Introduction: The Cultural Context
Every organization and every business is its own culture.
Andersen Stoneware is a cultural environment that places a distinct and unique
value on the process of making things. The Creative Economy is a culture that
places value on designing (innovating) things. Andersen Stoneware designs what
it makes and so Andersen Stoneware also values innovation.
Arguably, the Creative Economy is a response to the loss of
manufacturing (making things) in the United States and the rise of manufacturing in what
was once called third world nations. As such the ideology of the Creative
Economy movement glorifies designers over makers as it separates the act of
designing from the act of making (also repairing and maintaining which are qualified as "lesser skilled work " according to the "creative economy" system of measurement) (example) In the marketing of the
Creative Economy, those that design, do not make, while those that make things
do so because they lack higher skills and creative capabilities. According to this world view it is low skilled jobs that are exported to low wage labor markets. * The Creative Economy ideology
has created a master class with an alleged superior set of skills and methods
of evolving new ideas. In the era of the American Creative Economy movement,
Andersen Stoneware exists as a cultural anomaly, which may well be a precursor
of things to come to those who pay attention to the changes afoot in the global
context. This is Andersen Studio’s story, told in a way that it has never been
told before, in the context of a transforming world. And so it is also the
story of the world told from our perspective of interacting within it.
Andersen Stoneware was established in the era of the plastics
revolution with a founding philosophy dedicated to creating an
American hand made product affordable to the middle classes. Andersen Stoneware
was founded in 1952 as Ceramics by Andersen during the golden age of America’s middle
class . At the time of our founding, the distribution of wealth in the
United States took the form of a bell curve with the largest concentration of
wealth dispersed among the largest number of people.
Unconscionable Capitalism
In
the twenty first century, the Chinese Communist Party has merged with
private capitalism in a reverse process of the transformation
occurring in Maine during the same time period. The Maine State
Constitution has been superseded by statutory laws, which have
entrenched a dominent network of state capitalism, operating with a
funds accumulated from taxpayers and gifts from private sources which
together comprise a concentrated capital power which merges
government, private and non-profit sectors as one continuous system.
At the onset of the 21st century, the conflation of public and
private sectors emerged as a de facto political party, identifying
itself in the popular terms of the moment as “the creative class”,
the next generation of owners of the means of production, be those
means located in Maine or in China or any other part of the globe
"Over the ensuing decades, particularly in the 1990s when massive investment poured into China, the families of CCP bureaucrats utilised political power and links with foreign capital to transform themselves into a new property-owning capitalist elite. CCP-connected entrepreneurs, executives, outsourcing contractors, import and export traders and professionals have emerged as the junior partners of major transnational corporations in ruthlessly exploiting the working class."
World Socialst Website -Chinese regime amends constitution to protect private ownership- 2004
**
In China there
exists a huge divide between the rich and the poor with only a sliver of a
middle class between them and America is not far behind China’s lead.
Factsabout China: RICH, POOR & INEQUALITY
Although Communism was born in response to exploitative
working conditions of 19th century factories, the conditions for the
contemporary worker in China remains notoriously poor, discouraging
unions, and wages so low that China has become one of the most competitive
manufacturing nations on the globe. Sparse environmental regulations have
resulted in making China of the most polluted nations on Planet Earth.
The Chinese Symbol of the Yin-Yang
 | ||||
| Everything Is Everything |
Once China was home to a sophisticated culture of art and
philosophy producing finely crafted and beautifully designed ceramics along
side the philosophical master works such as the Tao de Ching, a philosophy
which I have come to know through the western version of the I Ching translated by Carl Jung.
The I Ching is part of an esoteric tradition in which the maker and creator are
complementary parts of an inseparable whole - a cultural tradition harmonious
with that upon which Andersen Stoneware was built, which in modern day jargon
of the business world might be called in-sourcing.
The I Ching is based on complementary opposites such as
creative and receptive, male and female, superior and inferior, within a
framework in which the whole is revealed through the interaction of opposites
rather than segmented as echelons within a class structure. The creative is
synonymous with the masculine and superior while the receptive is feminine and
inferior but superior and inferior, male and female, creative and receptive, do
not have the same connotations as those words signify within a class-structured
context. Jung conceptualized the complementary opposites of the I Ching as the
anima and animus – opposing but complementary forces of the human psyche- which
is an indivisible whole as visualized by the famous iconic symbol of the Tau de
Ching - a state of Oneness in which the
dark and the light taken separately imply its completion through the other.
In the esoteric model, the masculine is the creative seed,
which impregnates the feminine, which does the work of nurturing the seed into
the manifest world. The process of creating and that of bringing the form into
manifestation within the material world (making) are mutually dependent upon
each other. There is no finite line of demarcation where
the one begins and the other ends, as each is needed to bring the whole into
being.
The ideology of the Creative Economy is one of separations, divisions and special interests. As I tell this story I intend to reveal that the Creative Economy is worthy of the common street language interpretation where in bad is good, good is bad and the creative is the destructive and the destructive creative. The Creative Economy destroys, dismisses and refuses to recognize the existence of everything in its path that does not serve its chosen special interests. As the creative economy posits material wealth as the measure of all “social benefit”, current events defy their standard of measure in the emergence of well-educated terrorists materialistically living the American dream but inexplicably motivated by forces immeasurable by materialism.
The ideology of the Creative Economy is one of separations, divisions and special interests. As I tell this story I intend to reveal that the Creative Economy is worthy of the common street language interpretation where in bad is good, good is bad and the creative is the destructive and the destructive creative. The Creative Economy destroys, dismisses and refuses to recognize the existence of everything in its path that does not serve its chosen special interests. As the creative economy posits material wealth as the measure of all “social benefit”, current events defy their standard of measure in the emergence of well-educated terrorists materialistically living the American dream but inexplicably motivated by forces immeasurable by materialism.
Our Story: The Local Reality
Pre-screening Requests for Applications For Public Funding
At some time in the early days of the Baldacci
administration I thought about applying for an apprenticeship grant for mold
making in the Traditional Arts category offered by the Maine Arts Commission. I
called by phone to request an application where upon I was told by the director of the Traditional Arts Program at the Maine Arts Commission that I would have to make the case that ceramics is a traditional art. I
was taken aback by this request since ceramics is commonly recognized as one of
civilizations oldest art forms. In substance the request might seem reasonable
but if so, one would expect to find the question on the application and not as
a response to the request for the application. This communicated a message of
its own and since I didn’t have a firm commitment from one interested in
learning the mold making process, it discouraged spending further time on that
pursuit.
 |
Andersen Studio has been innovating new designs for the market since 1952. This is a wax model of a new bird sculpture that I am currently developing. The next step is to create the original mold, at which point a few pieces can be cast so that I can develop the decoration of the piece while the master and production molds are being created.
Later when the creative economy list-serve had become
discussion forums on the Maine Arts Commission web site, I explored the
Traditional Arts Forum where I found that the ability to start a topic was
delegated exclusively to the Director of the Traditional Arts Program, who had created only one topic. I requested
a description of the qualifications for traditional arts and the Director went
through a list which included passing down the tradition from one family
generation to the next. I said that our ceramic business met all the
qualifications to which the Director said that I was off topic- this in a
conversation in which there was one other person in addition to myself and the Director. This exchange re-enforced my instinctual conclusion that I would be
wasting my time to fill out the application.
When Capitalism becomes the Alpha and Omega.
Leveraging was clearly a factor in an event to which I was invited to by a local non-profit organization, which had received a matching grant from Governor Baldacci for a project that involved teaching how to make ceramic mud pies of exactly the sort that your average three year old would fashion out of clay. I can’t recall the amount of the grant but it was successfully matched- to my point of view, clearly because the governor was sponsoring it and so that signaled to the foundations and philanthropists that it was a worthy cause. It is inconceivable that either the governor or the matching contributors considered what was being taught, which in my view was absolutely nothing as there is neither skill nor esthetics involved in fashioning a crude mud pie out of clay. The motivation was clearly leveraging- using the matching grant to move more capital into the state. The money is the end game. The teaching skills involved in making things that purportedly justify the grant are merely incidental to the fundamental purpose of leveraging money to get more money. This is an instance in which the skills involved in making of things are not considered as a significant end in its self- in other words the act of making things is devalued to the point where they are nothing more than the pawn in the game.
When I made the decision to attend this event I ignored my
gut instinct, which noted the two different messages on the invitation- one
message to celebrate the organization’s event and the other an invitation to
network.
Over the years my father has voiced the thought that all the
ceramic business and organizations on the Boothbay Peninsula should form a
network. The invitation was addressed to my father confirming that it was sent
to us based on knowledge of who Andersen Stoneware is in the field of ceramics
rather than data procured by a general mailing list that I might have joined.
One of the first ideas that the introductory speaker
espoused was to encourage all in attendance to sponsor in ceramics teaching
workshops at their locations. I spoke up and said that we already teach ceramic
skills on the job and so what would be the point for us in conducting an
additional ceramic workshop in our own space? The speaker said that Andersen is
already well known so we didn’t need the publicity that a workshop would bring, seeming
irritated by my question.
Next a young woman who appeared to be no older than twenty
was introduced. She was the recipient of one of the teaching grants distributed
individually in the amount of $500.00. She reported that she had conducted the
workshop but it was not clear where she had conducted it and who had paid the
overhead costs of the workshop, which would include the costs of space and
electricity in addition to materials. It was also unclear if the students were
being charged for the classes. However when it came to selling the products
made in the workshop- little ceramic mud pies- the young woman had arrived at a
marketing concept - she publicized and charged for an event and then gave the
ceramic bowls away as an event prize enabling her to generate $500.00 in
revenue, which she then contributed to a charity (a food bank) as was a
requirement of the program (social benefit).
I was growing increasingly aghast at what I was witnessing
and so when a discussion commenced about how much could be charged for the
ceramic mud pies, I spoke up. I still had not managed to mentally transit from
the way that I imagined things should be- i.e. -teaching skills that can help
others to create an income for themselves- to the reality that was – teaching
an unskilled craft in order to give money to a charity to provide food for low
income people- and so I spoke from the perspective of what one would have to
consider when pricing a product for the private economy market. I mentioned all
the overhead expenses and I also mentioned that one has to be able to compete
with low priced products being imported from nations with extremely low labor
and production costs. I could see in the eyes of the audience that there was a
general interest in what I was speaking about but when I finished, an older
woman stood up, calling me by my name, she told me that they did not want to
hear what I had to say, they were there to listen to the twenty year old
novice. And at that point I left the Mad Hatters Party, having clearly worn out
my welcome as well as my own patience.
This is just another story among many that exemplifies the
attitude that the Creative Economy takes to people like us- small micro economy enterprises that are not
seen as advancing their own agenda. Andersen Stoneware pioneered the ceramics slip-casting
industry on the Boothbay Peninsula over sixty years ago, creating a “cluster
industry” as an off-shoot, but our knowledge and experience was dismissed in
favor of a twenty year old novice teaching the non-skills of making clay mud
pies all to serve the social benefit of funding food banks for the less
fortunate in the society in which the policies of the “creative class” has
advanced and continues to advance as they uphold a company with manufacturing
facilities in China and Thailand as their own poster child.
RESOURCES AND FOOTNOTE
Video by Leslie T Chang on Ted Conversations
Conversation started by Myself in response to the above
* In this international comparison of math and science skills among 15 year olds, China takes first place in math skills - the United States is placed at 25th -China also ranks above the USA in reading and science skills
Facts about China: RICH, POOR & INEQUALITY
America’s vanishing middle class: Gap between rich and poor widens
Chinese regime amends constitution to protect private ownership
Wages in China
RESOURCES AND FOOTNOTE
Video by Leslie T Chang on Ted Conversations
Conversation started by Myself in response to the above
* In this international comparison of math and science skills among 15 year olds, China takes first place in math skills - the United States is placed at 25th -China also ranks above the USA in reading and science skills
** This post examining the special act of legislation by which the Small Enterprise Growth Fund was charted reveals that it is set up to allow government employees to profit from their positions via the fund by exempting the SEGF from a general law that prohibits the same. Exemptions from general laws constitute an additional violation against Article Iv Part Third Section 14 of the Maine State Constitution, which states that "all corporations however formed are subject to general laws". The SEGF is subsidized by the Maine Taxpayer in a manner that functions as a non-profit investment, while the private investors in the are "high growth" investors, who invest on a profit making basis. The SEGF submits its annual report exclusively to the state legislature
America’s vanishing middle class: Gap between rich and poor widens
Chinese regime amends constitution to protect private ownership
Wages in China
China promises rise in minimum wage to close income gap
RELATED POSTS:
Comments
Post a Comment