The question reminds me of : Letters to a Young Artist, a collection of essays modeled after Goethe's letter (another good read). It has some insights from people like Adrian Piper, William Pole L. and the Guerilla Girls. The variables are alike between the artistic discipline (time, revenues, integrity) but there are a couple of important variations for media art. Nearly 80% of all art purchases are paintings so making a living may mean teaching or finding other employement within the field. Another important distinction is gender. The media arts field, especially the more technical aspects of it, is dominated by males. It can lead to a culture shock sometimes but I don't know whether gender has a positive or negative effect on gaining most of your revenues in the field. Where you find your training is also a determinant and the answer to the question of survival as a media artist will depend on where you want to be based. Support for culture, public or private, varies so much from one state to another. Be mindful of the tools, PD is one of the tools that will shape your practice the least. I like Natalie Jeremijenko's take on technology (not her exact words) : "artist's are good at making dumb things out of expensive technology and making smart things out of obsolete tech".
My advice would be to just work. Don't spend too much time networking and worrying about a career, if the work is not there, nothing will happen. Devote all your energies to it and if the sleep deprivation (and bills) catch up to you and the motivation isn't there any longer, then you can take all that you will have learned and find another path. It should be easier than surviving as a media artist. I don't want to sound dire, I feel priviledged to be able to keep making art and it's amazing to be able to teach it. What I mean to say is that if you need to be an artist then you will find a way to support your practice.
http://www.artonpaper.com/LTYA/
Good luck,
Alexandre
Adityo Pratomo a écrit :
hahaha, gotta agree with this. I couldn't even stand sleeping for 4 hours a day for a week. because on the next week, i'll be sleeping 10 hours a day, hahaha...
anyway, thank you for sharing your stories everybody :)
On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 10:31 AM, Derek Holzer derek@umatic.nl wrote:
Short term results = fantastic! Long term results = detrimental to one's health...
Just ask Jack Kerouac.
Jaime Oliver wrote:
make art with that time. Or you could try giving up sleeping. In the end,
the sleeping thing... doesn't work.
-- ::: derek holzer ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista ::: http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista ::: ---Oblique Strategy # 140: "Reverse"
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