Research and Competitors

24/02/2023
"Critical voice is the enemy of the creative." (Sawyer,2017,p. 52)

No idea is a bad idea, there are only developed and undeveloped ones.

Project Overview

After meeting with my group for the first time, I volunteered to do some research into our potential competitors.

Sawyer talks about two different group goals in his book 'Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration'. The first is a problem-solving group that gets together with a problem in mind and their whole purpose is to work out how to eliminate this set problem. The second he names 'Problem finding creativity.' This kind of group finds the problem as they solve it, almost working out what the problem is as they create a solution. I felt like our group conforms more to the latter. We came up with a project we would like to do, a task so to speak, and as we went on to develop this idea, we addressed the problems that our project would solve, addressing the gaps in the market.


"…many of the most radical innovations occur when the question or goal isn't known in advanced." (Sawyer, 2017, p. 45)

 Sawyer says this about the second method to group goals and while we weren't actively following this process along, I do believe that we managed to create something uniquely innovative that would garner a real audience.

For our project, we are making essentially an App for creatives, so they can find materials and exhibition spaces by reusing existing buildings in the community that need a little love and attention, such as abandoned shop fronts, think of it as Tinder but for exhibitions. We felt there was a gap in the market for this as most galleries and exhibitions aren't all that accessible to the general public or to creatives themselves, coming across often as elitist and closed off. Did you know it is easier for women to be in an exhibition as a subject rather than the artist? This is due to art practises being predominantly male-led, even in the 21st century. The Tate's Website states "According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 51 per cent of visual artists today are women. But when it comes to exhibitions and gallery representation, the numbers tell a less optimistic story. In London, for example, 78 per cent of the galleries represent more men than women, while only 5 per cent represent an equal number of male and female artists."

But even amongst the men, there seems to be this distinction between what people view as art and what is viewed almost as a hobby. To be exhibited you need to be well-known. I suppose this does make sense otherwise how would galleries know about you? But more than that, our capitalist society only values art when it's profitable. So, the big names in art are often the ones who make the most money off their practice, and their most successful work (by monetary value) is what gets exhibited, rather than the ones who pour their heart and soul into work simply because of their passion.

This is what makes what we are designing all that more special and personal, we are trying to give a space to creatives, give them a voice that wouldn't otherwise be heard. We are rehabilitating abandoned spaces and bringing the community together through art.

Furthermore, even if these politics were altered, there's still the matter of funding, we have a huge lack of funding for the arts. Our App will aim to keep exhibition space and equipment as cheap as possible for the creatives so they can still create the exhibition they want on a tight budget and spread the cost amongst them.

The Exhibitions will also have space for workshops. This is a fantastic way to encourage the locals to roll up their sleeves and get involved in their community, to give them a chance to learn and create something that can be enjoyed by everyone. It gives them the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on their community, but one that has a more positive message.

Thomas Wolfe said, "Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs." Art informs culture, challenges perspectives, highlights societal downfalls and instils values. Art helps us form a sense of self, in relation to the world around us, with positive influences on society. So why shouldn't be more accessible to the public? Welcome to Unboxt. Create, collaborate, and participate.

Research and Competitors

Doughnut Economics

The Doughnut economic book by Kate Raworth helped us address certain issues within our society that we could tackle through our project, problems that are current and relevant rather than outdated. Raworth talks in the book about how current teachings on economics are not keeping up with our always changing society.

fig.1
fig.1

This doughnut is a compass that can guide humanity. It "points towards a future that can provide for every person's needs while safeguarding the living world in which we depend" (Raworth,2017, p.23)

Looking at this compass and thinking about our project, I can see that our project addresses a few of the issues that need tackling. Here are the ways that our project fits with this diagram.

1. Health. Access to art has been proven to improve mental health. Our workshop with Mitali specifically targets mindfulness within art. This kind of art outreach increases moods and gives people a healthy way to deal with emotions.

2. Political voice. We are actively advocating for art to be more accessible to both artists and the community. Whether that's getting people into art spaces, or their work exhibited. On top of that, we are using abandoned high street spaces, giving purpose to something that otherwise may be neglected.

3. Gender equality. This is a slightly smaller one but as I stated earlier, it's a lot harder for women in art to get their work in galleries. Our exhibitions allow people to group themselves. There's no process where we sit and decide who is good enough to get their work published, or well-known enough etc. The idea is that everyone can exhibit work no matter their skill set, so long as they form their team. This also helps minority groups that may receive prejudice elsewhere in the industry.

East Street Arts

When it came to looking at competitors I'll admit, I struggled a little. I had to get more creative because no one seems to be doing what we were doing in the way we are doing it.

One of the first companies I looked at was the charity east street arts following a case study lecture with Janine Sykes. She told us about her project home which is an ESA residency and is still ongoing after its birth back in March of 2021. The project 'Home' places citizen occupation at its heart, focusing on participatory performance, live, process-based, and new media art. The work with artists, organisations, and the public to create work has a positive impact on the community. This also provides inspiration for our project as we really want to focus on blending art with the community, making it accessible to everyone.

East street arts was founded in 1993 by two creative practitioners who struggled to find the support they needed from their community to develop their art practice. It didn't actually become a charity until 5 years later. "We have worked to secure better livelihoods for artists and our neighbours and address issues of economic and commercial decline in towns and cities." (East Street Arts, 2023) Essentially, they focus on ways they can help other artists secure more viable livelihoods while addressing the way art seems to be declining within communities all over the UK. They have since become an international charity, helping artists establish themselves all over the globe and are governed by a board of volunteer trustees. "Every year, we hire a range of freelance contractors (artists and project support workers), and host placements and apprentices and four collaborative PhD's." (East Street Arts, 2023) This team helps artists exhibit their work which is why I chose to look at some of their work. They're one of our closest competitors, doing something similar to what we want to achieve.

The main differences compared to ours would be that my creative can access the app, the creatives would pay for their products, and everything would be easy to assemble- almost like Ikea furniture, cutting out the need for contractors etc. Theoretically, this would be minimal in cost cutting out any need for external funding, which can be difficult to get.

East Street Arts is fantastic for creatives trying to make a name for themselves, just like ours plans to be. However, ours would maybe be more accessible to creative depending on your perspective. On one hand, we would take the cost for the supplies from the creatives but rather than the financial burden being solely on one artist it would be split across a team, whereas ESA is a charity. But on the other hand, from looking at the ESA website, specifically the guild section where they place their artist callouts, they aren't accessible to everyone. Their last call out 'drawing in time' is specific to the medium of drawing/ painting, more traditional art forms, which excludes entire groups of other creatives. Also, this callout ran from November to December, meaning it's been a few months since they last decided on a project. Furthermore, the creatives are given a subject to approach, rather than being able to approach ESA with their work for an exhibition space. So, in that sense, our website becomes a place where creatives can really explore their own passions and put on something great that they can care about.

MACAO

MACAO is an organisation I learned about last semester through the module research methods and project proposal. Unfortunately, when it came to doing my own research, I didn't find anything- at least from a source I trust. There is barely anything online and what is, appears to be from unreliable sources and so I decided instead I would trust the lecture notes, those feeling a more reliable source to me than other people's blog posts and less than subpar research websites.

In the lecture we learned about MACAO in relation to environing techniques and technologies. Environing technologies are a technology that provides tools – such as writing and shaping- that we as humans use to shape the environment we live in. (Bailey,2023)

The main technique used by MACAO is shaping, they take vacant spaces, refurbish them, and make them liveable again, as well as use them for discourse around art and culture. One of their protests in Milan, saw them reappropriate unusual and forgotten spaces specifically for artistic purposes. This is the main reason for looking into them as a competitor and inspiration as our project is focused on refurbishing old buildings and shop fronts to create exhibition spaces for creatives, very much like their protests.(Bailey, 2023)

Since I couldn't find any trustworthy sources surrounding this organisation, I could delve any further into their aims, reasonings or funding and so the research, unfortunately, ended here.

Women In Art Organisation

Another organisation I looked into is Women in Art. As I mentioned previously, it's a lot harder for women as artists to be celebrated for their talents. This gives up some sort of focus when approaching our project as we are trying to give a voice to creatives, even if it's not just women. This specific organisation is also doing things our start-up wants to do. Women in Art is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Their mission is to help female artists develop skills by hosting exhibitions, retreats, and workshops. Now this organisation would only be real competition if Unboxt when international-which would hopefully be the goal. Women in Art operates in Trinidad and Tobago, but they do have a few affiliations globally.

The organisation was founded in 1996 and started out with just 20 members. It has now grown to over 120 members including art teachers, professionals, amateurs, and aspiring artists. I found this interesting as we will be hosting workshops within our exhibition spaces and by getting art teachers on board, you could host some incredible workshops that provide a space for artistic experimentation and growth for not just the other creatives, but for the public as well. The organisation's vision is "Working towards the advancement of female artists, to promote, celebrate and inspire art and culture regionally and internationally." Their values include being charitable... Aspiring towards excellence in their artistic expression... Demonstrating respect."

I'm not entirely sure how that funding works but it appears as if they have memberships, each cost is annual, the cheapest being free and the highest being $750. I would assume the membership costs cover at least a fraction of the costs for the organisation.

Conclusion

I shared my findings with the group through the Miro board, so that we could work together to innovate ways to stand out from these competitors. Bringing art to the community as well as supporting other artists are two of our core values. We feel very passionate about these and whatever Unboxt becomes throughout this project, these core values will be at its centre. I firmly believe there will always be a gap in the market for any project that celebrates artists.

References

Illustrations

  • Fig. 1 Raworth, K. (2017). The Doughnut: a twenty-first-century compass. [diagram]. In Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist (p.23-24). Cornerstone Digital. https://r2.vlereader.com/EpubReader?ean=1781473517813#
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