ABSTRACTS OF THE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Culture as Innovation
Professor Markku
Wilenius,
Finland Futures Research Centre,
Turku School of Economics
HOW
TO UNDERSTAND CULTURE AND DESIGN IN ECONOMY?
Pekka Ylä-Anttila, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy,
Finland
In economics and management literature the notion of intangible capital as source of growth and competitive advantage has increasingly gained attention. R&D, design, and relational and structural capital are seen as factors explaining company performance as much as investment in tangible assets. Relational capital includes customer and supplier relations and has a strong cultural dimension especially in the case multinational companies.
The presentation focuses on design as an important element of intangible capital. There is a growing number of empirical studies looking at the contribution of design input to firm performance. Results generally indicate that companies with intensive investments in design have succeeded better than less intensive and non-user companies. They also show that firms that invest in design tend to be more innovative than firms that spend little in design. As a matter of fact, it is the combination of investment in design and R&D that spurs innovation. Some recent studies show that investments in design affect significantly anticipated future sales, and hence the market valuation of companies.
LIBERTY – RESPONSIBILITY –
BENEFITS? ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF INNOVATIONS AND CREATIVE PRODUCTION
Hannele Koivunen, Arts and Cultural Heritage Division, Ministry of
Education, Finland
Minister of Culture initiated in 2005 a project exploring the ethical dimensions of cultural policy, starting with cultural rights, and of outlining directions and tools for ethical evaluation of cultural policy. The publication Fair Culture? (Hannele Koivunen & Leena Marsio) was published in 2006. The report seeks to analyse the ethical focuses in cultural policy discourse. The analysis of human and fundamental rights intend to outline cultural policy ethics.
The concept of Fair culture means the realisation of people’s cultural rights and inclusion in cultural signification, or fair deals in creative production.
There are conflicting interests and interpretations on ethical premises of cultural policy. The value of art and culture can be derived from the intrinsic value and high quality of art or from the benefits of art and culture for the individual and for the community. During the recent decades the instrumentality and economic applications of art have been to the fore, whereas the sphere of the autonomy and intrinsic value of art has been receding.
Cultural policy choices take different guises depending on whether the ethical justification is derived from virtue ethic, responsibility ethic or corollary ethic. Ethical choices vary according to whether the emphasis in the justification is on freedom, right or benefit ethos. None of these choices is "more ethical" or "more valuable" than the others. The aim of ethical assessment in cultural politics could primarily be to make these choices visible.
CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND THE
CREATIVE CITY
Justin O’Connor, School of Performance and Cultural Industries,
University of Leeds, UK
The presentation begins with a brief overview of the concept of cultural industries and what the significance might be of the change to 'creative industries'.
Creative industries and the city they operate in are interdependent of one another. Yet there is the question to be asked why cultural or creative industries are associated with the city and what can the city add to such clusters of economic and cultural activity? Should the cities enhance and support such clusters and if so, what kind of changes does it have to undergo to do this. In the presentation it will be argued that such support that the cities should offer to creative clusters involves a longer term change in the vision of the city and the decision making networks which make up its urban governance.
CULTURAL
VITALITY AS PRIVILEDGE AND OBLIGATION OF DESIGN MANAGEMENT
Laura Lares, Kalevala Jewelry Oy & Lapponia Jewelry Oy, Finland
When being fully dependent on viable and renewable design management, a business enterprise can significantly enjoy from its rich and versatile cultural intercommunication. With strong cultural background, a design company has natural and distinctive competencies relevant and sustainable for both ethical and commercial growth.
In some designs, actual cultural heritage from earlier millenia is revived and brought into today’s use. Various museum collections, literature, opera and nature are actively used as sources for inspiration, while the dialogue of national and universal themes and motives enriches the development of the design community. New jewelry collections, on the other hand, offer challenges and opportunities for bold and artistically ambitious modern design for an extensive international audience. When the whole branding and design management is based on genuine interest in art and artists, the cultural argumentation penetrates all business strategies from market positioning and product development to actual sales and marketing.
When providing apprenticeship, work and career opportunities for generations of handicraftsmen and artists, a design company bears a major responsibility in ensuring the survival and progress of certain professions. By supporting the projects concerning other art forms, as well as facilitating a professional route from an experienced goldsmith to designer, this responsibility is taken further. In a company, owned by an association committed to preserve culture and traditions, it is natural to donate some revenues to be granted through Cultural Foundation as well as for certain charity purposes.
In design companies, cultivating and re-inventing authentic cultural interaction is no luxury but prerequisite for the future - as well as a major organisational and individual privilege.
THE
FRACTAL FUTURE OF INNOVATIVE SPACES
Alex Soonjung-Kim Pang, Institute for the Future, USA
Innovation used to be simple. It was driven by basic research, and was associated with places like Xerox PARC, Bell Labs, and universities, and ended with products on shelves. Today, we're witnessing a vast range of new experiments in creating spaces that promote innovation. The aim of my talk will be to survey these current efforts, and then to discuss some of the trends that will affect future experiments in supporting innovation.
My survey of current efforts highlights two aspects of these new spaces. First, despite prognostications that the Internet would cast knowledge work free of the constraints of geography, they're still physical places. Second, recent efforts to create new innovative spaces have a notably fractal quality: the same design principles and logic guide the design of online collaboratories, physical laboratories, buildings, and research centers.
My discussion of the future will focus on three trends. The first is the increasing globalization of innovation. Not only will China and India rival Western powers as centers of research and innovation in the future, but small countries will be able to pursue world-class research in niche areas. The second is the growing role of users and user communities in product development and innovation in areas as different as medical instrumentation, music, and sports. Third is a dawning recognition of the close historical relationship between manufacturing and innovation, which challenges the assumption that high-value design and product development can be separated from manufacturing.
I'll conclude my talk by briefly describing a couple scenarios illustrating how these different trends may play out in the future, and how they'll affect the location and culture of innovation.
The conference organisers reserve all rights to any programme or schedule changes.