1st Edition

Creativity in Peripheral Places Redefining the Creative Industries

Edited By Chris Gibson Copyright 2012
    168 Pages
    by Routledge

    168 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Creativity is said to be the fuel of the contemporary economy. Dynamic industries such as film, music, television and design have changed the fortunes of entire cities, from Nashville to Los Angeles, Barcelona to Brisbane and beyond. Yet creativity remains mercurial – it is at the heart of industrial innovation and can attract investment, but it is also an intangible, personal quality and experience. What exactly constitutes creativity?

    Drawing on examples as diverse as postcard design, classical music, landscape art, tattooing, Aboriginal hip-hop, and rock sculpture, this book seeks to explore and redefine creativity as both economic and cultural phenomenon. Creativity also has a peculiar geography. Beyond Hollywood, creativity is evident in suburban, rural and remote places – a quotidian, vernacular, eclectic enterprise. In seeking to redefine the creative industries, this book brings together geographers, historians, sociologists, cultural studies scholars and media/communications experts to explore creativity in diverse places outside major cities. These are places that are physically and/or metaphorically remote, are small in population terms, or which because of old industrial legacies are assumed by others to be unsophisticated or marginal in an imaginary geography of creativity. This book reveals the richness and depth, the challenges and surprises of being creative beyond city limits.

    This book was originally published as a special issue of Australian Geographer.

    1. Introduction: Creative Geographies: tales from the ‘margins’,
    Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong

    2. Chapter 1. Postcards from Somewhere: ‘marginal’ cultural production, creativity and community,
    Robyn Mayes, Curtin University, Perth

    3. Chapter 2. Creativity without Borders? Rethinking remoteness and proximity,
    Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong, Susan Luckman, University of South Australia & Julie Willoughby-Smith, University of South Australia

    4. Chapter 3. The Spiral Gallery: gender, nonmarket creativity and alternative ruralities,
    Gordon Waitt, University of Wollongong

    5. Chapter 4. Multiple Work Sites and City-wide Networks: a topological approach to understanding creative work,
    Chris Brennan-Horley, University of Wollongong

    6. Chapter 5. Making Connections: creative industries networks in outer-suburban locations,
    E. Felton, Christy Collis & Phil Graham, Queensland University of Technology

    7. Chapter 6. Magic Light, Silver City: the business of culture in Broken Hill,
    Lisa Andersen, University of Technology, Sydney

    8. Chapter 7. Creating an Authentic Tourist Site? The Australian Standing Stones, Glen Innes,
    John Connell, University of Sydney & Barbara Rugendyke, University of New England

    9. Chapter 8. Australia’s Capital of Jazz? The (re)creation of place, music and community at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival,
    Rebecca Curtis, Oxford University

    10. Chapter 9. Creative Migration: a case study of classical musicians,
    Dawn Bennett, Curtin University, Perth

    11. Chapter 10. Creative Migration? The attraction and retention of the ‘creative class’ in Launceston, Tasmania,
    Madeleine Verdich, WorleyParsons, Brisbane

    12. Chapter 11. Indigenous Hip-hop: overcoming marginality, encountering constraints,
    Andrew Warren & Rob Evitt, University of Wollongong

    Index

    Biography

    Chris Gibson is Professor in Human Geography, and currently ARC Future Fellow and Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research at the University of Wollongong, Australia.