff being too friendly with eachother and intimidating new people from coming in – i think they’ve sorted that now though.
There’s definitely a need, and I think it’s something that would take ages to set up and figure out the balance between activities and finances etc, and it’s definitely about the space. the location. See gertrude put me off as an art space because since i live in the south now it’d be a pain to get to. but anyway…
I’ve never been to Bus Stop but I can see it being a project that could work well with something like that. And possibly that’s why i had that city location in mind.
Maybe if they open up the top of Flinders St station – it’s kind of similar to the new Writers project over at the State Library, only for music and arts. But I guess you really need a space that people can just walk right into, can get business off the street, net cafe would bring in casual visitors which would help word spread….
lots of potential!
yeah i imagine half of it to be comfy and loungey, the other half modern and designy. perhaps seperated a little by a lattice vine ?
im thinking a space as big as like, little creatures dining hall.
yeah exactly it needs to be in a hub. smith, brunswick st. you’d wanna make it world renowned.
i think it’s like this archetypal thing everyone imagines exists, which actually doesn’t. the future sweet place we should all be, but aren’t.
it’s like, something like horsebazaar, which presents to be a video arts bar, sure has events, but in the end is actually about alcohol. thats how they make money.
i dont knwo about these bus stop or writers projects? what are they?
aparently the new 1000 pound bend and space is nice. have to get out there
but in terms of ideas, i actually gave marcus westbury an email about it all a few months back looking for ideas for funding and sourcing spaces… but i haven’t met with coz like i said im just not totally ready to do it yet…
yeah we we’re talking about stripping it down… being real sure about the core thing. for instance, i see more painterly, big canvas stuff as a whole seperate enterprise. i guess i definatley imagine the space to be ‘dry’ .. an art one would be a whole project of its own… in my mind…
i guess yeah, maybe i actually like shick
i went to irenes warehouse recently, watched a bit of a gig…
that place is quite bohemian in a way. very grass roots.
i guess i imagine something alittle bit more cutting edge. futuristic
hope im not going to town too much on your blog all the time lu!
on a side
chek out pics of this new bar in brissy
quite planty and trippy ,
http://lifebrisbane.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/cloudland1.jpg
http://lifebrisbane.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/cloudland2.jpg
its called ‘cloudland’
oh-kay one post at a time, i might have to back this up and maybe we can email further about this i’m loujp@ the domain name which this blog is on.
i think you make a good point about art being a bit messy if it’s painterly, and really for me i guess it’s about music, and general creativity. the connecting and community, the safe place to hang out and think.
I missnamed the projects i referred to:
Bus Gallery
http://www.busprojects.com.au/ is the gallery, and i think it’s a bit in trouble financially. I’ve never been but i’m told it’s one of the best independent galleries in melbourne.
Wheeler Centre
http://wheelercentre.com/ is a brand new thing housed within the state library but an entity of it’s own founded to support Melbourne as the most literary city in the world. but it’s VERY eventy, like a year round festival, and quite formal in that it’s a big thing the Government has heavily invested in.
I have not heard of Space or 1000 pound bend they’re both awesome names.
Eloise and Luke of Sticky would be interesting to talk to about starting up projects and funding too.
there are a few warehouse projects i’ve been invited to, often private artists studios being opened up for a day gig or something- is that what shick is like?
you know i enjoy it. i’ve just noticed your link to your site, i can’t believe how much stuff you’ve put out, it’s pretty amazing!
man i should get you to work on the css of MY site. you’re is way cooler. i’ve gone beyond the point of caring now I think.
that’s pretty amazing! i wonder what it’d be like full of violent drunkards? or maybe the decor would raise the bar for Brisbanites and they’d have to behav?
“raise the bar for Brisbanites”? That’s nice.
Actually it’s full of boring old hasbeens and is just like all the other nightclubs that family own (including a couple you’ve been in).
Getting back to your blog – I love when ‘professional’ musicians bitch about the work-a-day people who spend their hard-earned money on music, concerts, merchandise and support their tortured artistic endeavours. Those same musicians who espouse nonconformity and peer down their noses at people with real jobs are the same ones who cry about people who can’t afford to pay for their music so download it from filesharing sites.
I’m a bit fed up with people not taking responsibility for themselves. You’ve probably heard enough about that.
yes… offensive ‘brisbanite’ comment from me… based on the night clubs you’ve taken me to… or the scary people on the street. mind you melbourne is like this now too in majority, I just don’t want to be anywhere near the city at night now. but that place looks so classy and exciting wouldn’t you have to get in a cocktail dress and be fun and interesting?
Yeah I think you can find a lot of examples of artists leaning on others and then complaining about them. It’s culturally acceptable to have a go at anyone with a 9-5 job, for instance I was recently berated for not taking time off work to do volunteer work for musicians.. dude.. if musicians haven’t got anything to do in the day other than sleep, maybe they should learn some organisational skills and organise their own benefits instead of expecting the rest of us to.