Unit 1 .3 Studio Project Cultural Exchange: Design and Trade in Global Context

Unit 1.3

Studio Project

Cultural Exchange: Design and Trade in Global Context

Lecture: ‘Creative Economies’

An exploration of the relationship between trade and creativity

Dr Martin Bouette

A Lecture in 4 parts:

1 – Historical thoughts (Sutton Hoo and the Silk road)2 – Turning points: Socialism and the Avant-garde creative verses the idealism of the

machine age (Great Exhibition, William Morris and Bauhaus)

3 – Political factors (The development of the term creative industries, and the race to establish a knowledge economies)

4 – Contemporary issues (Ethics, technology, the environment and an aging population)

Historical thoughts

Sutton Hoo and the Silk road (history reflects current practice)

Sutton Hoo Treasure – 7th Century AD, England

Silk Princess Painting – 7th Century AD, Khotan (Now Western China)

Thoughts

7th century Asian creatives were skilled and highly regarded

Asia has long been a manufacturing hub

Competitive development was as rife in the 7th century as it is now

Quality is a strong trading tool

Turning Points

Socialism and the Avant-garde creative verses the idealism of the machine age (Morris, the great exhibition and the Bauhaus)

Details from the Great Exhibition of 1851

Morris and co (1865)

Thoughts

Great exhibition highlighted a both the advantages and disadvantages of mass production

Morris’s craft revival was equally flawed, elitist and idealistic, but underpinned the need for skills and knowledge in design

Bauhaus builds the foundations for style, function and integrity in the design of mass manufactured goods (although Bauhaus objects were as bespoke as Morris’s)

The inherent value of quality and design

Political factors

Compartmentalising the creative industries in the UK, identifying their size, looking at other countries

Pondering current issues and looking at opportunities for creative development

The UK and the development of a categorised Creative Industries

The big 13

advertising, architecture, art and antiques, computer games, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, music, performing arts, publishing, software, TV and radio.

But why define it?

What are the flaws of this approach?

‘The creative industries are those industries that are based on individual creativity, skill and talent. They are also those that have the potential to create wealth and jobs through developing intellectual property’

DCMS (2010)

It’s big isn’t it?

Creative employment provides around two million jobs, in the creative sector itself and in creative roles in other sectors, DCMS 2010

Creative Britain: New talents for the new economy

‘South Korea has clawed its way out of poverty by becoming a manufacturing powerhouse [ ] The ability to harness creativity will be the biggest challenge, as well as the biggest opportunity, for South Korea’.

Richard Florida 2002

‘The first Cultural and Creative Industries Development Policy was legislated on 7 January 2010. Taiwan’s CCI sector now comprises 15 different sub-sectors. [ ] The top 6 sub-sectors being the key flagship ones that the Taiwanese support with funding of £384.6 million’

Taiwan Creative Industries Sector report 2010

Taiwans’ top 15:

• 1. Product Design • 2. Digital Content • 3. Craft • 4. Music and Performing Arts • 5. Movies/Film • 6. Broadcasting and Television • 7. Visual Arts • 8. Cultural Asset Applications & Performance/Exhibition Facilities • 9. Publishing • 10. Advertising • 11. Branding and Fashion Design • 12. Creative Lifestyle • 13. Architectural Design • 14. Visual Communications Design • 15. Pop Music & Culture Content

Thoughts

Who will be the knowledge economies of the future?

What happens if we push it too far (x factor? Pre-decided fashion cycles?)

Contemporary issues

Ethics, technology, the environment and aging populations

Beauty and elegance verses cost, desire and greed: What is the human and ethical cost of our desires?

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries and many of these children are forced to work. 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. (BBC 2007)

The biggest users of child labour are:

Shoes – Child labour is particularly prominent in the manufacture of trainers

Clothing - In the U.S. the majority of garment workers are immigrant women that work 60-80 hours a week, usually without minimum wage or over time pay.

Toys - A lot of toys are made in sweatshops and by child labour factories China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The average North American toy maker earns $11 an hour. In China, toy workers earn an average of 30 cents an hour

It isn’t only happening in developing countries. We are exploiting workers in the UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7824788.stm

Thoughts

How do we educate consumers in wealthy countries? Few are aware that an average factory worker making garments will earn only a few pounds a day and the labour cost as a percentage of the garment at retail price is less than 2%

Consumers are not always aware of the true cost of the goods they purchase

Some don’t care that their cheaper products come at a high cost to others

Technology and the electronic age (second life to the ipad)

Is the Emotive EPOC headset Brain Computer Interface the future of gaming?

Next generation iphone screen?

Smart fabrics and the future of Healthcare

CAD for development of bespoke craft

Thoughts

What are the commercial risks of using technology?

How can small companies afford to compete?

How do you make technology more accessible?

The environmental debate

Droog – Experimental product design

Tesler – Electric cars

Virgin Green Fund focuses on middle market growth and expansion investment opportunities in the renewable energy and resource efficiency sectors including water.

The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth's climate.

‘The materials chosen by designer and manufacturer are crucial. Mining metal for cars creates atmospheric pollution, and uses oil and petrol, thus wasting natural resources that cannot be replaced. The designer’s decision to use foam plastics to make cheap, throw-away food containers damages the ozone layer. This is not a prescription for doing nothing at all, but an attempt to make designers aware that every choice and dilemma in their work can have far-reaching and long-term ecological consequences’.

Viktor Papanek (1995)

Thoughts

How concerned should the designer be with environmental issues?

Whose responsibility is it?

Is there a commercial benefit in embracing sustainable and environmental issues into design and production?

Design for an aging population

With an increasing older generation we have increasingly higher levels of disability related to age

DDDDDesign Berlin:Packaging design for all

Helen Hamlyn Research InstituteStudent Mathew White – Power tool Designed for older people for B&Q

Panasonic tilted drum washingmachines and driers.Designed to reduce awkward bendingand reaching actions

Thoughts

With people living longer we have increasing numbers of older people with practical needs who also have disposable incomes

How will this affect creative activities?

Music, television, films, interior design are all servicing mixed audiences

Contemporary design for the 60’s generation

Parting thoughts

Asia has long been a manufacturing hub, it has also been a creative one, and may well be again.. soon

In Europe the industrial revolution saw fractions in design and craft, but is their an opportunity to bring these together?

Using the term Creative Industries as a way of clustering types of businesses has proved commercially useful in the UK. It is also being adopted by some Asian countries

The future of commercial success has design and creativity at its heart and relies on multiple factors: Ethical, Technological, Environmental and Inclusivity

Any questions?