Volume 2 • Number 7 • Spring 1999 • Free Cross-Currents in Culture
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cross-currents in culture volume 2 • number 7 • spring 1999 • free page 2 • variant • volume 2 number 7 • Spring 1999 Contents Editorial In the early days of World War II, when Hitler was dividing up Poland, Tales of The Great Unwashed 3 he told the two Generals he appointed that he would ask no questions about their methods. It is a common enough euphemism in politics and Ian Brotherhood the exercise of power to this day. When questions are asked about meth- ods they unearth the fact that power acts covertly to conceal its part in the ruthless consequences of its design. Politics of Friendship 6 In this issue, Marshall Anderson’s Another Story of Art Development is Ewan Morrison not presented as a salacious expose—more rather an example of the norm. That there will be conflicting opinions of his account is unavoida- ble since the statements of the parties involved themselves—official- Creative Music in a Plain Brown Box 7 dom—are at odds with each other. Our interview with the Glasgow Media Group—we would hope—will David Thompson be read carefully and encourage a reconsideration of the theories which have led to such betrayals of common sense and progressive politics. The ‘cultural compliance’ referred to in the article is the culpable failure Good News 8 to address the enforcement of anachronistic right-wing politics, through The Glasgow University Media Group an adherence to a view of culture which is based on intellectual mean- inglessness. This compliance carries with it a failure to question the free William Clark & Ian Brotherhood market—despite the effects it is having on our society. Masses of people are unemployed—deemed to have no use in life—because the market has dictated so, and that this ideology cannot be challenged. Siting Belfast 12 In the arts, and many other sectors of society, the involvement of a Context, Audience and the Symbolic Economy of the City mass of people is touted as a worthy criterion by funding bodies, except when it comes to decision making. Consultation is considered some- Maeve Connolly thing to be put into the hands of professional consultants at public expense; public consultation is the joke of organising a meeting to tell the public what they are getting. Decisions are taken before public con- Comic & zine reviews 14 sultation, during it or by ignoring it. This taxation without representa- Mark Pawson tion is wide open for factions to follow a line of interest. The private will incline towards partiality; the general will incline towards impartiality. Talk of independence abounds while the centralisation of the arts and Another story of art development 16 culture increases. Our open discussion on artists’ initiatives will hopefully encourage Marshall Anderson debate on the collusion of private business and public development agen- cies in deciding what is ‘culturally’ relevant in Dublin and Belfast. Aware only of the corporate facade of such schemes in Ireland, the EV+A 98 20 Scottish Arts Council—blatantly evading its own responsibility in deci- sion making and monitoring—asks in its visionary ‘Scottish Arts in the Orla Ryan 21st Century’ document: “Does the subsidy system diminish entrepreneurial spirit of artists and arts organisations? Are there ways of supporting the Arts in which this could be Volcano! 22 avoided or which entrepreneurial spirit could be stimulated?” September 26th to October 3rd 1998, South London Who wrote this—Baroness Thatcher?* Is their vision of the future that art becomes an adjunct to a corporate logo. Will this even maintain Stefan Szczelkun their own position? Can we show entrepreneurial spirit in questioning their methods or are we all to be herded into the ghetto which will be Photographs from an undeclared war 24 constructed for us? Baader-Meinhof: Pictures on the run 67-77 by Astrid Proll *No, Ruth Wishart. Terry Delaney Variant volume 2 Number 7, Spring 1999. ISSN 0954-8815 Ripples in the vacuum: 28 Variant is a magazine of cross-currents in culture: critical thinking, Experimental electronic music and audio arts at ISEA 98, 2—7 September, imaginative ideas, independent media and artistic interventions. Variant is a Society based organisation and functions with the venues in Liverpool and Manchester assistance of subscriptions and advertising. We welcome contributions in the form of news, reviews, articles, Alice Angus interviews, polemical pieces and artists’ pages. Guidelines for writers are available on request. Opinions expressed in Variant are those of the writers and not Alternative, Mainstream, 30 necessarily those of the editors or Variant. All material is copyright Mainstream Alternatives (unless stated otherwise) the authors or Variant. The viability of the artist-led initiative Editorial & Advertising Address 1a Shamrock Street, Glasgow G4 9JZ Round Table Discussion Editors: William Clark & Leigh French Advertising & Distribution: Paula Larkin Design: Kevin Hobbs “I was a ball of nerves and sleepless 34 Editorial Assistant: Ian Brotherhood Cover: St. Theresa by Sarah Felton paranoia...” t/f +44 (0)141 333 9522 Willaim Clark email [email protected] Variant acknowledges SAC support towards the payment of contributors to the magazine. New Labour, the media 37 Printers: Scottish County Press and the British secret state Subscriptions Individuals can receive a three issue (one year) subscription to Robin Ramsay Variant for: UK £5.00, EC £7.00, Elsewhere £10.00 Institutions: UK & EC £10.00, Elsewhere £15.00 variant • volume 2 number 7 • Spring 1999 • page 3 Ian Brotherhood Tales of The Great Unwashed —We’re all to be on the telly, says Joe. green silk and the writing’s with one of those silver people. I know this isn’t your regular hostelry, but I get behind the bar and dump my bags at the foot pens. It actually says ‘kissmyjarlers’ on it, but the we’ve made sure that these men are, to use one of of the stairs. We’ve been on the go twenty-four hours writing’s so squiggly no-one can tell. Seventy notes your inimitable phrases, ambassadors for the what with the flights being rearranged at the Turkey for that too. Then on with old faithful, the tweed suit dispossessed. Natural, natural, natural. end of things. I’m that way I know I won’t sleep, and I got in Slater’s back in seventy-two. Cost a packet I catch Joe Doghead’s eye, which is like a trapped I want to catch up with the news anyroad. When we back then but worth every bob. I even get a bit of shark’s. Mantovani removes his bunnet, and I watch were away I only called back the once and Diane pomade in the old crowning glory, and that’s the first Joe staring at the shiny beige wig, which is almost the assured me all was well and not to call again. time for years, but it kills the white and lets me get it same shape as the cap, but smaller, and from the way —So what’s this then? combed back a bit, so no harm. Got to look the part if the fringe has been cut it seems a fair bet that —It’s a programme about the writers and them, there’s cameras and that. Mantovani has been trimming it to compensate for and the telly’s coming to see this fella doing his the shrinkage of his ageing skull. He licks his tiny research and that’s when he’s mixing with the likes of Going down the stairs, fierce blue light is streaming forefinger and smooths down his eyebrows, which are us. And it’s drinks on the house. through the gaps about the closed door leading into like strips of rusty brillo pad. He stares at me again, I look hard into the bilious bag-bound eyes of Joe the bar, and when I open it it’s like I’ve walked right and the voice is quieter. Doghead and wonder what strange new fever of mind into Close Encounters and I screw my eyes shut and —Half heavy and a glass of low-flyer with water makes him think he will ever get another drink on have to grope for the gantry. The silhouette of Joe squire, he says. me after his behaviour at the New Year. Doghead slowly assumes features as my eyes adjust. This I understand, so I set about the Grouse and Within the minute I’ve Diane in the office, and The whole bar is swarming with folk, wires Diane gets the beer. The mirrors behind the gantry instead of giving her the doll I bought her, it’s a everywhere, and great big black boxes stacked here look smeared and dusty in the light, and the reflection dressing-down she’s getting. and there. I recognise no more than a dozen folk, all of activity in the area behind the spotlit Mantovani is —I don’t care if it’s the telly. What’s this about free regulars, and even they look strange in the glare from shadowed and warped. drinks? the big lamps stood all over, and curtains of dust —Tape running! shouts someone. —Technically free as far as the customers are hanging about making the place look a lot dirtier than I turn with the whisky, set it on the bar, then slide concerned, but all covered if you submit an it really is. the water jug across. Mantovani’s little hand holds a accountant’s statement for the best Wednesday you’ve — You must be Mr Doodlehoo, says this fellow crisp fifty note, and the hologram shines like a wee had in the past year and there’s twenty-per-cent on who’s appeared beside Joe.