Keywords: Craft, Creative Graduates, Online Distribution, Business Skills, Creative Employment

Transcription

1 Autralia Council of Univerity Art and Deign School conference proceeding, Adelaide, 2015 Jane Andrew and Suan Luckman Univerity of South Autralia Promoting the making elf in the creative micro-economy Keyword: Craft, Creative Graduate, Online Ditribution, Buine Skill, Creative Employment Thi paper report upon very early finding from a three year ARC Dicovery project exploring how online ditribution i changing the environment for operating a creative micro-enterprie, with a pecific focu on deigner-maker. A key reearch quetion for the project i: what are the elf-making kill required to ucceed in thi competitive environment? In addition to interview with peak organiation and etablihed maker in the deign craft ector, the project i keen to capture rich information on the experience of etablihing oneelf in profeional practice immediately following graduation from tertiary tudy. A cohort of around 40 graduate from key national art/deign/craft degree will be approached to participate in annual 1-Up interview acro the life of the project ( ) in order to identify the complex deciion-making which underpin thi critical moment in profeional development. Unlike other tudie which ue Cenu or ABN regitration record, thi approach valuably capture data from thoe who may fail and/or chooe to leave creative practice, generating invaluable information about failure a well a ucce. However, the proce of identifying potential project participant revealed wide dicrepancie between intitution in regard to how they approach final year exhibition and catalogue a potential ite for tudent promotion and profeional tranitioning. Given the competitive creative career marketplace into which our graduate emerge, it will be argued here that acro the ector more conitently outward-looking, digitally-engaged tranitioning and promotional trategie need to be embedded in final year aement activitie to better prepare tudent for the profeional challenge ahead. The Project A making renaiance i underway, with handmade practice and good in global demand in a way not een ince the 1970 (Luckman 2015). In the digital age, almot eventy year ince the Frankfurt School firt railed againt the culture indutry commodification and tandardiation of all art (Adorno 2001; Adorno and Horkheimer 1973; Benjamin 2007), the bepoke object ha become different, deirable. Maintream conumer acceptance and the middle-cla deirability of deign craft item reflect, in no mall part, a wider hift in the developed world toward ethical conumption and environmental awarene. Along with other increaingly popular urban agrarian micro-economic practice uch a the rie of

2 highly localied artianal food production and farmer market, and the commercial growth of fair-trade item, buying handmade clothing, acceorie, gift and other item i part of a et of ethical and elf-aware purchaing behaviour (Littler 2009a, 2009b, 2011; Saatelli 2006, 2009; Soper 2009). Facilitating thi i the rie of longtail ditribution economic model enabled by the internet: Our culture and economy are increaingly hifting away from a focu on a relatively mall number of hit (maintream product and market) at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a huge number of niche in the tail. In an era without the contraint of limited helf pace and other bottleneck of ditribution, narrowly targeted good and ervice can be a economically viable a maintream fare. (Anderon 2007, p. 52) In 2014 almot US$2 billion worth of merchandie wa old globally through the Ety.com webite launched in 2005 to pecialie in handmade and vintage item, and handmade upplie. Ety currently boat 21.7 million active buyer, and 1.5 million active eller ( Autralian eller are the fourth larget ource of item (jut behind thoe in the US, the UK and Canada), repreenting a ignificant net export gain for Autralian creative mallenterprie, and Ety.com i jut the highet-profile tip of a much larger iceberg that include a plethora of online retail ite pecialiing in handmade mall-cale creative production. Recently Helen Soune from Ety Autralia emphaized Ety place within wider debate around the internet to contribute to what we might call diruptive economie, that i to reimagine what global commerce look like (preentation at Parallel: Journey into Contemporary Making conference held at the NGV October 17-18). She alo acknowledged the way thi platform in particular, but the deign craft ector more generally, i gendered with mot of the Ety buine operator being women, and more than 95% of thee working from home (balancing multiple apect of life including care-giving and other work in many cae), with about 25% making a full-time income on the platform. Many of the eller on Ety have good available in the average Autralian gift price range, etablihed through market reearch a at about $40. And with the Autralian dollar liding, Autralian eller are increaingly globally affordable and Ety offer a ueful export platform, normally in addition to maker own webite and other elling point (including notably phyical marketplace which remain epecially important ite to build profile and marketfacing expertie for emerging maker). Thi changing retail environment for craft provide new poibilitie for utainable craft enterprie in the wake of the cloure of many traditional craft gallery retailer in the 1980 and 1990, which aw the lo of 2

3 the middle ground of craft retail; that i, the pace between high-end craft art outlet and amateur elling at local market. However, depite or indeed becaue of thee opportunitie, the eae of etablihing online hopfront hide the complex work required to tart and run a creative mall buine practice, epecially one in an increaingly globally competitive pace with iolated producer and narrow profit margin. Thi raie new challenge for craftpeople and deigner-maker, who not only require practice-baed kill but new entrepreneurial kill-et both technical and peronal to operate uccefully a a micro-enterprie in thi emerging global market. Therefore employing method including emi-tructured interview with etablihed handmade producer, 1-Up monitoring of deign graduate and new deign craft buinee acro 3 year to longitudinally analye the contemporary experience of etablihing a creative career pot-graduation, and a hitorical mapping of Autralia art and craft upport organiation, a key reearch quetion underpinning thi project i: what are the elfmaking kill required to ucceed in thi competitive environment? Figure 1 Screenhot of Project Webpage ( 3

4 The Storie behind the Graduate Detination Survey: Why we think thi reearch i timely To ituate our tudy approach we d like to draw your attention to how graduate detination have been characteried and accounted for in tatitical tudie eeking to undertand the contribution to the workforce of Autralian higher education and it graduate. Here the notable word i workforce. Depite a growing body of academic and policy dicoure acknowledging the importance of mall and micro buinee to the economy, together with a growing number of recent graduate entering the tartup world of co-working pace and buine incubator, the aement of higher education outcome perit in it focu on the traditional workforce and employment paradigm where a poitive graduate outcome occur when a graduate become an employee. We conider thi broad and omewhat outdated notion of employment overlook the divere career and income generating path perued by artit and craftpeople. For mot practicing artit and deigner/maker, their work life conit of what ha come to be known a a portfolio career in which etablihing an online enterprie i one of the apect of a continually evolving patchwork of grant-baed and /or commercial project, job and educational experience. (Bridgtock, 2011) Yet there appear to be cant reference to thi increaing trend in the data gathered on graduate detination pot-graduation. Graduate Career Autralia (GCA) declare that the Univerity & Beyond urvey (U&B), (2009) conducted in 2007 and 2008 wa, at the time, the larget urvey in Autralia on the expectation and perception of current higher education tudent. The urvey ought to confirm exiting and draw out new and unique inight into graduate recruitment by combining the reult from the U&B urvey with thoe from the Autralian Graduate urvey (AGS) and the Graduate Outlook Survey (GOS). The range of key inight highlighted by the U&B urvey, include: how tudent ee themelve adjuting to a profeional life after higher education what attract tudent to a particular employer the apect of their employment that tudent conider to be more important than alary the employment attribute that tudent believe contribute to job atifaction and retention how long tudent expect to tay with their firt employer after graduation. On reading the firt point above we were optimitic that there may be included in thi report ome nuanced qualitative analyi of graduate detination beyond the 4

5 traditional indutrial employment model. Ala our optimim wa not rewarded. The key quetion and reulting report again focued on graduate who were engaged in the following context: in fulltime employment eeking fulltime employment, working part time or caual not working There wa one quetion within the ection eeking information on the repondent main paid work (the employment that they were working the mot hour) on the 30 th April. The ingle quetion ak: were you elf-employed? Unlike quetion regarding their employment by an employer, there were no ubequent qualifying quetion about the nature of elf-employment or, for that matter, how many job the repondent had. A recent report by the Committee for Economic Development of Autralia (CEDA) conidering Autralia future workforce include a chapter by Ken Phillip called Your future employer yourelf (2015). He cite the following tatitic: globally, around 97 per cent of buinee are mall (with fewer than five employee) and around 60 per cent of buinee are non-employing buinee of one. The people who run the dominant number of buinee are not command-and-control firm. They are more conumer-like than anything ele in the way they behave. Thi mut turn on it head the prevailing acceptance by economit of how a market economy operate. To date, there little evidence that economic policymaker ee thi, undertand it or have even adapted any of their thinking in thi direction (p.190) Further he tate: Self-employment can be een a a riing-tar, not jut becaue of increaing number of elf-employed people. It more becaue elfemployed individual are at the cutting-edge of cultural and attitudinal change in global workforce. The upremacy of the organiation i fading and being replaced with the authority of the individual. (p.180) Thi i highlighted by Bridgtock who draw on Hall notion of the protean career, characterized by peronal contruction of career and recurrent acquiition or creation 5

6 of work (likely to occur on a freelance or elf-employment bai); and trong intrinic motivation for, and peronal identification with, career (Hall, 2004). Thi obervation i made tangible in an Autralian context through Throby and Zednik (2010) reearch that found within their principal artitic occupation only jut over onequarter of all artit work a employee, on a permanent or caual bai, and are paid a alary or wage. The remaining three-quarter operate a freelance or elfemployed individual. (p. 53) Depite thi recognition within academic dicoure and tatitical reearch conidering the working life of people trained in the art and creative indutrie, in mot intitution there appear to be a trong pedagogical tradition within art education that focue on conceptual and artefact production with only minimal engagement with kill and trategy for profeional and enterprie development. Depite art and craft practice entailing not only the creation or making of art but alo it haring and ditribution, Bridgtock and Carr (2013), a do we, find it urpriing that entrepreneurhip and enterprie development remain at the periphery of the viual and applied art curriculum particularly given the influence of the creative indutrie policy agenda in the United Kingdom and Autralia, which over the lat decade ha linked creative work with economic growth in advanced economie. The apparent lack of attention paid to buine and enterprie development within the creative art curriculum ha given rie for u to conider within the Crafting Self project how are emerging artit, craftpeople, and deigner maker acquiring the kill to develop and utain an online creative enterprie? Within the reearch thi i a key conideration within the annual tracking of viual art and deign graduate and new buine tart-up acro 3 year. Our reearch will build upon, and add depth to, exiting Graduate Detination Survey data by not only including quetion about emerging maker buine operation and outcome, but about the mechanim the participant have ued to gain explicit and tacit knowledge vital to the development and promotion of an individual creative enterprie. Seeking out emerging maker A teacher will know it i hard contacting and getting repone from tudent to when they are enrolled. It will be no urprie then that it i even harder contacting and recruiting recent graduate no longer connected to their graduating intitution. We realied we needed a number of approache to recruit participant that did not rely on univerity Alumni adminitrator. We initially coured graduate exhibition catalogue; thee have either been ourced from publically acceible ection of univerity webite, or provided a oft or hard copie by the univerity involved. Thee catalogue were requeted from higher education intitution following dicloure of the intent of their ue. Where graduate have provided contact 6

7 detail a a part of an exhibition catalogue thee detail have been included in our databae. Where graduate have not provided thi information, contact detail have been obtained through a public internet earch uing The proce of identifying potential project participant revealed wide dicrepancie between intitution in regard to the intent of final year exhibition and catalogue ranging from a mere record of the tudent cohort and viual documentation of their work, to document aimed at promoting their work. For example many catalogue did not include tudent webite or addree; vital for people to contact and follow artit whoe work they admired and could potentially purchae, but a fraught ethical/privacy iue for the intitution. The following table ummarie the intitution and content of graduate catalogue we earched for contact detail of emerging art and deign graduate. Catalogue Produced PDF Acceible Online Hoted Webite All S tudent 1t P age Google S earch: "[Univerity Name] Graduate E xhibition" Student Name Student Student Phone Student Webite Picture of Student Work Specialiation Lited Student Bio Artit S tatement Weig hted S core (Weighting) U Canberra No No Ye No Ye Ye No No No Ye No Ye Ye 44 CIT No No Ye No No No No No No No No No No 8 CDU Ye Ye Ye No Ye No No No No Ye No No No 37 Uta Ye No No Ye No Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye 83 Curtin Ye Ye No No No Ye No No No Ye No Ye Ye 47 CSU? No No? No???????? ### ACA? No No? No???????? ### ANU Ye UniS A Ye UNS W Ye UTS Ye Mona h Ye QUT Ye Ye No Ye Ye Ye No No No Ye Ye No Ye 63 No No Ye No Ye No No No Ye Ye Ye Ye 59 Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye No Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye 97 No No Ye No Ye Ye No No Ye Ye No Ye 69 No Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye Ye No Ye Ye 88 No No Ye No Ye No No No Ye No Ye No 47 Figure 2 - Categorie of aement of graduate catalogue 7

8 Figure 3 - Comparion of weighted core Clearly UNSW, Monah, and UTAS tand out from the crowd by producing more outward-looking, digitally-engaged tranitioning and promotional document for their graduate. Further reearch i needed to find out to what degree intitution teach buine/enterprie development and promotion kill either a eparate ubject or embedded within other coure and activitie to better prepare tudent for the profeional challenge ahead, and/or the degree to which tudent are initiating the incluion of promotional information without the explicit intruction from teaching taff. Early Day: Some Initial Finding While the interview phae of the project remain in it relatively early tage with 10 emerging maker interviewed thu far, the challenge of the protean career outlined above are already emerging a a given by graduate a they eek to negotiate their working live. Indeed far from being the new normal a it i for ome other creative profeion, artit and craftpeople have long had to negotiate an all too precariou exitence and thu the DIY entrepreneurial career path now afforded them are being embraced a offering valuable new poibilitie by many young maker not content to wait for opportunitie to find them. What i evident when meeting emerging maker, and thi i a fact backed up by the interview with etablihed maker, i 8

9 that now more than ever to ucceed a a deign craft practitioner one need to be a hybrid graduate, an all-rounder, with kill not only in one field of practice but alo in term of buine, but mot epecially, in working with and communicating with other people. Ironically therefore, the graduate bet able to urvive in thi pace are not necearily the bet maker. Moreover while uch breadth may ditract from further focuing on honing one pecialit kill (epecially in practice) and eem at odd with the image of the lone maker, whether aiming for the high-end gallery or the Ety high treet all maker need network; to build network mean having to build relationhip. At a more practical level of buine development, emerging maker indicate a clear and active deire to build their buine knowledge. Many have joined relevant peak bodie, notably including their local ACDC (Autralian Craft and Deign Centre)- affiliated organiation with the profeional, epecially buine, kill development and affordable inurance package they offer being particular attractor. However alternative peer-baed network are perhap ued more actively and frequently by emerging maker in earch of practical buine information; in thi pace ocial media including Ety upport group and new pop-up ARI (artit-run initiative) including retail pace are een a very collegial, haring, lift all boat culture where information can be freely ought and hared. However, few emerging maker have written a formal buine plan or have anything more than a hand-to-mouth approach to managing the financial ide of their buine. Many wih to one day have the opportunity to take part in the NEIS (New Enterprie Incentive Scheme) initiative (omething mot of our etablihed maker have pecifically mentioned they benefitted immenely from when developing their career), though with it winding back they now doubt they will be able to benefit from thi targeted entrepreneurial upport. One trend we will continue to track i the greater emphai emerging graduate place on the eae and importance of ocial media marketing. While emerging maker were far more likely to report finding marketing eay a compared with etablihed maker, depite thi eae they clearly did not have the web traffic, ale or profile of thoe who found thi apect of their practice harder. Once again, the apparent eae of etting oneelf up may be here making the real difficultie of earning an income a a maker. The maintenance of ocial media profile can take up much of the time maker have to give to their buine each week; keeping profile frehly updated may here be functioning a a form of buy work for emerging maker, giving them the feeling of moving forward but for relatively little actual (financial or promotional) gain. The degree to which the promie of the current moment will be realied for creative graduate and how we can better prepare them for thi world, i thu a core focu of thi reearch project. 9

10 Acknowledgement Thi reearch wa upported under the Autralian Reearch Council Dicovery Project funding cheme (project number DP ). We thank Belinda Powle for her ongoing invaluable input and aitance with the reearch project and, a alway, the maker generou enough to hare their torie with u. 10

11 Reference ADORNO, Theodor (2001). The Culture Indutry: Selected Eay on Ma Culture, London, Routledge. ADORNO, Theodor and Max HORKHEIMER (1973). Dialectic of Enlightenment, tran. John Cumming, London, Allen Lane. ANDERSON Chri (2007). The Long Tail: How Endle Choice i Creating Unlimited Demand. London, Random Houe. BANKS, Mark (2007). The Politic of Cultural Work. Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan. BENJAMIN, Walter (2007). Illumination, tran. Leon Wieelter, ed. Hannah Arendt, New York, Schocken Book. BRIDGSTOCK, Ruth S. (2011). 'Making it creatively: Building utainable career in the art and creative indutrie'. Autralian Career Practitioner Magazine, 22(2), BRIDGSTOCK, Ruth & CARR, Lauren. (2013). 'Creative entrepreneurhip education for graduate employability in the creative art'. Paper preented at the The CALTN Paper: The Refereed Proceeding of the Creative Art Learning and Teaching Network Sympoium Graduate Career Autralia. (2009). Univerity and Beyond: Snaphot Report Melbourne: Graduate Career Autralia HALL, Dougla (2004). 'The Protean Career: A quarter-century journey'. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(1), LITTLER, Jo (2011).'What' Wrong with Ethical Conumption?' Ethical Conumption: A Critical Introduction, ed. Lewi, Tania and Emily Potter. London and New York, Routledge, pp LITTLER, Jo (2009a). 'Gendering Anti-Conumerim: Alternative Genealogie, Conumer Whore and the Role of Reentiment'. The Politic and Pleaure of Conuming Differently, ed. Soper, K., M. Ryle and L. Thoma. Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp LITTLER, Jo (2009b). Radical Conumption: Shopping for Change in Contemporary Culture. Maidenhead and New York, Open Univerity Pre. LUCKMAN, Suan. (2012). Locating Cultural Work: The politic and poetic of rural, regional and remote creativity, Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan. LUCKMAN, Suan. (2015). Craft and the Creative Economy, Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan. 11

12 PHILLIPS, K. (2015). 'Your future employer - yourelf'. In Committee for Economic Development of Autralia (Ed.), Autralia future workforce? (pp ). Melbourne: CEDA SASSATELLI, Roberta (2009). 'Repreenting Conumer: Conteting Claim and Agenda'. The Politic and Pleaure of Conuming Differently, ed. Soper, K., M. Ryle and L. Thoma. Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp SASSATELLI, Roberta (2006). 'Virtue, Reponibility and Conumer Choice: Framing Critical Conumerim'. Conuming Culture, Global Perpective: Hitorical Trajectorie, Trannational Exchange. ed. John Brewer and Frank Trentmann. Oxford and New York, Berg, pp SOPER, Kate (2009). 'Introduction: The Maintreaming of Counter-Conumerit Concern'. The Politic and Pleaure of Conuming Differently. ed. Soper, K., M. Ryle and L. Thoma. Baingtoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, pp THROSBY, David, & ZEDNIK, Anita. (2010). An economic tudy of profeional artit in Autralia. Sydney, Department of Economic, Macquarie Univerity. 12