When I enrolled the course”Creative
business and creative economy I had little, if any, ideas about what the
content would be. What is creative business and what has the word creativity to
do with issues dealing with economy and business.
In my
opinion, it is impossible to exactly define the concept. According to the Creative
Economy Report 2010 (link) creativity is defined as the process by which ideas
are “generated, connected and transformed into things that are of value”. Well,
most certainly this is the case. But isn’t this a bit vague. What are these
things of value? Literature and researchers define these “things” as pieces of
art – theoretically it can be almost everything. Films, books, music,
paintings, newspapers, fashion, you name it. There is, however, a certain doubt
about whether sports, software or say, pornography, is a creative industry. But
what distinguishes these industries from the more “noble” ones. In my opinion,
nothing. It is the modern society and the “cultural norms” (as they say, I
think such a thing does not even exist) which have set up the boundaries for “fine
art”. Think about Burlesque. Why is it art? But a striptease show is not.
Someone could say that it is the intentions; the striptease dancer is not doing
it for the performance but rather for the money. I would dare to say that so
are the most Burlesque dancers as well doing, for living. You make money by
doing something that it entertaining the public, if it is art is in that case
secondary. Creativity is an artifice set up by the human mind.
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| Is this a creative industry? |
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| ....Or is this a creative industry? |
Fun and
maybe a bit surprising is also why there is such as need to push creative
business into a box and by violence set boundaries for it. Why does everything
have to be so scientific? Creativity loses its glory when researchers and
scientists are so hardly trying to explain and categorize the phenomenon. How
creative is it really to say that “this is creative business”? A bit
paradoxical is however that it is exactly what I am here trying to do. We
participate in courses and workshops where we learn how to be creative. This of
course is extremely stupid since every human being is creative. The question is
only how to use that creative, or rather how to dare to use that creativity.
Think about
Apple’s Steve Jobs. Or IKEA’s Ivan Kamprad. Or any other person leading an innovative business company. Why are
they so creative? The answer is that they are not more or less creative than I
am or you are. They just dared to take the step and give a silly idea a try.
The problem is that we are raised and educated to think and act in an expected
way. It is easier and more safe to study and work just as everybody else. You
get your job, salary and house. But it is not so creative. The one’s who take
the risk (and manage to take it over the difficulties) is often considered as a
creative person. But the truth is that they are not blessed with extra creativity,
they only dare to use it.
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| Different than who? |
I talked
earlier about classification of creative industries. Of course it is the art
economy can be said to be part of cultural economy which then again is part of
a larger entity, the creative economy. But in the end, this classification does
not benefit anyone. I have certain difficulties to really see what I would do
with this information and how does it help me to think in a more creative way.
Even if I am not a fan of these different classifications (e.g. UK DCMS model,
symbolic texts model, concentric circles model, see Creative Economy Report
2010, link below), I can agree with certain thoughts Professor Alf Rehn shared
with us on his last lecture (and this is not only because he is Alf Rehn and you are supposed to agree with him). Mr.
Rehn talked about creativity as discourse, mythology and ideology. The
creativity discourse creates a limited form of thinking about the world.
Naturally, you shouldn’t think and act as the rest of the people do – unless you
don’t agree with them. But I this is easier said than done. Your world, your
work and your home is ruled in a certain way and in your everyday life you don’t
have time to think outside the box.
That was a good example. Did you get it? Thinking
outside the box is one of the expressions uncreative people use (ask Alf if
you don’t believe it). Naturally, I’m in a hurry writing this text since I have
a lot of other things to do. So, I’m guilty of creativity as discourse since I’m not creative enough to come up
with a new and more innovative expression instead. Same goes with the creative
mythology. Many of you would agree if I would say that Google and Apple are
excellent examples of creative companies. But how creative is it really to say
so. In fact, it would even be more creative to say that my aunt’s lingerie
store is a more creative company than Apple.
So finally
comes the question what have I learnt and do I still see creative business and
creative economy the same way? And the answer is clear: no I don’t. It is not
that I would have learned a new definition or explanation for the concept but
rather understood that it cannot be managed, nevertheless learnt. Every person
is creative and creativity is almost everything people perform, if they are not
following a strict manual for that task. It is a waste of time to classify and
discuss which industries are creative and which are not. The simple (but not
easy) answer is: all of them.
References:
Creative Economy Report 2010: http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditctab20103_en.pdf
The Cultural and Creative Industries: http://kulturekonomi.se/uploads/cp_litrev4.pdf
From Economy to Ecology: a Policy Framework for Creative labour: http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/downloads/From-economy-to-ecology.pdf
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