INTRODUCTION
FAST CHANGING WORLD
Most people seem to have recognized it: life on earth is changing fast. Therefore something is 'dying' and something new is being 'born'. Old systems try to survive not wanting to give away their destructive power and because of that they are victimizing everyone who doesn't fit into their order. New ways are about to come but are not yet strong enough to inspire just by their sheer existence.
This piece is about one of the lost groups which doesn't fit in because of its creative abundance. But creativity is exactly what is necessary to inspire something new, something different. And this creativity - although inherent in all human beings - has to get a direction, an intention. It doesn't seem wise to leave out the people who know about a field - creativity - and let ignorance determine the course of our lives.
LOST GROUPS
Every day we are confronted with news about socially disintegrated groups like immigrants and the problems which their members are confronting. Starting with housing and language problems we finally arrive at the work issue. There is either no work or just a black market with often inhumane conditions, and not much pay.
Interestingly enough there is a group right in the middle of our society which faces similar problems. Although we all know them this group seems to have been socially lost. It is the vast majority of artists. They are no immigrants, they speak at least verbally the same language, but still they don't get the attention they deserve and, consequently, don't get paid for their work.. Closely connected to this very heterogeneous and colorful assembly of people is of course the issue of creativity itself. Is there an awareness of creativity ? How do individuals and society at large deal with it? ARE we creative and in which way? Are there any merits to creativity at all?
CREATIVITY
EVERYTHING was CREATED
At the beginning it has to be mentioned that there is nothing used in daily life that is NOT created. Absolutely nothing. Not one tool, not one chair, table, or car. Yet this goes without remark. In other words: people take all the things they use in their everyday life for granted. No thought or feeling about the inventors and developers of their cars and its thousands of innovations, or the TV , the fridge- and the computer , although quite 'young' as a household item, is already familiar to children .
RISK
When I was young I was told I should honor food and not through it away. No word was ever made about honoring the creative accomplishments of men and women who gave all their physical, emotional and mental energy and talents to make our life as comfortable as it is today (for many, not for all). Not to mention the people who had to fight and withstand the ignorance of society and often work under incredible difficulties in order to persevere with an idea which at that time nobody seemed to have asked for. Very often creative people put even their family life at risk to fulfill this strong urge from inside to manifest what they have conceived.
REWARDS
And money? Well, if they were successful, some of them made a lot of it. But who invested in their idea in the first place? Who took the risk, or simply honored their idea and work ? Because one crucial question for the imaginative person is: who is so interested in my work, that he breaks the isolation?
So, this was a short statement about inventing and 'useful' things in the life of people. Now, what about the arts? What about music?
ART & MUSIC
There are people(and the author is one of them) who think that if one would stop playing and making music for just three days worldwide, there would be a war out there, because the realization of the missing daily sound medicine would be unbearable. And many soothed out suppressed aggressive feelings would just flare up and blindly find its destructive expression.
CREATIVITY as SOCIAL SERVICE
Could people be without paintings, sculpture, dance and performance and whatever contemporary and historically preserved artworks offer us as food for thought , relief, inspiration or pure joy for the senses? Would one really want to miss this marvelous celebration of diversity and richness of the human spirit? Just because one often doesn't pay any attention? What would be the alternative: who wants to celebrate soul-breaking routine, dogged order and joyless duty?
CREATIVITY as COSMIC DOOR
On a deeper level creation relates to the cycles of nature, cycles one can experience inside and observe outside. Spiraling cycles of growing, an ongoing process of change, cycles we are connected to and are able to feel if we allow our sensitivity to do so. Let's call it evolution. Creative cosmic work in action every second.
And although growing and changing are familiar to everyone, they seem to come as a threat not just when people grow older. What happened?
Security takes over. Safety first! Concepts of protection (against projected inner hurting) rule the minds of most people, thus separating them from their (still rudimentary) existing capabilities of finding intuitive solutions, and also sadly enough, from their compassion with their environment. These concepts create the climate for repetition and a mechanically controllable, 'safe' approach to life. Spontaneity and play, discovery and openness are sidelined.
And although there is a permanent feeling of 'there must be more out there' than this enslaved life, letting go of the once protective concepts which now are just lounging in our mind and from there trying to control our feelings , any deeper awareness of knowledge seems to be too much of a sacrifice. Consequently change, however natural it may be, is rejected and with it the openness for new and fresh approaches and perception.
CREATIVITY as HUMAN ESSENTIAL
Yet on a still deeper level we might say that creativity is essential to the human being (in spite of all cookie cloning or AI attempts). And that it can be tapped into by any human being who decides to do so at any moment. Creativity is actually what makes a human being IN this world (of change) and WITH this world (participating actively) since the essential creative Life energy cannot be cloned and is actually a pure joy if discovered by its temporary form giver.
So, after all, are we even ABLE to live a life without creativity and its delightful variety of expressions?
ARTISTS
The SCANDAL
Coming now to the lost group of artists, we simply have to state that they are the protagonists and , in a sense, 'experts' of what we are talking about. Artists LIVE what many are avoiding: a life full of creation, openness, new findings and even more questions, curiosity, research, investigation and - often - deep love for creation and respect for its forms. Artists also take a lot of personal risks, they take lots of rejections and little support, not to mention an interest or even understanding in their work.
AND they don't get paid. THAT's the SCANDAL!
Anyone who does something on a continuous level providing society with just the slightest amount of service ( including many perversions) gets paid. Not so with artists. They can starve right in front of society's nose and still nobody pays for their work...
A DEEP WOUND?
Is society ashamed to look at this ? Not wanting to be reminded of something familiar deep inside? The self betrayal of denying one's own creative talents and outlets? Or, much worse, ARE people indeed using their creativity, but in a destructive way like permanently creating escape routes and concepts? Escape routes to escape from themselves? A system not anymore creative but endlessly re-productive?
SELF CENSURE and its PRICE
Artists are discriminated against and driven into a kind of self censuring state of mind. The widespread scandal is the daily schizophrenia of doing a job for survival and, either before or after returning from this job, then starting one's real work: art. Battling to keep up a level of development and quality, exhaustion follows. Another variation of the irrational 'treatment' towards artists is the comparison with famous people. Using so called 'stars' as an excuse that 'if one wants to one can be successful' (meaning earning a ton of money thus following just one of the above mentioned security concepts),: money and fame HAVE to be my goal (since that is what a star has or is). As if in something so strongly emphasizing individuality like art comparison could have a place.
But even if artists for unknown reasons are flooded into the limelight, (sometimes quite local), what price do they have to pay? The 'market' with all kinds of middlemen and women takes over, using the artist as tool for vain and calculating minds or both. Personal interest? Who can afford the time for that? And don't we all have to make money and pay the bills?
Thus the emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical work is not honored, instead the artist has become a product himself. That's the price. 'Free' markets and their creators(sic!) like to be paid this kind of price.
So the only chance an artist really has is to connect to an individual who is exited about a mutual contact, too. Personally excited.
PATRONS NET
All this seems to point in the direction of reviving some spirit of the Renaissance. But what would a contemporary Rennaissance look like? What qualities would it have? What kind of structure? What would be the benefits?
Here is an idea we developed. We call it patrons-net.
