My Journey Towards a PhD
I had never thought I would be trying to get a doctorate degree. It wasn't something that interested me as I am not an academic. But I do love knowledge and I do love education. With twists and turns, I ended up applying for a PhD and was very kindly accepted into University of Brighton's Business School.
My research is on cultural sustainability through creative entrepreneurship. As an artist, an active artist, I couldn't make ends meet based on my practice without a full time job which had little to do with my training as an artist. Working a full time job deviated from my practice whilst I was able to pay rent and buy groceries, it did not satisfy my eternal passion to create.
My frustration lead me to question why it is so hard, and so widely accepted that you cannot have a steady income through the acquired tacit knowledge (using Nonaka's definition) and tangible skills from your education.
No one has said that it's easy to be an artist, or as under my typology: the creative class (using Timberg and Florida's definition). It is most definitely not easy to be the creative class whilst actively creating and making a steady income. I hope through my research to find a financial solution for who I've classified as Group B: Active Creators (those who identify themselves as an artist/creative, are a Fine Art Graduate but are not able to earn a living solely based on one's creation), through the use of the internet (yes this is quite vague, I am currently working on it). There are also Group A: Industry Benchmarked - externally recognised as an artist such as Jeff Koons and their living is based on sold works. And Group C: Unknown Creatives who are not formally recognised by the self or externally, but may be trained through a master-apprentice education.
This is the very beginning of my journey. I hope through this documentation of it, I will create an archive of the struggles, the confusion, the insights of what it is like for an artist trying to navigate in the business world but more importantly to bring to the light that it is a real issue for us Group B's to make work AND be paid a living wage for it. This archive was inspired by Charles Leadbeater's book We Think. Leadbeater starts his book by uploading a downloadable version of his book during its early stages. Through participation and feedback, he was able to shape his book in a way he wasn't able to through the traditional methods of writing, editing and publishing a book. Another aspect of the book which is in line with my research is "[...] a rallying call for the shared power of the web to make society more open and egalitarian [...] ways to work together [...] [and] the new culture of mass participation" (Leadbeater, 2008).
As mentioned, my research aim is to help my fellow peers find a way to understand how we can be paid for our knowledge acquired through our education. The cultural sustainability aspect is the input of money being put back to the creative class which helps sustain the culture which it cannot be sustained if no one is paying for our knowledge acquired through our education.
You will soon find out that I'm VERY long winded, the issue of being an artist and having to talk about my work, and that I don't always make sense, nor do I have perfect grammar. None of the things mentioned in my previous sentence is something I plan on addressing through this blog. I'm merely stating my shortcomings to the universe so it's out there and we have some sort of consensus.
If you've been facing/battling similar frustrations as me, please comment and let me know.
Thanks,
A VERY frustrated Group B Active Creator
