Cultural Industry and the Creative Sector

Objectives of the course:
- to acquaint students with the complexity of the phenomenon of creativity, culture and cultural industry and its importance as well as its connection with the basic concepts in the wider social, economic and cultural environment;
- to acquaint students with basic terms in the field of the cultural industry as well as with their impact on the economy and culture;
- to familiarize with European policies in the field of the cultural and creative industry to understand the importance of the creative sector in the EU (by presenting examples);
- teach students to think critically about and interpret culture not only in the context of strategies and processes of marketing or management, but mainly of its importance for producing meanings in everyday life;
- to give students basic skills and knowledge to recognize the potentials of the cultural industry for the launch of creative entrepreneurship and cultural innovation, especially in the context of local and tradition as sources of creativity.

Subject-specific competences:
- Students will manage basic concepts in the field of cultural and creative industries as important factors of modern culture and economy.
- Students will acquire comprehensive and reliable information about forms and types of European programs, financial mechanisms, events and manifestations in the field of cultural and creative industries.
- Students will acquire the ability to articulate their own (or group) ideas in all key elements and in a manner and against criteria typical of the KKI sector.

General competencies:
The ability of analytical thinking and social-critical observation; the ability of socio-cultural and historical contextualization; ability to participate in discussions and interdisciplinary thinking; the ability to present one's own (or group's) idea coherently and convincingly.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

The course deals with the importance and development of the cultural industry creative sector and the concept of "Cultural and Creative Industries" (CCI) in all its complexity: from definitions of the basic concept of culture, cultural industry, "creativity" to familiarization with the European cultural policies, cultural events and projects, as well as their criticism introducing also a new view of the relationship between heritage and innovation as sources of creativity. The course also offers space for the creation of project ideas, typical of the KKI sector, and challenges students to create all the key elements of a comprehensive project plan.

The course consists of the following thematic sections:
1. Understanding the definition and meaning of culture, cultural industry, and creativity. The connection of creativity with the social, economic and cultural environment and how a creative atmosphere (creative milieu) is created in a certain local environment; everyday life as the democratization of creativity; AI and creativity beyond human creativity.
2. The CCI phenomenon, concepts and development: what did the concept "cultural industry" originally mean (Adorno, Horkheimer), how did its meaning develop and transform, in what way does it affect society and the economy, what are the styles and models of cultural production and creativity: creativity for innovation (new technologies, digitization, communication, etc.), and creativity for social quality (culture, territory, cultural districts, etc.).
3. CCI as a leading segment of the global economy with an overview of the European cultural policy regarding cultural and creative industry and the importance of the creative sector in the EU, as well as intersectoral connections, especially in the art-science-technology triangle. Creativity and cultural production in the EU – models of cultural industries; projects and programs (Creative Europe, Horizon, S+T+ARTS, etc.).
4. Problematization of the cultural industry and the problem field of CCI: instrumentalization of creativity and the importance of culture as a consumer good; creativity as capital-labour in the context of the cultural industry. Does consumption and the cultural industry as part of the economy produce and preserve culture?
5. Presentation of the importance of heritage and the theory of goods:
- how does heritage work as a source of creativity?
- tradition/innovation: a false dichotomy?
- what does national heritage mean as a cultural industry (cultural tourism and art cities) in juxtaposition with creative tourism?
- the importance of cultural events and manifestations (Expo, Venice Biennale, ECoC, etc.).
- Design and material culture: the cultures of design and co-design (Homo Faber, community of practice, learning by doing, etc.).
6. Designing a project in the CCI:
- developing an idea that arises from needs and limitations – both human, social and natural, and is based on contemporary critical thought, as well as on appropriate methods and technologies,
- checking the relevance and feasibility of the idea by predicting the effects and possible risks,
- implementation of the project plan in all key elements (background, goals and purpose, approach/method, structure, expected results and effects, dissemination and evaluation),
- presentation and evaluation of the plan itself at the course level.

The student understands the meaning and the basic concepts of CCI and their connection with the social and economic context. Knows and critically evaluates modern trends in the field of development of CCI and wider development of the economy in the direction of tertiary and quaternary activities of postindustrial society.

The student develops an attitude towards culture and the creative sector and cultivates the need for new knowledge and the discovery of advantages and opportunities in the field of CCI and specific possibilities of interdisciplinary and inter-sector integration, including new forms of networking and co-creation.

The student knows the basics of project preparation and evaluation in the area of CCI. The student knows the mechanisms of support and financing (e.g. Creative Europe, Obzorje, etc.) as well as the way of operation and the importance of events and manifestations at international level (EPK, Expo, various biennials, festivals, etc.). They are aware of the importance of appropriate contextualization of creative ideas in the environment and sociohistorical reality, as well as the importance of communicating with the public and other stakeholders.

The student develops the ability to communicate, convince and narrate, and acquires basic knowledge for research work related to CCI field, but also knows how to identify opportunities for placing a project idea in the context of CCI. Students are aware of the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach. They acquire the ability to think analytically and to independently and reflectively analyze social and cultural phenomena.

Basic:
* Adorno, Theodor W. The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (1938–69), ed. By J.m. Bernstein (London: Routledge, 1991). Catalogue E-version
* Greffe X., Creativity, Heritage and the City, Springer, 2017 Catalogue
* Florida, Richard, The rise of the creative class. New York: Basic Books, 2002 Catalogue E-version

Additional:
* Debord, Guy. Society of the spectacle. London, New York: Verso, 1998. E-version
* Sasa Dobricic, Marco Acri (edited by), “Creative Cities: which Historic Urban Landscape, Mimesis, Milan, 2017. Catalogue
* Guttari, Felix in Gilles Deleuze. Thousand plateaus: Conclusion: Concrete Rules and Abstract Machines. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic Catalogue
* Miller, Toby. From Creative to Cultural Industries, Cultural Studies, 23/1, 2009, 88-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380802326660
* C. Pratt, Andy and Jeffcutt, Paul. Creativity, Innovation and the Cultural Economy (London/New York: Routledge, 2009). Catalogue

Active participation in course activities (meetings, interim tasks). 20 %

Preparation of the project task (project proposal draft, written assignement). 30 %

Preparation and presentation of the seminar – project assignment with an oral examination of the course knowledge. 50 %

Saša Dobričić is a full professor of architecture at the University of Nova Gorica. She is the founding director of the international doctoral program in Cultural Heritage Studies and of the Joint Second Level Master in Economics and Techniques for the Conservation of Architectural and Environmental Heritage established between the University of Nova Gorica (SI) and the University Iuav of Venice (I). She has been teaching and mentoring at the graduate and undergraduate level for two decades promoting interdisciplinary and interuniversity approaches in higher education. She has been an active member of UNISCAPE (European Network of Universities dedicated to landscape studies and education according to the principles of the European Landscape Convention) since its establishment and has acted as vice president. She is a member of the Slovenian National Commission UNESCO. She has covered several advisory positions for local and national authorities in the field of sustainable urban regeneration and heritage preservation. Her research was strongly shaped by her professional experience in design and building preservation, which directed her interests toward circular adaptive reuse of built environments and questioned the concept of creativity through the lens of the emerging aesthetic and design culture. Since then, her research interests and contributions have primarily focused on sustainable urban regeneration and the interpretation of various reuse design cultures at the building, urban, and landscape scales. She acted as principal investigator in several completed and current EU research project, namely: URBINAT/Healthy corridors as drivers of social housing neighbourhoods for the co-creation of environmental and marketable NBS (HORIZON2020), CLIC/ Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural heritage adaptive reuse (HORIZON2020), RE-VALUE/Re-Valuing Urban Quality & Climate Neutrality in European Waterfront Cities (HORIZON EUROPE), GREENinCITIES, Demonstration of climate mitigation and resilience solutions in support of the implementation of the Adaptation to Climate Change and Cities Missions (HORIZON EUROPE). For the GO!BORDERLESS 2025-Nova Gorica /Gorizia- European Capital of Culture 2025- project, she is actively involved in the coordination of the spatial strategy of the cross-border urban conglomerate and leads the project on cross-border green corridors and green spots.

Selection of topical publications:

• Acri M., Dobričić S., Uncomfortable Heritage – Patrimonio scomodo, in Officina 35, 2021.
• Acri M., Dobricic S., Debevec M., Urban Corridors as Common Pool Resources: the Case of Nova Gorica and Rijeka, in Giofrè F., Halilović-Terzić S. (edited by) “Making Healthy Cities for People, HURBE2021” conference proceedings, Sarajevo, 2021, pp. 145-154,.
• Acri M., Dobričić S., “Still Life” – Natura Morta: the landscapes of proximity, in “Landscape and Coronavirus”, Special Issue, Ri-vista, 2021, DOI: 10.36253/rv-11510-www.fupress.net/index.php/ri-vista
• Acri M., Dobričić S., Debevec M., Regenerating the Historic Urban Landscape through Circular Bottom Up Actions: the Urban Seeding process in Rijeka, Fusco Girard L., Gravagnuolo A. (edited by), Sustainability, Special Issue, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084497
• Acri M., Dobričić S., Jokilehto J., The Circular Character of Building Tradition: Which Challenges for the HUL Approach, in “Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2019”, Graz, 2019, DOI: 10.3217/978-3-85125-668-0-05.
• Sasa Dobricic, Marco Acri (edited by), “Creative Cities: which Historic Urban Landscape, Mimesis, Milan, 2017
• Dobričić, Saša. La città e il suo sogno: la cartografia come paradigma epistemologico: dalla Parigidi Benjamin all’immaginario cartografico della Moscovia (Università Ca’ Foscari: Venezia, 2015).
• Dobričić, S., Magnani C., Pedroli B., Strecker A. Common Goods from a Landscape Perspective, IQuaderni Careggi, Issue 06, Florence, 2014.
• Dobričić, Saša. Note sulla topicità della deviazione (Melfi Libri: Melfi, 2012).
• Dobričić, Saša, Acri, Marco. A sustainable coordinated model for the regeneration of Ljubljana (Royal Institute for Strategic Studies: Morocco, 2012), pp. 115–121.
• Amendolagine, Franco, Dobričić, Saša. The sustainability of the conservation bonds, the case of Mulino Stucky in Venice (Privatization and Cultural Heritage series, ICCROM: Rome, 2007).
• Amendolagine, Franco. Dobričić, Saša. »Between conservation and innovation«, in Proceedings of the 5th EC Conference on Cultural Heritage Research, May 16-18, 2002, ed. Roman Kozlowski (EC editions: Crocow, 2002), pp. 344–348.

With a high profile in cultural education programming and policy-making, Peter Purg, PhD is well referenced in international curatorship, evaluation and quality assessment. He was centrally involved in Go!2025, the winning of the European Capital of Culture title by Nova Gorica and Gorizia twin towns on the Slovenian-Italian border. With an artivist background, Peter Purg is co-funder of the cross-regional Xcenter hub of creative practices, joining art, entrepreneurship and community. He is Dean of the School of Humanities and Associate Professor in New Media, leading the Art-Science-Technology module at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica. Having curated the 20th international contemporary art festival Pixxelpoint 2019, his scientific inquiries lately include media arts pedagogy, post-growth and media ecology. pETER Purg recently lead the acclaimed MAST - Module in Art, Science and Technology project (DG Connect) and lead UNG teams in two large-scale projects KONS - Platform for Investigative Arts (EU Cohesion) and DIVA - Art:Biz Innovation Ecosystem (Interreg SI-IT), as well as in PAIC - Participatory Art for Invisible Communities (Creative Europe) project. He curated the 20th international media/contemporary art festival Pixxelpoint 2019 and is currently leading two projects for the GO! BORDERLESS 2025 European Capital of Culture: the art-sicence-DIY lab xMobil, and the media-arts+performance series PostMobility. His scientific inquiries include media arts pedagogy, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation, media art and media ecology. His artistic interests range from (lecture) performances and intermedia installations to public-space interventions as well as participatory creative processes. Back in the days, Peter Purg lead the interdisciplinary collective Bobnars United with over a hundred music events, research projects and intermedia productions between 2001 and 2006, as well as conceived anti-consumerism interventions within the Podgana (The Rat) PPP street performance group.

Selection of topical publications (2022-2023):

• PURG, Peter, CACCIATORE, Silvia, ČUČEK GERBEC, Jernej. Establishing ecosystems for disruptive innovation by cross-fertilizing entrepreneurship and the arts. Creative industries journal. 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, str. 115-145, ilustr. ISSN 1751-0694.
• PURG, Peter. Kaj so kulturne in kreativne industrije naredile za Novo Gorico (in Gorico) z vključevanjem Univerze (ali obratno) : primer X-centra : predavanje na “CCIS for regeneration - Cities, Creativity, Innovation, Sustainability”, Bari, 7. 6. 2022. (»What cultural and creative industries have done for Nova Gorica (and Gorica) with the involvement of the University (or vice versa)”).
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina, ČUČEK GERBEC, Jernej. Crossing art, science and technology for innovations through maker culture and education. V: ALSINA, Pau (ur.). Possibles : 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art [also] ISEA2022, Barcelona : proceedings. Barcelona: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, cop. 2022. Str. 788-791, ilustr.
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Transgressions and transmissions of the New European Bauhaus. V: EAM8 : Lisbon 2022 : globalising the avant-garde : abstract book : 1-3 September 2022, FCSH, NOVA University of Lisbon. Lisboa: NOVA FCSH, 2022. Str. 240
• PURG, Peter. Investigative arts as grassroots empowerment to environmental research: the cases of taming the forest and xMobil : lecture at the RE:SOURCE 2023, 18th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Venice, 14. 9. 2023.
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. An art+sci approach toward a curriculum of bordering. V: Taboo, transgression, transcendence in art & science, TTT 2023 : interdisciplinary conference : September 27-29th, 2023, Malta Society of Arts, Valletta : book of abstracts. Corfu: Ionian University, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, 2023. Str. 52.
• PURG, Peter (avtor razstave). Crypto Minding: postindustrijski podatkovni aktivizem : PostMobilnost; GO!2025 Evropska prestolnica kulture : razstava v xCentru, Nova Gorica, od 26. 10. 2023 do 11. 11. 2023.
• PURG, Peter, PRANJIĆ, Kristina. GO!BORDELESS in academia and beyond: a crossborder region between Slovenia and Italy, an academic destination par excellence and a European Capital of Culture 2025 : predavanje v sklopu Erasmus+ akademske izmenjave na Josai University Saitama, Japonska, 15. 6. 2023.
• PURG, Peter, CASTILLO-RUTZ, N., BERMÚDEZ I BADIA, Sergi, CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI, C., KRPAN, Jurij V., HEDEER, F., SOUSA, D. L., ŠIROK, Klemen. Progressive pedagogies for innovation among art, science and technology : the case of mastmodule.eu = Pedagogía progresiva para la innovación a través del arte, la ciencia y la tecnología : el caso de mastmodule.eu. Artseduca. 2022, vol. 32, str. 209-222. ISSN 2254-0709
• WECKERT, Simon (umetnik), GAMMER, Gloria (umetnik), PURG, Peter. Nepotovalna agencija : interaktivni kibernetski teleportacijski performans : 6. december 2022, Xcenter, Nova Gorica.
• PURG, Peter. Body borders in _Arts: the kinaesthetic self in performative_A, the social self in participatory_A, the electronic self in media_A : lecture at the conference The Art of Bordering.