The Modern Tragedy of the Creatives

Lately I've been watching a lot of chiustream. I even finally got around to entering a contest (but that's another post). Two things come out of watching Chiustream and don't let the title of this post mislead you, they are wonderful things -

1. Being an artist has a very real potential of making you happy. Not happy and euphoric all the time, you'll be exposed to the same ups and downs that is just the admission price of living. But I mean, having a job the doing of which makes you happy. Potentially lonely sure, but you just have to balance that with your social life. It is noticeably different from watching say... a passionate investment banker, whom even if they are super 'talented' disrespect all the other people in their community. You can just tell.

2. More crucially, talent does not exist. Or at the very least is a misnomer. This comes from watching several interviews, in fact pretty much all of them encourage work and that doing a huge amount of work is really that first hurdle to being an artist. Some people may think that that is a bad thing, but really it is a wonderful thing, it means anybody can be an artist, anybody can create beautiful things, they just have to be willing to put in the work. Doesn't mean you'll succeed, as in get paid, just that if you do the work you can make beautiful things.

I'm sure many people could point out that in design type fields their like fashion and graphic design there is the element of 'taste' that you can't put a finger on, and sure getting really good at drawing unicorns may never produce an actually good looking work of art, but even in these fields if you work at it you will get better.

Now this post is a first, because it is the first post I have ever written that evolved out of a facebook status update. The status update was this:

I seem doomed to have 'viral marketing' explained to me for the rest of my life. When did 'creative' people all become marketing dickwads?

Which for me is a genuine, and almost constant frustration. For me this is the true tragedy of creatives today, in any field.

Here's how the status update started to unfurl into a blog post, with this post by a friendly friend of mine, and he makes some good points:

Oh I get ya --- I thought you were saying that all the creative people became professional marketers.

I think, unfortunately, this is what it takes to make a living as an artist. Just having good stuff isn't always enough; there's too many different things vying for people's attention for quality to reliably get through. But you're right, it is ... See Moreundignified, and kind of contrary to the artistic spirit. I suspect a lot of great artists will die unheard of because they can't or won't look to the marketing.

Now I didn't respond there, there's only one thing I guess I need to clarify.

I agree: Just having good stuff isn't always enough; there's too many different things vying for people's attention for quality to reliably get through.

My friend is totally right on that charge. The tragedy for me is sitting down with anybody who wants to create something and within 5 minutes you are talking about depressingly undignified marketing campaigns - getting more youtube views by 'trolling' so that people will keep coming back to argue with you. Putting up a myspace page and 'friending' a bunch of models and pornstars to get your hits up. Trying to exploit google adwords, google bombing blah blah blah blah blah.

To be honest, I would never have the energy nor inclination to do these even if I had a quality creation going. But that's not the tragedy, the tragedy is that people get obsessed with these high energy, high maintenance drop in the ocean marketing strategies instead of investing any of their precious time or energy into just getting better.

I would call it a 'get famous quick' scheme, like property is an incredibly popular get-rich-quick scheme (even though most people would tell me it is a slow and agonising process I suspect) everybodies doing it but when you stop to look around you will notice a distinct lack of success stories.

For example, myspace for bands, a 'great' way to promote your band, compared to the old fashioned way of playing gigs. Many bands cross over, many do not. But what are the success stories of Myspace? Lilly Allen, briefly popular quasi talented model Tila Tequila, and short-stack.

Compare that to lo-fi triple j unearthed back when triple j was relevant to youth culture, I can't remember all the bands they successfully 'unearthed' but Grinspoon and Silverchair come to mind. Silverchairs success alone dwarfs that of any Australian Idol winner. Yet I'd wager far more 'singers' audition for Idol than drop demo tapes these days. The success of Silverchair in turn is no doubt dwarfed by someone in the world who just sent a demo tape to a record company. Or was spotted playing in a Seatlle/La/New York/Parisian Pub/Club/McDonalds party.

Why, because your crappy no-effort, no-thought creation is competing with billions of other crappy no-effort, no-thought creations via internet mediums that generate success almost randomly and what little qualitative criteria is exerted is generated by people unqualified to make it.

Record companies, art gallery's etc, adopt the 'user-generated-content' at their peril, they are fucking up their business model. Its true to say customers vote with their feet when it comes to the commercial side, but just because 1,000,000+ people test drove whatever it is you are after on the internet doesn't make it good. Because A) it cost them no time energy or money.
and B) Contrary to self-belief, people don't actually know what they want.

We collectively don't know what we are looking for.

Two quick case studies.

1. 'If I'd asked people what they wanted they would have told me "a faster horse"' - Henry Ford.

2. My Grandpa hit the old age of 28 or something and decided he needed himself a wife. He knew exactly what he was looking for, and went to the local dance that night and stood on the balcony. When my Grandma arrived that night, my grandfather pointed her out to his (literal) brothers and said 'that's the girl for me'. Sure enough he married her. They were a terrible mismatch creating an arguably miserable home environment.

We think we want things then it turns out we were wrong. It happens all the time. The old model had people scouring the creative communities looking for things that were good and new and hadn't been seen before. They picked for us and we liked stuff better. They would stick around for 3 or 4 albums. Not one and done.

Viral marketing works well for people like Banksy, who not only have something like 16 to 20 years under their belt of creating thoughtful pieces of art, they go viral by putting their work out in the community.

NOW, some caveats, part of getting better at creating is getting feedback, and that means putting your work out there. You have to show people even your crappy ones, because you screw up things you don't see/hear/feel. That's the value in getting somebody else to point it out to you.

Here's my quick and dirty rules for reconciling creation and promotion.

1. Achievement comes before ambition.

Thus don't get deluded by granduer, you need some of this, but EVEN IF YOU GOT TO THE TOP TOMORROW you wouldn't be ready for it. Your success would be pure random luck, and you would be found naked when the tide goes out. You need to keep in mind that it is the journey not the destination.

2. Create to create, don't create to promote.

Just make something because you want to make it. If you enter a contest, don't enter it because you are trying to win. Enter it just to be seen. Don't ever make something just to have something to promote. Your portfolio should be full of things you would otherwise have scribbled out on your lecture pads, notebooks and wedding invitations, because you would create them anyway.

3. Promote your mistakes as readily as your successes.

Hopefully I will back this up in the next couple of days. But yeah you are promoting to be seen, so keep it close first, just stick with your friends for support don't go gunning for the adoration of millions of strangers. You need to throw up your pieces of crap to have them torn down (and you learn something) or somebody else sees them with appreciative eyes you don't have (and you feel better and learn something). That's promotion I can dig.

4. Don't get blindsided by the plethora of untalented people that have 'made it'

Sure you are funnier than Hamish Blake, but news flash - so is just about everyone. DOn't get caught up that you just need your lucky 'break' to show people what 'real comedy is about' because that break will just catapult you straight into the crowd of instant no-talent celebrities. Seriously if Rove McManus handpicked you tomorrow would you be flattered?
Don't be jealous of people you don't respect. Find your idols and cultivate a nice warm fuzzy kind of jealousy.

Most of all, quit fucking talking/thinking/doing all this viral marketing crap and do some actual work. Go get the feedback, draw the fucking pictures, write the fucking song, find an audience of living breathing people, occupy the same room as them and show them your stuff and take it from there.

It's as simple as having a sketch book and handing it to Harvard to look through.