Yo Punk
Posted in Individualism, Museum Expansionism, Politics, Presentism on 29. Sep, 2009
I’ve been involved in discussions about what punk is before and they’ve never ended nicely. You’ll always get arguments about authenticity, terms like “true punk” or “real punk” get thrown about and soon afterwards someone makes the statement that everyone else is wrong.
I will hammer anyone who tries to push this discussion into those terms. Go take it to some record shop or music forum. I realise the term is weird and wide-reaching, but I refuse to get bogged down in semantics.
To avoid this happening, I threw the question out on Twitter and Facebook. What I’m more interested in is “punk” as a suffix. Cyberpunk, Steampunk, that kind of thing. I wanted to make sure I was going to speak about something that there was a general consensus on. Thanks to everyone who responded. The same kind of words were appearing, if not slightly different takes on them. Things like “Rebellion” or “Alternative” came up, but a general sense of an underground or fringe/”not mainstream” approach. Sarah Anton (Phillyspice on twitter) said that “It could be a desire to explore the new, desire to push boundaries just to do it, etc.”
I dunno about any solid definition, but this will do as a basis for what I’m talking about. There’s a reason people write books about this sort of thing. There’s also a reason why people hate the use of “punk” as a suffix as it is, that every use bleeds anyway any real meaning.
What a time to then introduce the concept of Edupunk.
I also plan to annoy these people even further by stealing including what Dan Cull called PrezPunk (I suggested AcetonePunk).
In the true spirit of using a punk-suffix that has no link to the original meaning except an overused statement of rebellion and promotion of the alternative, I offer Museopunk.
What does that mean? This is the exciting part: I’m not sure yet. I’m not going to put forward anything like a manifesto. Lord knows we have enough of those flying around and they barely make any difference. We live in a time that’s beyond manifestos. I guess this is why I like the -punk suffix. It’s not laying down the rules in stone.
I’ll tell you something, I think we’re creating a generation of Museopunks. There’s too much talk of museums and money. Endless securing of funding and applying for grants. Corporate sponsorship or government criteria. And when it all goes wrong and money is diverted away or philanthropy ain’t what it used to be, don’t you wonder when museum’s lost their soul? Dan Cull said (on Facebook) that “punk” is about the community over profit margins. Well, for a non-profit sector, we sure are concomitant to profit-making world.
I imagine the satirical situation, where a museum staff spend all their time applying for funding so they can get paid to apply for more funding.
I don’t want to get to that.
Yet, it seems to me that some of the most interesting people I have spoken to because of Newcurator are freelancers, graduands/post-grads, those barely starting out or clinging onto the bottom rung. This is where the Museopunks are. They have some of the best ideas and the most energy yet they aren’t very high in the hierarchy.
Notice how I don’t say, “they don’t make much money”? We do it for love, not the money. As Paul Orselli points out, the upper echelons are all about fundraising anyway.
Something I’m not going to go into (because it needs more research/questions) is the innovative uses of technology and a strong belief in keeping things Free. This, as you can imagine, is almost another article, especially with the Tories in the UK making noises about how they plan to stuff culture but also the soon-to-be-widely-available museum APIs. This makes me instantly think about John Robb’s Standing Order 11: Co-opt, don’t own, basic service, which at the time I couldn’t make much sense of in the museum world. This requires further thinking.
Edupunk is about the anti-commercialisation and DIY attitude for teaching and learning. Dan Cull’s Prezpunk focused on conservation, citing many community projects, which I liked the idea of deinstitutionalised . I’d say Museopunk overlaps Edupunk a bit and encapsulates Prezpunk, so there’s a lot more -Punk to fill, and I’ll admit that Nina Simon probably has a few things covered.
But when you think about all the functions of a museum or a curator, nobody in those two Wordles said anything about making money.
Hi Pete,
Great post, ‘punk as guns’ as the saying goes, I totally love the idea of Museopunk. [I think I forgot to say on my blog that one of the reasons I chose a 4 letter word was so that the letters would fit neatly on the knuckles of your right hand... and punk on the left... in a blatant copy of Jim Groom's image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edupunk.jpg.
Also... I lol'd at the word 'stealing' crossed out. Too funny. Let's call it remixing, for that is what it is, and in many ways I think remixing is an essential part of the online version of punk.
I really liked Sarah Anton's idea that “It could be a desire to explore the new, desire to push boundaries just to do it, etc.” and in this way I think we can especially see the approach many of us are taking towards these "Web 2.0" technologies and to creating networks of museum workers online, in a variety of different forms and projects.... to just try, see what happens, to see what works and what doesn't, to openly experiment.
I thought your satirical world of working to get funding to work to get funding... to ad infinitum, may not always be that far from reality. It really does beg the bigger question: Why do we do what we do? and, Why do we do it how we do?
What I like about the -punk idea (whether its my Prez or your Museo or the Edupunk that we are both remixing), is that it brings such a question into focus... in my view we do it because we (as punks) have an interest in telling stories that may not have been heard before, to shake it up, to question the status quo and to ask questions of ourselves. We do it to learn and teach ourselves, and others (our community), about life, the universe, and everything. I think in many ways a museo-punk role would be to think freely, to consider new ideas, and to experiment, these are all things that those of us new-ish to our professions can do.... try out ideas.
A couple of things I found very interesting in the You Tube Edu Punk Battle Royale between Jim Groom and Gardner Campbell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7MxVqe_uRI (part 1 of 5) [which I can't rate highly enough as a discussion worth watching] was the discussion as to whether Punk as a term was off putting to the message, a discussion you basically raise in your opening section… I think I liked the idea that it “hits a nerve”…. whether people are for, or, against a term (movement, meme, ideology). It got people talking. I also really liked Jim Groom’s idea that “I don’t think it needs to be defined, I don’t even think it needs to be”… in his assessment that, just as you state, it doesn’t need a manifesto. I’ve always thought of -Punk as a ethos, a DiY spirit and ethic, and in this respect its never needed a manifesto… it just exists in many different ways and in many different places, and I think all either of us are doing is pointing to the fact that it already exists in museums everywhere, we’re just saying “look”.
Also… the Tories, bless ‘em, one day they’ll all head to Brighton and take a walk along the wrong pier.
Oi Oi,
Dan.
If I can toot our own horn for a moment, the Magnes is turning into a whole houseful of museopunks, from the top on down. In the past couple of years, we’ve been hell-bent on questioning established models, trying out new tools like they were piercings, and generally turning things on their heads – all while remaining good little law-abiding museum citizens and able to get along with all the other kids on the playground (ok, so maybe we’re baby punks). But in the museum field, we’re definitely leaning toward being radicals.
Seems to me that a few larger institutions do have some support at the top, if not actual museopunks. Powerhouse and Brooklyn come immediately to mind. Maybe some sort of museopunk manifesto is in order?
@Dan
Eight-letter-knuckle-punk, I believe, is called “hardcore”.
You know, I did write a paragraph that I deleted (it got rambling) about how I believe the museum-twitter community is about 3,000 accounts, based upon all the people who list “museum(s)” in their bio. I would say that, minus those using it as a press-release mechanism and dead accounts, there was 1000 people who make up a real “core” group. Some of the most interesting people in this group are freelancers and grads/post-grads.
This *network* pretty much created itself.
What I like about -punk, and I plan to talk about this more, is the freedom it creates and the autonomy to make decisions. It’s what I call “individualism” on this blog. It means being creative and never accepting a “no”. It means doing what you want and defining your own measurement of success (maybe even using *shock horror* NON-EMPIRICAL MEANS)
@Perian
If you want to throw out some examples, I really want to hear them. Especially if there’s anything about funding or keeping individual autonomy that you have. Wher and how are you being radical. Email me if you like pete(at)newcurator.com
Still don’t like manifestos. Everyone makes manifestos and they always suck. I never want to believe that an idea can be summerised into glossary definitions or bullet points. It always feels like “Sign up to my ideals!” rather than a mutanting and developing idea. It kinda feels that it’s dead before its started.
I think I can safely say, though, that Museopunk is about people (individuals) rather than institutions. Powerhouse, Brooklyn or the IMA may do wonderfully innovative stuff with the intarwubs and make it CC licensed, but it that really museopunk, not just good museum policy?
I’ll put it this way: if the people doing this (Shelley, Seb, Dan and their entire team) they all lost their jobs, would these museums be museopunk?
Pete,
I’d prefer to think of it as Nerd-Core: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerdcore_hip_hop
Hardcore was all a bit too straight edge for my liking! lol.
Also… I totally agree with your conception of museo-punk being about the people, as I said before I think this is just a word that says “look” this network of people working outside of their respective institutions (or lacking institutions) exist, and this is kind of the ethos by which we operate.
Also… as much as I like reading manifesto’s (and I do.. I love the surrealists) I think their time is past, they have become little more that marketing gimmicks, look at the altermodern idea… I can’t see that really having a longevity inline with its pomposity. To illustrate my point I like this little skit from Kevin Smith’s film “Dogma”: (he refers to G-d)
Rufus: He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name – wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the factioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.
Bethany: Having beliefs isn’t good?
Rufus: I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant.
I think that’s relevant not only to religions but all other aspects of life too… see movies DO teach you things! lol. (Also I am so using that in my blog post on Prez-Punk Ethics).
Cheers,
Dan