There is a debate in this month’s Creative Review on ‘What is design for?’. The most interesting part is the tension designers feel about working for advertising (to earn money, where a lot of the creative energy is) and staying true to their vision/art. How do you manage to not sell out? One of the guys basically says that if you want your work to be seen and have an influence you have to get it in with the big players. But Rick Poyner (who I’m increasingly come to like – I am currently reading a collection of his essays called ‘Obey The Giant’) disagrees…
This idea of the person on the one hand at the margins having no influence and then the person in the corporate world who is making a difference because his work has an audience: I don’t buy that dichotomy. When you look at the important cultural makers, not just designers, but photographers, film directors, cultural people, over and over they are people who are preserving a position of some kind of independence, being able to pursue their own direction, which produces work which is of immense cultural value.
Does it matter if their audience is small? I’m inclined to the contrary, the 3000 people who bought that product are engaged in a kind of cultural exploration which is the very stuff of self-education and growing as a human being. Smallness is not a barrier to significant, influential work. If, as a designer, you choose to position yourself there then you’ve got my support because it’s culturally important – it’s difficult, a struggle, but it’s difficult to imagine a world that doesn’t have those people – without them it would be a monoculture, full of people who shared mass experiences and ultimately it would stagnate. New ideas tend to originate in the margins where those makers are freest.
Sounds like many a conversation that’s been had in alternative worship over the years…. Read that last bit again but thinking about creating worship…
Smallness is not a barrier to significant, influential (worship). If, as a (curator of worship), you choose to position yourself there then you’ve got my support because it’s culturally important – it’s difficult, a struggle, but it’s difficult to imagine a world that doesn’t have those people – without them it would be a monoculture, full of people who shared mass experiences and ultimately it would stagnate. New ideas tend to originate in the margins where those makers are freest.
this reminds me of a conversation we had over coffee a few years ago jonny. i was asking you about your thoughts of this nature, and you felt that new stuff needed the space at the edge to develop, and the permission of the establishment for that space. it got me thinking about the nature of established church, in particular the c of e, and how it doesn’t generally deal well with the concept of edge growth. it also linked in with other thoughts i’ve had for years about the concept of reciprocity – where the power and influence of the centre of the establishment is meant to provide any resource and support that is required at the edge, because the edge is the coal face. however, what generally happens in any kind of corporate culture (and the established church is no different here) is that the small, struggling, edgy work ends up having to support and feed the existence of the centre. reciprocity is then effectively reversed. sound familiar?
years ago, john smith from god’s squad australia, used the analogy of a tree trunk. cut the tree in half, and you see the rings of growth. the only growth that takes place in a tree is at the edge, through the bark where the sap flows. all the centre is effectively dead wood, but is necessary to provide structure and support for the growth at the edge.
i think those of us who are closer to the centre but with a heart and passion for the edge need to be actively acting as champion/diplomats for what god is doing with god’s church: championing the spirit-bubblings at the edge, while diplomatically finding ways to release the resources required for whatever is necessary at the edge, including setting hedges of protection about those new things until they have developed enough to survive and thrive by themselves.
thanks for all that you’re doing mate, and see you at greenbelt.
this raises interesting questions about the desirability of central funding for alt. projects, doesn’t it? It’s a conundrum I keep turning over – how much would central investment disempower what’s new and on the edge?
A friend wants to write to rowan williams. Anyone have his contact details?
Lucy
lambeth palace?!
funding is something very much on my mind at the moment as i decide whether to go the church for funding for a new alt.project or just ask their blessing. although i enjoy being a bit of an outsider i believe it’s important to stay connected as we are one Church, but should i take their money too or is retaining an independence ultimatley far more valuable?
yet, i have another take – the more somebody invests in something, the more they value it. their investment may not necessarily financial. but i see people on the edges of church doing good stuff, and yet totally undervalued/unsupported by the mainstream because they have no investment in it. although, 5-10 years down the line they’ll be reaping the benefits of this on-the-edge development. that’s what’s happening with alt.worship.
oh just a quickie on the working in advertising vs keeping your ‘art’ pure. it’s self delusional bullshit. you go into advertising to make money. any design job is commercial, advertising just pays more and encourages pretentiousness. creative review is full of it.
if you were really worried about being ‘pure’ you wouldn’t become a graphic designer in the first place. i can’t do with pretentious designers! what ‘influence’ are these people looking for? for what reason?
this post came just at the right time for me, jonny. thanks!
this whole process whereby marginal persons can draw on their ability to hybridize genres/ideas/structures from multiple centers — combined with the sub/versions that (our/)their characterize their stories and lives — has been an touchstone for me for quite a while — but somehow i’d lost sight of it recently.
so your re/vision was just what was needed today…as your blog often is for me. thanks!