The post that started it all

The corporate creative and media industries are facing the threat of a new and permanently changed media landscape. Rather than it being the preserve of a select few, it could now be said that EVERYONE is in the business of media creation and distribution.

Using the tools of the new media independent artists have the potential ability to leverage attention on a scale not previously achievable. This will not be the case forever, the industry is constantly looking for ways to reassert its dominance in the field and maintain its authority and financial interests.

The actions and activities of the corporate creative and media industries, are, like all other giant corporations, unsustainable and not conducive to creative thinking or individual artistic development.

In short, can artists make use of the current situation to create sustainable and profitable lifestyles without engaging with the current industry framework? And, in doing so create potential roadmaps for other independent minded artists to follow.

This experiment is not for everyone, it will require discipline, courage and a great deal of self belief. If you think that you are up to the challenge, please read on.

Artists who take part in this experiment must:

(1)Create original material that has integrity, quality and meaning.

(It is down to each individual artist to set out their own definitions of these words based on their current understanding, some suggested areas of investigation when doing this can be found on the following page.)

(2)Create, promote and distribute their own material

(3)Use existing promotional tools in combination with the tools provided by the new media.

('existing promotional tools' e.g. flyers/leaflets/posters, real world radio and television, print media. 'tools provided by the new media' e.g. email, online video, online radio, websites, digital home recording)

(4)Create or join networks (on a formal or informal basis) locally, nationally and globally to collaborate with other artists who have similar intentions and feeling.

(5)Act outside of the current industry framework

(6)Set themselves a goal to be reached by the end of this year:

e.g.
Sales
Audience reached
Downloads
Completed projects

(7)Document their experiment online using video and blogs.

The Love Magic Movement

For Bob

Integrity

"Integrity is the essence of everything successful."
Buckminster Fuller

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Samuel Johnson

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
Buddha

Quality

"Quality is a direct experience independent of and prior to intellectual abstractions."
Robert M. Pirsig

"Quality is never an accident, it is always the work of intelligent effort."
John Ruskin

"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor."
Vince Lombardi

Meaning

"The best of us still have our aspirations for the supreme goals of life, which is so often mocked by prosperous people who now control the world. We still believe that the world has a deeper meaning than what is apparent, and that therein the human soul finds its ultimate harmony and peace. We still know that only in spiritual wealth does civilization attain its end, not in a prolific production of materials, and not in the competition of intemperate power with power."
Rabindranath Tragore

"The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it."
Carl Jung