One of the main reasons I have writing this text is to outline a figure or archetype based on a very specific attitude, pre-disposition and pre-occupation.This is something that I have been already doing talking about the hunger of the cross-dilettante for being in a constant movement or process of self-realization. There is an urge or strong need of never getting stuck on one domain, never specializing too much on something in order to become the outsider again, the initiated. Following this characterization I want to talk about the same again but from a different perspective: how self-realization implies to be immerse in a constant learning process which is actually a process of absorption; the bigger the hunger is, the richer the learning.
The cross-dilettante cannot separate life and work so easily and anything has the potential of becoming part of the learning process. This constitutes a specific pre-disposition towards being in a constant process of learning and studying, a kind of hunger of entering new domains or completing the already visited ones. In this sense of inner urge or strong impulse I understand apprenticeship, as a calling or vocation, a strong need to a self-realization model.
To adduce something like this implies to accept that the motivation for traveling and keep on moving comes from some inside pre-occupation, pre-disposition, temper or attitude. I understand this calling or vocation as a mission that the apprentice has to perform without making clear separation between the professional field and the personal sphere. Is about executing a mission motivated by a strong impulse impossible to subdue, a inner calling, a mental occupation, an urge that has to be accepted as the driving force into the journey. The self-realization becomes a goal in itself.
This is a good point to make a difference between apprenticeship and internship. This two practices bring into the discussion two different approaches to what does it mean to learn something.The internship implies the notion of career as the metaphor for the path, a road that refers to the idea of progression into the professional achievements and therefore is the vertical what prevails. At the same time the motivations of the intern are job oriented, coming from the outside: money, fame, prestige, reputation, things that are given by the structure where the intern would like to fit in. For the apprentice cross dilettante to learn is a goal in itself and issues such as reputation don´t mean a thing because there is no such a structure to fit in but rather a whole network of unseen bridges that are demanding to be interconnected. Therefore the metaphor of the path or road in this case is not the vertical of the term career but the transversality of the dromo, the road that used to connect two temples.
The wanderer, as a romantic notion, implies not only a physical journey but also an inner journey, self exploration for the sake of self knowledge, an initiated that goes through a learning process, a whole metaphor about venturing oneself into the unknown, considering oneself as the unknown.
To be an initiated or an outsider in a new field demands certain skills such as being able to function like a sponge that through the porous absorbs the surrounding influences and assimilates them, a spongy chameleon that joins with the world and melds with it. Every learning process demands this skill of transpiration/assimilation, of being easily crossed and penetrated and doesn't matter what are the circumstances there will be always something to absorb, even during the process of internship if the intern has the pre-disposition of becoming sponge there will be something to gain, despite the low salary or the absence of it.
To be permeable, holy, leaky, to have interstices to permit the absorption to happen but also the perspiration once the assimilation has occurred. This is the condition of possibility for inspiring other people. There is no possibility to inspire without having gone through a process of absorption, which is actually, in other words, swallowing, sucking and engulfing and hence is very appropriated to call it hunger of learning.
It is really the case to bring the other assertion of the term absorption which refers to a pre-disposition, a mental state of being pre-occupied by something, a state of mental concentration, when learning becomes an obsession and one gives the whole attention to dig into something. This is the meaning of studying. To study implies to reach a level of concentration and dedication, being fully focused on something.
The second main skill that belongs to the learning is curiosity, which, instead of hunger to learn, refers to the desire to learn, to be eager to know. Again an uncontrollable impulse towards knowledge. What really connects curiosity with the cross-dilettante or dromo-amateur is the fascination about what is unknown or strange and appears to be new: new scenarios, new people, new domains, new formats, new landscapes, new knowledge. Curiosity has to be indomitable and unpredictable, it can´t be repressed. It represents a renewed interest while at the same time it sets up new challenges and new motivation. Fear of consequences is eliminated by the trust that learning and experience will be implemented. The curious is the explorer addicted to research that scrutinizes, questions, interrogates the novelty and the strangeness.
The sponge and the curiosity, both qualities will be required on the adventure of the inner improvement. Important is to have learned to learn, to have learned to study: becoming one´s own master, one´s own mentor. The cross-dilettante doesn't need the academic context any longer because the pre-disposition and pre-occupation of learning, studying and cultivating oneself will ensure the education. There is no interest on credits or diplomas or certificates. One becomes skillful through the experience, becomes an expert without specializing.
The expression jack of all trades refers to a person competent with many skills but not necessarily outstanding in any particular one. The phrase became negative in connotation with the addition of master of none, trying to argue that variety is not necessarily a synonym of value and that amateurism is starry-eyed.
On my characterization of the terms cross-dilettante and dromo-amateur it is needed to spend some time understanding what is the relation that both concepts have with specialization and level of proficiency in order to erase all the pejorative connotations that exist since dilettantism and amateurism stand in opposition to a specialist or connoisseur.
First of all, amateurism and dilettantism are not the contrary of knowledge or acquisition of skills. There is the so-called proficiency level of an activity that represents how deep a person committed to a practice or study. I prefer to express it as a matter of depth rather than a matter of time. How much time is needed to master a skill or a discipline is something specific to every the person. The specialist will say that something takes a lifetime to learn while a cross-dilettante is driven by the urgency to learn with absolute lack of pursuing perfection. It is good to mention that to master a skill is different than to become perfect.
The dromo-amateur should decide how deep will be the temporary specialization. To set up the conditions of possibility to throw oneself passionately into a discipline or area of knowledge implies to decide the proficiency level one wants to reach while maintaining a high level of concentration towards the temporary subject. This means that we are not talking here necessarily about multitasking and becoming simultaneously a specialist in more than one skill. In order to deepen into one domain sometimes it will be required a full dedication and total engagement. It is important to unlink dilettantism from superficiality and multitasking because a cross-dilettante can´t be lazy, it is a hard worker such as the specialist.
Self knowledge is required to recognize which level of proficiency should be achieved in order to master a skill. Going beyond that level and pursuing perfection for a long term period is the task that belongs to the specialist. For a cross-dilettante this is no longer appealing, once they reach the proficiency level that enables to master a skill they must continue their journey, saying goodbye to the actual domain and starting something different venturing them selves off the beaten path and building things from scratch.
Jack of all trades constitutes a skill in itself. It is versatile enough to adapt from one field to another one, capable for change and for being always ready to move on without taking into consideration losing reputation or status (something that a specialist loves to take care of.) The Jack of all trades after having gradually acquired a versatile set of skills will be able to have an exceptional perception of the network, a panopticum or zoom out of the situation seeing the unseen interconnectedness because his condition of cross-pollinator. This will allow the cross-dilettante to maximize the perspectives of life while getting a general picture not only of the landscape but also of the specificity that constitutes oneself, in other words: becoming specific will be the main aset of the cross-dilettante. To having acquired different backgrouds will allow the Jack of all trades to display himslef into a multitude of different playgrounds. It is a fact that the profile of new worker of the creative industry requires the skills of a jack of all trades, a nothing to lose mind set, beta people in a constant process of upgrading; a new social hybrid. Therefore it is also needed to think how the industry is developing new way of exploitation since there are so many Jacks of all trades.
Jack of all trades, master of many describes that person well qualified in many areas, being able to acquire a broad range of skills. This is the question around self-actualization: what a person can be? The task of the eternal apprenticeship is to become aware of one´s own potential and realizing it, become everything that one is capable of becoming. The word polymath designates a person who has learned much, someone who is exceptional in many disciplines having reached a high proficiency level in many subjects. Also known as Renaissance man, a polymath excels in a wide variety fields: a man who can do all things if he wills. The belief, typical of the humanism, that considers humans empowered, limitless in their capabilities for development, leads to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their skills as fully as possible in all areas of knowledge. In this case, Jack of all trades, master of all.
This concept relates to movement and motion. Together with the idea of cross-pollination I started to talk about dromo-amateurism and cross-dilettantism. The prefixes dromo and cross trigger the notions of amateur and dilettante, they set in motion the adventure of becoming.
Dromomania incorporates into amateurism the notion of uncontrollable urgency to start moving from one discipline to another, the passion and addiction of becoming otherness while leaving suddenly the actual domain. This term has definitely connotations of insanity. I wouldn't go that far and I prefer to relate mania with passion and uncontrollable urgency without necessarily meaning something negative, as insanity does. Actually, one of my main purposes is to understand it as a skill that could be required at any moment.
First of all dromo means running and in this sense I connect on my text this term with the notions of travel and experience. On the other hand dromo also was the road that connected two temples and allowed the transition in between. This transitionary aspect of dromo relates directly with the notion of cross-pollination and transversality. In both cases it is about creating bridges between two stations allowing the communication to happen. Without this transversal movement it would be impossible to think about pollination, fertilization, inspiration or being affected in any way.
Close to the notion of mania or insanity is the term addiction or excessive passion. The dromomania could be understood as a skill if we are talking about the ability to perform sudden leaps in order to avoid falling into the repetition of patterns such as routine, unproductive habits or way of doing that have become an ossified practice. I am tempted to believe that it is a positive practice to stay alert of the level of ossification in personal and professional life in order to avoid that behaviours or beliefs fall in a rigidly conventional pattern that could turn into conformity or orthodoxy .
Seemingly there is a big difference in being forced to set off on a journey and making a decision after having evaluated the situation. And therefore I find an interesting threshold to be explored, a whole scope between making a decision and being forced to decide. In both cases it is about making a cut and abandoning whatever it constituted your everyday life: family, city, routine, habits, lovers, etc. Everyone should find their position within this scope of degrees.
It is said that that dromomaniac has a mad urge for foreign places and an unstoppable need to vagabond. Here I find the link to Das Wanderer and the romantic notion of Wanderlust. The notion of the journey has been since the romantic period the main idea to characterize the wanderer rootless that works from any place and that is being driven by the desire of running away and keep on moving because it is unbearable to take much time in the same place (Wanderlust). Die Winterreise of Schubert/Müller presents the image of a wanderer, a kind of pirate that steals hearts of young innocent ladies, a picaros who is constantly saying goodbye, painful but necessary is to continue the own adventure. A wanderer delights in changes. And this is not necessarily a matter of pleasure. As in any addiction or big urge, there is a dark side, a danger that potentially implies a deadly risk or at least a big sacrifice.. Das Wanderer must keep on moving, must steal away like a ninja while everyone is sleeping. As a stranger I arrived, as a stranger I shall leave. This is the simple farewell message of the poet: love is a thing of changes, ever-changing from old to new, so love delights in changes, Good night, my love, good night.
Photo by Andre Wunstorf. Ardian Hartono, the cross-freelancer.
One of the my main purposes on writing this text about freelance and dilettantism is to create an hybrid concept between two ideas. The first idea is represented by the attitudes of dilettantism and amateurism without pejorative connotations. The second idea is to incorporate the aspect of movement on it, to make the dilettante being moved by the need or urgency of traveling, cross-dilettante, a nomadic version of the amateur who has the addiction of becoming otherness, being a constant outsider, dromo-amateur.
There is indeed a slight difference between dilettante and amateur. This is why I don´t like the term PRO-AM (professional amateurism). This term does not really embrace the emergency of a new profil of worker, it is obsolete because still deals with the notion of expertise instead of specificity. The notion of PRO–AM brings together both crucial points: pursuing an activity for the love of it while it sets a professional standard with dedication and commitment. Most popular Pro-am activities are gardening and DIY (do it yourself home improvement projects) Most of them are still sedentary domestic practices, sports, arts, photography, acting, singing, playing an instrument. The term Pro-Am still keeps the duality working time - leisure time and the practice to be improved is being maintained as the one and only for many years. On the contrary, I am characterizing on this text a profile of dilettante that has the need of becoming otherness after certain proficiency level, this is why the term Pro-Am doesn't really cover the whole range of my demands and on the other hand there is not anymore a difference between leisure time and working time. I am not interested in the Pro-am that dedicates his life to one single activity. My characterization of a cross-dilettante implies the need of moving from one area to another one without trying to become expert fitting into the frame of work dictated by the notion of hwat does it mean to be professional .
For this reason I would like to use hybrid words such as cross-dilettante or dromo-amateur. The term cross pollination has become a trend since transversality is one of the key words to understand the contemporary world. However I find that cross-pollination really brings in the core of my interest. A specialist is someone who creates centers and organize around them a stable domain where the certainty of knowing makes them feel safe, knowing that they know. This corresponds to certain idea of authority and power relations in the field of knowledge: the specialist will understand the domain as its empire, a territory which dominion is exerted. In the contrary, the cross-dilettante doesn't create a system and either aims to totalize the multiplicity but rather deals with multiplicity of parts and fragments in a patch way like. The attempt of the dromo-amateur functions as an insect that transfers the pollen from one flower to another allowing the fertilization. Communicating vessels like a train that allows the communication between different landscapes. The cross-dilettante stimulates influence among diverse elements, it is the one who has the agility to move across, to mix up and fertilize but also becoming a pirate, stealing knowledge and working as a virus producing contagions and interferences. A dilettante works as an interface that drills holes allowing the transpiration between systems to happen and therefore permitting the possibility for interchanges. Transversality is the condition of possibility for promiscuous affairs. The loyalty to the trip, to the adventure, to the experience is more important than staying safe in one domain.
The skill that belongs to the dromo-amateurs and cross-dilettantes is the ability of transversality, becoming insect that carries the pollen between different systems but also the ability of infiltration becoming spy and stealing the knowledge. Infiltration is transpiration. What makes a dromo-amateur to be specific is the skill of cross-pollination and to become foreigner on one´s own domain. Like a journey man, a person with the ability on spreading new practices and knowledge between companies (trainees and apprentices). Disciplines and areas of knowledge, for the sake of development, demand to be interpreted from a different discipline. The skill of bringing disciplines together doesn´t need to be a voluntary response or come out of a plan or strategy. The different areas of knowledge will affect each other independently the will. The experiences on one discipline will inevitably affect the way another different one is treated, this is not a choice. It´s a matter of fact that methods, habits, knowledge, tricks will be exported from one domain to another one. In this sense Marcel Proust understood art as a dilettante´s game. Art makes possible to go out of oneself in order to find out how others see reality in a different way as one does.
The route or course of the experience of a cross-dilettante doesn't respond to any career planning, is just the consequence of the encounter of randomness and necessities, the intersection between the fortuitous and inevitable. The cross-dilettante as the adventurer does not need a plan but rather keep on moving based on a real desire, staying at the momentum while applying the set of skills to overcome obstacles. Jumping is another action-image that helps to understand the movement quality required on the experience of cross-pollination. The ability to perform a sudden unexpected leap across pathways accordingly to certain dexterity on improvisation. The condition of synesthesia reveals how jumping across pathways is connected with the involuntary. Synesthesia is a cross sensory or cross-modal perception, a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second cognitive pathway. There is a leap or jump across pathways, characteristic of a dilettante. The fact of being an involuntary process reveals that a dilettante, an amateur, a pirate does not need necessarily to have a plan or a strategy because they function with tactics because they are more appropriated to deal with the fortuitous of life.
