The case for a Universal Basic Income: freeing artists from neo-liberalism
The push for a Universal Basic Income is gaining significant traction globally.
In this article, David Pledger argues that, for Australian artists, it requires a leap of imagination, out of the tactics of servitude and survival and into the heart of a strategy that can deliver a vision for all.
David Pledger is an artist, curator, writer and activist whose work has been exhibited and performed in Australia, Asia and Europe. He currently heads up the cross-party portfolio the Federal Ministry for Empathy, a ministerial position he has held since 2016. Other positions include The Unsuccessful Public Candidate for CEO, Australia Council for the Arts. These positions have been created under David Pledger Is Running For Office, a project that inserts the artist actively into public life. Other current projects include Meaninglessness (with Su-san Cohn), a dissection of the asylum-seeker policies of Australia and Denmark and The Things We Did Next (with Alex Kelly), a future-focussed, multi-artform, international project that proposes ways of seeing changes to our climate that counter dystopian default settings. He is also developing climate-focussed art and discursive projects for TarraWarra Museum of Art and University of Melbourne. Practice interests include the neo ...
