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Andrew Wasley meets the new
creatives: young 'flexecutives' hoping to carve out fortunes
at Brighton's new-media cutting edge
They arrive late, clutching
laptops and mobiles, dressed in an eclectic mix of designer
trainers and label sportswear, hard-wearing fleeces and combat
trousers. The talk is of media, playstations and hip-hop,
bottled beer, curry and clubbing. The half dozen
twentysomethings gathered in the lounge smoke, swear, drink
coffee and take little notice of an observing journalist. An
air of youthful, cultural arrogance purveys the ensuing
meeting, an event the untrained eye would mistake as a social
get-together, not the weekly 'project review' of some of
Brighton's brightest sparks working on the cutting edge of the
new Internet technologies.
Without order or visible
agenda, the conversation ebbs and flows between issues and
language that may as well be from another planet; 'software
application protocol' or 'broadband technology implementation'
and the more teenage interrogation about who's recovering the
most from last night's drinking session. The sticky buns get
passed around, along with a dubious 'herbal' cigarette, before
business is resumed with an outline of what needs to happen
the following week. Deadlines, even in the apparently chaotic
world of new media, have to be met.
Bright, young and gifted -
hangovers aside - the assembled group represents Brighton's
contribution to the country's growing new media generation,
the cultural phenomenon described by one magazine editor as
the 'flexible executive class', or 'flexecutives'. The haute
couture of modern British youth, they live and breathe new
media, working in the creative industries as multiskilled web
designers, PR consultants, advertising copy writers, marketing
or brand managers. They live and socialise in Britain's most
fashionable and prosperous areas - London's Notting Hill,
Hoxton or Islington, Brighton, Bristol, Leeds and Reading -
talk up and dress down, consume popular culture avidly and mix
and match ideas and perspectives to suit the mood, or the
opinion of dinner companions, of the day.
In comparison with the Yuppie
scene of the late Eighties, Britain's new media generation
both inspires and craves everything that is 'hipness';
espousing the latest fashions, support for liberal ideals and
the desire to achieve 'comfortable' economic status. The
Yuppies had Armani suits, Porsches, 'deals', a business degree
and apartments in Docklands. The country's latest social
grouping have designer trainers, the Internet, 'projects', a
media studies degree and a shared flat in an arty,
up-and-coming suburb. The live fast, get-rich- quick
philosophy of Thatcher's day has been replaced by a yearning
to be noticed, to be doing something creatively fulfilling and
- if possible in the unstable marketplace of 'New Britain' -
financially lucrative.
These flexecutives are in part
products of recent trends in youth culture, widespread
disillusionment with politics and government and of the new
economy with the emphasis on wired-up, technology-driven
commercial ventures and are often praised for their innovation
and creativity. They're hailed as the new 'e-entrepreneurs'
for the new millennium but criticised for their political
apathy, for choosing to lead a lifestyle which is often out of
touch with the real world and has more to do with the virtual
community than with the physical.
"I'd dispute that I'm out
of touch," says Chris Merell, a 25-year-old web designer
and computer programmer. "It's more that there's only so
much you can effectively take in when you're setting up on a
low budget." Merell recently arrived in Brighton after
stints working in Wolverhampton, Newcastle and London as a
freelance and is hoping to create the region's latest
multimedia company, offering everything from web design to
media consultancy. "It's the same whatever sort of
business you're starting up; there's very little time for
anything else," he says.
Educated at a 'typical
comprehensive' in Cheshire prior to studying art at college,
Merell admits that his transition from student to new media 'flexecutive'
has been fairly standard. He had difficulty getting work in
the traditional arts before realising that computers offered
an ideal platform to combine such interests with 'something
more contemporary.' He says he jumped at the chance to learn
about multimedia and the Net, 'messing around with friends'
web sites' before gradually hiring out his skills to
professional companies looking to develop their on-line
presence.
He's casual but smart, dressed
in Carharrt and Prada, a must for anyone working in new media,
according to Arena magazine, drinks in the popular bars by the
seafront and frequents 'all of the clubs' fairly regularly. He
admits to never voting and not being interested in politics:
'New Labour feels better than the Conservatives though,' is
single - 'keeping the options open,' and currently living in a
shared house in Kemptown. His income is not as much as he'd
like but the potential is there. Much of his wealth is tied up
in computer hardware or ploughed into the business start-up
fund. He says that the intellectual excitement of working in
new media is tremendous, the daily challenge of having to
develop ideas without the more formal structures for example
having a boss far outweighing the initially low income
bracket. "Sometimes it can be frustrating when you see
other people working in more traditional nine-to-five jobs.
They have the stability, work less but I think I'd be
bored."
In common with the other
estimated thousand people working in the town's new media
industry, Merell says he's convinced that location plays an
important part in the whole new media process:
"Brighton's clearly a good place to be working and
playing, especially as the environment is so supportive and
geared towards micro business start ups, everyone is willing
to offer advice and there's not the level of rivalry like say
in Newcastle or London." His colleague, Antony Healey, a
designer who's lived and worked in Sussex for ten years,
agrees that Brighton provides an ideal setting for new,
creative ventures, but is cautious: "Brighton has not yet
proved itself as sustainable in business terms."
He says that as with
fashionable areas of London, commercial property prices in
Brighton have soared as the new media people move in -
ironically becoming so expensive that the very companies
responsible for the region's regeneration are then forced out.
"I think it's nice to be in a location that's
fashionable, laid back, and an hour away from London, but this
could be easily sacrificed - I'd take a business anywhere
there is more scope for making money, that's ultimately what
business is about."
Problems aside, the town's
creative new media industry has continued to flourish. Recent
figures have suggested that locally based hi-tech industries
account for a greater share of the region's economic growth
than ever before, with traditional 'media terminals' such as
the recently relaunched Brighton Media Centre continuing to
provide an ideal breeding ground for innovative creativity.
"I think Brighton still
offers one of the best packages for young media people with
good ideas," says Caraline Brown, founder and managing
director of Midnight Communications, a leading new media PR
company. "We as a company have always had a policy of
taking on and training up young people from the local region -
many of them now at the forefront of the industry."
The Brighton new media
experience mirrors the wider national trend, which has
witnessed an unprecedented explosion in the number of young
people, or 'flexecutives', identifying the importance of
ideas, especially those with a financial objective attached.
Several recent studies have found that the country's youth is
increasingly motivated by wealth but is prepared to adopt
fresh strategies to obtain it. The Industrial Society's '2020
vision' programme, which examined the views of 10,000 young
people, concluded that young Britons idolise material
well-being but acknowledged that they are prepared to work
hard in an untraditional manner and surroundings to achieve
the desired economic status: Forget the images of the Swampy
'eco-warrior' generation, young people are more politically
detached and money-motivated than ever before.
Such claims were last year
backed up by the think-tank Demos, which after a research
programme focussing on the activities of the 'flexecutives' or
'Independents' as the study's authors put it, asserted:
"Across the country there are twenty- and
thirtysomethings working in bedrooms and garages on micro,
highly creative projects hoping to come up with the next
Wallace and Gromit, Notting Hill or Lastminute.com." More
worryingly, the study, which was based on interviews with
dozens of young creative entrepreneurs, found that there was a
communication problem between policy makers, government and
the 'flexecutives' - none sure how to successfully capitalise
on the fact that independent creative professionals now
account for an estimated 6 per cent of the country's
employment.
Could it be then that Britain's
new media generation has found itself plugging the gap caused
by thetraditional polarisation in youth trends? Have the 'flexecutives'
taken the middle ground between the beer-soaked days of the
Oasis-listening, FHM-reading working-class 'lad' of the
mid-90s and the politically aware 'eco activists' of earlier
years? They've taken on board the New Labour call for 'hi-tech
creative enterprise' in the new knowledge economy, but does
their activity amount to a significant cultural or lifestyle
trend?
"I think more and more
young people are realising the importance of the new digital
technologies for making money," says Chris Merell.
"They've seen that making a potentially lucrative living
can now be both fun and creative, and less based around the
traditional concept of 'going to work.' There's also the
feeling that lifestyles in general should be about more than
simply working, eating and sleeping with other experiences
squeezed in between - most of the people I know and work with
like to disappear at least once a year for about a month to
somewhere exotic and off the beaten track."
Merell himself spent three
months last year in Nepal, for 'spiritual reasons', implying a
sense that there is something missing with the fast-paced
nature of modern lifestyles. Richard Benson, editor of the
Arena group magazines, and one of those to first explore the 'flexecutive'
generation, last year suggested that the new media
entrepreneurs were the result of something of a moral crisis
filtering through British youth. He proposed that through
travel and creative ingenuity, 'flexecutives' were attempting
to find a more meaningful purpose from it all, something
enabling an 'understanding' as opposed to a simple 'factual
existence'.
Merell agrees with such a view,
but denies Benson's assertion that young media entrepreneurs
have developed the means of creating a voice but are lacking
anything new to say: "I think many flexecutives have
plenty to say but because of the nature of the business
there's more money to be made from developing the mouthpiece
than the content."
He's equally critical when
presented with the hard fact that most people in the world
have never picked up the telephone, let alone surfed the Net:
"I realise there's a big divide, but that's no reason for
us to chuck it all in, far from it. It should be taken on
board and treated as a very real challenge."
Andrew Wasley is a journalist
specialising in media and human rights.
copyright New Insight 2000
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