creativity/machine

The Ideas Festival, four days of ideas, innovation and invention will be held from 29 March to 2 April 2006 at Brisbane’s South Bank.

The Festival program includes:
o 100 national, international and local speakers
o 73 speaker sessions
o 23 sessions for secondary students in the new Ideas for Schools program
o a free four day program of Kids Ideas activities and workshops for 4-8 year olds
o free exhibitions and demonstrations
o the opening night event – the Ideas Debate- on Wednesday 29 March

Speakers include Cory Doctorow, Julian Burnside, Tristram Carfrae, Frank Furedi, Giselle Gass, Pat Kane, Elspeth Probyn, and Ingrid Van Beek.

[Apologies for loooooong blockquotes]

I recently received word that the AoIR 7.0 panel I’m organising with Melissa Gregg, Sal Humphreys, David Berry and Christina Spurgeon has been accepted. The title of the panel is ‘Creativity and its Discontents: Critical Perspectives on the Cultural Economy of New Media’, and here’s the abstract:

In recent years there has been a growth in ‘cyberbole’ (Woolgar, 2002) that insists that the increased availability and power of digital technologies for production and distribution represent a revolution that will allow ‘everyone’ to be an active and creative media participant. The perceived effect of this is that media users are able to evade the ideological dominance and commercial imperatives of the mass media. However, this democratisation discourse converges persistently with emerging neoliberal business and economic models under which consumers (or ‘users’), particularly of technology, are considered to possess and exercise more creativity and agency than before. This is often combined with a rhetoric of the surge in the power of voluntary work and ‘productive’ leisure. Leadbeater and Miller view the current surge in non-professional creativity as a ‘new ethic of amateurism’ that ‘could be one of the defining features of developed society’ (2004, p. 22). In a much more general sense, Richard Florida (2002) argues that more-or-less ubiquitous creativity (ubiquitous, that is, to the ‘developed’ world) is central to the present and near future of labour and cultural citizenship.

This panel aims to provide detailed accounts of the limits of these discourses. We will examine the complexity of agency and the constraints on it within the cultural economy of new media, particularly in relation to neoliberal economics and what ‘creative industries’ and their users, consumers, or co-creators are actually doing. We deliberately choose to focus on examples within the demographics and fields of practice that are most frequently invoked as exemplary by these discourses (MMOG players and other online communities, DIY media, the ‘new economy’ worker). We critique from a number of angles the rhetoric which insists these instances are proof of the transformative effect of the convergence between the conditions of cultural production and consumption. The prevailing structures of power impose often unacknowledged constraints on the agency of the neo-liberal ‘empowered consumer’. The frictions caused by the intersection of commercial interests, citizenship, and the affective and/or creative investments made by media users must be examined.

References

Bowman, Shane, and Willis, Chris (2003) WeMedia: How Audiences Are Shaping the Future of News and Information, Reston, Va.: The Media Center at the American Press Institute.

Florida, Richard (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class, New York: Basic Books.
Leadbeater, Charles, and Paul (2004) The Pro-Am Revolution: How Enthusiasts Are Changing Our Economy and Society, London: Demos.

Woolgar, Steve (2002) ‘Five Rules of Virtuality’, In Steve Woolgar (Ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality (pp. 1-22), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

And this is my own abstract - I’d be grateful for any comments that come to mind:

DIY, the Digerati and the Digital Divide: The Cultural Politics of New Media Literacy

In cultural and media studies, it is becoming orthodox to say that content creation is as essential to higher orders of new media literacy as writing was to print literacy. Content creation is also seen as key to ‘voice’ in the digital mediascape, and to participation in the networked cultural public sphere. Indeed, Sonia Livingstone (2004) has recently argued that attention to content creation as a component of literacy is ‘crucial to the democratic agenda’, positioning new media users ‘not merely as consumers but also as citizens’ (p. 11). In this paper, I am specifically concerned with interrogating the idea that everyday creative uses of digital technologies are a freely available point of access to such participation. On the continuum of participation, why is it that most Internet users are still lurkers rather than creators?

It is a fact that easier-to-use and more powerful tools are, in theory, available to anyone with physical access to a PC (or, increasingly, a mobile phone); but creative consumer hype, invoking the technological sublime, constructs the tools themselves as reified ‘magical solutions’. This shallowly utopian perspective correlates in philosophical terms to the model of lack represented by technologically deterministic ‘have-or-have-not’ concepts like ‘the digital divide’. With Warschauer, I argue that ‘digital inclusion’ is a much more useful term of critique and analysis than ‘digital divide’, which implies a binaristic and linear model of access, rather than a complex ecosystem of privilege, access and participation. Secondly, it is not possible to understand the unevenness of active and effective participation in digital culture without a critical and empirically grounded theory of literacy and the way it articulates to the dynamics of cultural capital, education, and class.

Livingstone (2004) proposes that most discussions of new media literacy are characterised by historically unresolved tensions between ‘critical’ or ‘enlightenment’ views of literacy – polarised philosophical positions that see literacy as a normative and exclusionary construction on the one hand (the ‘critical’ view); or as an aid to progress and equality that we should aim to extend to all people on the other (the ‘enlightenment’ view). In this paper, I propose a position that critically evaluates and balances these two available approaches. Drawing on cultural and media studies perspectives and methodological concerns, the paper will analyse the emerging patterns of cultural competencies and cultural value that work to construct new media literacy for cultural participation; and evaluate the potential and limitations of programs (such as the Digital Storytelling movement and classroom blogging) that aim to address the unevenness of access to new media literacy.

Using textual analysis, ethnographic and interview data, I demonstrate that, on the one hand, the ‘digerati’ – A-list bloggers, for example – share a particular class location, and that the emerging aesthetic and ethical norms of online ‘DIY culture’ map onto the tastes and values of this demographic. Equally, it is undeniable that the tools for democratic participation in new media are in fact available and at least theoretically accessible to a much broader demographic; and the pragmatism of participatory ethics dictates that it is urgent that non-elite members of society learn to use them in the effective service of diverse social and developmental goals. Such a view is represented by work such as that carried out by community Digital Storytelling programs and the emphasis on ‘creative literacies’ in e-learning. The paper ends by assessing the potential for such interventions to work effectively in the service of digital inclusion.

Livingstone, Sonia (2004) ‘Media Literacy and The Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies’, The Communication Review, 7: 3-14.

Warschauer, Mark (2003) Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

I’ve just finished work (with Helen Klaebe and an absolutely crack pair of research/production assistants) on the second series of digital stories for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village Sharing Stories project.

This time, we were working mostly with older current and past residents of the Kelvin Grove area, and we’d discovered early on (with the help of past participants) that the motivation to make digital stories as part of this project was not primarily ‘creative’, but rather to do with the preservation of memory, social interaction and the sharing of knowledge. Additionally, several participants had health issues that made it difficult to do everything the ‘traditional’ way.

So we tried some experiments, including taking over a lot of the final assembly of the images and sound, while focussing on getting everybody together to share their stories, talk about their memories of the site, and ensuring that they all participated in the storyboarding and made decisions around the final editing process. We also tried something I’ve been wanting to play with for a while, which was to make some unscripted stories. This meant that the outcome of the storycircle process for some participants was something like an interview schedule - a roadmap for a chat - rather than a script that they read out. I then had the task of editing down long audio files (in some cases, 20 minutes worth) to 2 minute voiceovers, which was interesting. Not least because of the additional ethical and emotional burden on the team to get the substance and spirit of the story right. It’s also brought into sharp relief my ongoing questions about just how much the mastery of technologies is essential to cultural participation in new media contexts.

Yesterday was the screening of the next-to-final versions, and it went well so look out for the launch in May/June sometime.

Vibewire.net e-Festival of Ideas
:: April 4-8 2006::

Mark it in your diary now, ‘cos you’re invited to the second annual e-Festival of Ideas - a conference with a virtual, democratic twist.

Unlike most physical conferences, Vibewire.net’s e-Festival of Ideas is unfettered by geographic locality, free to participate in, and you can have your say at any time during the festival, day or night. It’s a conference taken online and democratised.

It’s an opportunity for everyone - expert and non-expert - to share perspectives and insights on issues that matter to you, from global poverty to identity, the media, art and travel. These nine lively panels will feature guests such as -

Peter Garrett - Federal MP & musician

Mary Mycio - Environmental author & journalist

Courtney Gibson - Head of Entertainment, ABC TV

Alan Kay - Software guru

Malcolm Long - Director, AFTRS

Ryan Heath – Author, ‘Please Just F* Off, It’s Our Turn Now’

Megan Spencer - Resident film geek, jjj

Andrew Charlton - Co-author, ‘Fair Trade for All’

Michael Agar - Director, Popcorn Taxi Film Festival

Erin Free – Editor, Filmink

In addition to stimulating debate, feature articles, blog posts and relevant resources, there’ll also be some great contributor prizes up for grabs, so get online and jon the conversation!

More details at www.vibewire.net/efestival

I’ve had this cartoon (on a birthday card) pinned up somewhere in every office or study i’ve occupied since 1994, when a dear friend gave it to me. I saw it this morning and realised that at some point in the recent past, without my noticing, it began to make sense to me the other way round.

I’m going to this - quite excited that there is such an interest in critical design theory in Built Environment and Engineering at QUT:

Faculty of the Built Environment and Engineering School of Design and Design Research Theme

Invite you for a public talk

Design for, by and with users: from participatory design to meta-design and place-making

Speaker: Prof Pelle Ehn, Malmö University, Sweden

Date: Wednesday, 22 March 2006
Time: 18.00 (for 18.15)
Venue: ‘ O’ 308, Gardens Point campus, Queensland University of Technology

Abstract

Making products and services that are meaningful to their users is one of the foundations for design. One approach to meet this demand in the design process has been labeled participatory design, inviting stakeholders as co-designers. Examples of this approach, a theoretical foundation and potential shortcomings will be reflected upon. This leads into reconsidering user participation and towards a more general perspective of meta-design of artefacts and infrastructures, towards designing and eventually the ways in which people make place. Some of these reflections will be in line with the just published “The Semantic Turn a new foundation for design” by Ulm designer and professor of communication Klaus Krippendorff.

Language-games, design-games and place-making-games will be central concepts, but the foundational “turn” or “twist” suggested is pragmatic rather than semantic.

I am so deeply angry and upset about this.

And the fact that Aunty Delmae Barton should feel she had to say “But I was wearing good clothes” makes me want to disappear.

Shame on us.

On the OtherFilm Festival - 23-26 March
www.otherfilm.org

Otherfilm Festival is a four-day festival of expanded cinema, installation, sound ecology and Super8 workshops, and music/moving image performances. We start from a point of view that sees ‘cinema’ differently, as something that’s open to re-imagining; something that’s crying out to be liberated from predetermined structures and experiences. This year’s festival features a dazzling array of film and sound performances which expand traditional notions of ‘cinema’, installations which elaborate on the idea of ‘the screen’ and workshops which will introduce participants to ideas of acoustic ecology, as well as shooting, processing, editing and projecting Super8 and 16mm film.

To celebrate the role of Australian filmmakers in the international history of expanded cinema, Otherfilm are delighted to welcome Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, pioneering film artists and authors of the long-running avant-garde film journal, Cantrills’ Filmnotes. Arthur and Corinne will treat Brisbane audiences to a rare expanded cinema performance involving voice and body movement, objects, specially crafted screens and avant-garde film. The curators gratefully acknowledge that the Cantrills’ visit has been made possible with generous support from the Centre For Public Culture and Ideas.

This year’s Otherfilm Festival will be held at the College Gallery, Queensland College of Art, and the Globe Cinema, Fortitude Valley 23-26 March. Opening and Closing Night events and workshops (including materials) are free; Globe performances and screenings will be $6 or $10 for both nights.

Curators: Danni Zuvela, Joel Stern and Sally Golding
email: info[at]otherfilms[dot]org or see website for more details: www.otherfilm.org