WHERE ART NEEDS SCRUM MASTERSHIP

An integrative approach on problem-solving

Have a look at the Youtube film above. An illustrative explanation on the way of working in the format of scrum. What I like about scrum is the horizontal way of leading a process-based trajectory with focus on result. All work is integrated to facilitate the end result, but with the intention to optimize the process along the way.

This way of working doesn't come from art, but there is common ground with artistic practice. Artists from different disciplines work together with communication, marketing and theaters or museums. As a dramaturge in the making of choreographies I oversee the total process by guarding the initial ideas, to not go off track. And to make sure everybody is in the same process, understanding the experiment for creation. An artistic production process is usually planned with a premier as final deadline. The process knows different stadia of creation, from first concept or inspiration until the final performance or show.

In theatre there is also a longing for less hierarchy in the making process and between collaborators, but there is something at stake. Ownership of the choreographer or artist is at stake, where artists earn less money for their (huge) work and sometimes brilliant ideas that will last in history than other vital professions (for example cleaners). The process is very important and more valuable than the outcome, but it doesn't pay back in the neoliberal system of measuring result in terms of cash. Money isn't the priority for artists, but also in terms of copyright and status an artists can't really count on the total process, because they have to defend each decision in order to finance their product.

They also achieved a high professional level of craftsmanship which don't fit the basic conditions of working anymore. And last, everybody wants to be creative in the online domain, but less people want to pay for the live experience by art. Maybe governments can start rethink these issues when they create policies to save, invest and sustain art and the culture field after COVID-19.