Comments on: Sydney v. Melbourne v. Brisbane v. Adelaide

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:50:52 +0000

I grew up in Adelaide and live in Melbourne. Your reflections on those cities ring true. Melbourne is a little too caught up in self-celebration; no hunger or struggle, as you point out. And in between Adelaide’s (largely excellent) major events, it’s really missing the texture and colour that comes from emerging artists, architects, designers. Those who stay around are happy with the comfortable status quo; the rest leave.

By: Michael Gratton (mjog) 's status on Sunday, 13-Sep-09 11:09:57 UTC - Identi.ca

Michael Gratton (mjog) 's status on Sunday, 13-Sep-09 11:09:57 UTC - Identi.ca — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:10:23 +0000

[...] http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2009/08/17/sydney-v-melbourne-v-brisbane-v-adelaide/ <– sydney vs. melbourne vs. brisbane vs. adelaide [...]

By: kate

kate — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:15:37 +0000

I haven’t travelled much in the last few years so I can’t speak about the other cities, but I know Melbourne. I think the big challenge (and potentially opportunity) for Melbourne artists, especially as they get to their mid-twenties or thirties, is the cost of rent. As people get to an age where they have partners and children they find they can’t afford to stay in the city where the existing action is and do the work they want to do. So they either commit to being artists and move out, to the outer west and north, and to rural areas, or they stay in the city and give up on being artists. Every second person I meet in my small town and the surrounding towns seems to have moved so they could work fewer hours for money and spend more time and energy on their creative or socially activist work (if they’re not artists they’re campaigning for new public facilities). The cost of living has a huge impact on people’s capacity to be socially and creatively engaged.

By: Tamagin Blake-Smith

Tamagin Blake-Smith — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:34:32 +0000

You frame an very interesting point of view!

I am from new zealand, studied design at uni in melbourne and now live in brisbane, 12 years in total now – at various stages.

I always felt that (in the 90’s at high school) brisbane was heavily influenced by american culture (especially in the fashion’s around at that time), mixed in with a strong football (rugby league) culture and had a rather ’small town’ feel to it, which had both its good and bad points and still does.

I moved back here in 2005 aware of the boom that was coming in the built environment (and to be nearer to family)!

Reflecting on your article it confirms my thoughts that brisbane is developing culturally because the built environment is now offering more opportunities for things to happen ie Goma bringing the Asia Pacific Triennial amongst other things.

I’d like to put it out there that it is up to the next generation to understand and retain the significant values and ideas of our history here and keep pushing for things that create a positive and challenging dynamic so that brisbane as a place grows in a sustainable way!

Look forward to hearing your views about perth and Tasmania. Highly recommend seeing the Perth Gaol!

By: TimT

TimT — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:15:06 +0000

The artistic brain drain from other states to Melbourne is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just a thing thing.

This phenomena happens in cities all around the world. Sydney has the cliche of being the ‘gay capital’ of Australia. San Francisco holds that mantle in the US, I believe. Melbourne is the best place for poetry; it also has a huge Greek population, apparently one of the largest in the world.

People go to be where their friends and fellow professionals are: people with the same interests tend to gather together. It’s one of the things that gives cities a particular character.

By: TimT

TimT — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:10:49 +0000

Slightly edited version of me facebook comment.

Yeah, good piece…

You could be right about Melbourne culture, though in some ways I’m cynical about the wealth of ‘official’ culture at Melbourne as well as self-appointed ‘underground’ arts scenes such as in Sydney.

I must admit if I saw an underground artist doing poetry or theatre or whatever on the streets of Melbourne I’d duck my head down and walk right past thinking, ’sheesh! what a wanker!’ …

Complacency is one possible reaction to the arts scene in Melbourne, though in the end I think it all depends on the energy and creativity and will of us folks living here: what happens in the next few decades depends on us, not any simplified ‘cyclical’ view of history.

One thing about Melbourne culture that I don’t think you mentioned: the tendency for people to gather in small groups and cliques.

Frustration with these cliques and their self-exclusionary methods can often be quite creatively stimulating: people either try to make groups of their own, or to break into other cliques, or just to make fun of the whole ‘clique’ scene.

Though in other cases the function of a clique may be simply exclusionary.

Thankfully I think Melbourne’s cultural scene is big enough and broad enough to encompass many different people, and if the culture in one particular scene isn’t doing so well, more likely than not, the culture in another area will be flourishing.

By: ms violet

ms violet — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:38:02 +0000

comfort leads to complacency and laziness … adversity fuels invention, creativity, resilience … both states (comfort and adversity) are actually required for growth … it is a cyclic process

By: Patrick Pittman

Patrick Pittman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:20:28 +0000

You didn’t include my town in the punchout, but you know I’m still going to bite. Perth is an interesting liminal sort of space post-Boom. While everything Carley says in the first part of her comment about the Melbourne Catch 22 is true, and something I’ve been ranting about for a long time, it’s not the whole story. Over the last few years, on the blank canvas of the dead zones of this place, there’s been a quietly strong independent arts scene springing up in bars, galleries and hovels outside the mainstream. Lots more DIY projects ACTUALLY working. Some of them actually genuinely impressive (and just as many embarrassingly bad, but that’s the point in this phase). It’s not really true that most events are linked into massive arts fests, though PIAF has been a largely uninspiring lumbering beast for the last few years (outside of its excellent contemporary music programme). ARTRAGE, on its day, is still providing a space for quality work. Though its days are rare. Anyway, we had lots of money flowing down to us from the drunk miners and enthusiastic investors. Some of it was used well. We don’t have any great signature events, but we’re maybe where some of the east coast cities were a decade ago, doing a few smaller things really well, kids in the 20-26 age burning with enough fire to make magic happen before they almost inevitably leave. We’ve got new things to play with now like small bar licenses, but we’ve also got a new government who don’t seem to get this side of the arts nearly as well. How that then translates to the next rung up the ladder, to what happens after the formative and the underground, that I don’t know. The art that I talk about isn’t part of the fabric of the city, like it is in Melbourne or Brisbane to a lesser extent — it’s something that keeps the kids of the inner city stimulated and a little bit full of hope, and it’s kept me here long enough, but 5 minutes on the train and you’ll realise that this town is about other things entirely. The beach, mostly. We have a hell of a beach.

I’ve been trying to formulate something slightly more logical than this comment after being in far too many cities on far too many continents in the last year, and wrestling with the different ideas they all seem to have of what makes a creative city. You may just have provoked me into actually writing it.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:10:53 +0000

I’d like to check out Adelaide and Newcastle in the near future!
Brisbane, not sure about the comment regarding Asian connections – it’s not the first thing that comes to my mind regarding that. Rather, the first thing to come to mind when I think of Brisbane (btw, I’ve lived here since 07 after living in Toowoomba) is the e word (Emerging). There doesn’t seem to be a ‘barrier’ in terms of experience or specialisation. I think it’s because Brisbane is emerging in the scene so in a sense, everyone here is in the same boat and moving forwards to define the city. I guess another word that I’d like to point out is collaborative (size of the city + social networks = have something to do with it?). I am currently starting a couple of projects and some people’s responses to those projects aren’t surprising to me due to the collaborative nature aka “Wow, that’s a very Brissie response! ”

By: Adeline Teoh

Adeline Teoh — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:08:28 +0000

I’ll declare that I’m a Sydneysider straight up, but will note I’ve spent a significant amount of time in Brisbane, Melbourne and yes! Newcastle over the past few years.

In my friend Lee Tran Lam’s zine on Sydney she writes that she convinced a friend to stay in Sydney through guilt: “But if everyone moves to New York or London, how is anything cool ever meant to occur in Sydney?”

I think this happens intercity as well, without people realising that they are the culturemakers; if they’re not changing the cultural landscape, then that’s why the landscape isn’t being changed.

I also like your point about complacency because I do think that complacency is the antithesis to innovation.

I also see it’s true that Sydney has started to wake up to the fact that it can do more for the arts, and creativity in general, through non-big-ticket events and general supportiveness. I refer to community-based art galleries, FBi Radio, authors’ library visits… Let’s hope it lasts.