Creative Business Wrap – September 2022

I always like September, with its earlier sunrises and warming days. It feels energizing, as does the fact that we’ve been busy with interesting projects for Sharpe Advisory, many of which focus on creative infrastructure and the value it provides to communities. But we’ve still had time to collect a smattering of interesting pieces on art, architecture, music, publishing and, um, tidying. Enjoy!

I loved this story about some clever technology helping buskers combat the decline in the cash economy. Street performers at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe were able to supplement their takings in the hat or violin case with online payments thanks to The Busking Project. It was one of the Resident Entrepreneur programs of Creative Informatics, which provided funding of up to £12K to individuals or teams of creative practitioners to develop new products or services using data or data-driven technologies in Edinburgh. Buskers collect payment via a QR code where they can tip via Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. After tipping, the donor will be asked to fill out a short survey and the results will be analysed by academics (including a musicologist and an economist) to find out what impact street performers have on the festival, and the city itself.

You can rely on architecture critic, academic and author Elizabeth Farrelly to write stridently, but beautifully, about the built environment and what irks her about it. Here’s a typically passionate article on Museum of Sydney’s Unrealised Sydney exhibition, which looks back at the architectural proposals for eight inner city sites that mercifully (in her view) didn’t get built. I was intrigued to learn that the runners-up for the Sydney Opera House design competition can’t be displayed because they were returned to their authors without being documented, apart from one article in Women’s Weekly. I also didn’t know that the Trump Casino designed by Harry Seidler in 1986 was rejected by the then Labor government because it was not financially viable and due to Trump’s alleged mafia connections. “However abraded Sydney has since become,” Farrelly writes, “however motheaten by greed, incompetence and abrogation, most of these proposals, if built, would have made it much, much worse.” Can’t wait to see the exhibition, which runs until 13 November.

While on matters architectural, a client sent me this YouTube video about 3D printed houses. It’s an overview of where this technology is at, and the different approaches to building structures layer by concrete layer. The results are always aesthetically intriguing rather than beautiful, but it might be the way of building houses faster, cheaper and greener in future. Goodness knows what Farrelly would have to say about them!

So here’s a thing: Roy Morgan’s survey for the 12 months to September 2021 showed an increase of 2.2% in readership of print magazines over the previous year. A COVID lockdown fueled bump, no doubt, but readers have stuck with their favourite titles into 2022, particularly in categories such as general interest, health & family, motoring and sports. There’s a catch though – the most popular titles are produced by retailers like Coles, Woolworths and Bunnings and are given away for free.

At the other end of that spectrum are titles with distinct market segments and hefty cover prices. Winner of the Consumer Publication of the Year title at the Mumbrella Publish Awards was Galah, a magazine which showcases stories of creativity, community and sustainability from rural Australia. Galah’s mission is “to deliver truth and beauty and to tell the stories about regional Australia that go beyond drought, floods and fires.” In this article on Mumbrella, Editor in Chief Annabelle Hickson calls it “more of a book model than a magazine model”, because 90% of its revenue comes from sales (the cover price is $30) rather than advertising. If both the freebie and the glossy, premium ends of this market grow, we might see (or rather not see) a missing middle of moderately priced generalist titles.

The story of creative interactions between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) is developing rapidly. Earlier this year, a prize at the Colorado State Fair was won by an artwork that generated by AI. Rodolfo Ocampo’s article in The Conversation argues that “a fundamental revolution is underway – with profound social, artistic, economic and technological implications”. He lists a number of programs you can use to prompt AI to create masterpieces, such as a sea otter in the style of ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Vermeer and Darth Vader riding a tricycle outside on a sunny day (it’s exactly what it sounds like).

Ocampo doesn’t see these new technologies as the end of creativity but sees new art forms arising through collaborations between artists and AI. Perhaps even a new type of artist called a “prompt engineer” who can craft the commands that guide the computer to generate the image. Any bets on how long it will take for AI to win the Archibald?

Marie Kondo‘s success as a tidying guru is legendary, both through her books and Netflix series, but until now I’ve been avoiding her. I’ve never felt the need to hold each of my possessions to see if they “spark joy” and if not, discard them with gratitude. I’m happy with a bit of clutter but when I do discard things, its usually with enthusiasm, rather than thanks.

So I listened to her audiobook “Joy at Work” (written in collaboration with Scott Sonenshein) and surprisingly, found the voices of the narrators quite calming as they promised that tidying at work can increase productivity and creativity and save hours of time at the office. The focus is not just on decluttering your desk, but on tidying your emails, your data, your time, decisions, and your networks. Some of their suggestions are quite challenging such as doing away with paper documents (except those that are required for legal reasons) and ditching most of your social media contacts, keeping your online networks to those few people whom you can actually call on to help you.

But their strategic approach to tidying your time spent in meetings appealed, such as declining meeting invitations when there is no agenda, and not scheduling regular update meetings unless there is a direct contribution to the job role or project. So if I decline your this meeting month, don’t take offence. I’m probably just Kondo-ing my work life. All our Creative Business Wrap readers spark joy. 😉