Olid Nordhausen
Olid Nordhausen, notorious member of the Blue Cowboys, has created some new noise.
Occupy Museums: MoMA
Occupy Museums meeting beneath Sanja Iveković's "Lady Rosa of Luxembourg" -
Professors, Artists, Workers, and Activists Rally Inside MoMA.
So the question is, are museums part of the problem? What is the problem?
The problem is social and environmental justice. The problem is massively complex and multi-facetted. The problem is multi- trans- and inter-disciplinary. The problem is simple: it’s the financialisation of everything from the value of bees to the value of education, from culture as gentrification to the environmental externalties (the unquantified impacts, ironically the one thing that needs financialised). It’s so complex that it cannot be summarised into one or two sound-bites.
As Brian Holmes’ said in his post ‘Culture Beyond Oil‘,
The secret is out: less than 1 percent of our planet’s population is destroying our world for their profit.
So why are museums part of the problem? and for museums read major arts and cultural organisations.
There are at least a couple of issues:
One is about the ‘career structure’ of the artworld where a lot of people work for free or minimum wage (in their studios or communities or wherever) and a few people become incredibly rich (sometimes the artists, always the dealers). The Scottish Artists Union worked with the Scottish Arts Council and the resulting report showed that a very significant proportion of visual artists make almost no money from their work and have to support their practice from other work. The economy of the visual arts is very challenging and individual artists have always been some of the most precarious workers.
Another is the increasing corporate involvement in the arts – this has always been a factor in the US and the Art Workers Coalition campaigned on this issue forty years ago. In the UK it was significantly encouraged under the Thatcher government. One of the effective lines of critique is offered by PLATFORM with their challenge to BP’s funding of the Tate (as well as other cultural ‘majors’). They argue that this is a form of social license to operate. They need many different forms of legal licenses to operate, but they also need social permission. Cultural organisations, especially the large ones like Tate Britain and the Portrait Awards, are very effective means to demonstrate good corporate citizenship. Good corporate citizenship is not just judged on the funding of cultural majors, it is also a question of actual citizenship across the world.
Designated Drivers
In relation to the current campaign against censorship and in particular the proposed SOPA & PIPA bills its worth considering Temporary Services‘ project Designated Drivers (link to pdf), in which they asked twenty artists and groups to “each put up to 4GB of their archives, research, films, videos, software, images, etc on USB drives” – the visitors to the exhibition were “invited to copy everything!”
What are the key aspects of well-being?
The UK Office of National Statistics is currently consulting on a framework and headline indicators for measuring well-being. This is an incredibly important development, intended in the long run to provide alternatives to simplistic measures such as GDP.
The consultation tests the assumption that the following domains add up to a sense of well-being (quoted in full because of the importance of this work):
Individual well-being It is proposed that this domain should include individual’s feelings of satifaction with life, whether they feel their life is worthwhile and their positive and negative emotions. That is, this domain will include only the headline subjective well-being measures to be derived from the new ONS survey data. Subjective measures would be included with objective measures in the other domains.
Our relationships This was chosen as a domain because it reflects many of the responses received during the national debate and because many theories of well-being report the importance of this area to an individual’s well-being. The scope of this domain is intended to be the extent and type of individuals’ relationships to their immediate family, their friends and the community around them.
Health Includes areas which were thought to be important by respondents to the national debate. An individual’s health is recognised as an important component of their well-being. It is anticipated that this domain would contain both subjective and objective measures of physical and mental health.
What we do Aims to include work and leisure activities and the balance between them, all of which were common themes in the national debate responses. In this domain there are likely to be measures of aspects of work and leisure activities and of work-life balance.
Where we live Is about individual’s dwelling, their local environment and the type of community in which they live. Measures will be sought which reflect having a safe, clean and pleasant environment, access to facilities and being part of a cohesive community. ONS has taken Defra advice on the indicators in this area.
Personal finance Is intended to include household income and wealth, its distribution and stability. Measures within this would also be used during analysis to address the concepts of poverty and equality mentioned in the national debate responses.
Education and skills Various aspects of education and life-long learning were mentioned during the national debate. The scope of this domain is the stock of human capital in the labour market with some more information about levels of educational achievement and skills.
Governance Democracy, trust in institutions and views about the UK’s interaction with other countries, all of which were included in responses to the national debate, are intended to form the scope of this domain.
The economy Is an important contextual measure for national well-being. The scope of this domain is intended to be measures of economic output and stock.
The natural environment Is proposed as a domain in order to reflect areas mentioned during the national debate such as climate change, the natural environment, the effects our activities have on the global environment and natural disasters. It is planned to include measures which reflect these areas at the national level. ONS has taken Defra advice on the indicators for this area.
If you then look at the measures, the issues become more troubling. For instance, whilst generic issues such as climate change are referenced, there is no measure around access to greenspace within everyday life – the natural environment is remote.
The fact that there is no reference to culture is deeply problematic given the substantial research in the Nordic countries which demonstrates that participation in cultural activities has an impact on lifespan.
Finally, there is no reference to any spiritual dimension as contributing to well-being, and whilst modern over-developed Western culture is largely secularised, to omit this area is to diminish the scope of the understanding of well-being.
Responses to this survey need to be made by 23rd January 2012.
Art and Occupation
The Arts of Occupation | The Nation. Intelligent analysis of arts in Occupy Wall Street addressing the complexity of the issue, including art interventions, the aesthetic tactics of the movement, alliances with radical arts practices, and the work on art and labor that forms part of the occupy ‘enquiry’ into the relationship between the 1% and the 99%.
Art is not simply at the service of occupy, illustrating demands, but it is also not autonomous and ambiguous in relation to occupy. Rather it forms part of the tactics and challenge.
The Heart Sutra [2004] | Chris Dooks
Listen to this. The Heart Sutra [2004] | Chris Dooks.
It is a wonderful voice, one that might actually aid the meditation on emptiness.
What art have I seen?
Image from Gagosian website
Paul Noble’s Welcome to Nobson at Gagosian.
Image from Royal Academy website
Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935 at the Royal Academy,
John Msinr RA, Installation in Weston Rooms at Royal Academy, Photo: Chris Fremantle
Artists’ Laboratory 04: John Maine RA After Cosmati
What art have I seen?
Hanna Tuulikki performed parts of her work Salutation to the Sun, first presented a few years ago, at the Sound Lab at the City Halls Glasgow. It was followed by the film The Crystal Liturgy about Olivier Messiaen and his interest in landscape and ornithology.
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