At some point long past the limits of a normal attention span, when the speaker took a deep breath and announced solemnly: "And then we see that we are pure love", I whispered (not very discreetly) to the photographer next to me, "Do you think she will stop now?" The photographer shook her head and whispered (equally indiscreetly), "No, she hasn't quoted The Little Prince yet. I'm sure she won't relent until she mentions that line about only seeing clearly with the heart." The photographer was both right and wrong. The speaker was nowhere near finished yet, but that quote from The Little Prince was one of the very few things she actually did leave out. Welcome to the "Creative Community Linz".

There are certain buzzwords that invariably trigger negative reactions on my part. These include, for example, "Linz09", "creativity", "professional", "social (+ almost anything)". Recognizing my own prejudices, I honestly try very hard to make a special point of attempting to keep an open mind any time I hear any of these kinds of words. What I listened to last Tuesday, however, was worse than anything my own prejudices could have invented.

When I received the invitation from the Chamber of Commerce (of which I am automatically a member, because I have a business license) to a presentation and discussion of "Creative Community Linz" followed by a "creative buffet" and "networking", everything about it seemed to be sending me alarm signals, so it was a real challenge not to reach a negative judgment too quickly. Concerned about what kinds of plans might be underway, which could conceivably have a longer-term impact on the field I work in, I sent an RSVP via email (since there was no card in the invitation) that I would be coming. I never received confirmation, but at least my name was on the list when I got to the Ars Electronica Center last Tuesday afternoon.

The new lecture hall at the Ars Electronica Center (which looks and feels exactly the same as the old one, as far as I remember) was filled with people who appeared to be about 2/3 from business, 1/3 from art. It seems that the "dressed for success" uniform for "professional" women now includes not only the obligatory, smart, knee-length skirt and coordinated jacket, but also lipstick and two-inch heels. It was reassuring to find a number of friends there as little dressed for success as myself. The moderator for the afternoon, a younger woman apparently from a local "easy-listening" commercial radio station, oozed enthusiasm. The woman who gave the welcoming address was positively burbling with excitement about the possibilities of combining "creativity" and "business". She regretted that Linz has been somewhat remiss in this area, but hoped that we would soon be able to "open up" more like the US and the UK.

Aside: I have often said that one of the good things about living in the province is that we can sometimes save ourselves the trouble of trying to jump onto a moving train, if we can already see that where the train is headed is not where we want to go. If it obvious that this particular train has become derailed in the US and the UK and is about to crash and burn, then why is a responsible decision-maker in Linz encouraging us to jump onto it?

Second aside: Panels of speakers are so often criticized everywhere for including so few women; why was it absolutely not reassuring or in any way uplifting that most of the speakers on Tuesday were women?

Two main speakers were announced in the invitation, and I was looking forward to the second, but unfortunately he was ill and had to cancel. The first speaker seemed happy to take more than both her allotted speaking time and his, leaving the listeners ample opportunity to go from puzzlement to skepticism to disgust to a borderline catatonic state. At least that was my reaction, and most of the people I talked to felt about the same. At first I thought it was just the voice, this sugar-coated authoritarianism of a primary school teacher, and then along with that the cliched comments about people being too busy to appreciate beauty. Her remarks about artists being special people with a driving need to be creative seemed to conjure up 19th century notions of the (typically male) genius-artist, but of course that is not unusual in this kind of context. I was previously under the impression, however, that the kind of esoteric solipsism propagated by the speaker as "inspiring creativity" had gone out of fashion by the end of the eighties.

The mental image that really made me shudder, though, was her euphoric description of how "creative people" could be food, nourishment ("Lebensmittel") for business, the economy ("die Wirtschaft"). I felt haunted by this image of "creative people" being bitten off, chewed up, digested and finally excreted by this insatiable beast so reverently referred to as "the economy". Her suggestions of what business could do for artists then just conjured up associations of livestock being fattened for the slaughter. The visions of "artists" leading "projects" for employees reminded me most of the kind of "creative projects" that are primarily designed to keep people (especially children, elderly people or others considered somehow problematic to society) busy "exploring their inner creativity" so that they become self-absorbed and are thus less likely to "cause trouble". And all of this together should evolve into "culture", which allegedly defines people as they identify with it. And what happens to those who do not identify with this "culture"? Are they just condemned to be kept "creatively" busy forever until they do?

I am not an artist, I have neither talents nor ambitions in that direction, and the work I do is reproductive, not "creative" (although that word has become so nebulous that I'm not even sure what it means now), so it may well be the case that I am missing some crucial point. If so, I would be very grateful if someone could explain it to me. On the whole, I felt entirely uncertain about where I might be supposed to fit in on Tuesday. I was invited from the "business side", but I work on "the art side". I don't see myself as a "businesswoman" (I certainly don't dress for the part), although the responsibilities and demands involved in running a small business are part of the irritations of my everyday working life. I had some experience last year of employing other people for a very large project, the complex situation of being simultaneously dependent on and responsible for what other people do, which at least convinced me that I am not interested in expanding my business. I did learn a few things, however, about what is important in working together with other people, but I didn't hear any of those things mentioned in this appalling lecture. I am clearly not destined to be "professional" and "successful", despite the fact that I have been able to earn a living with what I do for well over ten years now.

All my worst prejudices have been thoroughly reinforced. The next time I hear "creative community", I will run away and hide. And I hope that all the people I respect and admire for their work as artists will do the same. I think they are too important to be bitten off, chewed up, digested and excreted, and I don't care how hungry the beast is.