Recovery via Belvoir, the ACO & At The Movies

I think I'm slowly starting to improve in spirit and mind after the unexpected death of my brother Murray in early May. For a while it was all surreal, unsettling and confusing. I could not really concentrate on much at all. I could not read or even watch movies. One night I left a live concert at the Enmore Theatre (see image left) in a complete state of confused anxiety.

The support from my friends and family has been amazing and really helpful in aiding my own recovery. I'm now beginning to see some things more clearly again, but I find my emotions are still in over-drive.

So, I think I'll try and post something each day on this blog as part of my recovery and in line with the #blogeverydayofjune hashtag on Twitter. Maybe someone will notice whether the posts become more or less coherent over the month. This first post is probably going to be a bit of a mess but I did warn you that my emotions are still in over-drive. Mind the step . . .

I saw The Power of Yes by Company B at Belvoir St Theatre on Friday night and really enjoyed it. I tweeted after it that it was "Brilliant, funny, but sadly all too true" and I stand by that comment. Maybe it is the lapsed economist in me? I also saw the ACO's Romantic Symphony concert that mixed music by Schubert, Brahms and Johnny Greenwood (the lead guitarist from Radiohead) on Saturday night. There was a lot of energy apparent on both stages. What both Company B and the ACO do is really challenging because they must keep their products or output fresh and entertaining and up to the demands of very critical audiences with high expectations of satisfaction. Maybe they are measured by paying bums on seats, but I think the performers also know themselves when they are doing self-satisfying and fulfilling work.

I don't think the kind of management theory that emanates from Harvard Business School that, along with a culture of sheer greed, gambling and competition, has almost destroyed the finance industry can be applied neatly to rescue or to keep afloat libraries and other cultural institutions. This is especially the case given the kind of second rate management "experts" (who didn't make it to the finance industry) who tend to regard it so highly in such institutions. We don't simply have clients and stakeholders and we don't need to worry about bottom lines and shareholder returns in exactly the the same way as a merchant bank does. Our outputs are different and we should be able to focus on more specific qualitative indicators that are much harder to measure.

Obviously, just focusing on ticks in corporate governance boxes (designed by finance managers) does not work either. We are services providers, but not in the same way as a retail store or a call centre. What we do is less tangible, but not less important. I think we have more to learn from successful artists and maybe from the Artistic Directors and General Managers of successful arts organisations like the ACO than we do from sundry second rate management consultants, accountants or auditors. That lot should not be steering our course.

On a happier note, On Sunday afternoon I caught up with At The Movies on ABC TV. I've been a fan for years, even though I don't always agree with David's or Margaret's ratings. David was reporting from the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and I really liked what the actor Melanie Thierry had to say about her Director Bertrand Tavernier (not to the bishop!) in the film The Princess of Montpensier. I think it is what we have been trying to do at UTS and what distinguishes us from many other workplaces. (Maybe I'm just a bit silly about this kind of thing in my present state, but it is how I like to work when I'm happier.)

Bertrand's directing consists mostly in the confidence and freedom he gave us. He never imposes anything. He hates marks on the ground. He just can't stand them. He's so cheerful when he's shooting, so happy. His obsession is that energy flows, that every moment, every second is fresh. He communicates so well. He is so positive, so cheerful. He jumps around all day long, getting excited about every scene, rubbing his hands and muttering, "This is fantastic! I love my actors! I'm crazy about them." And just that gives you so much confidence that you'll do anything. And that's an important aspect of directing.

What a fantastic way to direct.

Delighting or going beyond the ordinary: the ACO, Cedric Price, and SXSW

Anyone guessed what this is about yet? I often get a head full of new and somewhat confused ideas at ACO concerts and Saturday night at the Angel Place Recital Hall in Sydney was no exception. Well, actually it was in a way because I enjoyed the whole program and we were given two amazing encores. It was also the third in a series of experiences that I'd had in one week in which the underlying theme was delighting an audience.
Maybe I should start again at the beginning. That was going to a public lecture one evening this week by Tom Baker (who has never been a Dr Who to my knowledge) who is now Professor of Innovation, Design and Architecture in the Faculty of Design Architecture and Building at UTS. There, in a fast-paced review of digital urbanism (the melding of the physical and virtual [cyber] worlds), he spoke quite a bit about the role architecture and design has today in providing extraordinary experiences for people in our cities by designing buildings, urban environments and dwellings that while being functional and efficient (from a use and energy consumption perspective) also delight us. It seems that one of his inspirations in this field was Cedric Price. Tom introduced us to even more exciting ideas that we might be able to use on and within our new library building such as energy saving initiatives, creation of a community space, using large digital media screens on the outside of the building, etc. Maybe we should ask him to talk to us specifically about what might be feasible for our new library?
Next came reading a blog post by Jeremy Keith (the web developer and microformats advocate from the UK) about his recent attendance at the recent SXSW Interactive. His most recent post is a great review of what he saw and heard at SXSW for those of us who could not attend. What caught my eye was his reference to a talk by a colleague of his (Paul Annett: Clearleft's visual designer) about putting "the delighters" back into web design. What a fantastic concept! So I went over to Paul's blog hoping to find out more and he described his talk as being about "putting delightful and entertaining niceties into the websites you design". The talk was titled something like "Oooh, that's clever! (unnatural experiments in web design)". He continues:
Find inspiration for innovation. See technological quirks as opportunities. Try something previously unheard of with your site design. Laugh in the face of convention. Use and abuse CSS in ways never before imagined. Get away with it. And if it doesn't work, try something else instead.
I think that is brilliant, and not just for website design. So when I read that, having heard about him only a couple of days ago, I was immediately reminded of Cedric Price. But wait, there's more, my journey continues . . .
For some years (nearly 10?) I've subscribed to the ACO series of concerts in my former home town of Canberra. But late last year I was really lucky to be offered a new job at UTS in Sydney. For those who don't understand "lucky": no more war; no more Canberra. I'd had enough of both. There are small patches of delight in Canberra, but there are not enough (for me anyway), I'd seen them all and they don't change or grow much. I'll miss some people, but that is about it. So what was I to do with my 2009 subscription? I'm not sure yet, but as my music friends are away in South America, I managed to swap my ticket to go to the brilliant Inner Voices concert given by the ACO under guest conductor and Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto at Angel Place. The members of the orchestra play so well under Pekka that I believe he is probably penciled in as the next artistic director should Richard Tognetti, who this year celebrates 20 years as the ACO's artistic director, ever move on. The music of Sibelius, Bach, Andrew Ford and Timo Alkotila wasn't at all ordinary and the whole performance was a real delight. Pekka began the night with a warm and humorous welcome for one of the composers, Andrew Ford, who was in the audience. (Bach and Sibelius were not there: I checked.)
Under Richard Tognetti the ACO plays with an infectious enthusiasm, especially for new chamber music and with guest performers. They do the same under Pekka. And I've seen it before when he was out here last time. Pekka plays glorious music and he isn't afraid to flaunt his obvious love of Finnish folk music and a long Finnish fiddling tradition. That alone probably horrifies some of his chamber music audiences, but it delights me. Like a skilled ballet dancer, he makes his playing look both graceful and easy.
So what does all this mean for me? Well, I've moved out of the museum and the strictly-cultural sector into a university library and I'm not yet completely sure, but would it be a bad thing if we all tried to delight our users occasionally? (Maybe we already do and I've witnessed some people doing just that on the client service desks in the Blake and Kuringai libraries.) Soon we are to build a library of the future on Broadway and maybe that new building will do it. Perhaps, as the university's cultural hub, it could have one of those really cool small performance spaces that well known artists ask us to perform in? Maybe it will also be a bit of a showpiece for digital urbanism, alerting and showcasing what goes on inside the building on some of its external surfaces? Nevertheless, as we begin planning for it this year, I think that aiming to delight our clients, to laugh in the face of convention and to provide an extraordinary service in that library are decent and worthwhile objectives.
That's all!