Perspective(s)

Introduction

Within the fixed parameters that constitute ‘fact’ and tangible ‘evidence,’ authentic human experiences can be reduced and flattened into numbers, erasing the nuanced realities we experience everyday. These reductive processes via multiple choice surveys, box-ticking and short-sighted diversity initiatives constitute single-axis strategies to ‘tackle’ and ‘erase’ significant disparities in the creative sector -- and beyond. Due to strategies determined from a white neoliberal position, institutions fall extremely short in addressing structural issues to effectively serve BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Colour) creatives.

Since 2014, and to greater exclaim during the 2020 iteration of the Black Lives Matter movement, Scotland’s creative institutions have been attempting to investigate their role regarding systemic racism and the internal structures entrenching inequality. We’ve witnessed the emergence of ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’(E.D.I) initiatives and the ’10 Year Plan Unlocking Potential Embracing Ambition’ in 2014. In 2016 Creative Scotland distributed a survey for ‘Understanding Diversity In The Arts’ seeking to assess the dominant barriers that continue to impact specific communities in the creative sector.

From this particular survey, the primary conclusions drawn were that ‘economic limitations’ and ‘a lack of connections’ were the most commonly cited issues flagged as social barriers. There were over 1500 respondents to this survey and 5% of all respondents confirmed they were from “a minority ethnic or mixed group.1” Half of the respondents within this group stated ‘ethnicity’ to be a “significant — or very significant — barrier.” Prevalent conflations of race and ethnicity aside, it is necessary to note that despite the fact that half of a group's respondents stated ethnicity to be a “significant” barrier to their work; the overall conclusion drawn from this report asserts that this is not the most pertinent barrier impacting the creative industry in Scotland. It is important to note that 22%, out of a 30% respondent group, stated their disability or long term health condition to be a barrier, and 3%, out of a 15% respondent group, stated their identity as it relates to LGBTQI+ as a notable barrier.

The conclusions drawn from this report further affirm the absence of an intersectional approach in grasping the causes behind social barriers, and that numerical analytics tend to erase more than they affirm. The survey fails to examine how economics, networking and many other factors affect BIPOC working in Scotland’s creative sector, despite Creative Scotland’s assertion that “Data is essential in establishing where the inequalities lie.2” The acute reality is that being a ‘minority’ in quantitative methods of analytics often result in further marginalisation in the strategies aiming to achieve the opposite.

The epigraph by Toni Morrison offers scope in re/thinking how we collectively re/consider the means that constitute facts, and when seeking to uncover what is — in fact — true, we must utilise other strategies. It also reminds us not to derive our sense of understanding purely from ‘facts’ alone. It is necessary to remember that the numerical record of Black existence also rests in the wake of colonial legacy. Numerical explanations of Black being and existence have historically rendered our experiences to obsolescence and erasure. These forms of numerical analytics situate understandings of human experience into a calculable matrix that can be measured, substituted and reduced. Qualitative framings of lived experiences can offer understandings that are immeasurable and expansive, with infinite depths and potentialities.

The primary objective of Perspective(s) is to create a site of departure from numerical accounts that tenuously evaluate the experiences and embedded social barriers that exist in Scotland's creative sector. From this departure the following will exist in the interior of experience. In the space that runs through truth and fact, stripping the veil that quantitative forms of surveys and analytics inherently obscures. This account seeks to convey that which cannot and ought not to be defined numerically. Moving away from the idea of fixed, final conclusions but disseminating ideas which allow the responses to be tailored to the circumstance.

The intention is not to entirely discredit the means to which we come to understand an experience, but rather to not regard such modes as equating to absolute legitimacy, but instead as a layer. In the same way there is a necessity to apply an intersectional framing to see the nuanced whole, there must be an interdisciplinary if not outer/disciplinary approach to witnessing and supporting the testimonies of experience without significant dilutions.

In 2020, 40 Black creatives in Scotland were invited by Mele Broomes and co-facilitated by Degna Stone to collectively discuss value and navigation as it relates to their creative practices. This document is centred on the experiences of Black creative practitioners living and working in Scotland; reflecting on the ways in which we constitute value and navigate through interactions with white art institutions in Scotland. This document provides an additional layer, as a constellation of assertions, ideas and truths - offering pause and a necessary refusal of the margin.