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May 8, 2011
It appears that Adelaide is undergoing a renewal in the unpopular culture’ sphere associated with an emergent urbanism.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, words, 2011
This is the space between the high culture – with it’s big venues and ‘quality’ art sponsored by the public purse and the occasional big name corporation or philanthropist, and low or pop culture – the mass media, the mass cultural market and the so called ‘mainstream’. In this sphere ‘culture’ is more of a dialogue than a product or commodity; one organized around user generated content and Web 2.0 .
Marcus Westbury says that unpopular culture is:
a thread that connects the independent or alternative, experimental ends of popular genres with a lineage of artists that have always sought to reflect and respond to the real world. It’s in indie films, alternative music, small press, and DIY comics. It’s there in a lot of independent theatre or new music. It’s an engine of creativity, experimentation and innovation that is constantly creating and recreating itself. It’s abundant, vibrant, enthusiastic and perpetually under-resourced.
We can see this renewal at a number of levels. A new Lord Mayor committed to street art; a more innovative city council; online magazines; artists collectives; zine shops; new galleries (see Facebook).
This kind of renewal has undercut my feeling of being depressed about Adelaide since returning from Tasmania. It also counters the urban strategy of "if you push enough people into the city, then it’ll be ‘vibrant’ and ‘diverse’". Notwithstanding that, as
the Renew Adelaide crowd say:
There is an entrenched attitude within particularly local council that a healthy city is a city with a strongly administered, quiet and polite population. If it’s not administered right, we’ll all be tripping over A frames whilst drunk and trying to sue the Council or beat each other up.
The entertainment in the city is focused around suburbanites coming into the city for heavy, late night drinking with its associated drunken violence; and fails to support small venues to host entertainment, live music, theatre, gallery exhibits.
The state government doesn't see small scale cultural activity as a legitimate cultural and economic activity and doesn’t seem to be interested in or understanding the role of the small to medium and independent arts sector at all.
Australia doesn't design cities very well. They are structured around economic growth not culture even though poorer cities (such as Adelaide) look to cultural renewal for salvation and rejuvenation from economic decline and depression.
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