Most of the times artists do not like the
words like Business, Market, etc.
Artists, at least in Indian context, always
feel the need to be valued, but are not comfortable putting price tag on the
work. Putting a price tag on the work is equated with putting the price tag on
one self. Many a times we also get into the conversations about an artist
selling his or her soul, if he puts a price tag to his work!
And unfortunately, most of the artists also
feel the same way. They feel that if we ask for money, it means that we are not
“true” artists. We are those who are selling their soul for some meager and
mundane things like “surviving”…!
I strongly believe that this a social
conspiracy in our culture. Or probably in several cultures. Put the artist on a
pedestal or ignore him / her completely. Treat him like a God. Worship him. Or
treat him like nobody. And once you do that, your responsibility is over. God
doesn’t need to eat. God doesn’t have any needs. God remains silent. And if the
artist is nobody, then nothing matters! Unfortunately, artist is a mortal who
feels the hunger every day. But the society offers him the pedestal, with which
an artist can‘t survive and the artist is not brave enough to ask for money for
the fear of selling the soul for the mundane need of surviving.
So this becomes a scenario, where both the
sides know what is happening, but both decide to do nothing about it. One for
the fear and the other for sheer convenience.
In a nutshell, this is about the dynamism
between a real individual human being (artist) and a virtual, non-human entity
called market. The complexity in this dynamism has been increased manifold with
the advent of Information Technology and (nowadays) with super computers. It
becomes inevitable for an individual (artist) to constantly gauge the distance
between individual happiness and ‘system’ demands.
If I try to think about Performing Arts
Market in India, it is practically nonexistent. There is a film industry and
television industry, but if we are talking about theatre, music, dance, then
there is no market. There are occasional and sporadic activities which could be
termed as a part of the probable market of the performing arts. But Indian
theatre primarily thrives on the madness of artists. The passion to perform,
the eagerness to create, the urge to create are the driving forces, not the
market.
A decade ago, Price Waterhouse Cooper
published a report in which it had mentioned that the Global capital investment in the entertainment industry in 2004 was 1.2
trillion dollars. Countries of Asia and the Pacific are expected to be at the
forefront of this growth rate. In India
and China this growth is expected to be to the tune of 9.8 percent during this
time. In sum, the industry will see considerably more growth in the countries
of this region than elsewhere. The Indian Market was worth 728 Billion INR in
2011 and expected to reach 2419 Billion INR in 2021.
It is interesting to note what falls into the
category of ‘entertainments’ as per the PwC report. It includes:
n Filmed entertainment (movies, music videos etc)
n TV channels, and the producing of TV programmes, and the telecasting and
broadcasting industries
n Audio and video recordings, especially the newly arrived digital media
n Video games, and the technologies that can run them wirelessly, and the
systems that can supply them through the Internet
n Internet broadband services and the advertisements that they can host
n Sports telecasting and broadcasting, and sports entertainment
n Print journalism, book publishing and selling, and other traditional
media of communication
Unfortunately, or probably fortunately,
performing arts are not a part of these entertainment or creative industries.
Now, What are the Highlights:
n The entertainment industry is bringing to the centre those media that
can be controlled with the strings of sponsorship, and is gradually pushing
aside those 'traditional' arts and communication practices that refuse to be
attached to such strings.
n The industry is also trying to redefine the very notion of entertainment
so as to suit this imperative.
n They push HAPPENINGS to become EVENTS
n Compel you to BRAND
yourself in a specific MODEL
Another face of the Entertainment Industry is
manifested in the move ‘Supporting Creative Cultural Industries’. The very first step the Government takes is this: It repositions the
largely unorganised micro industry and arts sector as the internationally
recognised creative and cultural industries portfolio. This entails the
formulation of a pro-active national policy on cultural and creative industries
to leverage the attention they deserve!
Here are some more quotes we have heard here in our country:
n ‘…What you can't measure, you cannot manage.’ We need to evolve a
uniform system of classification, compilation, and collation of Census data for
creative and cultural industries, especially those untapped `non-commercial'
household skills.
n If Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) was alive today, he would perhaps have made a
global brand of khadi.
n All these homespun industries create content, using creativity, skill
and (in some cases) intellectual property to produce goods and services with
social and cultural meaning and with huge, booming market potential across the
globe. They empower each other and explain India to Indians and to the rest of
the world in a way no one else can.
Or in other words, what we try to do is:
n To make Indian arts
‘measurable’, and therefore, ‘price-able’
n To commodify culture
n To nail down that the ultimate goal of Culture is to capture the market
On a superficial level, it seems that it
helps the poor crafts people by enabling them to earn in the global market, But
deep down, it is a strategy to INTEGRATE the ‘third world’ into the market and through this, to enable the ‘western’ neo-imperial / post-modernist
lust to consume the ‘third world’ by ‘decontextualising’ it.
If one really wants to understand how
performing arts practitioners are coping with these problems, Ask them: “how do
you manage?” And NOT “what are your problems?”
Today’s actor in India is a modern actor with
the sensibilities of 21st century. This actor lives in the midst of
technology, may be amidst a jungle of technology. Internet, mobile phones,
electronic gadgets are occupying a major part of an actor’s brain.
This process started in India in 1992 with
liberalization of Indian economy. The ‘BC’ means Before Christ for most of us,
whereas the new generation looks at it as Before Computers. This generation is
attacked by the market forces and most of the times, these forces try to compel
them to believe that material advantages are important than anything else.
These forces also highlight that there is a strong economic line that creates
division and one needs to be on the appropriate side of this economic line.
In this context, it becomes very important to
help actors of the new generation understand that the virtual world is
different than reality. Virtual reality is not a reality. And the reality of
discrimination is not a very great reality to live in.
The world has been becoming more ambiguous
than ever. A few decades ago, a young man would decide what he wants to do at
an early age and then manage to stick to it. Doing the same job for years was
an indication of stability. The things have changed drastically. One may start
as a civil engineer, then become a music composer, and then become a senior
manager in an IT company. This is no longer weird. This is the ambiguous
reality that the new generation is dealing with. We need to prepare the actors
of this generation to deal with this ambiguity.
Borrowing the words of E. O.
Wilson, we are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together
information and wisdom and make important choices wisely.
I believe that the artists have their own
way to this process.
The new actor has to survive. And in India
the only obvious way of survival is to go to Mumbai and get into the Film or
Television industry. How do we help the actors of the new generation to create
a niche for themselves? How do we help these actors to learn to look at their
own skill set and use it in such a way that the ambiguity doesn’t become a
burden and life becomes happy? How can an actor create a niche for himself? How
does the actor learn to deal with the scenario that emerges out of “All artists
are equal, and some are more equal?”
The learning in the area of creativity is
very much culture specific. There are certain commonalities that one can find
across cultures, but they are not enough to build a standardised training
methodology. In Indian context, every state has a different language with
different cultural connotations. One needs to develop a methodology that allows
actors to respect these differences and appreciate the possibilities of
collaborative creations.
An actor deserves to lead a happy life. The
training needs to be for life, not just for the job. Here, I believe, that the
idea of artist entrepreneur becomes eminent.
The entrepreneurial process is a creative
journey. An artist loves to embark on creative journeys. Is it possible to
bring these two approaches of creativity together and look at a possibility of
developing a sustainable model for artists by inculcating entrepreneurial
approach without compromising the artistic freedom?
Here are some questions that one needs to
look at while thinking about the future of theatre and preparing the next
generation for it:
1.
How
to prepare and help actors to take leadership roles within not for profit as
well as for profit arts and cultural organizations?
2.
How
do we enable an individual to deal with the cultural diversities in our own
country and understand global multi-cultural environment.
3.
How
do we help the actor realize the socio-political and economic realities of our
environment and their impact on creative pursuits and on art and culture
business
4.
How
do we inculcate the ability to look at the global context and the fast changes
it brings in modern day life and its impact on arts and cultural fabric
5.
How
do we develop the understanding of the inherent problems arising out of the
inter disciplinary nature of arts and business environment
There have been various efforts to bring arts
and business together. But most of the times, it is from the perspective of
‘support’. It is more like ‘business’ supporting ‘arts’. It becomes patronizing
or sometimes philanthropic. One needs to look at how we approach the ideas of
‘arts business’, ‘business of arts’ and ‘business and arts’.
Once again, I will quote E. O. Wilson, an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and
author,
here:
“Humanity today is
like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of
the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We
have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval
institutions, and godlike technology.”
Thank You!
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