Can we combine startup-capitalism and arts? What seems to be an impossible task is the inspiration for Jeremy Baileys concept of the „lean artist“. The new media artist presented his idea at this year’s book fair in Frankfurt. We talked with Bailey at THE ARTS+ about this new way of interpreting the production of arts.
Jeremy Bailey, calls himself a „Famous New Media Artist“ and he sees things from a different perspective. The performer is based in Toronto, Canada, but presents his work all over the globe. He often deals in a satirical way with the so-called new media and their codes of communication. Besides exhibitions and performances, Bailey produces a podcast called „Good Point“, dealing with arts and technology. In cooperation with the Moving Museum in London, Bailey recently launched the „Lean Artist Accelerator“ with four new artist startups.
In a world that is dominated by global capital and startup ideologies, artists seemingly become more and more irrelevant. According to Jeremy Bailey, our reality raises new challenges: how can artists adapt startup methods that proved to be successful in other contexts? Is the key to combine critical thinking and empathy with the means of production? In order to do that, our romantic idea of culture needs to be more flexible. Bailey sees himself in the role of a neutral observer and he is trying to make the invisible visible. Witnissing the development in the art scene under capitalism, made him seek for new solutions to sustain a variety of arts.
The voices of too many artists with innovative ideas have been silenced under capitalism. They need to be amplified, says Bailey. The startup culture currently consists mostly of white males. Their techniques (lean methods) need to be given back to all people. A key concept to succeed in startup culture is to engage with the audience, to listen to their needs and be observing. Techniques may also contain some kind of „Beta-Tests“, in which the artist first presents his work in a smaller context. Failure, as part of learning, is essential to startup techniques. Learning from each other instead of keeping innovations as secrets is also an important aspect Bailey mentions. But what can people do to show support nowadays? Baileys answer: Buy art or, if there is no object, show up!
detektor.fm-host Christian Bollert talked with Jeremy Bailey at THE ARTS+ about his concept of the lean artist.
Redaktion: Lara-Lena Gödde
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