Artistic Profitability: Making Art More Possible, and Profitable | Fraser MacLean | TEDxAjijic

Key Concepts

• Artistic Potential: Innate curiosity, observation, playfulness, and experimentation in children.
• Education System's Impact: Discouragement of visual thinking and pictorial expression after kindergarten.
• Teamwork in Art: The importance of collaboration among visual artists, designers, and other creative professionals.
• Artist Stereotypes: The harmful mythology of the artist as a solitary, dysfunctional outsider.
• Creative Industries: Recognition of the creative industries as integral to the economy, not separate.
• Training and Collaboration: The need to train artists to work together in teams, similar to sports or theater.
• Contract Law and IP: Understanding contract law and intellectual property creation, control, and exploitation.
• Design Definition: Design as everything that is not an accident.
• Animation Crew: An animation crew as a visual orchestra where individual skills contribute to a collective narrative.
• Roy Disney's Role: Recognition of the importance of non-artistic roles (e.g., managers) in creative success.
• Breaking Down Walls: Eliminating the barriers between creative, technical, financial, and entrepreneurial talent.
• Above the Line vs. Below the Line: Shifting from dispensable service positions to profit-participating essential roles.
• Mutual Respect: The importance of mutual respect between artistic, technical, and economic skill sets.

The Problem: Stifling Artistic Potential

The speaker argues that we are all born with artistic potential, evident in the curiosity and experimental nature of babies. However, the education system often stifles this potential by prioritizing reading, writing, and counting over visual expression. Children are discouraged from drawing and thinking visually, which is detrimental considering the prevalence of visual content in the modern world.

• Example: Teachers telling children to stop drawing and pay attention.
• Statistic: Billions of people interact with animated pictorial content daily.

Idea 1: Encouraging Artistic Pursuits

The first suggestion is to stop discouraging children from pursuing art as a viable career. Instead, we should encourage curiosity, observation, playfulness, and experimentation, regardless of their chosen professional path.

• Analogy: Comparing support for sports and music to the lack of support for visual arts. In sports and music, children receive coaching, join teams, and perform together, while young visual artists are often left to their own devices.

Idea 2: Fostering Teamwork and Collaboration

The second suggestion is to recognize and celebrate the benefits of teamwork in the arts. Artists are happier, more productive, and often live longer when they work together.

• Argument: The speaker argues against the stereotype of the solitary artist and advocates for training artists to collaborate effectively, similar to how teamwork is encouraged in other fields.
• Example: Animation courses often focus solely on creative and technical skills, neglecting the importance of producers, accountants, and contract lawyers.
• Case Study: The speaker mentions bringing practical learning templates to Mexico that put animation students together with experienced professionals.
• Key Areas of Knowledge: Contract law and the creation, control, and exploitation of original intellectual property.

Design and the Animation Industry

The speaker defines design as "everything that is not an accident." In the animation industry, every piece of artwork is created to solve a specific problem, and the goal is to solve problems related to distribution, exhibition, merchandising, and marketing.

• Analogy: An animation crew is compared to a visual orchestra, where individual skills contribute to a collective narrative.
• Example: The speaker contrasts the numerous biographies of Walt Disney with the lack of attention given to his brother Roy, who played a crucial role in the success of Disney's projects.

Idea 3: Breaking Down Walls and Moving Above the Line

The third suggestion is to eliminate the barriers between creative, technical, financial, and entrepreneurial talent. We need to train everyone together under the same roof to prevent the exploitation of creative individuals by those with business savvy.

• Argument: The speaker advocates for moving away from the "below the line" mentality, where certain positions are considered dispensable, and towards an "above the line" approach, where all essential contributors share in the profits.
• Problem: Universities often train large numbers of specialist artists and technicians but neglect to train a comparable number of students in financial, legal, and organizational skills.
• Consequence: Countries like Mexico and Scotland risk remaining dependent on low-cost, short-term service work if they don't move above the line.

Conclusion: The Art of Possibility

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of mutual respect between artistic, technical, and economic skill sets. Art, design, and communication skills should be recognized as valuable components of the economy, not dismissed as decorative appendages. This is the "art of possibility" that the speaker hopes to spread.