Demos report on public funding
July 18, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Ideas | Add a comment
Publicly Funded Culture and the Creative Industries, a new research paper by John Holden of Demos, calls for new understandings of how culture can benefit the creative industries, stating that the creative industries are poorly understood in policy, partly because they often do not conform to traditional expectations about how businesses work, and partly because their scale makes them hard to measure and hard to engage with.
Breaking down the ways in which public funding of culture feeds through into economic activity in the creative industries, the paper cites Watershed as 'an exciting example of an organisation successfully nurturing innovation in the creative industries. It is the home for creative networking in Bristol, and is funded by, among others, Arts Council England and South West Screen'.
Staying Ahead
June 28, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Ideas | Add a commentStaying ahead: the economic performance of the UK’s creative industries was published this week by The Work Foundation. Commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport, the independent report analyses the nature, role and scope of the creative industries in Britain.
Discussing networks as a driver of the creative industries, Watershed is mentioned:
"These arguments are embraced by the Cox Review and the Infrastructure Working Group in their recommendations for Creativity and Innovation Centres and a Creative Grid
respectively. Both point to the role of places like the Watershed in Bristol, Cornerhouse in Manchester, the Showroom in Sheffield and the Lighthouse in Glasgow and their integration
with larger concentrations of cultural infrastructure and activity."
iShed is recruiting
May 6, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Watershed | Innovation | Ideas | Technology | Recruitment | Add a commentiShed is looking to recruit a full time Coordinator to work closely with the iShed
Producer to support the development of collaborative research projects
and to organise and project manage related events and activities.
The successful candidate will be highly motivated and eager to learn about and contribute to iShed's vision. For more information see the recruitment page or to download an application pack and job description, visit http://www.watershed.co.uk/jobs
Uncommon Ground
April 30, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Innovation | Ideas | Add a comment
iShed and Watershed's long and productive relationship with HP Labs, is explored in a book launched this week called Uncommon Ground: Creative Encounters between Sectors and Disciplines, written by Bronac Ferran and based on interviews with Clare Reddington and Erik Goelhoed.
This book investigates the new culture of collaboration which emerged from recent developments in which areas of art and design have creatively fused with media and technology.
Uncommon Ground is based around case studies involving both major institutions and companies along with smaller independent experimental networks. The result is a range of practical and inspiring examples providing insight into the complex rewards and challenges of both interdisciplinary and cross sector collaboration.
This book is the first published outcome of a programme of research on collaborative practice that began with a Virtueel Platform expert meeting in Amsterdam in September 2006.
The Shock of the Old
April 5, 2007
Posted by Clare in: Events | Watershed | Ideas | Technology | Add a commentDavid Edgerton on The Shock of the Old
Festival of Ideas: 22 May
18.00-19.00 Watershed £3.00/£2.00
We think we live in an age of new technology. David Edgerton’s new book The Shock of the Old challenges the idea that we live in an era of ever increasing change. Interweaving political, economic and cultural history, it will show what it means to think critically about technology and its importance. Standard histories of technology give tired old accounts of the usual inventions but The Shock of the Old argues that to have a full picture of the history of technology we need to know not about what a few people invented, but about what things everyday people used – and when they actually used them. It reassesses the Pill and IT, and shows the continued importance of technology such as corrugated iron and sewing machines. Simon Jenkins in The Guardian said this ‘is a book I can use. I can take it in two hands and bash it over the heads of every techno-nerd, computer geek and neophiliac futurologist I meet.’
http://www.ideasfestival.co.uk/
