[csaa-forum] Creativity, Communication, and Cultural value

[Danny Butt]

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions! Many I hadn't seen and will
prove useful. Another suggestion that came off-list was:

Paul Carter's latest book: _Material
Thinking: The Theory and Practice of Creative Research_ (Melbourne:
Melbourne University Press, 2004)

Obviously there is plenty of material within the art theory literature
attempting to provide a reflexive account of what artistic practice means...
what I was hoping for was something that would link this material to
disciplines such as design, commercial music, screen production etc. that
are more firmly embedded in market capitalism, but where nevertheless
"creativity" is explored in a similar-yet-different way.

Teaching across these areas has made it pretty clear to me that to give a
proper account of the rise of "creative advertising" as a strategy from the
1970s  (e.g. the contemporary NZ beer ad that reads "Cook her a three-course
meal" with three slices of cheese on toast pictured underneath, but no
"product" in sight), it's useful to start with Marcel Duchamp turning a
urinal upside down and presenting it as a sculpture called "Fountain" half a
century earlier. 

The media-studies lineage of creativity (represented by the "Queensland
Ideology", and the Negus Pickering book) has generally been unwilling or
unable to come to terms with the huge body of scholarship and critical
practice in the contemporary arts field. OTOH, there are important
transformations of audio-visual culture taking place in the commercial
content industries and their audiences that are being empirically documented
in the media and cultural studies literature - not to mention the crucial
links to broader economic shifts that the QI/sociology literatures are
documenting.

 So I'd like to see something where both contemporary artists and designers
could recognise themselves, their work, and their environment within the
text (and this is where I think McRobbie is distinctive).

Best,

Danny


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