• 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.’
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
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?
collabora'on = conversa'on?
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?)
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?
making work together
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?
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
The crea've workplace?
Hmmm…deceptively informal?
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)
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…!
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?
Then….
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”
ar'sts’ organisa'ons; media co-‐ops; cultural enterprises
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
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/
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?
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”
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?
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?
..follow up
• Bibliography and weblinks (on Blackboard)
• MashingUp lecture/symposium series
• Social bookmarks: delicious.com/grahamje
• Blogs: uwsprac'ceresearch.blogspot.com
generalpraxis.blogspot.com
• Email: [email protected]