A Manifesto for the UK Creative Economy
"The UK's creative economy is one of its great national strengths, historically deeply rooted and accounting for around one-tenth of the whole economy. It provides jobs for 2.5 million people - more than in financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction - and in recent years, this creative workforce has grown four times faster than the workforce as a whole.
But behind this success lies much disruption and business uncertainty, associated with digital technologies. Previously profitable business models have been swept away, young companies from outside the UK have dominated new internet markets, and some UK creative businesses have struggled to compete.
UK policymakers too have failed to keep pace with developments in North America and parts of Asia. But it is not too late to refresh tired policies. This manifesto sets out our 10-point plan to bolster one of the UK's fastest growing sectors."
(Hasan Bakhshi, Ian Hargreaves and Juan Mateos-Garcia, April 2013, NESTA)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Fluxus Reader offers the first comprehensive overview on this challenging and controversial group
"Fluxus began in the 1950s as a loose, international community of artists, architects, composers and designers. By the 1960s, Fluxus has become a laboratory of ideas and an arena for artistic exprmentation in Europe, Asia and the United States. Described as 'the most radical and experimental art movement of the 1960s', Fluxus challenged conventional thinking on art and culture for over four decades. It had a central role in the birth of such key contemporary art forms as concept art, installation, performance art, intermedia and video. Despite this influence, the scope and scale of this unique phenomenon have made it difficult to explain Fluxus in normative historical and critical terms. The Fluxus Reader offers the first comprehensive overview on this challenging and controversial group. The Fluxus Reader is written by leading scholars and experts from Europe and the United States."
(Ken Friedman, Swinburne Research Bank)
Fig.1 Robert Watts (1965). 'TV Dinner' from the exhibition Art in Our Time: 1950 to the Present, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, September 5, 1999 to September 2, 2001.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
LeNS: The Learning Network on Sustainability
"Asian-European multi-polar network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability focused on product-service system innovation.
LeNs is a 3 years project (15/12/2007 - 15/12/2010) funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropAid, European Commission, involving 7 design schools in Europe and Asia.
LeNS aims at contributing to human resources and curriculum development, in a reciprocal understanding of cultures, by promoting a new generation of designers (and design educators) capable to effectively contribute to a transition towards a sustainable society.
LeNS ambitions to promote a new shared disciplinary ground on Design for Sustainability trough a series of exchange activities among the partner institutions. LeNS consortium will jointly produce an open e-learning package (a modular and adaptable package for curriculum development with teaching materials and tools for design educators and guidelines for courses design and implementation In diverse contexts). It will also promote a series of diffusion activities targeting the design community worldwide."
(The Learning Network on Sustainability)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines
"In the Philippines, the term 'indigenous peoples' is legally defined by Republic Act No. 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997. IPRA defined 'indigenous peoples' (IPs) or 'indigenous cultural communities' (ICCs) as:
A group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, nonindigenous regions and cultures, became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment if present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains (IPRA, Section 3h)."
(Nestor T. Castro)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Impact of Japanese Comics and Animation in Asia
"Taiwanese comics are the most Japanese of all Asian comics. Many Taiwanese comic artists copy the Japanese style faithfully and one can hardly find any Taiwanese elements in their works. However, there are Taiwanese artists who have attempted to create something original based on their mastery of Japanese techniques. The most successful example is perhaps Zheng Wen who has skillfully combined Japanese (particularly Ikegami Ryoichi and Kojima Geseki's) and Western comic styles with Chinese painting and calligraphic skills in his comics, such as Stories of Assassins (cike liechuan, 1985) and Stories of Eastern Zhou Heroes (dong Zhou yingxiong chuan, 1990). Taiwanese animators have only produced a few commercial animated films and television cartoons, but they are very active in making on-line animation. The most successful Taiwanese on-line animation is perhaps Ah Kuei, a satirical and humorous short piece, in which character design and visual presentation are influenced by Japanese animated works, such as Crayon Shinchan and Chibimaruko-chan. Ah Kuei will be made into a television cartoon series, live-action drama serial and animated film. Recently, Taiwanese on-line animators have begun to experiment animated serials and movies. A three-hour on-line animated film, Love 1/2E, has been serialized. Its story is similar to Tokyo Love Story and Beautiful Life and its drawing is very Japanese. Besides, influenced by the Japanese, Taiwanese animators pay attention to the important role of 'voice actors or actresses.' (seiyu). This is an area that most other Asian nations have overlooked."
(Ng Wai-ming, Hong Kong)
Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 p.2
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
