Butch aka Travis

I actually have 2 things to Blog, i was on my way to do one which regards the readings, when a website from my old uni caught my eye.

They (Griffith University) had a guest lecturer by the name of Richard Florida. If you don’t know who Richard Florida is he is then; Richard Florida is the Heinz professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University and the author of The Rise of the Creative Class. .

The rise of the creative class is what captured my attention as i am fairly sure it is the class which i belong. On further investigation i found it certainly is, and what i learned is very interesting and very relevant to myself and all my other fellow masters students. You should check more out at the Creative Class Website.

There is also a website to check how how creative your environment is. Pretty interesting stuff, i compared Melbourne to BrisVegas (my home town) and found Brisbane wanting.

Anyhow, i did manage to find another site which gave one of Florida’s lectures writtten out for all to read, it was either that or download a 50mb video of one of his lecture’s. Provided i have a 56k dial up modem, i just read the lecture. Its called Creative Class War if you want to read it.

The gist of the paper is that, the USA, once so involved with the creative industries world, is losing ground fast to other countries. He cites that the impact is mainly derived from the fact that less and less talented creative individuals (such as yourself) are shying away from a career in the States and instead moving abroad to another country, or perhaps even staying put at home.

I do believe this is bad news (if true) for the states, but also quite good news for Australia (or anyone else for that matter, i hate the myopia of nationalism). It is of course good news for the rest of the world because due to the fact that new technology and the emrgence of the ‘creative class’, the domination of creative industries by the USA may be coming to an end, whats more, we stand to benefit as more jobs stand to open up in our sector.

Some intersting points i found.

Jackson, a Wellington native, realized what many American cities discovered during the ’90s: Paradigm-busting creative industries could single-handedly change the ways cities flourish and drive dynamic, widespread economic change. It took Jackson and his partners a while to raise the resources, but they purchased an abandoned paint factory that, in a singular example of adaptive reuse, emerged as the studio responsible for the most breathtaking trilogy of films ever made. He realized, he told me, that with the allure of the Rings trilogy, he could attract a diversely creative array of talent from all over the world to New Zealand; the best cinematographers, costume designers, sound technicians, computer graphic artists, model builders, editors, and animators.

The Jackson he refers to is of couse Peter, director of the LOTR trilogies and New Zealand patriot. Jackson saw no need to move to the States and instead did all the work he needed to do in his stomping grounds of Wellington, New Zealand. At the time he announced this people were shocked, how dare you shoot and create potentially the biggest movies ever made outside the stronghold of the Hollywood Hills?

But thats exactly what he did, and what more importantly he did was open up a new ideology, that people do not need to move offshore or just to L.A to make high end movie, as long as the money is there, the location the film (or indeed any creative media) is incidental.

Florida says that THIS is exaclty where the USA is suffering, from the fact peopl ARE moving offshore or just staying put, and not coming to the USA to bolster their creative ranks.

There is many more examples i could discuss, but i feel you would do better to read the article for yourself.

I will close though with a quote in which i think sums up Richard Florida’s sentiments.

But the bigger problem isn’t that Americans are going elsewhere. It’s that for the firsttime in modern memory, top scientists and intellectuals from elsewhere are choosing not to come here.

Cheers

Travis