Ways Of Working (text)

Ways Of Working by Michael Atavar 7/11/01 These ideas are not exhaustive, draw no conclusions, contradict themselves and make no attempt at authenticity. (For me the experience of being an artist in residence was inconclusive, mixed, often contradictory, both good and bad.) 1 Who? I’m an ideasperson, not attached to the word artist, with a background in business. In the 80s before I became an artist I ran my own production company making corporate work and directing pop videos. I’m interested in business ideas and art and art ideas and business. This is my www site, about ideas, about the browser window, always asking the same question – why are we here and what are we doing? I suppose I create – Atmosphere Perfume Welcoming Presence Being there allowing the user to stay for a long time. I think these are all really valuable in business, but my experience is that the world of business doesn’t seem to see it this way. To them it’s too erratic, too dangerous, too problematic, too worrying. So instead of having HIGH VALUE as art it suddenly has NO VALUE i.e. it’s unpalatable. The question I was asked most in my residency at the Guardian was – WHY? WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS? WHY PUT IT THERE? WHY DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE THINGS? WHY? WHY? WHY? 2 Process Why engage with business? IMHO the business environment does not completely understand artists and conversely we don’t often fully understand the demands of business. So there are mixed messages. It’s great to get an artist into the building, but what do you do when you have them there? ? Certainly during my residency often the newspaper people didn’t know why I was there and sometimes I didn’t know why I was there too. And in a way that’s what makes it interesting. In that difficulty IS something. A crack where process might happen, where the clear dictates of one discipline might begin to dissolve and melt away. Story One XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX In the first couple of months of my residency at the Guardian I devised a light piece to be installed on the staircase in the building at 119 Farringdon road. To get permission to install this I had to go and XXXX XX XXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXX XXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX XXX XXXX XXXXXX XX XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXX. Why? Why did I want to do this? X XXX XXXXX XXXXX XXX XXXX XX XXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXXX XXXX XX XXX XXX any artworks of mine from being physically installed in the building. It seems that if you want an artist to be in the building, you’d actually better be prepared for some real change and TRANSFORMATION. And it depends if the organisation is prepared to deal with the change as it happens. I was lucky that the Guardian was prepared to address my residency as a PROCESS. But I think it shocked many of them how challenging it might end up being and how it might involve themselves in difficulty. I remember when I finally got space on a notice board to put up some electronic drawings. NOT ONE PERSON SAID ANYTHING. It was like it was invisible and in a way it was because it was real magic. 3 Value THE VALUE PROJECTED ONTO ARTWORKS IS SOMETIMES VERY ERRATIC. IT’S NOT THE SAME VALUE THAT’S PROJECTED ONTO GOODS. AND IF THE VALUE OF ART IS HARD TO QUANTIFY IN SOCIETY. WHY SHOULD BUSINESS BE ANY DIFFERENT? THE VALUE IN MY RESIDENCY WAS JUST A MICROCOSM OF THE VIEWS PRESENT IN SOCIETY. (Nothing more, nothing less.) If someone asked me to become artist-in-residence again I would say ‘Yes’ but not call myself an artist. If you call yourself an artist you tend to become a representative of all art, past and present and if you make work that is challenging you simply become a flashpoint for allthedifficultmodernartthatpeoplehaveseenontvanddontlike (all one word). Also, if you say that you are an artist you limit yourself to one role or cut yourself off from other creative people (copywriters, journalists, HTML writers, advertising people) who might be doing art-like activity within the company. Story Two SMS Some time after finishing my residency at the Guardian I met Matt Locke at a conference (we didn’t know each other until then). He told me that he had been organising an SMS poetry competition in conjunction with the Guardian and knowing that I was artist-in-residence at the newspaper had suggested to the marketing team that I could be one of the guest writers invited to contribute. The Guardian didn’t take him up on the suggestion. When I asked him more questions I realised that the people in the Guardian team organising this collaboration were sitting about four feet away from my desk at the newspaper all the time I was there. They didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who they were. 4 Opposition So it seems like there’s always this division between the artist and the business, essentially two very different systems operating – Artist, slow moving, research based, curious, independent. Business, geared up to constant production, a factory, if you like, delivering product. BUT BUSINESS HAS RESEARCH ARMS AND ARTISTS MAKE AND SELL THINGS. I’m sure that (just like the SMS story) there are people in business doing art-like activity and artists (like me) that are interested in business processes. But I don’t know how these people talk to each other or engage or even know that the other is there. If we don’t have useful dialogue these systems will continue to crash and implode. 5 Equality Five practical suggestions that might help create VALUE in the workplace. (1) Pay the artist properly, equal to other professionals. (2) Insist that the host organisation pays the salary (rather than a government agency). (3) Request advocacy from outside. (4) Call yourself a consultant. not an artist. In that way you can charge five times more money than you could as an artist. (5) Encourage the host organisation to sustain the residency for a minimum of one year (and ideally two). Some residencies are treated as though the artist has won a prize or the position is a gift or endowment, but it creates a very unstable platform or power base for the artist to actually DO anything, so the artist might end up with intellectual power i.e. a mandate to do something, but without any practical resources to do it. Note It seems that the time that the Guardian should be reaping the benefit from their investment is NOW, today, at least six months after the residency officially ended. Residencies are too short. What is really interesting is actual and genuine support for the artist over time. Not just a short burst of money, but investment in process and research over a longer period. I think that would support both the artist and the business. 6 Conclusion I just wanted to repeat all those things in my work that are really VALUABLE and enjoy them – Atmosphere Perfume Welcoming Presence Being there Allowing the user to stay for a long time. And some more. The ability to say anything and to just go as it says something endlessly. THESE ARE VERY VALUABLE. Story Three Time Off My project manager (who brought me to the Guardian), the senior editor of G2 (who agreed to print my piece) and the arts editor (who supported my appointment) were all away, absent from the building on the day my work was published in the newspaper. That’s no coincidence. And that’s the problem… …that the art might take you somewhere where you don’t necessarily want to go. IT’S HARD TO GIVE SOMETHING VALUE WHEN IT DISTURBS THE VALUE OF YOURSELF. IT’S HARD TO GIVE SOMETHING VALUE WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE IT. ! The Guardian took a big risk when they printed my work. And being in the workplace, full time, for six months certainly changed my view of what I do, very rapidly, and gave me a professional and aesthetic push that can’t be underestimated. So yes, it is a good thing, but just be prepared to take the risk. END. (c) Michael Atavar 2001–2026