stitching a new economics
Those of you who’ve been following this site for a while will know that one of the biggest issues that concerns me is the stifling effects of land speculation on our communities and our creativity. While many of us crafty types would love to make stuff full time, it’s just not possible when we need to work so many hours a week to pay the rent/mortgage. It’s bloody frustrating that our economic system rewards those that just buy and sell for a living yet punishes those of us who actually create.
One of big current issues in the craft world has been the ripping off of the ideas and designs of independent crafters/illustrators etc. It seems like a weekly occurrence that some big company has found the work of a designer online and stolen it for their own products. And who has the legal budget to fight that kind of crap?
Whilst this might seem like a new phenomenon, the practise of capitalising off the creative talents of artistic communities has been around for a long time. And the most damaging application of this practise occurs in the land markets. While we’re out busting our bums creating vibrant awesome and sustainable communities, behind the scenes is a secret, shady bunch of land sharks circling.
It’s called gentrification – and there’s a really good explanation of how it works on the I Want To Live Here film comp site.
It sucks that we bust our asses creating great places to live only to get priced out of the area by lazy land hoarders cashing in on the value our hard work creates.
I think it’s super important for creative people to understand because it’s pretty common to see creative responses to the aesthetic issues of land banking – but rare to see these responses address the real drivers behind the issues. I’ve been seeing more and more projects emerging that are designed to make boarded up buildings attractive or to ‘help’ landlords find creative people to move in. But while the intentions behind these projects are very positive and genuine, they do all have the long term effect of making the land more valuable, thus compounding the problem. What’s needed are creative ideas to try and break the cycles and systems that create the problem of high rents and vacant buildings in the first place.
But of course the first step is understanding.
I always say that an important role of the artist in society is to act as a mirror of society – so we can see what we’re really up to, and to help create the visions of the way things could be. Inspiring and creating change is something artists and crafters are really good at – and have been doing for centuries.
So I was super proud to be asked to be part of a team of local creatives keen to get together and create a visual campaign around the effects of rampant land speculation in Melbourne. It currently takes 9.5 years of full time average wage to buy an average house in Melbourne (it was 4 years when the subprime crisis hit the US). This is absolutely insane! Yet still our media and politicians continue to perpetuate the myth that forever rising property prices are a good thing.
But who are they good for? Not young people, that’s for sure. How many of you young renters out there could ever imagine having the half a million bucks it takes to enter the market in Melbourne today? How many of us continue to buy the story that the First Home Owners Grant is about supporting young people. When in reality all the policy has done has further inflated prices above and beyond the original grants. First Home Owners Grant? Baby Boomers Bailout more like.
This stuff is so important for creative people to understand for two reasons. Firstly because it directly impacts on our lives in regards to the hours of our lives we waste working to pay for the roofs over our heads. And secondly because our own communities are guilty of perpetuating the same behaviour. I can’t count the number of craft and indie design markets I have seen this year alone with insanely high stall fees. There was one in particular I saw where the stall fees for a ‘fringe’ event alongside a major design event were higher than for the design event itself. And this is becoming more common.
We need to call bullshit on it.
The fact that there is a massive shift in awareness towards the important economic and environmental benefits of handmade stuff is freakin awesome. There are wonderful communities everywhere making and buying the things they need in life without destroying an ecosystem or exploiting another community in the process. We need to do what we can to support these systems and a big part of that is keeping a close eye on the marketplaces that support the trade in these products.
I have personal experience in running a market so I have an idea about how much these things cost – in both time and money. Our markets were run for the love of craft so we didn’t ever break even on costs but we really didn’t charge much for stalls. What was important for us was that our sellers had the freedom to make really out there stuff. Charging a high rent – which is what a stall fee is – would impact on that freedom, so we kept the fees low.
I know we could’ve charged a bit more. I’m sure our sellers would’ve forgiven us for wanting to at least cover costs. But if we had of charged that, and if we’d have hired a flasher venue and spent more on advertising etc there is NO WAY we would’ve been charging some of the stall fee levels I’ve seen recently.
I think it’s essential that if the craft movement in particular is going to have an analysis on issues of environmental impacts, multinational retail and workers rights we must also have a solid analysis of the politics of property – both physical and intellectual – since these areas have such massive impacts on our practice as crafters.
Enough ranting.
For this campaign we decided the main objective was to try and get young people to pay attention to the way land was being used in our suburbs. And to try and draw attention to who really drives the debates around these issues.
So presenting Melbourne’s latest real estate company: realestate4ransom.com Check the website and Facebook for more info on what it’s about and to see some of the images of the street part of the campaign. I’ll try and update some major bits here too.
But the main reason for this post is to get some of you undercover operatives in the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle fired up to get out and do some craft! I’ve put together a tutorial on how to do a dollar sign on a fence. This post was supposed to be that tutorial but given the length of this post already I think I’ll do it separate..
So check out the website, fan us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Youtube (stay tuned for mad clip) and help us spread the word about what’s really going on.
Tutorial next!
xox
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2 Responses to “stitching a new economics”
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Goddammit you are meant to keep this quiet. Shut the frak up or i’ll send round the heavies! How else am i meant to maintain a 6 month holiday in each hemisphere if people like you dare speak about this.
Get back to blaming capitalists. You crew are meant to be stuck talking about banks.
mwah ha ha!