Nathan Ariss: a call for inaction

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You can die of exposure, you know…

Nathan Ariss writes:

General Artistic Strike – call for inaction, New Year’s Day

A General Strike of all culture, arts, music, dance, drama, poetry, illustration, cartoon, design, is now in effect. All ‘creatives’ will henceforth produce not a single word, or note, or sound, or sign, or symbol, that might stir, nourish, inform, amuse, or in any way entertain or satirise, and an embargo has been placed on all recordings, and any and all previous and published materials.

Anyone found in a public place listening to, laughing, reading, or enjoying anything regarded as having required artistic input, will be frog-marched immediately to the nearest over-priced, zero tax-yielding coffee emporium and made to contribute to the ‘Artists starve in garrets because it helps maintain their artistic integrity, and anyway they’d do it for nothing’ boxes, which will be provided there.

This action will only be called off when no further requests for free artwork, ‘pay-to-play’, nor mentions of exposure as adequate recompense or remuneration, nor other derisory terms and conditions, have been been reported to the New Ministry for Cultural Appreciation, Payments and Respect.

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© Nathan Ariss

Yes, that is about as realistic as Zuckerberg deciding to give us all a wad of his money, or any of the UK’s majority of non-producing ‘middle-men’ donating their entire bonuses to humanitarian causes.

Support Artists’ Rights. 90% of them/ all of us, it is estimated, struggle to survive, beneath the minimum wage. And they can’t all find those humble, alternative jobs – you know, the ones that aren’t there – and neither do they wish to burden the system in idle non-productivity.

The Arts are a choice and its own reward, but the deal with the audience is you put a coin in the box to watch the monkey dance. Free downloads and soaking it all up for nothing is as profoundly impoverishing as planting the worst seeds from your yield for next year’s crop.

So, feel free to share. Without payment. Or perhaps entertain us with that great story of how you closed that deal, made money off someone else’s work, or contributed to the increasing neglect and poverty of intellect and opportunity this country seems determined to produce and market as the world’s best.

This article was originally published on Nathan Ariss’ Facebook site.

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