Funded Research Relevant to
the Creativity Support Tools Workshop
Ernest Edmonds, University of Technology, Sydney
The notes that follow cannot represent a
comprehensive international survey. Rather, they draw on a limited number of
examples in order to illuminate the current situation in initiatives to promote
and support advances relating to creative capability.
Perhaps the most
influential recent move that has moved the interest in funding research in
creativity forward has been a concern, in certain governments for “the Creative
Industries”.
“Those industries that have their origin in individual
creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job
creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”
Was the
definition used by a UK government initiative, the Creative Industries Task
Force which was established by the Prime Minister in 1997. It concluded its
work in 2000 and is succeeded by the inter-departmental Ministerial Creative
Industries Strategy Group. The Task Group’s main conclusions were included in
the Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001, published in 2001. In the
first version of the document, published in 1998, the Secretary of State, Chris
Smith, said
“Culture and Creativity
are vital to our national life…But there is another justification for
creativity…the creative industries generate revenues approaching £60bn a year.
They contribute over 4% to the national economy and employ around one and a
half million people. The sector is growing faster than, almost twice as fast
as, the economy as a whole.” (Creative Industries Mapping Document 1998).
These concerns have been echoed in other countries, such as
Hong Kong, with its Baseline Study on Hong Kong's Creative Industries
of 2003 (Central Policy Unit) or the Japanese NLI
Research Institute report, SOCIOECONOMICS 2003/12/02 [The Status of Creative
Industries in Japan and Policy Recommendations for Their Promotion ]. In all
cases, the economic importance of creativity is seen to be important and,
hence, an argument for improving capability made. Recently Brazil
has become committed to serve as the headquarters for an International Centre
for the Creative Industries (ICCI),
planned to be established by the United Nations in 2006.
In the UK, one very notable initiative was the formation of
a funding body specifically charged with the task of promoting creativity, NESTA - the
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, which was
founded in 1998. To quote from their publicity:
“We are funded by an
endowment from the National Lottery and use the interest to back people of
exceptional talent and imagination. We do our best to offer the support they
need to explore new ideas, develop new products and services, or experiment
with new ways of nurturing creativity in science, technology and the arts.”
A number of research bodies have been working in this
direction within existing remits, however. For example, again in the UK, the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council modified its Human Factors
in Information Technology programme to include “support for creativity” as one
example of what could be funded: only a small word change, but quite a
significant one. This change was made following the Creativity and Cognition 2 1996 conference,
which the responsible Council officer attended. The Loughborough research on
the topic, COSTART, was largely funded as a result of
this initiative. Of all the work mentioned in this note, this is the only
research which can be said to both arise from a specific funding initiative and
focus on creativity support tools and methods. Promoting creativity, however
might often be best served simply by putting creative people from different
fields together.
Perhaps the most interesting specific funding opportunities
have been those that brought artists and scientists, for example, together.
These have included the Synapse initiative in Australia, run by the Australia Council, which is particularly
interesting in how it used existing mechanisms. Synapse is funded partly by the
Australian Research Council as an academic/industrial partnership. The specific
arrangement made was to allow the arts funding body, the Australian Council, to
count as an industrial partner. In the UK, the Arts and Humanities Research Council is
funding arts science collaborations. As are A
C E the Arts Council of England. The Wellcome Trust is also funding
art/science projects, sciart, that bring leading scientists and
artists together.
There are a number of important institutions that support
collaborative research through various funding arrangements. For example, in
Canada, the
Banff Centre, in Austria, ARS
Electronica FUTURELAB,in Germany, ZKM, the Center for Art and Media and in
Hungary C3,
the Center for Culture & Communication. Some of these have
access to government money, others have industrial funding and many are
primarily self funding. Some new media educational institutions have
interesting programmes within their repertoire, for example IAMAS
in Japan and UTS in Australia. From time-to-time
companies have operated programmes of collaboration, such as the artist in
residence scheme PAIR
at Xerox PARC.
Many of the specific examples mentioned above arose from the
strategic directions set as a result of realising that creativity is of
economic as well as social importance. Following that understanding, much of
the rest can follow.
Links:
Creative
Industries Mapping Document 2001 : http://www.culture.gov.uk/global/publications/archive_2001/ci_mapping_doc_2001.htm?properties=archive%5F2001%2C%2Fcreative%5Findustries%2FQuickLinks%2Fpublications%2Fdefault%2C&month=
Creative Industries Mapping Document 1998 :
http://www.culture.gov.uk/global/publications/archive_1998/Creative_Industries_Mapping_Document_1998.htm?properties=archive%5F1998%2C%2Fcreative%5Findustries%2FQuickLinks%2Fpublications%2Fdefault%2C&month=
Central Policy Unit: http://www.info.gov.hk/cpu/english/new.htm
(ICCI) :
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/2111/49/
NESTA - the
National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts : http://www.nesta.org.uk/
Creativity
and Cognition 2 :
http://research.it.uts.edu.au/creative/lutchi/ccog2.html
COSTART :
http://research.it.uts.edu.au/creative/COSTART/
Australia Council :
http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/other_support_new_media_arts/synapse/
A C E :
http://213.130.131.21/ace/html/frames.html
sciart
: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/node2530.html
the Banff
Centre :
http://www.banffcentre.ca/programs/
ARS
Electronica FUTURELAB : http://www.aec.at/de/futurelab/index.asp
ZKM, the Center for Art and Media :
http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/
C3, the
Center for Culture & Communication :
http://www.c3.hu/c3/txt-index.html
IAMAS
: http://www.iamas.ac.jp/
UTS
: http://www.creativityandcognition.com/
PAIR :
http://www.pair.xerox.com/