Criptic Critic Conscience and Known for it

Monday, February 1, 2021

Gabriel White 6h · Coordinator, manager, administrator... why are these words so omnipresent on arts opportunity noticeboards?

 

  • David Graeber / How social and economic structure influences the Art World
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    David Graeber / How social and economic structure influences the Art World
    David Graeber / How social and economic structure influences the Art World

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    • 4h

    • Gabriel White
    Yes, the notion of the artist as "hero", as a "somebody", is very much about commodification and containment. Restricting the status of the artist by making it contingent upon their viability as a commercially abstract entity.

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    • 3h

    • Gabriel White
    The greatest enemy of artists and the public are those who monopolise the arts and public space for private benefit.

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    • 3h

    • Wells Tao
    yeah I was more referring to the suffocation of the 'arts' by management
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    • 3h

    • Gabriel White
    I like the final remark about unleashing the venomous power of poetry. Robert Graves writes about the lack of poetic thought in all classes of people, especially the intellectual class.

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    • 3h

    • Wells Tao
    the management suffocation is a pattern also seen in the massive rise of "bullshit jobs' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHx5rePmz2Y
    BULLSHIT JOBS - David Graeber
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    BULLSHIT JOBS - David Graeber
    BULLSHIT JOBS - David Graeber
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    • 3h

    • Gabriel White
    It's the old Kafkaesque cliche about the system becoming it's own telos, of supervision for its own sake, which he derived as much from his tyrannical father than his job as a clerk.

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    • 3h

    • Wells Tao
    a well policed cliche
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    • 3h

    • Gabriel White
    Indeed. It helps to have a sense of humour.

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    • 3h

    • Tony Green
    Gabriel White
     even better some guerrilla strategies
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    • 3h

    • Wells Tao
    Tony Green
     yeah the status quo loves co-opting that
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    • 2h


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    • 2h

    • Tony Green
    only way to slow down co-optation is to accept silencing - do nothing -- that is no fun - negative - & giving up -- but some people do that --- however that gets fashionable quickly as 'spirituality' 'healing' 'well-being' 'music-therapy' 'colouring-in for adults'

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    • 2h

    • Gabriel White
    Tony Green
     somewhat telling that this prosaic observation of mine has generated more commentary than any of the actual music and artwork I've posted on FB. People are obviously hungry for a forum, and less interested in the minutia of another person's interior world.
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    • 2h

    • Wells Tao
    Tony Green
     or actually be so different that your 'implementation' changes the system. eh

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    • 1h

    • Wells Tao
    Gabriel White
     Yeah I think a forum is definitely missing

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    • 1h

    • Gabriel White
    Wells Tao
     Something I find quite challenging and quite interesting at the same time is the way that artists are often nonverbally told to shut the fuck up when it comes to questioning the way their work is funded or not, assessed fairly or not, and supported or not by committees. I’m often taken aback by how people in even the lowest gatekeeping positions can take umbrage at me simply observing the enormous power discrepancies that are so obvious to me. The eyebrows suddenly cross, The hands join together as if seeking security and the jaw flexes. All of this says very clearly “watch it mate”. Conversation over.
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    • 1h

    • Wells Tao
    Yes totally my experience. The economy of art is treated as a stupid working class mistake, an interest that ruins the experience. Instead of simply a bridge one of many that anyone is entitled to use to enter the work. My work has gone all out on this. The fact that I exist, invisible, as a Democratic Socialist on welfare, practicing my art, between looking for work and raising my children (note the 'party line' inclusion)
    Ariane Craig-Smith
    As someone who went to art school and has worked/works with roles using all those titles I must ask why you are so suspicious of them? Those roles are there to handle the admin, pay the bills, coordinate teams, handle the relationships, the organisational collaborations, fill the funding applications, etc, etc so visual artists, dancers, musicians, etc. can get on with the creative mahi. I’m not an artist, I am a curator. A huge number of these coordinator/manager/administrator roles are filled by people like myself who either realised we don’t want to be the artist but are passionate about making the work happen, or are also artists as well. Most of us are trained in arts.
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    • 2h

    • Gabriel White
    Where did you get the idea that I'm suspicious?

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    • 2h

    • Gabriel White
    Let me put it this way. If I had a paid role as an artist, I'd be enlisting the help of an administrator or manager quick smart. I just don't have the role, the power, to do that. So I'm not suspicious, not even resentful really, just poor and dispirited.
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    • 2h
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    • 2h

    • Ariane Craig-Smith
    Gabriel White
     apologies, I must have miss-read your tone. I’ve had moments myself reading the job ads on The Big Idea, when all I could see was artist residency opportunities and calls for proposals from artists. I would love the option of a curatorial residency but they don’t seem to happen too often. Certainly not in any way that could feed my family while I do it. Maybe it’s just very easy for the grass to look greener over the fence.

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    • 54m

    • Wells Tao
    Ariane Craig-Smith
     maybe some aren't looking at the fence

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    • 52m

    • Ariane Craig-Smith
    Wells Tao
     maybe we’re all just seeing fences.
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    • 43m

    • Gabriel White
    Ariane Craig-Smith
     this is just my personal experience, and I’m certainly not objective, but I have not found it productive to pursue so-called opportunities in the form of calls for proposals and residency programs. These are so often an enormous waste of my time in energy and leave me very demoralised. I simply have had to bow out of the world of seeking public funding and legitimacy because my practice is pretty demanding as is as is my working and family life. It’s just not feasible for me to apply and apply - plead and plead. It’s actually distracting, kind of inhuman and demoralising. I do realise that there are really good people out there trying to create usable and empowering platforms for artists, but sadly it’s insufficient.
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    • 42m

    • Ariane Craig-Smith
    Gabriel White
     yup. I agree - those options are a lot of hard work for very little chance of any return. Most job applications are, one way or another. I think I only once got a job that I’ve applied for (and I was asked to apply for that).
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    • 37m

    • Gabriel White
    Ariane Craig-Smith
     We talk a lot in my family about employment justice and the rights of workers. In many ways the discussion we are having is a much broader one about the relationship of labour to capital.
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    • 34m

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    • 22m

    • Wells Tao
    or more precisely, not having

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    • 21m
    • Edited

    • Gabriel White
    I suppose it’s possible to have a discussion and not have a discussion at the same time!
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    • 5m

    • Wells Tao
    Yes. And of course No!

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    • 1m

    • Arts total lack of economic transparency. Performative philosophy and the alternative historical discourse of visible economics In art. A new publication by Tao Wells
    TAOWELLS.BLOGSPOT.COM
    Arts total lack of economic transparency. Performative philosophy and the alternative historical discourse of visible economics In art. A new publication by Tao Wells
    Arts total lack of economic transparency. Performative philosophy and the alternative historical discourse of visible economics In art. A new publication by Tao Wells

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      • 1m



    • Tony Green
    & to tell artists what to do to satisfy Craetive NZ & or dealer's richest clients -- an old friend tried to derail what I was doing to make my work marketable -- so no thanks -- in the past 8/9 years universities have been taken over by these slime-balls starting at the top with the Professors of Accountancy in the Vice-Chancellor's Gang who report to the Government -- Treasury/"Education" - obedient to the Neo-Liberal Axioms for management of NZ -- summarized fairly efficiently by Deleuze & Guattari in 1,000 Plateaus -- "Apparatus of Capture" - 40 years ago -- I've been reading over the past six months -- & making notes on what needs further deeper reading in that rather weighty book https://www.flickr.com/photos/fflap/50899213523/
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    • 2h
    • Edited

    • Ben Curnow
    trained to jump through hoops ...
    No photo description available.
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    • 1h

    Wells Tao
    can't challenge a system of privileged run by the privileged
    "Our artists are trained like obedient dogs. Asking what is art? Is a dead game..."
    YOUTUBE.COM
    "Our artists are trained like obedient dogs. Asking what is art? Is a dead game..."
    "Our artists are trained like obedient dogs. Asking what is art? Is a dead game..."

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    • 1h

    • Gabriel White
    Ben Curnow
     Effen brilliant!

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    • 1h


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  • 59m
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