The July Forecast by Robert Alejandro Tinning

BREAKING POINTS

What an overwhelming time to be practicing and living our crafts. An unprecedented arena in which we are being forced to continually adapt to. An arena which will most likely define the first half of this century. How does one make art in this environment? How does one make their voice heard? How can an audience, an art consumer, or a non-consumer, even afford to listen under the growing social and economic burdens of just living? There is much I can say about the social and the cultural. I feel like, as a mixed race artist born overseas and raised in Australia, I have a wealth of anecdotal experiences on this topic. However, I feel like this facet of culture, by its very nature and proximity to art itself, is a conversation that is already at the forefront of dialogue in the arts. As a community it is rare that we speak of the stories of economic tribulations and successes that we experience as art makers and facilitators. Rarer still, that we touch on those same tribulations of our captive and non-captive audiences.

The Covid era has really managed to rip the bandaid off of fundamental and systemic failures in nearly every facet of society. So many antagonistic vectors, which had begun to collide since the “victimless crime” of the 2008 financial crash, have converged into a massive confluence that need major and decisive action to resolve: the Climate Crisis, a once in a century pandemic, multi-year labour protests around the globe (from France to Chile), the further bifurcation and stratification of the economic classes, the joke that is the K-shaped economic recovery, the breaking points of the manufactured ‘Culture Wars’, the saturation of propaganda, failing media enterprises and information empires, the ultra wealthiest of percentiles multiplying their hoarded wealth and flying off into orbit in the new billionaire space race all the while taking bailout money and still firing their employees (a pattern repeated across the globe) in the same breath, and the loss of class solidarity that underpins all of these issues. Allowing these crises to proliferate further and further.

I believe it is imperative to start re-focusing on class consciousness. I feel we rightfully bemoaned the removal of ‘JobKeeper’. However, many of us didn’t get to benefit from the program as sole traders or contract based workers with the almost specifically designed barriers for entry that were placed in front of our industry. We also rightfully bemoaned the reduction of ‘JobSeeker’ back below the poverty line. However I feel, with how media cycles and social media algorithmic manipulation works, we have fallen into manufactured echo chambers. Created by these faceless enterprises to decry those who have also been disenfranchised by the non-existence of safety nets in these times.

Take for example the Anti-lockdown protest on Saturday July 24th. The media cycle launched into full swing getting us to demonise the individuals involved rather than seeing the possibility that the people protesting in the streets might be a by-product of the actual issue. An issue I believe to be caused by serious State and Federal mismanagement in response to this once in a century pandemic. Could we not see the protesting reaction as an inevitable outcome to an economic boot being placed on all of our necks? The Sydney rehabilitation effort practically doesn’t include the majority of those who attended. Their ATO recognised sole trading jobs, casual positions, seasonal work, and contract jobs don't qualify for the obtusely applied safety net just like us. We might be doing the right thing in staying home during these lockdowns but how many more of these situations can we really afford to face with our livelihoods being torn apart while stadiums are continuously being filled to then send us all packing back into isolation exile for another go?

On top of this entire bin fire is the government mandate forcing people to not work (in one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in) with no safety net to catch them and no means to provide for families. All over the internet are comments from families of three, four, five, or more, wondering how they are actually going to get by or people affected by the sharp increase of ‘deaths of despair’ caused by economic anxiety heaped on top of isolation. How can this severe anxiety not be capitalised on by bad faith actors and the politically opportunistic? In Melbourne, members of our arts community have sat through nearly 50+ days of waiting for relief payments to be processed through the mires of bureaucracy. We can only think of those with families to feed, in similar or lower economic situations than ourselves, what that desperation might be doing to them. How easy it might be to ignite that powder keg of emotion. What we might also be missing when we decry those who are increasingly forced into more radical positions (we see radicalization directly correlates with decreased economic agency) is that they are the ones who’s health outcomes, and the treatment they receive from our capitalist influenced healthcare industry, are poor.

Finally, the bungled marketing campaigns, the mixed messaging on which vaccines are safe, the revealed failures with Pfizer by those in highest office, and corporate negligence and malpractice (which even some of our largest arts institutions participated in) leave us with very little trust. Media trust, governmental trust, and trust in corporations are (globally) at all time lows. These institutions are the very institutions that are then asking us to laud them for leading the charge for ratings, profits, and re-election...wait I misspoke….for what should have been a simple vaccination and economic recovery plan. The damage is done here. How do we now empower ourselves, those within reach, and our communities to weather these events as they are due to continue?

I guess I am posing questions that I definitely do not have the answers for. How do we help rectify this to then help ourselves, the arts and the communities we serve? How do we speak to the fears boiling now at the surface of our society? How do we communicate with the broader Australian public with the growing institutionalization and in-speak occurring in the arts? That is proliferating further and further within the grant and funding industrial complex. I think we all recognise that this to be a major issue. In-speak severs dialogue. It runs counter to the essence of art being communication itself. I think we innately understand that how we speak to funding rounds and to our peers is not how the overwhelming majority of Australians communicate or engage in subjects. If we are not communicating to them how are we to break free from our own echo chambers? How are we helping them in a time when people are genuinely worried about putting food on the table? How are we helping ourselves if we are stuck in echo chambers? Again, I don’t have the answers. I can readily admit that I am barely managing to help myself let alone my own family, but I think it is important that we do think about these questions now, as the looming and monumental task of recovery after the Covid era draws ever nearer.

---

MEET THE ARTIST: ROBERT ALEJANDRO TINNING

Robert Alejandro Tinning is an independent artist and choreographer. Understanding that performance art and live art are practices of human connection, Robert’s practice has been in the national and international arenas. He has been engaged nationally for a number of state bodies and independent creatives such as; the Stephanie Lake Company; Tasdance (Gabrielle Nankivell, Jukstapoz, Liesel Zink, etc); STRUT Dance (re-stagings of Batsheva Dance Company’s ‘Decadance’, and both Hofesh Shecter’s ‘Uprising’ & ‘tHE bAD’, etc); Shaun Parker & Co (King). He has been nominated for the Best Dancer (Male) in the 2021 Performing Arts WA Awards for Hofesh in the Yard. Robert has toured internationally as a freelance artist, and performed overseas within his own independent ventures.

A recipient of the Ausdance NSW 2020 Innovating Dance Practice Grant, Robert’s creative endeavours have also been supported by Tasdance and WA’s the Department of Local Government Sport & Cultural Industries. His projects have been performed in both Australia and the USA, and his collaborations with actor/director Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) have had over 2 million views across social media platforms.

Robert’s own professional developmentally-driven pursuits have mobilised him to travel extensively, participate in international exchanges, meet and be mentored by many artists of various disciplines around the globe. While touring with Shaun Parker & Company through Australia, the Middle East, and Europe, he had the honour of visiting Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan where he was able to engage with the local people and their arts in the face of the volatility of the region. Robert is also a collaborator with Dream Bigger (Northern Rivers indigenous youth program), and Dance Integrated Australia. He is a facilitator of DIA’s socially engaged and inclusive face-to-face dance classes: MOVE IT for all capabilities, abilities and age groups. They have grown to cover six locations in the Northern Rivers region of NSW over the past 18 months.

Robert holds cultural-futuristic movements as his creative practices' biggest inspirations, especially the Afro-Latino cultural diaspora due to his own heritage. He dreams of his creative practice becoming synonymous with artistic experiences that connect early career artists with established individuals, thus cultivating a collaborative and inclusive intergenerational future for artists and audiences to experience.