How Creative Is Creative Capital?

»The creative industries harness creativity and this means that creativity is assumed as manageable and productive (Bilton 2010). The idea that outcomes of creativity can be unpredictable and destructive has been replaced by the view that creativity can be harnessed and controlled. But creativity need not be an asset and can be rather destructive (Jacobs 2005). Some art works, for instance, are known to be annoying or even destabilizing (e.g. graffiti as street art, Salman Rushdie

and his book Satanic Verses). It is because creativity is now framed as manageable, it can also be exploited for wealth creation. The emphasis is on “productive creativity,” meaning that it is a “more disciplined form of creativity with professionalism and purpose.”«

(Can-Seng Ooi & Birgit Stöber: »Creativity Unbound – Policies, Government and the Creative Industries,« in: Culture Unbound – Journal for Current Cultural Research, Vol.3, 2011)

Creativity, flexibility, mobility, freedom, inventiveness, affective, cognitive, emotional labour, self-management and self-development... from critical tools to analyse shifts in tendencies of contemporary labour processess in advanced capitalism, these and such concepts became buzz-words of the labour market, international corporations, and creative industries worldwide. Wishing to reclaim some of the critical edge of these concepts, particularly centered on the notion of creativity, we intend to question to what extent these concepts are still usefull for the analysis of contemporary labour processess and the related modes of subjectivation of contemporary workers. What kind of freedom, creativity and inventiveness really is put to work in contemporary cultural industries and non-? What is the value and the notion of creativity in different labour sectors, such as the capital market, art, or academia? How creative really is »creative capital«?

In order to tackle these and more related questions, we wish to organize a two-days long (pre)weekend seminar retreat with three intensive reading sessions and discussions, opened by three short impulse talks on the topic, given by Bojana Kunst, Andreas Langenohl, and Phillip Kleinmichel, rounded up by an evening performance by Ajda Tomažin 'Audition for Producers'. This intensive study setup, complemented by a social programme, is aimed at creating a simultanously rigorous and focused study atmosphere with enough space and time for more relaxed discussions and exchanges on the topic.

04.12.2014, room: B 29

// 09:00 – 10:30   Introducing immaterial labor: notions of  creativity

  Reading Session chaired by Katja Čičigoj & Veronika Zink

// 11:00 – 13:00   The Artist’s Time: Projective Temporality

  Bojana Kunst

// 14:00 – 16:00   Creative Capital beyond Good and Evil

  Philipp Kleinmichel

// 16:30 – 18:00   Creating Thoughts. Originality as academic capital?

  Reading Session chaired by Veronika Zink & Spyros Bakas

// 18:00  The Flattery Bath 2,

    a film by Josh Kline

// 20:00  Probebühne II, ATW,

  Audition for Producers

  performance by Ajda Tomazin

05.12.2014, room: B 25

// 10:00 – 12:00       Creativity & Translation

       Andreas Langenohl

// 13:30 – 15:30        Art beyond Creativity

       Reading Session chaired by: Lisa Beisswanger

// 16:00 – 18:00        Creative Destructions? Performing cultural transformation.

       Reading Session chaired by: Spyros Bakas & Katja Čičigoj

Readings

Introducing Immaterial Labor. Notions of creativity 

// Lazzarato, M. (2010). A conversation with Maurizio Lazzarato. In: Exhausting Immaterial Labor in Performance, Joint issue of Le Journal des Laboratoires and TkH Journal for Performing Arts Theory (no. 17), pp. 12-16. http://www.tkh-generator.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/tkh-17eng-web.pdf

// Virno, P. (2004). A Grammar of the Multitude. For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life. Cambridge: MIT Press. Chapter: „Labor, Action, Intellect:  Day Two“, pp.  47-70.

The Artist’s Time: Projective Temporality

// von Osten, M. (2009). Irene ist Viele! Or What We Call “Productive Forces”. Eflux-journal, 8. http://www.e-flux.com/journal/irene-ist-viele-or-what-we-call-“productive”-forces/

// Bayly, S. (2013). The End of the Project: Futurity in the Culture of Catastrophe. Published in Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 18(1).

Creative Capital beyond Good and Evil

// Barthes, R. (1967). The Death of the Author. In: R. Barthes. Image, Music, Text.London: Fontana Press, pp. 142-148. http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf

// Groys, B. (2014). On the New. London & NY: New Left Books. Chapter: „Introduction“, pp. 1-20 & „Strategies of Innovation“, pp. 63-138.

// Foucault, M. (1969). What is an author? In: J. D. Faubion (ed.), Aesthetics, Methods, and Epistemology. Pp. 205-222. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Foucault_Author.pdf

Creating Thoughts. Originality as Academic Capital?

// Baudrillard, J. (1995). Radical Thought. Cultural Studies and Philosophy, Vol(1). First published in English: www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=67.

// Nietzsche, F. (1872). On The Future of Our Educational Institutions. Lecture. http://www.geocities.com/thenietzschechannel/fed1.htm

Creativity and Translation

// Sakai, N. (2009). Translation and the Schematism of Bordering. Conference Paper: http://www.translating-society.de/conference/papers/2/

Art beyond Creativity

// Leslie, E. (2011). Add Value to Contents: The Valorization of Culture Today. In: G. Raunig, G. Ray & E. Wuggenig (eds.), Critique of Creatiity. Precarity, Subjectivity, and Resistance in the ‚Creative Industries‘. London: Mayfly.

//Steyrl, H. (2011). Art as Occupation – Claims for an Autonomy of Life. E-Flux: http://www.e-flux.com/journal/art-as-occupation-claims-for-an-autonomy-of-life-12/

Creative Destructions. Performing Cultural Transformations

// Malabou, C. (2012). What should we do with our brain? NY: Fordham University Press. Chapters "The central powers in crisis", "you are your sinapses" and "conclusion-towards a neurological alter-globalism”, pp. 32-82 .

// Reinert, H. & Reinert, E. S. (2006). Creative Destruction in Economics: Nietzsche, Sombart, Schumpeter. In: J. G. Backhaus & W. Drechsler (eds.), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Economy and Society. NY: Springer, pp.: 55-86.