Thursday, October 18, 2007

What it's really like at the office...

We've recently engaged Amy Pelletier to be our new Communications and Administrative Assistant, Joyce Rosario having left us to become empress of her own office at "Made in BC". During the process of moving on I thought it best to issue a disclosure of sorts to prospective colleagues. I share with all, in the hopes that through honesty, we can make the world better. For me, anyway.

DMc

We would like to interview you for the position of Communications and Production Assistant that you applied for. In the interests of full disclosure, please read the info below. Having done so, you may find that you are no longer interested in applying for this position. If that is the case I thank you for your efforts in applying and wish you luck.

Allright then, I will begin:
The Office is small. Just Su-Feh and I, and you. Su-Feh and I both use a lot of profanity in our daily inter-personal communications. “Fuck” is ubiquitous, and “cunt” is not uncommon. When discussing mid and long term planning, shouting can occur between us. Argumentative and offensive shorthand are sometimes employed to speed resolutions. Although our belief in love and the spiritual wonder of existence is strong, we often find ourselves audibly despising the human sphere and the stupid, stupid people in it. Su-Feh comes from Hokkien pirate whores and fishermen and I from dissolute colonial enforcers and misanthropes who ran out of road. Our World-view is so affected. I often exaggerate.

As a Communications and Production assistant you may have to navigate conflicting agendas. Such as:

I despise the idea of a cultural Olympics. What art associated with Olympics past can you remember? For me only two come to mind. The one where Philippe DecouflĂ© did some cute shit with people in eggs on a ski run, and I was nonplussed as to what Su-Feh actually saw in him – his cute ass I suspect. The other would be the one with Hitler and Leni Refeinstal. So, I conclude that all Olympic connected art events and “show cases” will be ART ABATTOIRS whose only goal is to destroy individuality and discourse to salve the insecurities of the majority of idiots who call this vain little hidy-hole of a city home (Vancouver, I mean). Now couple my beliefs with the fact that the funding we need for our projects has been entangled into the Olympic machine, and that we believe it is our job as artist to initiate coherent dialogue about issues, and you have a complex task at hand. How and where can the dialogue be best initiated, in ways that people will actually engage in it, and how can we secure funding in ways that doesn’t make us hate ourselves?

Lastly,
I am a terrible boss. Therefore I do not want an employee. I want someone who can use the company structure to further their own goals in a way that is also of benefit to the company. We offer a fee for an artist- not a salary for an employee. Part of being an artist is making sure that certain structural tasks are done to maintain the non profit company infrastructure. How you use that structure as an artist is up to you.

At our interview, I will ask you what you want to achieve over the next three years, and how working with battery opera is connected to this.

Thanks,
I look forward to meeting you
David McIntosh

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