[csaa-forum] Creative biographies and cultural labour symposium

[Melissa Gregg]

Cultural work and creative biographies

A one day symposium

 

Wednesday April 1st 2009

The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

Michael Young Rooms: 1, 2, 3 & 4

 

Organisers

Rosalind Gill, Centre for Citizenship Identities and Governance (CCIG), The
Open University

Mark Banks, Department of Sociology/CRESC, The Open University

Stephanie Taylor, Department of Psychology/CCIG, The Open University

 

The last decade has seen a huge growth of interest in cultural labour,
coinciding with increased attention to the media and other fields as
'creative industries', and underscored by technological changes that have
brought into being new occupations such as web design, digital animation,
electronic arts, etc. Suddenly there seems to be an acknowledgement that
media and culture involve work! Following on from our successful workshop in
2008 on "The creative industries: 10 years after", in this symposium we
bring together a series of invited speakers to explore the nature of
cultural work today.  Research in this field points both to the passionate
attachments cultural workers have to their work, and to the costs this
involves in terms of precariousness, poor pay and 'bulimic' stop-go patterns
of working.  How do workers in fields as diverse as fashion, television,
film, web design or fine art negotiate and manage working lives that are
characterised by insecurity, informality, and in which Œyou are only as good
as your last job¹?

 

A series of invited key speakers will address the following themes:

*Are cultural workers the poster boys and girls for work in the 'new
economy'?

*How different is 'cultural labour' from other forms of work? Are we all
cultural workers now?

*Is the notion of 'creative industries' useful?

*How do Romantic conceptions of artists and artistic work hold up in an age
of individualisation and insecurity?

*Is the notion of 'creative biographies' useful for understanding cultural
workers lives as lived and experienced in conditions of precarity?

*To what extent are creative biographies inflected by inequalities relating
to class, gender, 'race', age and disability?

 

Speakers include: Lisa Adkins (Goldsmiths), Melissa Gregg (Sydney) Helen
Kennedy (Leeds),Kate Oakley (City University and independent consultant),
Stephanie Taylor (Open) and Andreas Wittel (Nottingham)

 

Attendance is free for Open University and CRESC students and staff, with a
nominal charge of £25 for external attendees (coffee and lunch provided).

 

Please contact SocSci-CCIG-Events at open.ac.uk if you wish to register for
this event. 


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