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The career-building strategies of individual creators: A meta-analysis of qualitative research funded by CREATe

Posted on    by Joy Davidson
Blog

The career-building strategies of individual creators: A meta-analysis of qualitative research funded by CREATe

By 21 June 2016No Comments

2016-06-cover

CREATe is delighted to announce the release of a new working paper authored by Ealasaid Munro, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow. The working paper outlines the findings of the Voices of CREATe project which aimed to provide a comprehensive picture of CREATe’s research into the activities of individual creators. A dedicated panel session will explore these findings at the CREATe Festival later this week. More details have been provided by Ealasaid  in her post.

In late 2015, I was asked by Martin Kretschmer and Philip Schlesinger to lead a new CREATe-funded work package – titled ‘Voices of CREATe’ – that specifically sought to draw out the ‘voices’ of individual creators from across the seven interrelated themes addressed by the consortium.

Via a qualitative meta-analysis of both published material and unpublished primary data supplied by some of the work package leaders, I have constructed a comprehensive picture of CREATe’s research into the activities of individual creators. This working paper forms one of the outputs of Voices of CREATe, and has been released to coincide with the CREATe Festival, to be held at RSA House in London, on June 24th.

The key themes that have come out of an examination of the ‘voices’ of individual creators are: first, that despite 20 years of government intervention in the creative economy, that creative labour remains – in the main – extremely precarious. Second, it is clear that from the perspective of individual creators, the copyright framework – as it currently stands – neither incentivises creativity nor ensures adequate protection in cases of infringement. Third, the disruptive effects of technological change have been felt far more keenly in some sectors than others.

A panel of academics and creative practitioners will respond to the findings of Voices of CREATe at the CREATe festival. The panel will feature:

  • Philip Schlesinger, University of Glasgow: Philip was appointed as the University of Glasgow’s inaugural Chair in Cultural Policy in 2007. He is a Deputy Director of CREATe, and is currently Visiting Professor of Media and Communications at the LSE.
  • Ealasaid Munro, University of Glasgow: Ealasaid is a feminist geographer with interests in culture, creativity, care, immaterial and affective labour and the nature of creative work. She also investigates the organisation of the research economy, and offers a critical perspective on the practice of Knowledge Exchange.
  • Kenny Barr, University of Glasgow: Kenny’s research focuses primarily on creators’ ‘ lived experience’ of music copyright in the digital age. Prior to embarking on this academic journey Kenny worked for a number of years as a tour manager overseeing live music tours in the UK, Europe and North America and he continues his involvement in live music and artist management.
  • John Street, University of East Anglia: John is a professor of politics at the University of East Anglia. He has been involved in several CREATe work packages – on the regulation of Collective Management Organisations and on musicians’ understanding of copyright. Much of his research has been about the relationship between music and politics and about political communication. He serves on the CREATe Management Committee on the Editorial Group of the journal Popular Music.
  • Anna Derrig, Goldsmiths: Anna Derrig’s current research concerns the place for consent in life writing. If it can’t be obtained there may well be consequences – literary and otherwise, including possible legal challenges, as in the James Rhodes’ case last year. Consent can add to, rather than detract from creativity, or deter writing, if handled sensitively and ethically. Anna considers cases where a lack of consent has caused problems for all concerned. Even when you write about yourself, you inevitably write about others and they have rights too.
  • Christian von Borries, MASSEUNDMACHT: Christian von Borries produces media from other media. He is an orchestra conductor, composer and producer of site specific psychogeographic projects. his work was comissioned by lucerne festival, kunstfest weimar, volksbuehne berlin, kampnagel hamburg and documenta 12 among others. In 2011, he was guest professor for architecture at the art academy in Nuremberg, and 2012 he was teaching at the film school HFF in Potsdam. Last year, he took part in the Central Asian pavilion of the Venice Biennale, the Bergen Assembly in Bergen, Norway and Werkleitz Biennale in Halle, Germany.
  • Liz Dowthwaite, University of Nottingham: Liz is a doctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham, currently researching web-comic artists and their career-building strategies. In particular, she is researching how artists use online communities to enable crowdfunding, and she also examines how artists negotiate issues around ownership and attributing. She is an expert in the study of human-computer interaction.