•  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:  Graham.Jeffery@uws.ac.uk