Seedy Business
by Robert Maniscalco

The recent exhibition at the Maniscalco Gallery, "Objects of Desire: Fish, Moons and Hearts," was a big success. You may have seen one artwork from the exhibit, by artist, Jim Pallas, advertised on TV recently by the beloved mega-corp, AOL. Thanks AOL, for promoting the Pallas exhibit on national TV. In the commercial a couple receives their AOL version 9.0 CD in the mail and ecstatically places it into a fish on the wall, made entirely of AOL CDs. Isn't it amazing how this AOL commercial came out a couple months after Pallas demonstrated the making of his "Seedy Fish" on "Art Beat" last fall on PBS? We could call it a magical affinity - great minds thinking alike . . . or maybe not.

I can't help but wonder how many of the great ideas we see on TV (well not that many, when you get right down to it) and other mass media were ripped off from anonymous, unacknowledged and unpaid creative individuals, unable to afford to take on the corporate milieu fueling the flames of our pop culture. It happens all the time. I once found one of my portrait images (of Chris Noth) being sold as a mouse pad on Ebay. Also, ten years after submitting a tee-shirt design to Landrover, I saw the exact image I had designed plastered onto a billboard on I-94. I hear similar horror stories from artists all the time.

Apparently ideas are not subject to copyright. Actual violations of copyright are difficult and expensive to prove. Indeed, it is a dog eat dog world. Corporations don't go down without a fight, as we well know. So it's easy to understand why many artists seem overly protective and jaded when it comes to sharing their ideas and product.

The Bill before the U.S. Congress, which would finally make it possible for creative people to receive a fair market value deduction for donated work, continues to languish in the House. In addition, huge cuts in arts funding are being swallowed because we are told we must. But must we?

We live in a society that expects artists to work for nothing, as if the satisfaction of being creative is sustenance enough. Poet, Charlie Smith, reflected on his career as a street poet and pointed out that "people think of artists as 'air plants' able to survive on praise alone." Does creativity have value? As serious artists we must be about the business of finding our way toward absolutes like truth, beauty and freedom. But must this idealism necessarily make us sheep for the slaughter in the face of corporate profits? Is anyone truly free, in a world driven by huge corporate profits?

Freedom has gotten to be very expensive, in case you hadn't noticed. Civil rights are not as inalienable as they once were. If we as a society don't value freedom and creativity, how will we survive? In a world of government cutbacks, corporate rip-offs, fear and apathy how do we expect to continue to thrive?

I wonder what would happen if we all went on strike. What if all creative people made a new years resolution to stop providing free ideas and innovation? What if it wasn't an "honor" to have our ideas stolen by major corporations? What if we were not grateful to receive little or no funding due to the economic hardships that arts funding is designed to help alleviate? What if culture were our infrastructure? I believe firmly that it is, folks. Artist, Maureen MacDonald referred me back to the book, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand? "Much of the plot centers on competent people going on strike, prompting a massive breakdown in the world. It would be an interesting world if creativity languished." Indeed it would.

The strike won't happen. Why? Two reasons: artists can't help being creative and because our system is based on cock-eyed optimism. We hope we won't fall pray to the vagaries of corporate greed or that only a handful of artists will actually fall through the cracks. We trust the cream will rise and the market will make everything all right, as always. The trouble with this brand of optimism is that it doesn't ask of anyone to take personal responsibility for the way things are or could be. It's always other people's problem. Our country rose to greatness because it recognized innovation and embraced new ideas. Today, research and development is moving abroad. Ideas and creativity are becoming valueless.

As a small business owner, I feel the trend: more and more, cost conscious consumers are being lulled away from the hand made, the one of a kind "Mom and Pop Shops" by the corporate price mongers, who are selling ever cheaper products made by political prisoners in sweatshops all over the globe. Our governments are ceding power to the corporations who are more than willing to turn deregulation into profits. Through corporate theft and "free" trade, our uniqueness and individuality are being stripped away. Americans have a difficult time arguing with success, however. There is a corporate coup taking place and we often seem quite willing to go along for the ride.

The recent "Cool Cities" initiative in Lansing brought home, once again, the importance of the creative class in generating economic development in our cities. I have faith that people will ultimately prefer to be around creative energy. Unless city planners and corporate investors begin to recognize this fact, our cities will continue to languish.

Clearly, there is the potential for a healthy balance, a partnership between corporate investment and the creative people who have the vision to bring about an exciting destination to live and work. There has been a lot of corporate investment recently, promising great things for Detroit. Creative activity in Detroit is also on the rise, with artist lofts and exhibition spaces popping up all over. This combination of grass roots activity being nurtured with corporate investment could mean strong economic development for the City of Detroit.

This collaborative form of investment will only happen if we agree to make positive change our personal business. The creative community must be vigilant in the war on corporate excess. As consumers and artists, whether it's "seedy" or "CD," there's more than one way to scale this fish.

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