The Makings of an Essential Living

Aside from political debates, another topic of discussion has taken over the Singapore

internet by a wave and Aisyah Ridzham and Teresa Chia discuss what makes a job essential today.

Infographic published by The Straits Times that angered the art community and netizens

because of the insensitive connotation that artists hold the most unnecessary jobs.

PHOTO CREDIT | The Straits Times

The Straits Times recently released an article that had results over a survey that

ranked different jobs from most essential to least essential in the COVID-19 crisis, which

had sparked the interest of internet users and many debates.

Out of the 1,000 Singaporean respondents, 71 per cent of them felt that “artist” was

the top “non-essential” occupation. This led to a whirlwind of anger and sadness from

the artist community as well as other netizens who felt that the posted results were

unfair. The Straits Times has since then published articles to explain the

misconceptions of the survey results.

The rest of the jobs listed under “non-essential” all fall under the general category of

the media and communications industry.

The art sector includes, but is not limited to: musicians, visual artists, content creators,

architects and designers. The Cultural Statistics Report reported that an estimated

$412.8 million was dedicated to funding arts and heritage in 2016.

There is a mindset that certain industries are more important and contribute more to

society compared to others, especially in an Asian community. The question now is;

Can we live without a certain industry?

Netizens have since come forward to defend artists to justify how essential artists are

for keeping spirits up and people entertained especially in the pandemic.

Instagram user, Aaron Wong @aarongwong.sg, took to the platform to share his

thoughts: “Please delete your Netflix, uninstall your Spotify, and throw away every

single book / magazine / print in your sad life. And once this pandemic is over, please do

NOT go to the movies or even watch any form of TV. Your phones should be used

solely for calls and plain text. And while you are at it, don’t wear any clothes too,

because that’s done by a designer, aka an artist. Just use a plain cloth to cover your

‘non-essential’ parts. Lastly, if you go to a bar or a party, make sure there is no music

too.”

The work of artists serves as an integrated part of our daily lives. As people part of a

society where our neighbourhoods are in close proximity to multiple shopping malls

and social media is a huge part of our day, we are bombarded by advertisements and

graphics at every turn.

During this period where the best place to be is home, Influencer Marketing Hub

reported an increase in digital advertising since the start of the pandemic. This resulted

in Singaporeans becoming more accustomed to seeing new campaign slogans or

content to stay entertained and making the effort put in to produce them become

overlooked and forgotten about.

Arts student Seraphena Phajan, 18, agrees that artists have provided “mental support

or creating awareness such as photo series of people going through covid or the

medical staffs struggles and stuff like that it shows the severity of the virus and serves

as a warning almost for works non-related it’s just nice that artists are putting out their

new albums and all [is] just comforting.”

She believes that without artists, we will not be able to enjoy music and movies but

also acknowledges that the article was not saying artists are not completely

unimportant but it is not a priority given the severity of the situation. She shared that it

is a medical crisis that art is not able to physically contribute to alleviating the situation.

Non-essential artist T-shirt, a funny take to the tense situation.

PHOTO CREDIT | Reagan Tan (Left)

While artists are arguably not the most direly needed now, the general consensus is

that it seems that without them, we would be able to handle isolation and being

cooped up in our homes.

For Singapore’s standard of living, we enjoy easy access for television, music, and

books. We also have various healthcare schemes and easily accessible hospitals to take

care of us.

Science student Faizal Rahim, 24, says:

“To maintain our standard of living, I believe both my work [in the Science field] and artistic work is equally necessary.”