Last summer I was provided with some free calling cards courtesy of the lovely Cards For Humanity art project. To get feedback for the project I recently answered the following questions. The full results of these surveys will eventually take the form of a book and website. You can read the promo that I wrote for them in September at this link.
1. Briefly describe your business or gig in ±250 words.
Radical Beat is a writing/journalism project focused on the intersection of underground music and radical politics. I've been writing about music for about fifteen years, with the idea for Radical Beat coming about in the last few. Basically, these are the subject areas that interest me, and as my knowledge and writing abilities developed I came to realise there was no reason not to bring the topics together, as there can be a lot of crossover. I believe that cultural criticism is important for brewing new ideas and promoting creative economies, and equally important is political action, without which all the words in the world have little importance.
2. What impact do you think you have on the community?
I like to think that my writing encourages musicians to work on their craft, to reflect on what might be working for them and to know that some people are paying close attention to their efforts and what they bring to the community. As for the political and environmental writing, hopefully they help to spread new ideas and connect the dots between various issues.
3. What do you hope to achieve? What are your goals?
I want to contribute meaningfully to scenes that have given a lot to me, and build community to change the cruel systems that we live under. On a more down to Earth practical level, a paid job writing about music and/or environmentalism would be great!
4. Do you do this for profit? If so, is it your main source of income? If not, how do you finance it?
Radical Beat has been done entirely during so-called free time. While the occasional bit of money comes in from selling zines, etc, there's so far no way I can see to pay my bills doing this. Even as a pastime/interest with very little in the way of physical supply needs, it's hard to do around the need to pay the rent. Projects like Cards For Humanity certainly help.
5. How have the cards benefitted your business/gig or reputation? Have you noticed any financial difference, such as the number of clients, sales, hits, or gigs?
Radical Beat is a writing/journalism project focused on the intersection of underground music and radical politics. I've been writing about music for about fifteen years, with the idea for Radical Beat coming about in the last few. Basically, these are the subject areas that interest me, and as my knowledge and writing abilities developed I came to realise there was no reason not to bring the topics together, as there can be a lot of crossover. I believe that cultural criticism is important for brewing new ideas and promoting creative economies, and equally important is political action, without which all the words in the world have little importance.
2. What impact do you think you have on the community?
I like to think that my writing encourages musicians to work on their craft, to reflect on what might be working for them and to know that some people are paying close attention to their efforts and what they bring to the community. As for the political and environmental writing, hopefully they help to spread new ideas and connect the dots between various issues.
3. What do you hope to achieve? What are your goals?
I want to contribute meaningfully to scenes that have given a lot to me, and build community to change the cruel systems that we live under. On a more down to Earth practical level, a paid job writing about music and/or environmentalism would be great!
4. Do you do this for profit? If so, is it your main source of income? If not, how do you finance it?
Radical Beat has been done entirely during so-called free time. While the occasional bit of money comes in from selling zines, etc, there's so far no way I can see to pay my bills doing this. Even as a pastime/interest with very little in the way of physical supply needs, it's hard to do around the need to pay the rent. Projects like Cards For Humanity certainly help.
5. How have the cards benefitted your business/gig or reputation? Have you noticed any financial difference, such as the number of clients, sales, hits, or gigs?
There hasn't been
any noticeable surge in interest since I began using the cards, but more
people have continued to follow what I do. They've been helpful mainly
in that I haven't had to worry about making low-quality cards of my own
and don't expect to for some time!
6. Do you think well-made cards can inspire other craftsman to improve the quality and originality of the art and design scene in St. Petersburg? Do you feel a similar obligation to uphold quality standards in the St. Pete arts community through your work?
Yeah, absolutely. A card might seem like a marginal thing, which it is in a sense, but I can see someone looking at a nice one and thinking "they put the thought and effort into this. I should put the effort into my thing, no matter what sort of thing it is." I do absolutely feel the need to hold my work to a high standard of quality, hard and subjective as that might be in a lot of ways.
7. What differences do you notice between the social interactions you have with people physically versus through online networking sites? Do you think physical calling cards can help facilitate in-person interaction? Do you find in-person interactions to be more effective than online networking methods? How so?
A physical interaction, even a short one, features some of the stuff that I am always wishing for online. Questions, feedback, compliments, all of which we are generally too distracted to have time to type out, in my experience. As much as I bash materialism, the tiny dopamine hit of getting a pleasant physical object (with an extremely small environmental impact, to be fair) could help someone stay invested in conversation, assuming they were somewhat interested to begin with. In my case I am not sure if in-person interactions have led to many actual page views, etc, compared to when someone has the real content to look at, although that may be a fallacy based on the fact that most of the work is online and that which isn't online I cannot track.
8. Has Cards for Humanity affected your outlook on voluntary arts barter? For instance, instead of treating peers as clients, would you now be more open to trading creative services with other local artists/craftsmen in an effort to develop more meaningful, altruistic communities?
I think faith in the concept of any kind of alternative economics like barter needs to be constantly renewed, in light of the fact that traditional economics is shoved in our faces and presented as "normal" every minute of every day! So academically, no, I was completely on board with this sort of thinking before. But it's a welcome reminder to question ones own motives in all interactions and up our "don't be a selfish atomised bastard" game.
9. Do you think this project could be replicated and adapted by other artists and designers to increase the camaraderie in the St. Petersburg community? For instance, how do you (or might you) give back? Do you think future unsolicited support for emerging artists should be encouraged? Why does a quality arts community matter to you?
Since much of the criticism I write is generally positive it's already promotional of other artists in a way (and occasionally, they are just full-on promo pieces). I think one of the challenges here is that there seems to be a general feeling among artists that art is not sufficiently valued and they are underpaid already (which it's difficult to argue with). On the other hand, if art is about being creative, then being creative in your economic approach should certainly be a topic for discussion, and indeed many artists do work for free or at a loss. If artists of different persuasions are being underpaid then at least they can help each other. So yes, this should absolutely be encouraged. Without a quality arts community we have nothing but gourmet dessert fooderies and horrific retail mazes, at which point we may as well all just wait at home for the impending ecological meltdown.
6. Do you think well-made cards can inspire other craftsman to improve the quality and originality of the art and design scene in St. Petersburg? Do you feel a similar obligation to uphold quality standards in the St. Pete arts community through your work?
Yeah, absolutely. A card might seem like a marginal thing, which it is in a sense, but I can see someone looking at a nice one and thinking "they put the thought and effort into this. I should put the effort into my thing, no matter what sort of thing it is." I do absolutely feel the need to hold my work to a high standard of quality, hard and subjective as that might be in a lot of ways.
7. What differences do you notice between the social interactions you have with people physically versus through online networking sites? Do you think physical calling cards can help facilitate in-person interaction? Do you find in-person interactions to be more effective than online networking methods? How so?
A physical interaction, even a short one, features some of the stuff that I am always wishing for online. Questions, feedback, compliments, all of which we are generally too distracted to have time to type out, in my experience. As much as I bash materialism, the tiny dopamine hit of getting a pleasant physical object (with an extremely small environmental impact, to be fair) could help someone stay invested in conversation, assuming they were somewhat interested to begin with. In my case I am not sure if in-person interactions have led to many actual page views, etc, compared to when someone has the real content to look at, although that may be a fallacy based on the fact that most of the work is online and that which isn't online I cannot track.
8. Has Cards for Humanity affected your outlook on voluntary arts barter? For instance, instead of treating peers as clients, would you now be more open to trading creative services with other local artists/craftsmen in an effort to develop more meaningful, altruistic communities?
I think faith in the concept of any kind of alternative economics like barter needs to be constantly renewed, in light of the fact that traditional economics is shoved in our faces and presented as "normal" every minute of every day! So academically, no, I was completely on board with this sort of thinking before. But it's a welcome reminder to question ones own motives in all interactions and up our "don't be a selfish atomised bastard" game.
9. Do you think this project could be replicated and adapted by other artists and designers to increase the camaraderie in the St. Petersburg community? For instance, how do you (or might you) give back? Do you think future unsolicited support for emerging artists should be encouraged? Why does a quality arts community matter to you?
Since much of the criticism I write is generally positive it's already promotional of other artists in a way (and occasionally, they are just full-on promo pieces). I think one of the challenges here is that there seems to be a general feeling among artists that art is not sufficiently valued and they are underpaid already (which it's difficult to argue with). On the other hand, if art is about being creative, then being creative in your economic approach should certainly be a topic for discussion, and indeed many artists do work for free or at a loss. If artists of different persuasions are being underpaid then at least they can help each other. So yes, this should absolutely be encouraged. Without a quality arts community we have nothing but gourmet dessert fooderies and horrific retail mazes, at which point we may as well all just wait at home for the impending ecological meltdown.
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