FMCS:  Hi Peter how is things?

Peter: (eyebrows) Very well thank you. Todd Meyers (glasses) is here with me as well.
 
FMCS:  Firstly please tell us a little bit about yourself, your history and how you came to be where you are today!

Peter: Hmmm. OK here goes. Real quick. I was all about painting and visual art, got my MFA , then formed a band called Candy Machine, toured the US, made cds, worked painting theatre and film sets, art shows, got into html in the early days and got with the design thing, formed another band called INK with a few members of Candy Machine, became a creative director for an interactive agency, did some cool stuff, won some awards, got into broadcast and branding, left that, started my own thing, started a band called LOW MOdA http://www.lowmoda.com , teach part time in digital media http://www.mica.edu, started Creative Capitalism.

I met Todd because he was a connection made through my wife and the academic world at johns Hopkins University where he is a PHD candidate in anthropology. Hypnotized by him and his wife’s stories about living in Papua New Guinea, I soon learned about his past as an artist and art theorist/reviewer and then approached him with the idea of formulating a book on art meeting science to educate on green issues.

Due to our inability to break into the eco bureaucracy and our lack of experience in this area of publishing, we decided to do what we both wanted to do in the first place, which was put out a book of our friend’s art and music. 

Todd: I met Peter and tried desperately to bore him with stories of New Guinea.  He was working at a design firm at the time, and I was instantly impressed by his work and music. As great as it was (very cool stuff), he talked a lot about being frustrated with the whole design world enterprise, and wanted to do things on his own.  I think it was just luck that our conversations grew into the book (Friends and Friends and Friends).

Peter: Since Todd is being so modest, I’ll tell you he also writes for a bunch of journals including parachute out of Canada. It’s a great culture journal to check out. http://www.parachute.ca/ 
 
 
 
FMCS: Where are you currently living? And where are you working from?

Peter: Baltimore and work out of the house, which is a construction site.

Todd: Up the street.

FMCS:  Can you tell us a little bit about the Creative Capitalism project? And how this great concept materialized?

Peter: Creative Capitalism is a very logical name that explains, maybe in a sarcastic way, the idea of living as an artist or musician within a system that rejects ideas not formulated by market need. It is an umbrella for our first publishing project, Friends and Friends of Friends, and is expanding into releases in other media including music releases.

The site is in development now and will be featuring stories and downloadable media as well as the projects we are producing. One of the great hurdles has been distribution for our projects. Our site’s store is getting developed right now as well and, in the meantime, copies can be gotten from dischord records who have been very supportive of our efforts.  
 
FMCS:  How long has Creative Capitalism been running now?

Peter: It took about a year to get the first book out from inception but the institution known as creative capitalism has been in existence a little over a year I guess. 
 

FMCS:  What’s the ethos behind the Creative Capitalism?

Todd:  Frustration.  Frustration at seeing a lot of wonderful and creative people with no mode (or at least a really fragmented mode) of getting their work and ideas out.

Peter: Yeah, we figured the first project would be about casting a net and seeing what work came back. A lot of great work came back, some from professionally successful people and some from people you’ve never heard of. Our mailman has this great painting in the book. People always stop at his page.

We are not only interested in people who are making things but people who can’t be categorized into a specific niche or genre or demographic. This is where we come in. This first book pushes all kinds of work from all kinds of locations into one simple context: people who create.   
 
FMCS:  We were very happy to see your first publication Friends and Friends
of Friends hit the shelves recently congratulations! Was this an enjoyable/hard/crazy project to put together? And will you be doing more publications in the future?

Todd: The process for Friends and Friends of Friends was indeed enjoyable/hard/crazy – and also long.  Going through a long process helped us to think through what it was that we were trying to do in the first place.

Peter:  Right now we are working on an April 1st deadline for submissions for a new project called Notebook. It’s a black and white book of submitted art that comes with a DVD of black and white video shorts. This project is theme driven. Notebook is meant to be those quickly inspired drawings, field notes, etc.  You make on napkins or notebook paper that you find maybe more interesting than something highly polished or produced. 

 
FMCS:  What/who got you into the expression of ideas through the methods Creative Capitalism employ?

Peter: I think this method comes from a DIY way of working that seems to be ingrained in my thinking. It’s pretty reactionary to established norms of curatorial delivery. 

Todd: I’ve always liked event oriented and collaborative art, but those two things are hard to pull off.  So we made a book this time.  Sometimes we wear giant heads.

Peter: Yeah, the big heads makes it all worthwhile. 
 
FMCS:  What’s the art scene like where you are? Is there a good network for people based in concept / activational art there? Do people work collectively?  

Peter: Baltimore has its fair share of hard living and it’s definitely the people here that make it worth while - that and it is pretty affordable. If you’re talking in terms of the “creative class,” Baltimore is chock-a-block.

For a quick glance, here are a few things I can think of:

Site: www.creativecapitalism.net
High Zero Festival. A festival of free and improvised music. http://www.highzero.org/
Microcinefest http://www.microcinefest.org/

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