"I Need The Right Side"
One of the first definitions of the context of the creative class is offered by Terry Flew, pointing at the ‘knowledge economy’ and the ‘new capacity to collaboratively develop, distribute, share and communicate knowledge’ (2003: p.22). And while networked ICTs offer a democratising of the capacity for participation in media production, new and unforeseen connections appear between arts, media and the technology sector: their pinnacle are the ‘creative industries’ (Flew, 2003: p.23), due to the fact that creativity is no longer linked only to arts, but to business, science or technology also (Flew, 2003: p.115). As a result, ’the cultural productions are now ‘collaborative, not necessarily driven by market criteria’ (Flew, 2003: p.93).
Moreover, this collaborative working together managed in so little time to provide an entire new ethic, where it is no longer only about ‘do it yourself’, but more and more about ‘do it yourself and together with everyone else interested’. Burgess (2006) talks about ‘vernacular creativity’ being possible and ‘emerging from non-elite social contexts and communicative conventions’ (Flew, 2003: p.111); Leadbeater & Miller are discussing the PRO-AM Revolution and how ‘innovative, committed and networked amateurs are working to professional standards’ (Flew, 2003: p.111), while Terry Flew reminds us of the ‘IT-related creative practice (ITCP)’ (2003: p.112) related to the ‘3 T-s’ of Technology, Talent and Tolerance (2003: p.172). This reminds us of the way in which, debating the future imaginative participation within the construction of knowledge, Marshall McLuhan has intuitively concluded that ‘this would seem to be a fate that calls men to the role of artist in society’ (1964: p. 310).
Similarly, in this new infusion of creativity and tolerance, <<informational-sharing is a powerful positive good>> (Raymond, 2000b)’ (Cuttlife, 2001: p.423). We think of users (spectators) as consumers in disguise: they began to act and produce, driven by different incentives that just financial ones.
If we agree that ‘the relationship between information, knowledge and creativity and the ways in which sustained technological and economic innovation are accompanied by social, cultural and institutional innovations is strongly connected to the rise of creative industries’ (Flew, 2003: p.186), then the usage of ‘new media’ (with the focus on technology) should be replaced by the usage of ‘social media’ (focusing upon society). Within the social media, creative inputs becomes the new currency of performing interactions.
What matters most is how users are ‘trading’ these inputs, redefining the popular culture throught more ‘rewarding relationships’, empowered by new technologies (Flew, 2003: p.111). The power of the networked is enforced by the belief that ‘the synergy is obtained by giving to others and receiving from others.’ (Castells, 2005: p.40.) Manuel Castells defines the networks as a ‘set of interconnected (...) absorbing more relevant information, and processing it more efficiently’ (2005: p.1), forming a ‘new social structure based on communication’ (2005: pp.5-6).
We give credit to this perspective as our online non-discursive performance triggered collective and connective actions that proves the distinction between simply publishing in Web 1.0 and real participation in Web 2.0. The participants are encouraged to continue the “story” in their own way, editing it, publishing it and finding afterwards a new departure point for continuing the idea. This illustrates the importance of taking in consideration local knowledge, context, meanings and experiences.
This social experiment remembered us about the Do-It-Yourself trend, a popular practice that leads to the rise of the Creative Class. With the help of mass-media and marketing techniques combined with leisure time, DIY gained fast a broad audience. Popularity allowed random people to “gain confidence in their craft skills, and take on increasingly challenging tasks” (
This kind of empowerment allowed them to “express a more individual aesthetic unbounded by the strictures of mass-production and passive consumption (Atkinson, p.1), leading “to more aestheticized lifestyles” (Jackson, 2006: p.61). As presented by the literature accounts, the Do-it-Yourself trend allowed “the creation of goods in order to derive personal meaning (…) achieve a more individual sense of self (Atkinson, p.7).
Accordingly, for the Creative Class, the maintenance of self-identity is clearly an important one. Using the FaceGroup “I Need The Right Side”, we opened the stage for self- expression.
We are curious on reactions, ideas enthusiasm, boredom and, of course, rejection.
Although we were therefore initially afraid we might not get any response to our challenge at all, however the immediate enthusiastic responses we did receive to the project were striking. People went out and took photos especially for our project, while others browsed the extensive photo collection already on their respective computers. This specific, remarkable dedication and commitment to our project made us wonder whether there was a certain demand, or even a need for an assignment as such, more than we had realised to begin with.
Likewise, it was interesting to see the dichotomy in their approach to the task set. That is, while some based their associations on the photograph on already existing (created) images working their way back to the posted photo, others took the photo as a starting point to create new images. This dual mode of interpretation linked the project in a chain of past-present-future.
Moreover, it showed the different, often ambiguous, but always creative thought processes at work. Because of the endless possibilities this entails, the above unexpectedly added a more psychological viewpoint into the discussion for the (mass-) creation of art. We have therefore established a Facebook group for people everywhere to engage and (co)create, inviting a personal response, in the space of mass-communication.
Join us too, at
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=154799591218928&v=photos#!/group.php?gid=154799591218928
