Manifesto Jam 2026
A bunch of small manifestos
The Creative Industry is Dead and Deserved to Die
Participating in a creative industry (or any industry for that matter) has always been a devil's bargain. Offer your skills in exchange for pay, maybe even access to capital to produce the type of art you couldn't otherwise. It's the kind of deal made with knives to each other's throat. You need us as much as we need you. Well, now there's AI, and these creative industries think they don't need us anymore, so what do we do now?
When a creative is caught using AI and says in a wounded tone "that's just how the industry works" they're not wrong. They've spent years of their life honing the craft of mass-producing slop. Maybe there was some soul in it, an inner grain of truth that resonated with you, but it was made in the slop factory, and it's become readily apparent that any soul it might have had was in spite of the industry that produced it and not because of it.
Post-creative industry art needs to be an integral part of your community, of your scene. It must be made by your scene, for your scene, and with the resources available to your scene. A million dollar budget is not something to aspire to, it is something to deeply suspicious of. It puts you in the position of seeking outside capital, and being put in the position of being beholden to that capital. As people who make and experience art, we need to embrace projects small and rough, with visible seams, art made by people we know and trust.
The Cultural Debris is Ours to Scavenge
MASS-PRODUCED, ART-LIKE OBJECTS INFEST OUR CONSCIOUSNESS LIKE MICROPLASTICS. WE CAN'T GO BACK 100 YEARS. TO IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT POKEMON, MARVEL, OR SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IS NOT JUST IMPOSSIBLE, IT'S DISHONEST! TO RETREAT INTO THE SINGULAR WORLD IS AT BEST A DETOX, A NICE REPRIEVE THAT GETS YOU READY TO GET BACK TO WORK THE NEXT DAY.
THESE ARTIFACTS STAND IN THE DESERT OF OUR MINDS LIKE STATUES ERECTED BY AN INVADING ARMY, BUT THEY'RE ALSO OURS FOR THE TAKING! WE SHOULD FOLLOW THE WORK OF CATE WURTZ OR VERA DREW, STEALING FROM THESE ARTIFACTS, STRIPPING THEM DOWN TO THEIR UNDERLYING KERNALS OF TRUTH, AND TRANSFORMING THEM AS NEEDED, FREE FROM THE SHACKLES OF CANON AND CORPORATE SIGN-OFFS. THERE IS LIFE TO BE SALVAGED IN THIS WASTELAND YET!
Trite Individuality
Some of my favorite types of media are ones like Baccano! or Hunter x Hunter or the Monogatari series, stories where characters give long speeches about a singular ideology they've adopted, and where the sufficiency of that ideology is determined by a splashy fight scene with a character with a conflicting ideology. Ladd Russo, the man who wants to kill everyone, against Claire Stanfield, the man who believes he'll never be killed. It's symbolic, you see!
I enjoy a series that lets ideas bounce off each other, but what is ultimately the point of it? It's the type of thing that can be done endlessly and unproductively. Lukács talks about the ways individuality is expressed in Theory of the Novel, how ultimately, it comes from the way the structures of the world are prevent us from finding meaning in our actions. Sometimes, characters delude themselves into thinking their actions have meaning, resulting in irony. Other times they don't and retreat inward, refining a perfect inner ideology, where each failing of the world refines that inner righteousness further. In each case, it's not just a failure of the world, but of the individual as well, since their ideologies are ultimately self-serving and insufficient for the world as-it-is.
Lukács ultimately disavowed the Theory of the Novel because art alone can't change the world. I believe that, but as artists, don't we have an obligation to do better than masturbatory explorations of our own psyche? At the very least, I feel like the people who see our art should leave without feeling lost.
The Trap of Sentimentality
One of Brecht's central concerns was the way the theater could use empathy to launder ideology. When you become enraptured by the relationships between characters and the movement of the plot, you fail to consider the worldview that the play takes for granted. To me, sentimentality is a more vulgar expression of this because I caught the artist in the act. It's an attempt to be sweeping and profound, but in a a way that's unearned and falls flat.
Charitably, the sentimental artist thinks they're doing us a service. Perhaps they really were moved by a beautiful sunset and want us to feel that same feeling. But that falling flat leaves an unsettling feeling, like the artist tried to puppet you, like you're watching your body move while you're still in it. It is, I think, a type of writing that should be used with great caution.
The Movie is NOT the Talking, The Talking is the Talking
David Lynch said "the movie is the talking" but I disagree with that. Twin Peaks was not just the TV Show, it was bulletin board posts and Wrapped in Plastic magazine. Art is an attempt to do something and the discussion it provokes, and to be productive in our craft, we should be open and honest about it. Let's break down the singular work and embrace the full spectrum of discourse it provokes!
I think the works of game developer sylvie are illustrative of what can be done here. Her games often come with design notes that act as a commentary track for the game. Her game Sylvie Lime incorporates this commentary into the game itself, expressing these distinct considerations as dialog between characters.
In the spirit of that, here is my commentary on each of these manifestos:
The Creative Industry is Dead and Deserved to Die
I feel kind of guilty about this one as someone who hasn't actually worked in a creative industry. As much as I wish we could separate art from commerce, it is ultimately something good people spent a lot of time working in and making their best, and the ways they've been fucked over by the industry sucks, and we're all the worse for it.
Ultimately, I do believe it. I think we should be seeking out smaller, outsider, creative works, and more people should be able to make things, but it's kind of cold comfort to say "capitalism needs to be dismantled before we can make REAL art." Anyway, I think this manifesto from the jam makes the point pretty well:
https://bignastytruck.itch.io/boot-off-my-neck
The Cultural Debris is Ours to Scavenge
As I mentioned, the works of Cate Wurtz and Vera Drew and Bloodsad have all been very inspirational to me, and I've incorporated a lot of their attitude and style into my own works. My biggest fear is that this manifesto is a little too focused on the aesthetics of stealing culture, and that that's the kind of thing that can be easily co-opted. I could see the People's Joker being incorporated into the DC canon at some point in the future. Ultimately, I think this comes from a place where pop culture is such a big part of my mind that trying to divorce it from my output feels dishonest, and I need to work it into my own craft in a way that feels honest, but where I'm not valorizing it.
Trite Individuality
This is an idea that made sense in my head, but I don't know if I expressed it well. I read Lukács' Theory of the Novel recently and it made me think a lot about my own tendencies, both in art and in general. This was kind of an attempt to apply that to some series that I enjoy and whose style I've wanted to incoporate into my own work. But in the end, I don't know they were the perfect fit for each other.
The Trap of Sentimentality
I don't know how I feel about the conclusion for this one. Ultimately, it feels less like a manifesto and more of a rant against a thing that bothers me. I guess it's a manifesto in the sense that it's a note to myself to not do that.
The Movie is Not the Talking, the Talking is the Talking
I love Lynch but I really disagree with that quote! I wanted to talk more about breaking down the singular work. I could talk a lot about the way James Joyce wrote schemas about Ulysses for his colleagues, or the way Cate Wurtz incorporates social media and forum posts into Crow Cillers, but ultimately these manifestos are all very muddled and I couldn't think of a good way to do it.