The 2013 creative industries statistical analysis for Western Australia

The Department of Culture and the Arts undertook the first mapping of Perth’s creative industries in 2007 in partnership with the City of Perth and the Departments of Industry and Resources and the Premier and Cabinet. The 2013 Creative Industries Statistical Analysis for Western Australia report has updated the mapping with the 2011 Census employment data to provide invaluable information for the State’s creative industries, their peak associations and potential investors. The report maps sector employment numbers and growth between the 2006 and 2011 Census in the areas of music, visual and performing arts, film, TV and radio, advertising and marketing, software and digital content, publishing, and architecture and design, which includes designer fashion.

Knowledge unlatched : encouraging innovation in academic publishing through collective action and Open Access licensing

This case study examines the way in which Knowledge Unlatched is combining collective action and open access licenses to encourage innovation in markets for specialist academic books. Knowledge Unlatched is a not for profit organisation that has been established to help a global community of libraries coordinate their book purchasing activities more effectively and, in so doing, to ensure that books librarians select for their own collections become available for free for anyone in the world to read. The Knowledge Unlatched model is an attempt to re-coordinate a market in order to facilitate a transition to digitally appropriate publishing models that include open access. It offers librarians an opportunity to facilitate the open access publication of books that their own readers would value access to. It provides publishers with a stable income stream on titles selected by libraries, as well as an ability to continue selling books to a wider market on their own terms. Knowledge Unlatched provides a rich case study for researchers and practitioners interested in understanding how innovations in procurement practices can be used to stimulate more effective, equitable markets for socially valuable products.

The curious case of the embedded creative : creative cultural occupations outside the creative industries

This chapter is concerned with innovation that involves creative cultural occupations, but not within the creative industries. Rather, we examine the operation of cultural creative occupations that exist outside the creative industries - so-called 'embedded creatives' who work across all industry sectors (Cunningham and Higgs 2009). In doing so, we concur with Bilton (2007) that the separation of creative industries from other industries is a 'false step'. All industries must be innovative; however, they also must be able to combine both scientific and artistic creativity, and that creativity comes from the intersection of different thinking styles (Kurtzberg 2005). Moreover, we suggest that there are now detailed empirical studies, as well as a nascent theoretical base, to suggest that the transdisciplinarity which results from embedded cultural creativity is an engine of growth in the broader economy. Thus, it is relevant to both policymakers and managers. This chapter addresses the following questions: What is the role and significance of the embedded creative? Given a paucity of detailed empirical work in the area to date, what can be deduced from what extant literature there is about the nature of employment and management of these workers? And what are the practical implications of these consideration?

Creative industries : a new pathway

The creative industries have become a key part of the economic development of many nations, with a particularly lively debate in the developing world taking place now.

Experimental creative practices

From the earliest human creative expressions there has been a relationship between art, technology and science. In Western history this relationship is often seen as drawing from the advances in both art and science that occurred during the Renaissance, and as captured in the polymath figure of da Vinci. The 20th century development of computer technology, and the more recent emergence of creative practice-led research as a recognised methodology, has lead to a renewed appreciation of the relationship between art, science and technology. This chapter focuses on transdisciplinary practices that bring together arts, science and technology in imaginative ways. Showing how such combinations have led to changes in both practice and forms of creative expression for artists and their partners across disciplines. The aim of this chapter is to sketch an outline of the types of transdisiplinary creative research projects that currently signify best practice in the field, which is done in reference to key literature and exemplars drawn from the Australian context.

Negotiating the creative and the critical : Paul Dawson’s creative writing and the new humanities

In the first Modern Language Association newsletter for 2006, renowned poetry critic and MLA President, Marjorie Perloff, remarked on the growing ascendency of Creative Writing within English Studies in North America. In her column, Perloff notes that "[i]n studying the English Job Information List (JIL) so as to advise my own students and others I know currently on the market, I noticed what struck me as a curious trend: there are, in 2005, almost three times as many positions in creative writing as in the study of twentieth-century literature" (3). The dominance of Creative Writing in the English Studies job list in turn reflects the growing student demand for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the field—over the past 20 years, BA and MA degrees in Creative Writing in North American tertiary institutions have quadrupled (3)...

Creative practices in the design studio culture : collaboration and communication

For the purpose of developing collaborative support in design studio environments, we have carried out ethnographic fieldwork in professional and academic product design studios. Our intention was to understand design practices beyond the productivity point of view and take into account the experiential, inspirational and aesthetical aspects of design practices. Using examples from our fieldwork, we develop our results around three broad themes by which design professionals support communication and collaboration: (1) use of artefacts, (2) use of space and (3) designerly practices. We use the results of our fieldwork for drawing implications for designing technologies for the design studio culture.

Deleuze and music : a creative approach to the study of music

The work of Gilles Deleuze has influenced an increasing number of music scholars and practicing musicians, particularly those interested in experimental, electronic and popular music. This is despite the notoriously complex nature of his writings, and the specialised theoretical vocabulary that he employs. This thesis both demystifies some of the key terms and concepts of this vocabulary, before demonstrating how Deleuze’s ideas may be put to work in new and fruitful ways; this is achieved with specific reference to the relationships that music has with thought, time and machines. In Chapter 1, Deleuze’s understanding of the power of thought is examined, in particular his approach to communication, transcendence and immanence, and the “powers of thought.” Each of these concepts helps us to understand Deleuze’s work within broad problem of how to think about music immanently: that is, how to maintain that thought and music are both immanent aspects of life and experience. Chapter 2 examines time within a Deleuzian framework, linking his work on cinema with the concept of the “refrain”; both of these areas prove crucial to his understanding of music, as seen in Deleuze’s approach to the work of Varese, Messiaen, and Boulez. In addition, Deleuze’s understanding of time proves fruitful in examining various aspects of music production, as seen in contemporary electronic dance music. Finally, Chapter 3 looks at the concept of the machine, as developed by Deleuze and Guattari, with reference to the sorts of “machinic” connections that a Deleuzian approach encourages us to seek out in music. Once again, examples from contemporary electronic music are presented, in relation to the notions of becoming and subjectivity. Throughout these chapters, Deleuze’s broad understanding of philosophy as the “creation of concepts” is deployed. This means introducing new ideas and specific types of music that encourage creative and novel engagements with the study of music.

Remarkable objects : supporting collaboration in a creative environment

In this paper, we report the results of a field trial of a Ubicomp system called CAM that is aimed at supporting and enhancing collaboration in a design studio environment. CAM uses a mobile-tagging application which allows designers to collaboratively store relevant information onto their physical design objects in the form of messages, annotations and external web links. The purpose of our field trial was to explore the role of augmented objects in supporting and enhancing creative work. Our results show that CAM was used not only to support participants' mutual awareness and coordination but also to facilitate designers in appropriating their augmented design objects to be explorative, extendable and playful, supporting creative aspects of design work. In general, our results show how CAM transformed static design objects into 'remarkable' objects that made the creative and playful side of cooperative design visible.

Space as a resource in creative design practices

Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork in two industrial design departments and two design companies, we explore the role of spatial arrangements for supporting creative design practices within different design studios. From our results, we show that designers explicitly make use of the physical space for: 1) communicating and inspiring design ideas; 2) exploring design solutions, and; 3) managing design projects. We believe that these design practices could bring insightful implications for developing ubiquitous technologies to support the design profession.

Co-creative media in remote Indigenous communities

This paper examines co-creative video outputs that have originated from, or relate to, remote Indigenous communities in Australia. Scholarly work on remote media has mostly operated at the interface of media studies and anthropology, seeking to identify how cultural systems shape the production, distribution and reception of media in Aboriginal communities. This paper looks instead at content themes, funding sources and institutions during the 2010-2013 period, and examines the factors that may be determining the quantity of co-creative outputs, as well as the types of stories that get produced. I argue that the focus on culture has obscured important shifts in remote media policy and funding, including a trend towards content designed to address social disadvantage.

Managing creativity on the margins : a comparative study of Beijing’s Songzhuang Art District and Hangzhou’s White Horse Lake Creative Eco-City

In the past decade the ‘creative cluster’ has become a driver of urban renewal in China. Many cluster developments attract human capital and investment to post-industrial spaces. This paper looks at two developments which are more post-agricultural than post-industrial: the first is Songzhuang, a large scale contemporary art community situated on the eastern fringe of Beijing, the second is Hangzhou’s White Horse Lake Creative Eco-City, a ‘mixed variety’ cluster model which integrates elements of art, fashion, design and animation. The common factor in both cases is how they came into existence. In both districts urban creative workers moved into a rural environment. Drawing on interviews with planners, officials, and residents we investigate the challenges of sustaining such fringe clusters.