Shaping new cultural roles: relationships between creators and industry

Gemma San Cornelio, Ruth Pagès, Antoni Roig,

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

The future of cultural work7 June 2010London, Open University

1) Context: creative practices and new media

2) Art and industry: creativity and innovation

3) Mediators, two case studies:Origin and conditions

4) Analysis of case studies

5) Conclusions

Index

Framework: creative practices and participation in new media

industries artists

Publics, prosumers independent creators

Convergence culture (Jenkins)Creative industries (Hartley)

Co-creativity (Banks, Deuze)

Free laborCreative class

Institutionalization of the bohemia

Conceptualizatio

ns in progress

Conceptualizatio

ns in progress

Industries and artists

Need for growth

Creativity as Innovation

Collaboration Art & Industry

Need for growth

Creativity and talent as Innovation

Collaboration Art & Industry

Relationships between art and industry

Hypothesis

HypothesisConceptualizations of both creativity and innovation shape the structure of such relationships

CREATIVITY

originality (novelty, uniqueness)

effectivity

non-conventional personality

Runco, 2007

'building or producing something from nothing'

Boden, 1994

Romantic, misterious connotations

CREATIVITY

•Price to be paid

•Self-destruction

•Faustic pact (Gardner)

• Risks and resignations

Risks and price to be paid

Sternberg & O'Hara, 2005

Like stock Investment:

buy low and sell high

Sternberg, O'Hara & Lubart 1997 Enterpreneurship risks

Enterpreneurship risks

INNOVATION

Schumpeter 1950

Essential to

capitalism

Essential to

capitalism

Creative destruction

New Bussiness

destroy old ones

CONCEPTS STUDY CASE

Institutes and Universities

RESEARCH

MODEL

Between

Art and

Industry

MEDIATORS

MODEL

Models of collaboration between artists and industries

MEDIA LAB

MODEL

Residence

programs

Mediators: two case studies in Spain

Talent Factory/ Disonancias

Talent Factory

• Program boosted by the Digitalent Foundation (funded by different institutions and private companies).

• ‘Talent Factory’ selects independent creators (talents) to work in their facilities in a personal project. Since 2008.

• The resulting product –a demo- will be sold to the companies that collaborate with the program in order to be produced.

• 3 projects (2 in progress)

Disonancias

• Private company: Grupo Xabide + local governments

• Connect artists with companies (industry in a wide sense).

• Divergentes 2005 (too artistic!)

• Now artists don’t do autonomous artistic projects Work on industry’s demands

• 4 editions / 40 projects+

• Conexiones improbables (new programm)

Origins and context

Conditions of collaboration

Talent Factory

1) CALL FOR PROJECTS (ADRESSED TO CREATORS)

2) PROJECTS AND “TALENTS” ARE CHOSEN

3) COLLABORATION BEGINS

• 3 months initially, currently more

• Working regularly in the Digitalent facilities

• Several meetings during the process (not systematized)

• Addressed to contents // Focused on the results in the digital industry

Disonancias

1) CALL FOR COMPANIES

2) CALL FOR ARTISTS (PROPOSING SOLUTIONS/PROJECTS FOR COMPANIES)

3) COLLABORATION BEGINS

• 9 month alliance (virtual + physical stay of 20 days minimum in the companies)

• Joint meetings at the beginning

• Joint meetings at the end (Spanish tour)

• Addressed to companies // Focused on methodology and process

Conditions of collaboration

Aims and exploitation

Talent Factory

• Feeding industries. Commercial outcome for creative projects -> legitimization as mediators and agents of change.

• Scale economy to creativity (interest in handling an important amount of projects, so distributing fixed costs)

• Systematization of every step in the creative process (wish to obtain an ISO license).

• ‘Radar’/ ‘Interest maps’: it is not clear what is ‘happening’ on the Internet.

Disonancias

• Committed to society (priority of projects socially-oriented)

• Collaborative, multidisciplinary, international vision, hybrid process of research

• Target: Prototype/idea/process responds to the needs of the company

• Create a culture of innovation in the industry. Influence in the conceptual and methodological framework.

• Connected to European Networks of similar projects. “Tillt Europe-Creative Clash”

Aims and bussiness

Talent Factory

• Every contractual relation is unique.

• The Factory owns the exclusive right to sell the project on behalf of the talent for a period of a year after a model/demo has been produced.

• The prospective buyer of the idea/project takes charge of the further expenses of the project.

• After the first year deal, the ‘talent’ gets his/her right back to commercialize the project. In any case, the Foundation would obtain the 5% of revenues of the Project for an unlimited time.

• 12,000€ (fees for work)

Disonancias

1. Non-commercial, share alike: CC

2. Exclusive granting to company - remuneration to artist at fixed rate.

3. Exclusive granting to company - remuneration to artist proportional to exploitation income

4. Exclusive granting to company - except transformation. No remuneration

• 10,000 to 12,000€ (fees for work)

Exploitation of projects

Analysis: conceptual and structural issues

Talent FactoryTALENT AND CREATIVITY

• Attached to “outsiders”. Not related to CV or education.

• Must take place in the digital industries

• Come from different areas and must be shaped.

• Creativity as a changing process, not just an attitude.

• Search creators beyond artistic purposes. But artists are one of their targets.

• Don’t look for ‘free creativity’: ‘participatory open environment’

• Monitored process: ideas should have the potential to be ‘enriched’

• Segregation of creation and production processes.

Disonancias

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

• Not the mythical bohemian any more

• BUT-

• ‘thinks out of the box’, ‘comes with unconventional ideas’, ‘breaks our frame of mind’

• Disonance

• Systematizing creativity • From non-useful to profitable • Technical training, team work, new

materials, flexible environments…

Conceptual analysis

• Need for added value based on innovation.• Industry sectors in Spain reticent to innovation -> need for

transformation. The answer: bringing together creators and industries through a mediator agent.

• Starting point: detection of a lack in the industry -> ‘problem-solving’• Capturing creativity and ideas to put in an industry logic.• Romantic view of talented individuals as outsiders.• Distrust on the ‘inertia’ of the creative processes -> Creativity nurtured

trough a strongly directed process (ideas ‘enriched’ by the Factory). And monitorized in the case of Disonancias.

• Short periods. No permanent relation.

• Differentiation between the ‘creator’ and the ‘producers’.(Talent Factory)

• Emotional engaging (Disonancias), and some long-term relationships.• Still to see their impact on economies.

Structural analysis

Conclusions and further research

Ambivalent and contradictory concepts of both creativity, art and industry

Role of artists -> Labour conditions Attractive for governments

Creative processes Equal and fair benefits for both parts

Thank you!

gsan_cornelio@uoc.edu