Presentation for MA Creative Media Practice students at the University of the West of Scotland

2. • collabora'on
|kəˌlabəˈrā
sh
ən|noun1
the
ac(on
of
working
with
someone
to
produce
or
create
something
:
she
wrote
on
art
and
architecture
in
collabora2on
with
Guiliana
Bruno.•
something
produced
or
created
in
this
way
:
his
recent
opera
was
a
collabora2on
with
Lessing.2
traitorous
coopera2on
with
an
enemy
:
he
faces
charges
of
collabora2on.
• DERIVATIVES
collabora2onist
|-­‐nist|
noun
&
adjec2ve
(sense
2).ORIGIN
mid
19th
cent.:
from
La2n
collabora2o(n-­‐),
from
collaborare
‘work
together.’

3. the
dynamics
of
collabora'on…
From
macro…
(organisa'ons,
ins'tu'ons,
systems)
-­‐ The
social
organisa'on
of
crea've
work
-­‐ How
individuals
navigate
work
and
careers
in
fast-­‐
moving
market
economies
to
micro
(play,
psychology,
iden'ty)
-­‐ How
crea've
processes
are
experienced
and
nego'ated
by
individuals
-­‐ Dealing
with
risk,
uncertainty
and
rapid
change

5. the
ubiquity
of
crea'vity
and
collabora'on
discourses
…cover
a
mul'tude
of
prac'ces
and
types
of
social
rela'ons…not
all
of
which
are
as
simple
as
they
may
seem
Network
society:
how
work
is
valued
and
organised:
what
counts
as
‘produc've
labour’?
Knowledge
workers
&
crea've
entrepreneurs:
a
new
‘crea've
class’?
(Richard
Florida)
Or
the
old
middle
class
recast
with
digital
tools?
Interdisciplinary
dialogue
challenges
old
categories:
crea'vity
=
tension,
conflict
and
difficulty?

6. collabora'on
=
conversa'on?

7. collabora'on
=
conversa'on
• The
art
of
conversa'on
• Dialogue
and
disagreement
• The
art
of
interpersonal
working
• How
this
translates
into
the
cultural
characteris'cs
of
organisa'ons
• Power
and
organisa'onal
systems
–
who
decides
what
happens
and
why?
• Why
are
people
aVracted
to
‘crea've
work”?
(especially
when
it
tends
to
pay
so
badly?)

8. communica'on
=
collabora'on?
• What
are
the
characteris'cs
of
‘crea've
industries’?
• Network
enterprises
• Microbusinesses,
freelancers,
SMEs
• Crea've
processes
and
project
management
• Managing
resources
and
mee'ng
deadlines
• Interpersonal
dynamics
• Skills
and
sensi'vi'es?

9. making
work
together

10. making
work
in
the
arts
Integra've
work:
technological,
embodied,
kinaesthe'c,
feeling,
communica've
Raymond
Williams:
culture
as
‘structures
of
feeling’
Two
dynamics:
ever
increasing
and
highly
visible
social
inequali'es
AND
Exhorta'on
to
collaborate,
par'cipate
–
but
on
whose
terms?
The
arts
as
a
means
of
expression
–
iden'ty
–
social
and
poli'cal
Corpora'ons
need
constant
flow
of
crea've
content:
brand/image
sells
products:
spectacular
capitalism.
Confla'on
of
corporate
capitalism/individual
expression
–
are
there
any
autonomous
spaces?
Can
markets
provide
all
the
solu'ons?

11. characteris'cs
of
crea've
industries
• Mul'disciplinary
teams
• Globalised
‘network
enterprises’
at
a
variety
of
scales
• Fast
digital
networks,
unevenly
distributed
• Short
life
projects/poraolio
work
• Working
across
organisa'onal
boundaries
• New
media
tools
&
tradi'onal
crea've
skills
• Nodes,
networks,
mobili'es,
flows…&
glitches,
disrup'on
and
interrup'on

12. The
crea've
workplace?
Hmmm…deceptively informal?

13. Crea've
spaces
and
places?
• Do
certain
places
and
kinds
of
spaces
develop
high
concentra'ons
of
‘crea've
workers’?
• What
are
their
characteris'cs?
• What
is
‘crea've
work’
anyway?
• Economies
of
signs
and
space
(Lash
and
Urry)
• City
of
Bits
(Mitchell)
• The
Intercultural
City
(Landry
and
Woods)

15. the
‘crea've
city’
• From
mid
1990s,
crea'vity
has
moved
closer
to
centre
of
urban
and
na'onal
policy…
But urban and corporate leaders are still ambivalent about creativity…and
anyway, creativity isn’t one thing…!

16. innova'on
as
economic
driver,
arts
as
regenerator,
diversity
as
public
good
• Diversity
creates
produc've
fric'ons
• Density
and
concentra'on
of
urban
networks
• New
modes
of
social
organisa'on
• But
who
benefits?
• Are
the
skills
needed
to
survive
in
the
‘new
economy’
being
developed
rapidly
enough?
• Who
are
the
winners
and
losers
in
this
new
economic/social
order?

17. Then….

18. dealing
with
risk
and
uncertainty
• Models
of
self-­‐organisa'on
• Ques'ons
of
sustainability
• Ques'ons
of
value
and
purpose
• Ques'ons
of
rhetoric
and
actuality
• How
resilient
is
the
crea've
economy?
• Global
corpora'ons/small
independents/’glocalism”

19. ar'sts’
organisa'ons;
media
co-­‐ops;
cultural
enterprises

20. Arthur
Russell:
Wild
Combina'on
• hVp://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=U5tM1coZr4k
• Innovators,
disruptors,
crea've
cultures,
crea've
milieux,
hybridity,
taking
the
path
less
travelled,
DIY
culture,
etc

21. ar'sts
as
innovators,
as
connectors
• E.g.
New
York,
1970s
(see
Tim
Lawrence
on
Arthur
Russell)
• London,
1960s
and
1970s
(eg
Derek
Jarman
and
the
rise
of
the
punk
scene)
• Glasgow,
1980s/90s
(See
S.Lowndes:
Social
Sculpture:
the
rise
of
the
Glasgow
Art
Scene)
• Sharon
Zukin:
“ The
Cultures
of
Ci'es”
• Ar's'c
work
as
pre-­‐figura've
of
wider
societal
changes?
• Crea'vity
as
empowerment
and
ownership?
• Neighbourhood
and
community
ac'vism
• Construc'ng
alterna'ves
through
radical
art
prac'ce
see
e.g.
Temporary
Services
hVp://www.temporaryservices.org/

22. crea've
spaces
and
places
• For
who?
• Resources,
power,
access,
networks,
money
• Who
gets
to
‘be
crea've’?
• Who
gets
to
earn
a
living
through
crea've
work?
• Who
owns
the
work
you
make?
• How
do
you
find
(and
keep)
collaborators?

23. macro
issues
• How
are
crea've
networks
resourced,
funded
and
sustained?
Balance
of
public
and
private
investment?
• Issues
of
inclusion
–
who
gets
to
be
a
‘crea've
entrepreneur’?
• How
do
the
state,
business,
and
educa'onal/cultural
organisa'ons
adapt
to
‘crea've
collabora'on’?
Mo'va'on:
public
good/private
profit?
• Hacker
and
innova'on
networks
(Himanen
–
The
Hacker
Ethic)
• “All
that
is
solid
melts
into
air”

25. micro
issues
• What
does
freelance
and
self-­‐employment
demand
from
the
‘crea've
entrepreneur’?
• Insecurity
versus
freedom?
• The
psychology
of
collabora'on
• Some
‘crea'ves’
are
highly
individualis'c
–
how
is
this
reconciled
with
collabora'on?
• The
art
of
conversa'on
and
nego'a'on
• Are
some
ar'sts
more
collabora've
than
others?
• Who
‘owns’
collabora'vely
generated
work?

26. Some
dilemmas
Benefits
of
open
source
and
crea've
commons,
versus
need
to
protect
intellectual
property
How
do
you
account
for
who
has
contributed
what
in
a
crea've
process?
Cultural
economy
and
git
economy
–
benefits
of
cultural
ac'vity
are
not
purely
financial
The
ethics
of
crea've
work:
in
whose
service
does
one
put
one’s
crea'vity?

28. ..follow
up
• Bibliography
and
weblinks
(on
Blackboard)
• MashingUp
lecture/symposium
series
• Social
bookmarks:
delicious.com/grahamje
• Blogs:
uwsprac'ceresearch.blogspot.com
generalpraxis.blogspot.com