Friday Plenary

This morning's keynote session will include a presentation by Sara Diamond & Fee Plumley

Sara Diamond - Building a Values Driven Institution – Two Case Studies at OCAD University

This talk will discuss the creation of a values driven strategic plan for the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University. Its code of practice emphasizes that, “OCAD U values, respects and advances ethical practice, flexibility, advocacy, diversity, accessibility, Aboriginal cultures, wellness, global citizenship, as well as the manifestations of creativity in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability”. Its goal is to prepare, “Students, faculty and alumni to be cultural leaders, practitioners, educators, creative thinkers, strategists, inventors and innovators who take calculated risks and make strong contributions to the cultural, social and economic prosperity of Canada and the world.” Aspects of the mission emphasizes partnerships, “OCAD U offers vibrant disciplinary and cross-disciplinary opportunities for cultural and lifelong learning in concert with local, national, Aboriginal and international communities.” The talk will provide an overview of the ways that the university adopted and then enacted these values through two case studies. The first is the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program: Art, Design and Media, a local and national pedagogical and research program built on principles of self-government. The second case study is the Inclusive Design Research Centre and its network, the Inclusive Design Institute, an international network that creates technologies that enable access to the Internet for people whatever their abilities may be. These two initiatives focus on serving communities with rich histories of knowledge that have a history of marginalization from university communities.

Fee Plumley - Top down, bottom up & middle out: on cultural economics and the National Broadband Network as investors in Australian creativity

Everyone is saying it - the NBN will be a game changer for the arts in Australia, especially in remote communities. It is anticipated that one result will be an explosion in the fledging,yet burdgeoning, digitial culture movement. In considering the impact of the NBN, it is important to consider the issue of cultural economics, and to view the NBN Co as an investor in Australian creativity.

Current discussion about art economics uses language and definitions that differ so drastically that it is nearly impossible to match benchmarks, resulting in an inevitable failure by comparison. Art is a creative industry and must be seen as such. Some arts do make money, some do not, but both are equally vital for cultural development.

In economic terms, the arts industry needs a greater investment in R&D and an acceptance that failure is positive, especially regarding learning outcome. There needs to be greater support for intellectual property development. Much IP is developed in digital culture but isn't exploited. Legal models of intellectual property are not suited to digital cultural development. Funding for the development of digital culture needs to be greater. We need balanced distribution of funding organisations, independents and artforms. And we need greater integration and crossover between state, federal and local grants to fund digital culture. Digital needs to be seen as an opportunity, not a threat that may replace other artforms. 

The NBN is not just ‘more sport and porn from overseas’, as some claim. It will provide a genuine opportunity for more Australians to make and share Australian content. Broadcast won't invest in local content, and we don't need to wait for them to do so, we need to help people realise (and then make) their own. 

The NBN offers a two-way model, not just a broadcast model. Digital content can be shared from remote areas to metropolitan centres, and vice versa. As such, the infrastructure needs to be built with DSL not asymmetrical and exchanges need to allow live, realtime, low-latency transmission, not just packet transfer. 

The NBN is the most important infrastructure upgrade since water infrastructure and needs to be future proof.

Strategic cultural development is paramount. There are people and places already doing wonderful digital work, but there's still a lot of first-stage introductions and hand-holding that needs to be done.