Think pink
Aug. 4th, 2006 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus
I did a long interview yesterday with the Financial Times, for a feature the FT magazine is running about Berlin, and whether the city's current status as an ultra-cheap haven for creative types can last.Reporter Eleanor Lee enjoyed my descriptions of the city as a creative class paradise ("I want all this on a T-shirt!" she said) but wondered if it was sustainable; wouldn't Berlin rapidly become as expensive as London and New York? My answer was that it's the lifestyles of London and New York that are "unsustainable", that Berlin's post-materialist, liberal and experimental lifestyles are important as a way to find "post-bling" ways to live in the 21st century, and that, even if Berlin is only the pleasant anomaly that it is due to odd historical circumstances, and even if its local dodgy economy only survives by massive subsidy from the rest of Germany, and even if the current bubble is only going to last for, say, ten years, it's still worth it, and worth being here. Ten years of brainstorming, ten years of ethical, aesthetic and political R&D is still something.
The image of a "bubble" kept coming up in our talk (in a pleasant cafe in Mitte), but so did a more abstract idea: indirection. I found myself championing "indirection" as a virtue, and arguing that indirection can only happen in bubble-like conditions. I wish I had a better word for what I'm talking about. Let me try to define it.
Indirection is what happens when you go to university to study literature for four years, despite the fact that the market really has very little use for people who've read a lot of old books. Indirection is what happens when you don't have to spend all your time earning the money to have something to eat and somewhere to live, but can actually pursue things for their own sake. Indirection is a company pouring money into research without demanding to see specific results within a limited time period. Indirection is when you're sure that creative activity adds economic value, but you can't say exactly where or when.
Indirection is related to play, and related to delay. Indirection says that there's virtue in not taking the most direct route between two points. Indirection is therefore in contradiction with traditional logistical and economic wisdom. It's more intuitive, more mysterious. And yet I'm convinced that it can also be justified in economic and logistical terms. It's crucial to human life, collectively, the same way childhood play or nocturnal dreams are crucial to the development of an individual. Someone who neither plays nor dreams cannot function as a pragmatic human being.
After the interview I took Eli to my favourite "creative class" bookstore, ProQM. Here, Berlin's arty types come to browse books and magazines they can't afford, to get ideas from other cities. Eli bought the Europe Endless edition of 032C magazine, and I bought Cabinet magazine's Insecurity issue. In the back of it I saw a book being advertised: a book on the colour pink."Pink," the blurb reads. "From the rosy tint of wind-reddened cheeks to the first flush of arousal, from cherry blossoms to Pepto-Bismol, pink is a sweet, intimate, fragile and sickening shade. Few colors trigger more contradictory associations and emotions—tender, childish, plastic, pornographic—or are so symbolic of both high and low culture. Pink is sometimes awkward, even embarrassing, but on the other hand it is enjoyed and associated with the idea of beauty... Viewer reactions are determined by cultural factors. For example, the positive perception of pink in Japan seems strikingly masculine to the Western viewer; every year the country pauses to contemplate the pink blossoms of the cherry trees, which, after just a few days, drift like snow to the ground, symbols of the death of the samurai, who falls in the bloom of youth."
When I got home I noticed all the pink stuff I've filled my new apartment with: light streams into my bedroom through pink plastic strips I've hung over the window, my clothes are packed in a pink crate, I spend much of the day in a pink bathrobe, I drink green tea from a pink cup, my dish-drying tray is pink plastic, the entrance to my kitchen is draped with a pink woollen boa, pink pages from Japanese magazines adorn the walls. The bubble I live in is a pink one, a flat in a city dominated by a tower currently stickered with big pink pentagons. Nearby, I sit giving pink opinions to a reporter from "the pink paper".
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 04:20 pm (UTC)Of course, it's not going to be glamorous or fashionable. For those of us without trustfunds, you do have to work your ass off, especially when you're interested in those oh-so-otherworldy things. Most people who make it all work aren't rich, and they work their brains out to make it happen - it just takes sacrifice, compromise, and some degree of ego check.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 04:33 pm (UTC)I've had about 10 friends move back to the U.S., France, or England because they couldn't afford to live in Berlin. They have NO material goods and simply couldn't afford to eat and live, since no money was coming in and no jobs were available. A good friend of mine is well connected beyond belief, and worked in the music circles that we have all heard of, but even she couldn't afford to stay there.
It's a great place for Germans or people who already have money, but according to my friends, it's hard to get by there. My friends who have stayed for years generally had money BEFORE they got to Berlin.
It has nothing to do with living "smartly, cheaply, and with some appreciation for humility and limitation," and a lot to do with A) Do you go the squatter route and live an extra-legal life without basic amenities, or B) Finding a way to make money that will allow you to pay for (cheap) rent and (cheap) food and drink...
The question is what to do about B)? If you can't make ends meet and you can't get on the German dole, what do you do?
Of course it's possible - I have about 10 friends there who have made it work and who didn't have a lot of money.
What about you? Are you in Berlin? What do your Berlin friends say? Are you poor or do you have money?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 05:55 pm (UTC)Berlin is just an example that's probably changing. As mentioned before, people are moving to Leipzig for a cheaper way, just like people have moved to Philly or JC from NYC. What's stopping you, me, or your friends, from being pioneers in our own ways?
Personally I think the internet is the new global creative community. This is the kind-of conversation that would take place in some scummy, old-couch cafe - yet, we're doing this from our cubicles, bedrooms, or ... well, cafes.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 06:18 pm (UTC)Let me repeat myself, "Unfortunately ... 'indirection' is only readily available to the rich."
There is no work in Berlin or Leipzig. THAT is why it's cheap, but that's ALSO why people can't afford to stay. There was a similar situation in Williamsburg, NYC, 15 years ago, and in the East End, London, 15 years before that. Yes, a few will succeed, but my point still stands: Only the rich can easily pursue 'indirection.'
You come from money, don't you?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:08 pm (UTC)If your friends wanted to make it, they could've done it like others - when young and out of school, you hustle out your skills commercially, etc. It's hard and painful, but you get a few breaks. Then you build contacts. While you're doing this, you save up money. You get to a point where you have some money saved and you can telecommute or find business wherever you go, letting you live a more relaxed and itinerant, but minimalist, life. The hard work and struggle focuses your skills and talent and gives you a solid edge that compensates for your lack of pedigree.
A lot of people want everything now, without the work, the planning, the foundation and network building; and sometimes, they want things they can never have, but don't really need. And re-patriating yourself to Europe from the US is one of the most insane and near-hopeless struggles you can put yourself through.
What did your friends expect? Why do they want to live in fashionable cities, anyway? Is the freedom to pursue a creative life more important, or the glamour of the lifestyle?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:44 pm (UTC)My friends without money work as hard as anyone (including you) and they didn't (and don't) buy into any stupid notions of materialism or 'scene'. The fact is that Berlin is hot because East Germany was poor; because Berlin has big spaces that are perfect for artists; Berlin has a great artistic community; and Germans have a great system of welfare. But if you're not German you won't be able to get by. Period. One friend works with Peaches and Chicks on Speed and Bloc Party and tons of other bands (Momus, I'd be surprised if you didn't know her) and she has more contacts then anyone I know. She's a hustler and savvy and even SHE couldn't live in Berlin. So she comes back to NYC and London, busts her ass, makes some money, and THEN goes back.
I'm telling you about the reality of living in Berlin based on people I know who have spent large chunks of their life there, and you keep giving me idealized stories about a happy mertiocracy. What are you basing your claims on?
There are plenty of people who bust their ass but who don't make it. You know that, as does anyone who's spent any time with groups of artists, or the working poor, or any dedicated hard-working group were work is not the all important qualifier for success. It has nothing to do with "wanting everything now."
Also, you don't know my friends, and your claims about them are completely false, so please stop trying to pretend you can peer into their hearts and minds. Let me state it again: My WEALTHY and/or SUCCESSFUL non-German friends have never had to leave Berlin. That is NOT TRUE for my non-German friends who don't have money. There are plenty of exceptions, but I don't know them, and exceptions do not break the rule.
And your last question has little to do with idle lifestyles, opportunity and class. But I will say this: Everyone I know who creates, creates because they have to. If you love the glamour and the lifestyle, you don't need to create to get it, and anyone who lives in a city with a scene knows that. Creation is its own reward.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 10:48 pm (UTC)I've got no money on my own, so I'm a copywriter for a massive Japanese corporation to support my creative life - it can be a fun job and it pays 10x more than cooler and more stressful magazine or agency work. My brobro graduated from Pratttt Institute and is a designer - he works fulltime for Pantone to pay the bills, and does his weird stuff on his own time. It's just how it is.
That's what I'm saying - if you need the money, are you willing to sacrifice the glamour of trendy scenes and cities to do what's most mature for yourself and your creativity? All the successful scene-y people I know are independently wealthy - but, all of the people who create the things I love, worked really hard to get where they are no matter the circumstances or location.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:12 pm (UTC)I agree with the "no work in Berlin" bit, but not the Williamsburg and Hoxton comparisons. Brooklyn stands next to Manhattan, a short subway ride away, and there's always work there. Same in London. Berliners can't ride 20 minutes on the U-bahn and find themselves in a rich city like Munich or Frankfurt.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:49 pm (UTC)I love 'indirection.' I just wish it was more accessable to more people.
(And I have to tell you (because I never have before): I REALLY want to move to Tokyo. Your blog is partially responsible.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:58 pm (UTC)Apart from that, though, it's great!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 08:19 pm (UTC)I need to start making art again, simply so I could have shows in foreign countries (esp. Japan!).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 08:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 10:58 pm (UTC)his name is dirk schwieger, and he did a great reportage comic blog about tokyo:
http://tokyoblog.livejournal.com
it's hard to get work in the manga business for non-japanese, if you're not well known and get invited by a japanese publisher, and even then ... another friend of mine (oliver grajewski - he, like dirk, does have great e-books on http://electrocomics.com) had exhibitions in tokyo, and he visited a big manga production company, and was fascinated and asked for a job, just doing backgrounds, assistant work, to learn. from technical point, it would be no problem for him, but they told him no chance for a non-japanese. igort (you know his work, he edits the ignatz collection, and is the artistic director of coconino press in italy) from italy did hundreds of pages of manga for japanese publishers, but he was already a legendary artist in italy, so they invited him for his reputation. and he is a grand guy, a real visionary projectile & over the top person, so he told them he's in fac japanese, reborn in italy. so, they flew him to tokyo, to test him, and made him draw 16 pages of manga in 24 hours, just after he arrived, jet-lagged. he wanted to iill these editors, or at least tell them to piss of, but that wouldn't have been a very japanese thing to do. so, to pass the test, he did it. wrote a story, sent the text to italy by fax to get it translated, drew the story, srcibbles, inking, everything finished. the editors read it, didn't say a word about the story, just: ok, tomorrow, we want another 16 pages. that went on for ten days ... the series was called yuri, and did quite well.
8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-04 04:38 pm (UTC)Re: 8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-04 05:25 pm (UTC)I'm curious; what on earth could be so controversial about the term contemporary arts that you have to put it in inverted commas, and add "so-called"? Especially if you yourself work in the field? Is it not contemporary? Are they not arts? And if you move in this world, and most people who make this world work are rich, are you rich yourself? If not, why not?
Re: 8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-04 05:51 pm (UTC)he should be, though
Re: 8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-05 12:00 pm (UTC)Re: 8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-05 01:02 pm (UTC)Re: 8 out of 10
Date: 2006-08-06 12:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 06:09 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, art pursual is something that requires idle time and large spaces, something that most people can not afford.
I'm not defending the rich-bias. It is real and it makes for a world with VERY similiar ideals and ideologies. But it is NOT 8 out of 10.
(And Momus' critique is right on. What's up with your use of "so-called" and scare quotes?)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 06:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:26 pm (UTC)As you say, less work = less living expense. Berlin = London/NY just at a lower frequency. There's little difference if you pursue an independent creative life, just how much you value extra money vs. extra time. Which is what Momus started out by saying.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-04 07:57 pm (UTC)