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Capitalism and Art.
by Gianpiero Cognoli |
Economic systems come and go. Barter, agriculture and industrialism have all gone the way of the dodo (or are about to). Art doesn't. It is pure human expression, our inside world colliding with the outside one. And it really bothers me when people such as artists, producers, spectators and economists don't see that they ARE, however counter-intuitively, compatible. Actually, no, pardon me, they are, in this moment in history, symbiotic. One needs the other. Art needs the vehicles of contemporary capitalism, information technology and marketing to thrive. Capitalism needs art to stimulate consumption units (namely, you and I) to go on living and buying, to feel like there's meaning on this mudball. Rant over. This is not an applied sociology article, it's a kick-in-the-overalls wake-up call for artists and artist wannabees. I'm no sociologist, nor capitalist, nor ist-ist, just a guy who's done a lot of different things in life and sees a common thread in all of it. The single most important thing I've learned is that I can use skills acquired in my previous lives to improve and fuel my future. And anyone who ignores what they've learned in the past does it at their own peril.
Better art through capitalism and marketing tools.
I was an "advertising man" for a while, working for the corporate machine. Contrary to what many people think, there was very little art or creativity in the job. However, I learned a lot about the need to get information "out there" and how to do it. And now I've developed a series of effective and standardized tools for promoting myself in my acting career: business cards, websites, newsletters, emails, cvs, images/videos, flyers, word-of-mouth: tools that the average business has heard ad nauseam due to never-ending (and often useless) PowerPoint™ presentations, but terms that artists around the world cringe at the sound of. They don't want to think about their work as a product, as something that people have to be stimulated to see, feel, buy. Why, because it doesn't fit their version of "art"? Screw it, I say! (if I'm allowed to). Art and expression are good things. Good things for people to see and experience. So why not get as many people to appreciate, learn and grow as possible? Get your art out there and it will be better for everyone. Consider every marketing tool you use in "selling" your art as a preview for the masses. It will eventually attract them to the real deal - a good thing for both of you.
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I'm miles ahead of most of my peers in this respect (though certainly not as good an actor) and am doing everything at a fraction of the cost, since I do it all myself. This is how I get work. And it can only get better as I sharpen both my tools and my acting skills. And this applies to you, whether you're a director, actor, pottery-maker, painter, video artist, dancer, writer. Marketing and marketing techniques have gotten so sophisticated that the Eskimo are actually buying refrigerators (albeit they use them to keep food warm). So take advantage of their power, tried-and-tested methodologies and success rates. All for your art.
A good success rate for your typical direct marketing campaign is 1-2%, meaning 1 or 2 out of 100 people who received a direct marketing message go on to buy (or get more info on) a product or service. Why should direct unsolicited efforts to get art seen/purchased be any different? That means you have to send 100 CVs to get an audition, 100 entries for film festivals to get a prize, 100 articles to win the Pulitzer. I think you get the picture.
So get up off your nobody's-called-me-for-an-audition-in-three-weeks keyster, stop the movies-aren't-what-they-used-to-be whining, dry those my-agent-hasn't-called-me-in-months tears and put up a website, call some people, invite prospective producers for dinner, send out a mailer, rent the Goodyear blimp and slap your name on it for 12 months (and send me a cheque for 1 million bucks while you're at it). Do something. Anything. And you'll see that it's better than the alternative. If you don't sell yourself, no one else will.
But don't let it get the better of your art.
As a quick caveat, a last note on capitalism and art. You'll always have to deal with pressure from the money side of things. The surrounding economic system, as sociologist Jeremy Rifkin puts it in The Age of Access (I'm paraphrasing here): "tries to incorporate every moment of your life into its sphere of influence". Naturally. Organically. It's not capitalism's fault. That's what it needs to do to survive and multiply (which, let's face it, is the driving force behind everything, including us). Therefore the economic system wants all of you and all of your time. Along with everybody else's. So it will eventually try to tell you what to do and how to make your art. Don't listen. Take what you need from it (like the highly effective marketing tools that took hundreds of years to develop) and then go out and paint your inner stars. Eventually, if you're inspired, and create inspiring art, you will succeed. Commercially, as well. |
