[-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology

[Simon Biggs]

Hi Ruth

Sorry to hear you aren't too well. Look forward to your considered
engagement with the issues when you are feeling little better. Your
contribution to this discussion has been excellent.

Best

Simon


Simon Biggs
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk  simon at littlepig.org.uk
Skype: simonbiggsuk
http://www.littlepig.org.uk/

Research Professor  edinburgh college of art
http://www.eca.ac.uk/
Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
http://www.elmcip.net/
Centre for Film, Performance and Media Arts
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/film-performance-media-arts


> From: Ruth Catlow <ruth.catlow at furtherfield.org>
> Reply-To: <ruth.catlow at furtherfield.org>, soft_skinned_space
> <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:35:31 +0100
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> The last few days' discussions have been excellent. Thanks to Magnus for
> all the additional pointers and to Johannes and Simon for highlighting
> such an excellent collection of questions in relation to the problematic
> vocabularies and behaviours of 'creativity' and 'networking'. This set
> of questions especially preoccupies us at Furtherfield at the moment as
> issues of survival demand ever more urgent attention.
> 
> Having said that I'm feeling a bit unwell today and would like to give
> the questions better attention.
> 
> respect to all,
> 
> Ruth
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon Biggs <s.biggs at eca.ac.uk>
> Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology
> Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:59:27 +0100
> 
> 
> Hi Johannes
> 
> I think there was an "English" blueprint launched for the creative
> industries. I have several concerns with this, which I would guess you
> share. Firstly, the concept of the creative industries is a clear means for
> government and industry to appropriate and secure creativity as an
> industrial trope. As many have argued, probably most famously Adorno, this
> sort of appropriation seeks not only to secure value from creative practice
> for other activities but also to industrialise creativity and thus normalise
> it. That is to say, this is a way to ensure that anything dangerous,
> alternative or generally threatening to the status quo (as perceived by the
> government) is rendered harmless. The instrument for doing this is, more
> often than not, is money. In this context the temporary and motile character
> of the sort of thing that Magnus was describing could be a necessary tactic
> if creative people are to work without being consumed by the "system". This
> relates to Hakim Bey's idea of the Temporary Autonomous Zone, which was a
> popular trope at about the time that The Chateau was operating. Similarly,
> the fact that Furtherfield has been able to function for so long as a
> thriving community and centre without being appropriated is a testament not
> only to their capability and tenacity but also their ethical clarity.
> 
> So, I think what is of potential interest here is not the similarities
> between CHiT and Furtherfield but their differences.
> 
> Best
> 
> Simon
> 
> 
> Simon Biggs
> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk  simon at littlepig.org.uk
> Skype: simonbiggsuk
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
> 
> Research Professor  edinburgh college of art
> http://www.eca.ac.uk/
> Creative Interdisciplinary Research into CoLlaborative Environments
> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
> Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice
> http://www.elmcip.net/
> Centre for Film, Performance and Media Arts
> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/film-performance-media-arts
> 
> 
>> From: Johannes Birringer <Johannes.Birringer at brunel.ac.uk>
>> Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>> Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:09:24 +0100
>> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>> Subject: RE: [-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology
>> 
>> yes, and wasn't there a "blueprint" launched  for the UK's creative
>> industries
>> this week?  
>> 
>> what i am trying to get at are the terms and underlying hopes that were
>> articulated 
>> last week about activism, grass roots,  or this exceedingly generative
>> creativity mentioned above, the
>> shared passions, the "community," the collaborations. and so on.  but we
>> can't
>> say for sure what impact
>> social networks have. can we?  and what kind of  impact?   impact now is also
>> a government 
>> assessment term, and rings hollow as it will be used ideologically and with
>> economic repercussions.
>> 
>> what i gathered from the posts was a generally shared claim that people
>> involved, intermittently,
>> with these spaces you described explored and "learnt a lot about different
>> ways of organizing."
> 
> 
> 
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number
> SC009201
> 
> 
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Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201