https://freeland.land/2018/07/06/headnotes-of-cultural-policy-up-for-discussion/Headnotes of cultural policy up for discussionIt’s all more or less clear but we need to explain what “cultural policy” actually means in a virtual and free-wheeling game. Of course, it is a misprint: should have been “state”, not “game”, but let’s leave it as it is. If the idea of a state comes out of the idea of a game, that would be great, otherwise it can be a laugh-in. It is also important to outline that we are talking about political agenda, not about culture administration, order placement, allotment of government grants. It is about consideration for all participants of the cultural process in Freeland.
First of all, in terms of Freeland, FREEDOM is not just a promise, but reality and area of practice. We know how to respect the rights of all the citizens without limiting the freedom of an artist. It is plain and simple. We advocate for tolerance and loyalty. We have secular, imaginative, and sacred space, like in a game. Constraint system which exists nowadays in the form of legislative bans comes more from incompetence than from heresy.
Art is being created by individuals, not institutions or, far less, states.
Cultural policy of Freeland is aimed at giving a chance to implement their own “cultural policy” for as many individuals as possible. Ideas, concepts, creative strategies and manifestos can be produced by artists or theatres, writers or galleries, by not by the state.
Therefore, in Freeland we divide all the activities into the following types:
Individuals – act
Institutions – create
State – provides facilities
Authority structures – stimulate and inspire
If we take a look at the state of affairs in the modern Russian cultural policy, we can realize that its major flaw is lack of access for an individual.
Extra-territorial nature of Freeland allows us to declare the major principle of the modern culture: TIME IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PLACE. All cultural political systems of other jurisdictions put emphasis on the territory. French culture, Russian culture, Montenegrin culture. There are certain differences, of course, but there are more differences between me and my grandfather than between me and my contemporary from Portugal, where I have never been, by the way. Contemporary culture means staying current, not standing on a certain ground.
FREEDOM in terms of a virtual state also means freedom from cultural fetishism when it is not the image that matters, but his carrier. As a result, past is being valued much higher than present. Other countries burdened by cultural inheritance do not have alternative options; as for us, we declare actualness and publicity (replicability) as a natural quality of culture. Past is part of Freeland culture as much as present and appears to be a cultural landscape and background for creativity of an artist.
Modern business is a huge economy sector. Rapidly-growing business of spare time utilization mostly relates to the cultural sector (by the way, games are one of the most powerful rivals here). However, cultural economy, post-industrial development (vs. industrial) is not generated as a total of corporations and a system of contractual relationships in between them and between them and the society.
Modern cultural economy still has to be built from scratch by accentuating a situation, not a corporation. And here we shall act simultaneously with the most advanced cities of the real world.
Cultural policy of a virtual state should be realistic. At the same time, one should control the correlation of the efforts with the scale of the problem. I suggest the following criteria to evaluate the success rate of the cultural policy:
Expansion in the number of creators and artistic endeavors executed in Freeland;
Proportional increase of the share of cultural projects among all Freeland projects;
Presence of Freeland on the cultural map of the world as one of its territorial entities.