Elen Riot,
Assistant Professor in Strategy
Strategy & Marketing Department
ESC Rennes
2, rue Robert d’Arbrissel
35 000 Rennes
0661327800
Women’s Small worlds.
Dealing with Art and Technology in the Creative Industries
Introduction
In this paper, we focus on the case of women dealing with arts and information and communication technologies (ICT). We suggest that the bipartition of art worlds introduced by Becker (1982) might not correspond to the different carrer paths experienced in the «small world» we observed, described and interpreted (Geertz, 1973; 2000). To demonstrate this, we focus on the fine-grained description of real and virtual relationships throughout women’s carreer paths. Their ups and downs are not merely explainable by technological obsolescence (Barley & Kunda, 2004) or personal talent, resources and choices. It mainly depends on their ability to built real and virtual organisational environments in the long run as a shelter against time and external pressures as well as cyclical disruptions such as trends and bubbles. In that regard, their strategy and their resources in the ICT balance of power differs from that of men, who are more numerous and more influential in the mainstream system of creation and production.
Using a three year long fieldwork in Le Cube, a French digital art centre based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, the so-called «French Silicon Valley», we use autoethnography to describe the specific type of interactions and relationships built by women within this unique environment mingling economic, social and cultural projects. Autoethnography is used by us to situate (Geertz, 1973) the standpoint (Hekman, 1997) and the location (Hartsock, 1998) of a woman scholar looking at other women dealing with thechnology mingled with other cultural issues as described by Haraway (1991; 1997).
This specific situtation of ours no doubt influences the testimonies of some fourty women from different social and cultural origins (Kaplan, 1992) working within the small world of «le Cube». They narrate their experience as women professionals (artists, managers, administrators, webdesigners, hackers). We centre our analysis on their descriptions of their relationships and the specific role of new technologies and their evolution (Turkle, 2004). These women describe their alliances, rivalries and conflicts and their mixes of various tools such as dancing, painting, sculpting, designing, programming. They allude to the alternance between physical meetings and virtual exchanges as a trick to organize and test some projects. They also mention the importance of manipulating objects (Turkle, 2008) as well as cooking, eating and drinking together to build a community and find a balance between personal and professional life in the long run. However, this specific type of bonding reveals a marginal and fragile position of women in the turbulent environment of ICT as opposed to the ideals of authors such as Florida (2002) and Rifkin (2000) who suggest that the birth of the «creative class» builds (at least in priviledged eras) a good balance between social, cultural and economic issues. Following Hesmondhalgh (2007), we argue that the tensionts between these different value spheres explains the ambivalence of discourses and the importance of long-term relationships beyond opportunistic stands and alliances.
I. What has been said so far about Women in Creative Industries?
Creative industries and the créative class have been very much in the public eye because they represent attractive areas of growth and a concentration of interesting jobs. As pointed out by Lasch (1998), they are also very compétitive and some of the compétition is based on illusions of talent and splendor.
Women artists and workers in the créative industries and creativity can be assimilated to the dilemma of art worlds(Becker, 1982; 1988) as well as the situation of creativity in firms (Amabile, 1998): some players are more important than others. One way to evaluate if women are treated equally would be to see what is the proportion of female artists and female «adjuvants» (the people who are considered necessary in the art worlds although they only have subalterns tasks, as compared to artists). Another way to evaluate the importance of women in the créative industries would be to look at the R&D of firms or their proportion in the so-called «créative jobs». Amabile (1998, 1993, 1983) describes creativity from the firm’s point of view. All firms are keen on innovation because they constantly need to rejuvenate their offer. Creativity is perceived as the initial phase of the discovery/invention of new products. Therefore, the audience is assimilated to «buyers» whereas the «sellers» are the figure of the inventors. Although the collective nature of création is taken into considération, inventors and sponsors remain the dominant players. In this logic, we may observe that managers would tend to promote men whether they have a technical of arty profile (Höpfl, 2008). This is also what we observed in the créative art centre we looked at for four years (annex 1 and annex 2). Most artists were men. Most R&D people (Barley & Kunda, 2003) in ICT are men because of the technical aspects. However, this bipartition can always be challenged, just as the définition of the créative class and the créative industries can be challenged.
ii. The creative class and its cricism
Florida (2002) defines the créative class as the poeple who deal with créative industries (Caves, 2000) but he considers that these people earn a High income and benefit from all kind of «access» (Rifkin, 2000), being in the best networks (Castells, 1999). Another look at this point of view, from a cultural studies point of view (Esmondalgh, 2008) shows that many of these people have had ups and downs, and some of them may not have a stable job, a stable source of income, and be in the public eye for long. Who shoudl therefore be included in the «so-called dominant class»? As we have just seen with Becker (1982) and Amabile (1998), the inclusion/exclusion line is not so clear and the nature of creativity should probably be broadened . In other words, as Winnicott point out in Playing Reality (1975), creativity should be seen «in a broader sensé, not shut in the limits of success or failure, but rather as colouring and shaping a whole attitude towards the external reality» (Winnicott, 1975: 127). In that regard, it seems difficult to reduce créativity in terms of number of high positions, prestige, patterns and revenues (Lash, 1998). It is, more or less, a rather larger activity. This fits with our définition of the interaction between men and women, where we consider that the «arrangements» are often much more complex than the opposition between a (male) majority and a (female) minority.
iii. What point of view should be adopted because of the lack of real existence of the créative classand the complex boundaries of créative industries?
We adopt an interactive approach on the rôle of women (Goffman, 2002/1977) where we focus on «sexes arrangements» to define the women who are successful and the ones who seem to be struggling in a world that we picture as predominantly masculine. Therefore, our analysis attempts to explain why this domination exists, how it is manifested and how it can be changed by some women and their various stratégies. One of the stratégies we find especially interesting consists in doing something women are very good at: creating small worlds where people feel free to indulge and invest in collective creativity with social inventions (Riot, 2009).
II. Research Methodology
Our study is based on a four year long ethnographic fieldwork in a créative art centre specialized in ICT near Paris and in the network of structures also in Paris and around which were related to its activity. We had focused on the reality and fake features of this new area «créative industries». Here, we focus on the rôle of women, something we had not had specifically in mind when we described and interpreted our fieldwork. Both archives and interviews and the autoethnographic side of things related to the diary(Geertz, 1993) led us to look at the specific case of women.
It seems paradoxical to isolate women in the créative industries with a critical look on their situation when they seem to be more successful than ever. This claim can also be assimilated to feminist ideas which may bias facts to défend a specific vision, as Haraway pointed out (Haraway, 2008). Because of thèse difficulties, it is especially important to show actual practices in the créative class to make this approach acceptable for a scientific audience.
One cannot deny that some women artists are being paid attention whereas it has not always been the case in the past. A récent show in Beaubourg, Elles@ centrepompidou, has pointed out the activity and creativity of women plasticians and artists along the XXth and XXIst century. In the catalogue, the organisers of this show (2009) comment on the paradoxical nature of an art which attempts to be both a criticism of masculine domination and an affirmation of feminity and the gift of women for the art. Louise Bourgeois and Sophie Calle are the most famous of this cohort in France.
These artists, when interviewed about their work, can express a personnal vision and they do not seem to be trapped in the dominant patterns once described by Goffman (1977) as «gender arrangements». Their success is, more or less, comparable to men’s success.
However, thèse examples can also be seen as exceptions. We adopt a fine grained approach (Becker, 1988; Geertz, 1973, 1993) to thèse situations which may explain why Becker’s analysis in in his book, Worlds of Art (1982) hold true or not:
-in Le Cube, men open all the doors on women’s activities, they are the official presenters and their work is much more mediatized than that of women
-in projects, women artists seldom take the lead, and when they do, they are assumed to be bossy and they encounter problems to work again with the same structure
-women often end up doing the logistics and menial, fastidious tasks (meeting organization, preparing rooms, getting the food and drinks) and it is difficult for them to stop doing it when it is been so for some time although women are often «given their chance» initially because they do this kind of things
III. Description of specific situations
We describe different profiles of women in the diversified field we have been looking at for four years. Although it is different and specific (Geertz, 1973, 1993), we believe these cases can be instructive for a more général view on women in the créative industries and, more generally, women at work when creativity is an important part of the interactions. We should say more about creativity at work so the tasks described later in the paper make more sensé compared to more traditional activities. Creativity means a High degree of uncertainty and risk averse behaviours are often prohibited or at least, create challenges for the défensive people. We look at the conséquences of these features for managers and médiators, then for artists, finally for would-be artists.
- Mediation and organisation tasks
In cultural industries , it is not unfrequent to meet women who are at the head of structires or in charge of médiation or coordination activities. Many of them take charge, as Becker (1982) well noted, some tasks which can be called «support» as opposed to the tasks acknowledged as «artistic». Whereas more men are «on stage», it appears that more women are behind the stage and in the audience.
We observed a network of cultural centres based on the evangelization of ICT via art and culture all around France. Among these 60 structures, one notes that the most important ones where headed by men with women as their direct help. The less important structures were less présent in the media and more focused on socio-cultural activities and they were more frequently led by women. In most cases, women were especially involved in «group creativity» and collégial activities whereas men would be in charge of the PR and cultural aspects.
In the few structure we analyzed in depth, women were satisfied with the médiation tasks although some of them were frustrated by a lack of recognition or the compétition introduced by male colleagues. Most of them were quite confident that the structure needed their participation, since most of the solutions had been worked out by them. They were especially good at developing original activities of their own with a mix of populations such as old, physically and mentally challenged people and children. It is difficult to know if this choice can be explained because it is in line with the traditional rôle of women or because they have a knack at using ICT Tools and créativity to include all kind of people whereas men would tend to concentrate on «peer spirit» and compétition among specialists.
Most of the women we met do not seem to experience frustration when they are led to take charge of the most down to earth aspects of créative activities such as organizing évents, providing food and drink, looking after guests and the public, making sure the place is pleasant. Some of them even say that is makes it easier to negociate with artists and «great figures» to be outside the ‘happy few circle’. «One artist kept complaining about the way we treated his work in a show and he seemed to be expecting a lot of apologies. I never apologized and I did not ask my team to please him because I did not know he was a star. Since I was not impressed I was fait to my team and to other artists who were greateful to me for it. Had I been impressed, I would have probably compromised the event in the long run. I try to play the dumb one and N. (the président) knows all the artists, socializes with them and apologizes officially for all the things we have not been able to do for them.». Other women, who are more on the artistic side of things, admit they use seduction and male contacts to promote their careers and their projects. However, it has an impact on the way they see themselves: «I never know why people help me, is it because they think I am good at my job or because they like me as a person. It is a personal issue but also a professional problem. Some men will probably argue, if they are angry once, that they helped me because I was a charming woman (but not wit) or because they were friends with my husband.» If being in a couple (a fréquent thing in these priviledged circles) is a great help for women, it also turns out to be a weakness when it is felt that they owe their position and success to their spouse. The question is also raised the other way round too, though.
Some women, who are on the artistic side of things, emphasize their «Lady Gaga» différence; they put on a show. They overemphasize their différence, the problem being that others perceive them as well as distinctively different.
In the past of many associations, some women founders, who have been participants, no specialized, were hurt when they no longer found their place in a professionnalized organization. They wondered why, after giving a lot of time and energy, they could no longer find their place and a job where they would be remunerated (places are dire in créative industries). The ansxwer comes with professionalization: just as some men have found themselves left aside because their technological abilities were no longer good enough, in the same way, men and women alike have had to professionalize and specialize. Women have often chosen the social side of things, dealing with people and mediating, whereas men have often taken charge of more technical tasks. If this equality is part of the strength of créative industries, however, the problem of a predominantly male top management cannot be denied, it seems no less obvious in créative industries, among people who are able to argue for and against the choice of such and such manager and its conséquences. This gender difference seems to show that, despite éducation and the ability to use all means of expression, people in créative industries obey a balance of power common to most organizations.
- Artists
Women artists are numerous and many of them are happy with their situation However, we shall try to look at the case of a sample of 9 women artists and then the général databasis on artists of a digiral art centre.
CAB – USA has created a network of professionals and non professionals, she has always been an artist but she used more and more ICT and créâtes social situations. She admits her problem is to get things done and finish hèr projects, she says she finds supports in firms and institutions in the long run, and that these sponsors tend to be gregarious. She works with women and is often sponsored by men from other backgrounds.
Korean woman, she benefits from her foreign origin because she is a rate présence on the stage, she mixed influences in her photography and opens doors thanks to her couple with a fellow artist. Their collaboration is key but she often feels it is more easy for him to be in the public eye although there are periods where what he does dominâtes and inversedly.
ASLM –France has adopted a very feminist approach, she is provocative and remembers times when, as a professor, she was one of the only woman programmer, she attempts to distrupt codes but feels a minority. She is angry because what she does and what she says is not easily heard.
OK – Russia & France as a sociological artist is very ironical on everything, especially the idea of globalization and cultural différences, what she does may be influenced by the fact that women are used to doing domestic tasks and dealing with very «down to earth» material that appeal to all. She has used myths such as Cinderella in her work, but she feels she can use what she is in her work; a diaspora, displaced woman who, initially, made tapestry and painting and now makes installations with complex electronic programs.