In the first episode of a new season, we sit down with Justin O’Connor. A global policy expert, author, and a Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of South Australia. In this episode, we talk about his book Culture Is Not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good. Justin explains how theoretically poor the concept of the ‘creative industry’ actually is, and how it has messed up cultural policy in many countries. We then talk about an alternative policy vision: art and culture for the common good, anchored in the foundational economy.

LINKS & REFERENCES

Justin O’Connor’s website: justin-oconnor.com

Culture Is Not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common Good: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526171269

The Foundational Economy Collective: foundationaleconomy.com

Reset: Een nieuw begin voor kunst en cultuur: starfishbooks.org/justin-oconnor-reset

ABOUT

Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. This episode was hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen and edited by Anielek Niemyjski.

Gizem Üstüner is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, whose work is a direct confrontation with the realities of precarity, migration, and womanhood. In recent years, she’s been traveling to Yogyakarta, Athens, Istanbul, and back to Amsterdam for the long-term ‘Low-Budget Projects’. Wherever she goes, Gizem seeks to build solidarity through one-on-one exchanges with peers navigating struggles similar to hers. Over coffees, cigarettes, nights out, or moments of protest, she listens, connects, and shares in the everyday tactics and resistance strategies that cultural practitioners develop in response to the cultural, economic, and political infrastructures they inhabit. In this podcast, we discuss the different chapters of Low Budget Projects, and what they tell us about transparency, solidarity, humor, and resistant joy among art workers’ communities.

LINKS & REFERENCES

Low-Budget Projects IG: instagram.com/lowbudgetprojects

Low-Budget Projects Amsterdam: https://framerframed.nl/en/projecten/low-budget-projects-do-not-expect-anything-out-of-the-blue

Low-Budget Projects Athens: yellowbrick.gr/step-47-low-budget-projects

Gizem on Stegi Radio: stegi.radio/artist/gizem-uestuener

ABOUT

Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. This episode was hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen and edited by Salome Berdzenishvili.

Vermeir & Heiremans started their collaborative artistic practice, when they defined their apartment in Brussels as an artwork and created the Art House Index in 2006. In the following decades, they developed a deep artistic research practice focusing on the interplay between art, speculation, finance, and real estate. Ronny Heiremans and Katleen Vermeir have also successfully worked on Belgian art policy development and co-founded the artistic research platform Jubilee. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, from financialisation for the public good to automated art dividends, real estate speculation, bottom-up policymaking, new ways of mutualization, and the lure of art cooperatives.

Links & References

Website of Vermeir & Heiremans: https://www.in-residence.be Art House Index: https://www.in-residence.be/extensions/view/39 / http://ahi.in-residence.be/chart.php Article on ‘A Modest Proposal’, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/finance-and-society/article/modest-proposal-in-a-black-box/4586E97058B4581F71795AEDBB647E1C Art workers proof (kunstwerkattest): https://www.workinginthearts.be/nl/professioneel/kunstwerkattest/kunstwerkattest/wat-is-het-kunstwerkattest Jubilee: https://www.jubilee-art.org/ Commons to Coop Summer School: https://kunsthal.gent/en/agenda/jubilee-summer-school-2024-commons-to-coop

Cover image: graph illustrating A Modest Proposal (in a Blackbox)

About

Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. The podcast hosts are Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. This episode was recorded in Brussels, in a studio generously made available by Rune Peitersen and Level Five Cooperative.