Collaborative Cultural Production at CBC Artspots Mary Elizabeth Luka
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Towards Creative Citizenship: Collaborative Cultural Production at CBC ArtSpots Mary Elizabeth Luka A Thesis in the Department of Communication Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada September 2014 © Mary Elizabeth Luka, 2014 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Mary Elizabeth Luka Entitled: Towards Creative Citizenship: Collaborative Cultural Production at CBC ArtSpots and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final examining committee: __________________________________________ Chair Dr. Marcie Frank ___________________________________________External Examiner Dr. Catherine Murray __________________________________________ External to Program Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim __________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Kim Sawchuk __________________________________________ Examiner Dr. Leslie Shade __________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor Dr. Monika Kin Gagnon Approved by __________________________________________________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director August 25, 2014 __________________________________________________ Dean of Faculty ABSTRACT Towards Creative Citizenship: Collaborative Cultural Production at CBC ArtSpots Mary Elizabeth Luka, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2014. This dissertation develops the concept of creative citizenship, which suggests that artists and creative workers who engage in collaborative media production and dissemination practices – particularly in public broadcasting and digital media – are also preoccupied with the dynamics of civic engagement. Their responsibility is to their artwork and to audiences through networked flows of social relations and production approaches. Revisiting literature on cultural citizenship (Hermes 2005, Murray 2005, Uricchio 2004) and the precarity of creative work in the broadcast business (Cunningham 2013, Mayer 2011, Spigel 2008), creative citizenship concerns itself with production practices linking narrowcast audiences, media workers and cultural facilitators to a range of participatory creative activities in mediated sites of engagement. A nuanced understanding of collaborative practices in the long-running television and Internet Canadian public broadcasting project, CBC ArtSpots (1997-2008), helps rethink recent cultural studies of production. The research involved attends to convergence culture concerns, grapples with gender issues, investigates the activation of policy, and animates artistic interventions. ArtSpots was an innovative, collaborative public broadcasting initiative that produced over 1,200 short videos, several long-form documentaries and a substantial array of virtual and media-based materials for exhibitions, online and mobile devices. It involved more than 1000 cultural leaders and creators in its production and dissemination and featured over 300 artists. The investigation of ArtSpots in this dissertation generates insights into the transition to a digital media production and multi-modal diffusion environment in the realm of the Canadian media industry at the turn of the 21st century. Contextualizing this work in relation to the cultural economy of creative labour and media production helps show how media and art is produced and shared in public broadcasting. The author’s own professional and reflexive work and networks as the founder of ArtSpots act as catalysts to crystallize the research, grounding analysis in a distinctive expertise about the relationship of Canadian art to the broadcasting industry, and pointing to exciting implications of creativity and collaboration as core commitments and practices in media production and distribution today. Keywords: creative citizenship, cultural production, media studies, public broadcasting, creative labour, innovation, collaboration Acknowledgements My funding acknowledgements start with the generous Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, not just for much-appreciated financial support but also for its signal about intellectual capacity and research potential. That scholarship wouldn’t have been possible without the confidence of my initial two-year Concordia Arts and Science Fellowship, or the expert guidance of those in the department who provided feedback and pushed me to articulate my goals in new ways for funding proposals. Travel and other specific research funding from the department, the International Communications Association, the Concordia Faculty of Arts and Science, the SSHRC-funded York-Concordia Universities’ Expo ’67 Expanded Cinema research project, and Hexagram-CIAM made it possible for me to go and present, experiment with, and absorb a variety of academic approaches. Teaching, and Research Assistant projects such as the Expo ’67 Korsakow database documentary editing, CINER-G website content development and workshops added other important dimensions, as did co-leading the Intersections Conference (2010) and coordinating the D|N|A Symposium (2011). In terms of intellectual development, I want first and foremost to thank my remarkable supervisor, Monika Kin Gagnon, whose professionalism, sense of humour and incisive insights have made me a more capable academic in ways I will unpack for years, and given me a colleague upon whom I know I will continue to rely and hopefully be helpful to. I acknowledge many other mentors, teachers and colleagues in the Concordia Department of Communication Studies, whose collegiality and capacity for mobilizing resources and modeling strategic scholarly work not just for themselves but also for all the students around them, is a rich inspiration. The opportunity to work in a bilingual joint program added a complex dynamic that reminded me of the importance of civic engagement and discourse at practical levels and in terms of scholarly lineages. On a more personal level, I want to thank my doctoral forum cohort-slash-study-group, Jacqueline Wallace, Mélanie Millette, David Madden, Constance Lafontaine and Renaud Carbasse, and “extended” cohort members Sam Thulin, Shirley Roburn and Brian Fauteux, whose unstinting encouragement continues to get us all through the tough moments and provides an able celebratory group for any accomplishment, big or small. As for my artist group, book club and other members of the incredible wolf-pack of collaborators, research sounding boards, and colleagues with whom I work to change the academic, social and business worlds, thank you. I cannot wait to do more. I would be remiss if I left out the artists, producer-directors, crews, curators, and partners at ArtSpots, in the culture sector and the creative industries with whom I continue to work, as well as the CBC and all the other institutions which support creativity and the arts. It’s not just that the dissertation would have been completely different without ArtSpots, but that a whole era in arts and media development would never have come to be. To family and friends in Montreal, Toronto and Halifax, all across the country and elsewhere: you are the best, and I’m grateful for your love, no matter what boundless idea I come up with next. As for you, Brian Downey: forever and a day. Road trip anytime. I dedicate this dissertation: To my mother, Whose fearsome intellect challenged me and Whose egalitarian sense of humour made me laugh. To my father, Whose illimitable compassion guided me and Whose facility with words was ever at hand. And to their mothers, Whose spirited sociability, fiery democratic ideals and always-open doors inspired and comforted me. Towards Creative Citizenship: Collaborative Cultural Production at CBC ArtSpots Table of Contents List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... x Introduction: The genesis of ArtSpots ................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: A working definition of creative citizenship .............................................. 17 Creativity in media production ........................................................................................................ 18 Technology, identity and convergence studies: Citizenship and access ......................................... 36 Chapter Two: Mediating interviews and narratives (methodology) ................................ 54 The dialogical advantages of interviews ......................................................................................... 64 Chapter Three: Networked relationships and collaborative structures .......................... 91 Transforming an artist residency into a series of working relationships ......................................... 91 Making it work: The networked ArtSpots structure and roles ...................................................... 101 Chapter Four: Activating pluralism at ArtSpots .............................................................. 131 The broadcasting and arts landscape ............................................................................................. 132 Activating