[p2p-research] Building Alliances

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Kevin-

As I see it, more support for the arts is a good idea, but a half-measure. 
As you say at the end, we could look at expanding it to all sorts of commons 
production, but it is hard to judge what is "worthy". A "basic income" for 
all is probably a better general solution than trying to decide what 
projects a person wants to do are worthy of support. References:
   http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
   http://www.usbig.net/whatisbig.html

A basic income just for "artists" is possible:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_in_the_Netherlands
but in the end, is a mother or father any less an artist for helping sculpt 
a young life than someone who works in clay and sculpts statues? And, it is 
hard to judge a person's worth or a project's worth at the time. It may only 
become clear 1000 years later if something is "worthwhile". And besides, 
worthwhile to whom? Maybe it is enough that an individual's life is 
worthwhile to themselves?

For me, a big changeover point is if everyone could get laws about a basic 
income passed everywhere. So, rather than have artists fighting against 
mothers and fathers and mimes and songwriters and so on over who should get 
the most subsidies, we have both working together, as an alliance, to have a 
basic income for artists, mothers, fathers, writers, journalists, mimes, and 
everyone else, even rich CEOs.

It's been said:
   http://quotationsbook.com/quote/31495/
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor, to 
sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread. "

Well, a basic income, in its majestic equality, allows both the rich as well 
as the poor to paint local bridges, to mime in the streets, and to give away 
home-baked bread. :-) Maybe financially obese people won't want to do those 
things compared to poor people who know how important those things are, but 
with a basic income, rich people could. :-)

See also:
"[p2p-research] Basic income from a millionaire's perspective?"
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-August/003949.html

Is it possible you could make some freely licensed art about that issue? :-)

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/

Kevin Flanagan wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> It was great to finally get to meet some of you in person at media ecologies.
> I have some suggestions and questions regarding building alliances
> that Id be interested in thrashing out here on the list.
> My question here is how can we incentivize government to support the
> building and protection of the commons?
> My suggestion is this -
> As an artist Ive been involved in and worked with several artist led
> organisations. Most of these organisations could not survive without
> government subsidy through bodies such as arts councils. Naturally
> there is pressure from government on arts councils and hence on
> artists and arts organisations to be accountable for this investment.
> In order to receive financial support artists and arts organisations
> are required to fulfill certain criteria to prove the social value of
> their work. So the better an organisation is at proving the social
> value of their work the more likely it is that they will receive
> support. This means that lots of artists end up working to governments
> agenda through Public Art and Community Arts projects. Maybe this
> sounds a bit harsh but sometimes I think of community arts as a kind
> of goverment funded social band aid for disadvantaged communities. The
> criteria for funding are usually that such projects support , social
> inclusion, multiculturalism, intercultural relations. Often what is
> produced in the creative process if immaterial affect so its not
> always easy to show how these arts projects fulfill these criteria.
> What Im wondering is can free culture centers, hack\fab labs, maker
> clubs, do this better. I think so. The added advantage of such centres
> is eductaion in transferable skills. Goverment likes transferable
> skills that help peoples job prospects. Whether in electronics,
> programming, media. Some research into how the EU and UNESCO promote
> social inclusion through culture would be useful. Are these policies
> IP biased? Can we as advocates of free culture and the commons propose
> ammendments or new policies that incentivize governments to provide
> financial support for free culture spaces, hack labs and to recognize
> the intercultural importance of the shared commons oriented production
> of these spaces? Any ideas who might already be working on this?
> Existing models perhaps that can be used as examples?
> How might dialogue about the commons interface with current thinking
> on multiculturalism? Does breaking down financial barriers to entry
> promote social inclusion locally, nationally, internationally? Of
> course but how do we measure this?
> I dont know how this sounds or even if its interesting but I thought
> Id just put it out there.
> Maybe the the current system of support for the arts is one to look at
> expanding for supporting the commons based production? Maybe alliances
> can be built with existing cultural organisations?
> 
> Best
> 
> Kevin F
> 
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