creative industries

The QUT Creative Industries Experience

Connecting business enterprise, education, research and development, cultural production and exhibition in a creative precinct The QUT Creative Industries Experience Table of Contents

3 Foreword 4 Introduction 6 The Creative Industries 7 John Hartley: Research-led educational renewal and economic-cultural convergence 12 Susan Street: Education renewal and the Creative Industries Faculty 18 Stuart Cunningham: The creative industries idea 20 Creative Enterprise 21 Anna Rooke: Creative Enterprise Australia: a model for growing the creative economy 24 Lindy Johnson: Queensland government leads on creative industries 28 Research 29 Stuart Cunningham: Renovating research and policy on creative industries and innovation 33 Jeff Jones: Effective collaboration for managing research and development (R&D) in Creative Industries 39 Philip Graham: Interdisciplinarity: six planes of engagement 42 Community 43 Stephen Pincus: KGUV: a creative and clever community 47 Christopher Wren: a view from the design perspective 49 The Hornery Institute: Staying in step with the emerging community 53 Lubi Thomas: QUT Precincts: Creating a new model of public engagement 56 Christopher Meakin: QUT’s international programs and linkages 60 Coda 61 Michael Keane: The uncertain journey 66 Appendices 66 Appendix 1: QUT Creative Industries research projects 69 Appendix 2: QUT Creative Enterprise Australia businesses The QUT Creative Industries Experience 3

Foreword

Nearly a decade ago, QUT initiated an exciting experiment to lead the development of the creative industries in Australia.

We established Australia’s first Creative industries The Creative Industries story continues to grow The essays in this publication document and Faculty and just a few years on, we are proud that in an exciting environment at Kelvin Grove. The explore the development of this innovative and it has proved itself to be a leader nationally and Faculty is based within the Kelvin Grove Urban highly successful academic and professional internationally, and a catalyst for other changes Village, a master-planned community developed initiative. There were many conceptual and across QUT. In addition to enjoying undergraduate in conjunction with the Queensland state practical challenges facing us as we sought to demand that is remarkably strong and sustained, government which brings together residential, establish a new model for advancing academic we also host the ARC Centre of Excellence for educational, retail, health, recreational and business work in conjunction with industry, professional Creative Industries and Innovation, the only such opportunities into a vibrant new precinct. Also and community development. The success of humanities-based Centre nationally. Meanwhile, in the Village is QUT’s Institute of Health and Creative Industries at QUT and its bright prospects we have developed QUT Creative Enterprise Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), our first and for the future are testament to the dedication and Australia, the very first business development foremost collaborative research institute which capability of the many people who have been, and agency actively supporting commercially driven has broken new ground in drawing together are, part of this exciting journey. creative industries nation-wide, and the Creative disciplines from around the University to improve Industries Faculty is also the lead agency in the health through research innovation. Further Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation planned developments at Kelvin Grove include the (iCi), a multi-faculty research institute at QUT. construction of a new library at the heart of the Peter Coaldrake campus, and the next phase of construction of the Vice-Chancellor Creative Industries Precinct. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) April 2010 4

Introduction

This publication assembles essays by people There are four sections: The Creative Industries, Acknowledgements who are leading voices and practitioners in the Creative Enterprise, Research, and Community. creative industries, writing from the perspectives This publication has been the work of many people. of education, research and business development. In the first section the focus is on the definition The team received support from the Creative The idea for the publication arose from a request of the creative industries concept, the genesis of Industry Faculty, QUT International and the in 2007 from key Chinese policy academics for the Creative Industries Faculty, the QUT Creative Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at information on what they called ‘The Queensland Industries Precinct and the Kelvin Grove Urban QUT. We would like to thank all the contributors model’. Apart from a co-authored article published Village, and how the environment is a learning for their valuable time and we are especially in Chinese in that year by three of the contributors benchmark globally for the creative industries. grateful to Terry Inglis and Ann Travers at QUT to this publication, there was little assembled Publications for their design and production The section Creative Enterprise looks closely at evidence of the model. expertise. Some material for this publication, business development and at how accommodations including the interview with Chris Wren and have been made to fine-tune an atmosphere in The interest from China culminated in requests to images of Kelvin Grove Urban Village, was sourced which both creativity and enterprise can flourish. visit and see the Queensland model first hand. Since from Helen Klaebe’s study Sharing Stories (2006 This section also includes a perspective from 2007, there have been many visitors to the Creative Focus Publishing). Helen provided valuable input the Queensland government, which has been a Industries Precinct and the Kelvin Grove Urban in the preproduction stage. Images of students were champion of the concept from the very beginning. Village. The tours have generally taken people to provided by Ellissa Nolan. Thanks to Hui Li for different organisational units within the larger Research addresses the core business of the her work as project manager. Other editorial and complex. This publication follows this approach but University. Education renewal has been a driving production assistance came from Susan Leggett, also shows how the various organisational units are concern within the Creative Industries Faculty. The Foluke Abigail Zrobok and Eli Koger. integrated. experiences will be of great value to educators and Michael Keane researchers, both in Australia and internationally. In the process of discussing with participants the April 2010 Queensland model became the QUT Creative The final section captures the experiences of the Industries Experience. And this is a key point. broader community, the Kelvin Grove Urban The essays do not contain recipes or formulas Village, QUT Precincts, and QUT’s international for success. They detail experiences and provide outreach programs. A concluding essay examines knowledge which may be of use to government, how the lessons encountered might assist similar urban planners, creative business operators and developments internationally. particularly to those concerned with educational reform. Some of the contributors express a sense of achievement in producing a new template or ‘model’; other essays address the challenges of working in an adaptive and creative environment. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 5

The Queensland model is influential in China but closer cooperation with QUT on creative precincts I visited the Creative Industries Precinct in 2006 as a few people can really explain what it is. I am very and enterprises in China. Of course, this is also an visiting scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social glad that Dr Michael Keane compiled this book to application and extension of the Queensland Model. Sciences. I was quite surprised by what I saw. At introduce research and practice on the Queensland that time many people in China were talking about model. I was at QUT for six months as a visiting Professor Jingchang Zhang, Beijing Academy of international examples of cultural and creative scholar in 2008. Before I left Brisbane, I discussed Science and Technology (BJAST); editor of the Blue clusters but this was quite a unique model. The with Michael about editing and publishing this book. Book of China’s Creative Industries open design of the precinct was especially interesting Now I am very pleased to see this fruition. to me. I liked how people could interact easily. And putting researchers and businesses together In fact, the Queensland model is similar to China’s in the one environment seemed like an interesting model of coordinated production, learning and experiment. Could this model be adopted in China research. The only difference is that QUT carefully even though we have a different way of managing integrated this kind of idea into planning when cultural industries and education provision? building the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. This has I returned to China and told people about the enabled research and teaching activities to exist Queensland model. Very soon this became a topic alongside the resident companies that are active in of conversation in government and academic circles design, production and marketing. This practice has and more Chinese visitors were applying for visas to also concentrated production, learning and research go and have a look. They were also inspired by what in one space—the Creative Industries Precinct. This they saw! concentration makes it possible to communicate and cooperate in a better and more effective manner Professor Xiaoming Zhang, Chinese Academy of among the different units. At the same time, Social Sciences Vice-Director of Humanities Research students can conveniently approach and understand Institute; editor of the annual Blue Book of China’s enterprise operation models. They can observe the Cultural Industries management and operation of the enterprises on site.

QUT is the first university in the world to coordinate research and teaching in creative industries in this way. It is also a research base for global creative industries, welcoming experts and scholars from all over the world to visit, exchange and study. A research project jointly submitted by Beijing Academy of Science and Technology and QUT has been successfully approved by the Australian Research Council. This will enable us to have a 6

The Creative Industries The QUT Creative Industries Experience 7

Research-led educational renewal and economic-cultural convergence John Hartley

John Hartley, AM, was foundation dean of the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT. He is ARC Federation Fellow and research director of the CCI. He was founding head of the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University in Wales. He is the author of 20 books and many articles in media and communication studies, creative industries and cultural science. Hartley won the 2009 Creative Industry Individual Honorary Prize at the fourth China Cultural and Creative Industries Annual Summit and Expo, Beijing. Hartley is also the editor of the International Journal of Cultural Studies (Sage).

The ‘Queensland Model’ grew out of three including whole new fields devoted to the study Educational renewal convergent agendas: educational renewal, of culture, media, identity, theory (structuralism, urban redevelopment, and the Queensland state postmodernism, Marxism, etc.), practice I was recruited to QUT in early 2000 to lead government’s ‘Smart State’ strategy. (creative and performing arts), and hybrid or institutional and disciplinary reform within interdisciplinary applications (for professional and the University; a process that brought us into Creating new fields vocational purposes). The demographic mix has productive contact with urban redevelopment in changed irrevocably too. During the same period, Brisbane (the Kelvin Grove Urban Village) and My career has coincided with—and contributed higher education expanded massively to include up the economic modernisation of Queensland to—the establishment and building of new to 40 per cent of the population, as opposed to the (the Smart State). multidisciplinary fields of study across the four per cent who graduated in the 1960s. Many boundaries of the arts and humanities, social of these ‘new students’ were attracted to courses Commencing in 2000—with the strong support sciences, and information and communications related to creativity, media, culture and identity, of the University leadership, especially VC Dennis technologies. This has been a research-led especially where these interests might be parlayed Gibson and DVC Peter Coaldrake (who took over endeavour from the start, driven by social, into careers. as VC in April 2003)—we set about transforming technological and economic changes including the the arts faculty, guided by two principles: growth of the knowledge-based economy and the The beneficiaries of this disciplinary and globalisation of both economic and cultural systems. demographic modernisation, in Australia as well • in what fields of endeavour could QUT become as in other countries, have been the so-called ‘new’ pre-eminent? These changes have required bold and imaginative universities, especially those based on former responses from higher education, in research, institutes of technology or colleges of education. • what approach to ‘the arts’ is appropriate for a publication, courseware, and engagement with This is QUT’s heritage; and QUT proved willing university of technology? external partners. The disciplinary mix that to accept the challenge—and to bear the risk—of The ‘research question’ was simple – how can was available in the 1960s and 1970s has been becoming a first-mover in the new interdisciplinary creative enterprise add economic value (jobs radically transformed, with the ‘new humanities,’ field of ‘creative industries.’ and GDP) as well as cultural values to a regional 8

but globalising economy? I prepared a briefing From these trends we developed the creative Although the immediate impact was on the document for the DVC, who in turn briefed the industries initiative. Unlike traditional art schools, undergraduate teaching program, this was very Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, so that we wanted creative talent to be directed towards much a research-led effort, requiring intensive the QUT initiative could take its place as part of the market and to commercialisable ends. Creative work on conceptualising and mapping the creative the Queensland government’s excellent ‘Smart industries brings together cultural and economic economy itself, and a highly visible research flagship State’ initiative. Up to that point the Smart State values—artistic and entrepreneurial spirit— to ‘capture the brand’ beyond the University itself was largely based on biotechnology and and exploits the convergence of creative talent, and the city of Brisbane. Hence we proposed the manufacturing industries. computing power, and mediated communication establishment of QUT’s first faculty-wide research on a global scale. centre, CIRAC (Creative Industries Research We wanted to add information, knowledge-based and Applications Centre), under the direction of industries and creative services. This clear research By late 2000 we were ready to launch the new Professor Stuart Cunningham. vision translated into a practical blueprint for faculty. QUT Council approved the establishment institutional renewal—one that has stood the test of QUT Creative Industries in December 2000, and CIRAC was launched by UK author and Premier Peter Beattie launched the new faculty in new-economy guru Charles Leadbeater in 2001. of time, as this vision for the creative industries 2001. In terms of courseware, in 2002 we rolled out Apart from its operational functionality, we used is still in place, a decade later. We took our cue an entirely new set of undergraduate and masters CIRAC strategically to build pre-eminence in from the external environment; not from internal courses in Creative Industries, achieving immediate research reputation, by using our existing strengths or even disciplinary history. We scoped current success in demand, quality (measured by improving to achieve the most ambitious competitive targets. employment, educational, policy and social trends entrance scores) and student satisfaction and, We applied for—and won: at the international, national and state levels. eventually, in employment and start-ups. Carla Bergs (BFA, First Class) was a pioneer graduate of • Australia’s first Cooperative Research Centre We consulted with numerous experts in the creative the Fashion Design course. This is what she told us: based in non-science disciplines, ACID industries. These included PriceWaterhouse (Australasian CRC for Interaction Design) in Cooper, John Rimmer (National Office for the ‘I appreciated QUT because of the balance between 2003 Information Economy), Christine Choy (Hong a pragmatic introduction to the nature and customs Kong creative arts), Brian Johns (former head of of the industry, while putting intelligent, innovative • The first humanities-based Centre of Excellence, the ABC, SBS and Penguin Books in Australia), thinking and design foremost.’ The Precinct offered the CCI (Centre for Creative Industries and Catherine Robinson (Australian Film Commission) ‘lots of space and resources’ and ‘a stimulating and Innovation) in 2005. and Ian Hargreaves (UK journalism and new open-minded environment to work in. It encouraged I was awarded a Federation Fellowship—again, the media). We also consulted the literature, especially me to be myself, but push myself.’ (Carla Bergs) work by Charles Leadbeater, Anthony Giddens, first in my disciplinary area (and QUT’s only FF, as Michael Porter, William J. Mitchell and Manuel that scheme has now concluded). Castells. Without exception, these advisers and These initiatives have brought in upwards of experts stressed the need for flexibility, networks, $40 million in national competitive research partners, collaboration and clusters. funding to Queensland since 2001. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 9

Institution building In early 2004 we moved in. The Creative Industries International collaboration: Precinct was the first occupant of an ambitious China After winning $15 million from the state urban redevelopment joint venture between QUT and the state government, the Kelvin Grove Urban government to develop creative facilities, QUT ‘Whatever the question, the answer is China.’ That Village (KGUV: www.kgurbanvillage.com.au/). invested a total of $65 million in developing the was our mantra in the early 2000s as Chinese KGUV is a 16-hectare master-planned development Creative Industries Precinct, commencing planning economic and educational development offered on the site of a former army barracks, adjacent and design in 2002. The design competition was new challenges and opportunities to Australian to schools, QUT’s own Kelvin Grove campus, won by architects Hassell, and the precinct was universities. Among the strongest partnerships we and community facilities including a golf course, built by Abi Group. have developed in the Creative Industries at QUT parks and a retirement home. In a few short years has been with China. Again this was research led, The Precinct represents our vision for the Creative it has been transformed into one of Brisbane’s following from an ARC Discovery Project grant Industries initiative, by including on one integrated most dynamic districts. Already, nearly one billion that I won in 2002 (the largest ARC Discovery for site: dollars has been invested in building developments, that year in the Humanities/Creative Arts field in boasting an integrated educational, research, health, Australia). It provided an Australian Postdoctoral • teaching facilities—including TV and journalism commercial and residential community that is Fellowship for Dr Michael Keane, gathered a large studios, performance and gallery spaces, very much at the centre of our vision for creative team of researchers—Professor Stephanie Hemelryk computer and production labs, fashion and innovation in a ‘real-world’ context. animation design workshops Donald, Dr Terry Flew, Dr Christina Spurgeon and Professor Stuart Cunningham—and it employed During my time as Dean of Creative Industries, Dr Lucy Montgomery, Dr Jiannu Bao, Dr Hui Li • research facilities—both ACID and the CCI are we were able to repurpose education and research and Dr Shule Cao as research assistants. The project headquartered on the Precinct in the arts for the global information economy, investigated the internationalisation of the creative and within a five-year period had transformed an • ‘venue’ facilities—the Precinct boasts a café, industries in China. underperforming educational asset into a vibrant, large screening and exhibition areas for public forward-looking, internationally respected and performance and commercial hire, and the When we started in 2003, few people in China financially viable outfit with a multi-million La Boite Theatre company were familiar with the term ‘creative industries,’ dollar annual turnover and strong demand from although Desmond Hui was working on an students, both domestic and international. This • commercial enterprise—one of our principal excellent baseline study for the Hong Kong SAR. is ‘the Queensland model’—connecting business buildings is dedicated to co-located creative Our project focused on understanding how the enterprise, education, R and D, cultural production businesses, mostly post-production, software, creative economy was developing in the Chinese and exhibition in a creative environment that is advertising and design companies, assisted by services sector, especially in media, advertising, open, flexible, and dynamic. QUT’s own creative commercialisation company tourism and education. We were also interested QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (of which I in the larger scale question of how China would was a founding Director, 2003–2005). manage the transition of its economic priorities from low-cost manufacturing to the dynamics of creative innovation, including the development of vibrant and competitive consumer services in creative media including film, media, music, fashion, software applications and games. 10

One insight that guided our work was the I was awarded an ARC Federation Fellowship (FF) The FF research program includes a team of realisation that despite its impressive economic in 2005, and I am the Research Director of the ARC postdoctoral fellows (John Banks, Jean Burgess, growth, China still lagged behind Western Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Lucy Montgomery and Christine Schmidt). It is countries in the development of creative brands, Innovation, also launched in 2005. My FF project building on conceptual breakthroughs achieved and remains a net importer of creative products and is titled The Uses of Multimedia. It investigates across the CCI (especially with Jason Potts). It ideas, and cultural content. Continuing research the uses to which new digital media affordances suggests that both popular participation and is needed on the development of creative exports. are put, in community (or non-market) and entrepreneurial leadership are required to Some of this work is published in a special issue of commercial (or popular cultural) contexts alike, optimise the creative potential of knowledge- the Chinese Journal of Communication (Vol 2, No 1, from community-arts-based digital storytelling to based media in a global, digital economy. In short, 2009), which I co-edited with Lucy Montgomery. popular entertainment on YouTube. creative innovation is a whole-of-population and dynamic phenomenon. Our work in and following this project has resulted One of the most important insights to arise from in strong recruitment of top-quality Chinese PhD this work has been the extent to which both cultural The CCI as a whole has developed strong programs students (including through the China Scholarship innovation and economic growth have relied on to map, investigate and test these propositions, with Council), in research collaborations including consumer-created content or user-led innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration across the fields conferences, co-publication and translation of marking seismic shifts in the ‘industrial’ model of Law, IT, Business, Education and New Media. research materials. We have built up a strong of relations between producers and consumers, The clear implication of our research at the CCI is contingent of research staff, post-docs and research experts and amateurs, paid and unpaid labour, that an interdisciplinary response to fast-changing students, both Chinese and Australian, who art and entertainment. ‘Creative destruction’ has problems is crucial, especially one that brings now operate as a cohesive team studying various become increasingly evident, not only in world together science and humanities approaches. In our aspects of the developing creative sector in China, financial markets but also in the business plans of case, the most exciting conceptual breakthroughs including intellectual property, regional and city established corporate players in the global economy, have occurred by bringing together evolutionary planning, and the growth of various creative sectors presenting new opportunities (as well as insecurity) theory (especially evolutionary economics), such as film media, music, and games. to hitherto marginal players. complexity and network studies, and creative-industries approaches, to investigate We are also interested in the role of Thus, my work has focused on trying to understand the process of creative innovation in dynamic, entrepreneurship and business start-ups in the the long-term potential as well as short-term complex networked systems. To accomplish this evolution of the Chinese economy from functionality of digital literacy and new media, with I have been leading a new initiative under the low-cost manufacturing and state-directed a view to extending the social and demographic general heading of ‘Cultural Science’ planning to consumer- and demand-driven design reach of ‘consumer productivity’ and ‘cultural (see http://cultural-science.org/). and innovation. participation.’ From such population-wide uses of multimedia are arising new possibilities for the A group within the CCI (John Banks, Jason Cultural science growth of knowledge. Potts, Lucy Montgomery, Jean Burgess, Stuart Cunningham and myself) is working with My term as Dean of Creative Industries was This development is comparable with the invention colleagues in the UK (Alex Bentley, Paul completed in 2005. Since then I have returned to of printing, where early instrumental purposes Ormerod, Stan Metcalfe, Evelyn Welch) and a research-led focus on disciplinary, cultural and masked unforeseen consequences—including the Germany (Carsten Hermann-Pillath) to build an economic innovation. development of journalism, the novel and science, internationally collaborative team of world-class the realist textual systems of modernity, which researchers in evolutionary and Schumpeterian would not have been possible without both printing economics, complexity mathematics, and (technological innovation) and a wide reading public (cultural change). The QUT Creative Industries Experience 11

creative-cultural participation-innovation, with for creative education as an essential investment a view to building a ‘cultural science’ capable of in population-wide innovation for the growth of integrating testable mathematical and conceptual knowledge. This broad-based approach becomes models with real-world human behaviour, histories even more important at a time when financial and culture. markets are undergoing ‘structural adjustments’— future economic as well as cultural wellbeing will Conclusion require creative innovation from us all.

The present period marks a moment of unprecedented potential for interdisciplinary collaboration and even integration across the arts, humanities and sciences to address real problems of change in a networked global environment, where economic prosperity as well as cultural wellbeing depends as never before on creative talent and enterprise, and where the growth of knowledge requires cultural as well as corporate innovation.

The Creative Industries Precinct is an Australian first and one of the most innovative and forward-looking such developments internationally. It has proved to be an attractive model for regions and cities around the world that see such developments as part of their own strategies for international competitiveness. For us, the Queensland model has led to intellectual as well as institutional advances. In particular, rather than being tied to a rapidly obsolescent a priori definition of the creative industries, we have developed a dynamic model of creative innovation.

The creative industries themselves are going through rapid evolutionary change, from old-style ‘industries’ with copyright outputs, to social-network market services with creative inputs, and more recently towards a participatory or ‘DIY’ culture with co-creative consumers. That is why any initiative must be research-based. Thus the ‘Queensland model’ continues to focus on consumers as well as producers, demand as well as supply, audiences as well as experts, popular culture as well as art—and therefore on the need 12

Education renewal and the Creative Industries Faculty Susan Street

Professor Susan Street took up the position of Executive Dean of the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT in 2005. Previously Susan was Head of Dance at QUT from 1988 until 1999. During the same period she chaired the Tertiary Dance Council of Australia. She was Chair of the Dance Fund and a Council member for the Australia Council from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 until returning to QUT Susan was Dean of Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (APA). During her time in Hong Kong she was a Director of the Hong Kong Ballet and chaired their Artistic Advisory Committee. She was also an adviser to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Education has traditionally placed importance on In supporting our vision of QUT’s Creative The design of the ‘soft infrastructure’ is therefore as left-brain functions, which are logical, sequential, Industries Faculty as a global leader in the new important as the buildings and the facilities. At QUT and linear, as opposed to right-brain synthesising, arts curriculum, we note research on creativity and we have endeavoured to bring ‘soft’ (talent and ideas) empathetic, big-picture-type thinking. We have the environments that help to develop it. Professor and ‘hard’ (technology and equipment) together. We now entered a new age in which it is necessary to Robert Knight MD, Professor of Neuroscience, believe in the need for human interactions within reconsider the ways we teach and learn, and how Psychology and Neurology at UC Berkeley in the a learning ecology. As John Egar says in his book we value the arts and the creative professions. USA, argues that that there are two critical periods Creative Community, ‘the more time in cyber space Within the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT of brain development. These occur in children the more important the real space.’ we acknowledge that Australia’s future prosperity during the ages of 4–6 and 11–14. The biggest will depend more and more on our creativity. We drive to activate the brain is the process of creating In 2001, Creative Industries Faculty replaced the believe that those who illuminate significance and something new or discovering something new. On Faculty of Arts at QUT. This was a significant bring meaning to the world will flourish as we the question of whether creativity can be taught, movement towards refashioning a twenty-first move from the information age to the conceptual Knight says that the key to developing a creative century curriculum. The renamed faculty brought and emerging experience age. mind is to allow learning to occur in unstructured together staff from the Academy of the Arts, the environments, where experimentation can take place School of Media and Journalism, and selected staff These are the claims made in the name of creative and children are allowed to fail and try again. industries. They are based on a radical rethinking of the role of cultural production, which has brought art, culture and entertainment from the obscure margins of the economy to its very core as a major potential for sustained growth. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 13

from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Some of the world’s leading practitioners in the Student profile 2009 and the School of Communication within the creative industries have been attracted to the (enrolments) Faculty of Business. The disciplinary mix in the new Creative Industries Faculty and the University’s three research centres to teach, theorise, research Creative Industries Faculty included: Student numbers and create bold new works and new knowledge. • Acting and Technical Production As described elsewhere in this book, the research Doctorate by research...... 120 • Communication centres located in the Precinct exist alongside Doctorate by coursework...... 6 start-up small to medium enterprises, which are • Communication Design supported by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, Master by research...... 94 • Creative Writing and Cultural Studies the Faculty’s business development arm. Master by coursework...... 115 • Dance The Creative Industries Graduate Diploma...... 6 • Film and Television Faculty profile Graduate Certificate...... 73 • Journalism Bachelor Honours...... 23 The Creative Industries Faculty enrols • Media Studies Bachelor Pass...... 2339 approximately 4337 students in undergraduate, • Music postgraduate, research and cross-faculty courses. Other undergraduate students...... 75 • Theatre Studies Of all student enrolments in the Faculty, 81 per cent Interfaculty...... 1486 are in attendance full time. At undergraduate level • Visual Arts. full-time enrolments account for 87 per cent and at Total...... 4337 postgraduate level full-time enrolments account for The location on the Kelvin Grove campus of QUT The focus of curriculum development since the 52 per cent. with its new purpose-built creative industries inception of the Faculty has run across the four precinct offered the prospect for closer integration The age of undergraduate students in the Creative broad areas of design, performance, production of curriculum and the development of Industries Faculty has trended slightly younger and writing. In 2006, in my position as Executive cross-disciplinary teams. Since its inception, over the past five years. In 2009, 93 per cent Dean, I worked with staff to determine a new cutting-edge performance, production and of commencing students and 92 per cent of all Faculty structure, grouping disciplines into three exhibition spaces have stimulated staff, students students were under 25. In the same intake across portfolios each led by a portfolio director, with and creative practitioners to collaborate on QUT, 84 per cent of commencing students and research-intensive staff brought together under projects. However, it is the students who benefit 79 per cent of all students across QUT were the combined leadership of the Assistant Dean, most from the purpose-built world-class facilities under 25. Research, the Centre of Excellence (CCI) Director at QUT Kelvin Grove campus. We provide and the Federation Fellow. high-tech lecture facilities. In addition, the By way of comparison, 22 per cent of postgraduate learning ecology at the Kelvin Grove campus students in the Creative Industries Faculty are The potential strength of the initial structure includes state-of-the art newsrooms for radio, under 25. For QUT, this number is 23 per cent. (the 11 stand-alone disciplines) was that it television, online and print production, interactive Likewise, when considering higher degree research provided autonomy and discipline coherence exhibition spaces and wired black box performance students, nine per cent of CI research students around shared knowledge and interests. The spaces for ‘live’ experimental work, production are under 25, in comparison to 11 per cent across perceived weaknesses were that it was an expensive workshops for set construction, prop-making, QUT. The Faculty has recorded good growth in and complex management structure that provided and 2D and 3D production. We provide specialist Indigenous student enrolment, up from 17 in 2002 limited budget flexibility for small disciplines and design studios for drawing, drafting, fashion and to 54 in 2009. In addition, the CIF attracts more that silos had formed around units and courses, textile design, computing studios for animation, female students than the University average with limiting interdisciplinary opportunities for students interactive design, virtual reality, and design 70 per cent of commencing students being female. and staff. This discipline-based structure did not technology, and film and television studio and take account of the considerable change in staff post-production facilities. profiles that would arise from the rapid growth in research activity. 14

Under the new structure disciplines have been The Creative Industries Faculty aims to offer and The Faculty offers double degree programs with reconfigured from 11 to 8 with Acting and deliver the highest possible standard of teaching other faculties (Information Technology, Business, Technical Production joining Performance Studies into courses within the resources available, and by Built Environment and Engineering, Health, QUT (now called Drama), Journalism joining Media doing so contributes to the growth of the rapidly Caboolture, Education and Law) and many jointly and Communication and Communication Design evolving creative industries sector. Discipline offered courses with other faculties. joining Visual Arts (now called Art and Design). excellence, interdisciplinary connections, and While partly pragmatic, I determined that sufficient a balance between practice and theory are Honours programs are available in some disciplines precedent and curriculum and research synergies strong themes that underpin undergraduate and and are coordinated by the Faculty’s research warranted such a move. postgraduate courses. office. Postgraduate programs range from graduate certificate to doctoral levels and cover professional Despite the move to eight disciplines under The Faculty offers three broad categories of courses and research courses that may be discipline specific, portfolio groupings, marketing continues to focus at the undergraduate level. The Bachelor of Fine drawn from across disciplines within the Faculty on positioning the Faculty, disciplines and all Arts (BFA) courses are the most specialised courses or electives from across the University. CIF offers a course offerings rather than the portfolios. The offered. These courses have small enrolment targets, strong higher degrees program and a professional portfolio directors are responsible to the Executive use alternative entry processes and have a high coursework Doctor of Creative Industries. Dean for the strategic and operational management concentration of units nominated by the discipline, of the portfolio resources as well as providing input many with a considerable practical component. Teaching and learning in the into the strategic planning and reporting processes real world for the Faculty. The Bachelor of Music is separately titled for industry and market recognition and is similar to Industry engagement is evident throughout the a BFA. The Bachelor of Creative Industries (BCI) Portfolio 1: Faculty, through a number of projects within and range of study areas includes theoretical and • Creative Writing and Cultural Studies across disciplines. practical studies. Students take a minimum of 12 • Drama (Acting and Technical Production/ units in one discipline and up to eight units outside Many final-year undergraduate students undertake Performance Studies) their chosen discipline. Workplace Learning with a variety of companies, • Film and Television both creative and general business. In 2007 the The Bachelor of Journalism is also separately titled Workplace Learning program was expanded and and is most closely aligned with the BCI. The Portfolio 2: incorporated into a final-year core unit for students interdisciplinary Bachelor of Creative Industries in the Bachelor of Creative Industries (BCI). • Fashion (BCI(I)) enables students to complete at most three Workplace Learning is seen as a key component sub–majors (six units each) selected from across • Journalism/Media and Communication for the BCI (Interdisciplinary), so it is likely that most disciplines, with the option of taking up to engagement with industry, specifically future Portfolio 3: 10 units from other faculties. employers of graduates, will grow. • Communication Design/Visual Arts • Dance • Music and Sound. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 15

As ‘a university for the real world’, QUT Creative Research management Practice-led research Industries students benefit from practical and case study learning, often to solve the creative In the last months of 2005, a Creative Industries Artists and creative practitioners have been problems and create content for real clients. Faculty Research Office was established and researching their disciplines and their practice at Journalism students produce news bulletins for headed by Professor Brad Haseman (Assistant QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus for more than two QUT news on YouTube and 4EB radio. Fashion Dean, Research), to provide strategic direction decades. In the process of creating new works students have collaborated with David Jones and and research management for the Faculty. The these artist-researchers have made original the Mercedes Brisbane Fashion Week to present Faculty Research Office manages postgraduate contributions to the store of knowledge about student work in the public domain. Creative students from the beginning of the course through their discipline through a rigorous investigation Advertising students create campaigns for to completion. This includes both fee-paying of practice. Known as practice-led research, this is community and charity organisations. coursework students and Higher Degree Research research which is initiated in creative practice and (HDR) candidates. The Faculty Research Office also then pursued through the production of creative The Faculty sponsors several high-profile, implements research capacity building activities work. This commitment to placing practice at the industry-based awards and events: for CIF staff and implements the Research Quality centre of the design, conduct and reporting of • Brisbane Festival Framework for the Creative Industries. It provides a research distinguishes practice-led research from connection between the Creative Industries Faculty traditional research approaches. QUT’s Creative • Brisbane Writers Festival and the three research centres. Another important Industries Faculty is recognised as a national leader • New Filmmakers Awards role of the Faculty Research Office is leading the in this area. • Premiers Literary Awards development of practice-led research in Art and Design for the Creative Industries. The Creative Industries Faculty attracts students • Queensland Department of State Development’s from across the country who see the benefits Smart Awards of this research strategy. In 2009, 37 faculty • Queensland Media Awards practice-led research degree students and more than a dozen staff-initiated projects will produce • The Walkely Awards practice-led outputs. Typically these works • Queensland Gallery of Modern Art challenge traditional understandings of the arts through their interdisciplinarity, arresting use of • State Library of Queensland. technology, and playfulness of form. Students are The ongoing challenge for the Creative Industries undertaking examinable artistic work in creative Faculty is to be at the forefront of learning, writing, film and television production, dance, research, creativity and practice in the creative performance, music, visual arts and new media. industries by harnessing all of QUT’s creative people and resources to achieve maximum alignment and impact. 16

I came to QUT from Beijing in 2001 when there was a lot of new talk about creative industries. The Creative Industries Faculty had just started. I didn’t know what creative industries really meant in the beginning but I could sense there was great enthusiasm for the idea developing. I did a PhD on Chinese journalism and the government’s use of soft propaganda to sell the Olympic Dream to the people in Beijing. In fact, I realised during my PhD I was doing creative industries research. We moved from the city to the new site in 2004. When I graduated in 2005 I was the first Chinese PhD student to finish a PhD in the Creative Industries Faculty. To be part of the history of the Creative Industries experience is something that I will reflect on with some pleasure in the future.

Hui Li, first PhD student from China to graduate in Creative Industries Faculty

There are few things in my life that I can foretell but constant change is one that I can absolutely guarantee. In 2004 a huge change happened in my life: I crossed the Equator and jumped onto a whole new land: Australia. But the transformation is far more complex and tremendous than the flight path shows. As soon as I stepped off the airplane I felt overwhelmed by a new language and the culture which left no time to prepare my mind. Standing in the famous Queensland sunshine, I was totally lost. Until, at last, one building caught my eyes: I was so excited and happy, just like the sailor finding his lighthouse or the Chinese finding Chairman Mao. It was the Creative Industries Precinct, my faculty building. I was already familiar with it because I had witnessed its building process online for the last year while I was still in China. I couldn’t deny that part of the reason I chose QUT was because I had worked out that I would be in the first group of students using this new modern building. New lecture rooms, new theatres, new computer labs and my dream computer: Apple Macs. It’s just so great.

Leila Qiongli Wu, graduate of MA Creative Industries

18

The creative industries idea Stuart Cunningham Stuart Cunningham is Distinguished Professor, Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. This centre draws on contributions across the humanities, creative arts and social sciences to help build a more dynamic and inclusive innovation system in Australia. He is one of Australia’s best-known media scholars with a special interest in policy.

The idea of creative industries was developed by a by increasing participation of user-created content of export income, and provide jobs for over two Creative Industries Taskforce of inter-departmental and consumer productivity, and has strong claims million people3. In the US the same industries and industry representatives in the UK in 1998. The for facilitating social and health benefits. It requires account for eight per cent of GDP4. Estimates put the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) industry development strategies tailored to non- world market at over $3.04 trillion (2005). Over the definition of creative industries is well-known: standard patterns and players. period 2000–05, trade in creative goods and services ‘activities which have their origin in individual increased at an unprecedented average annual growth 1 creativity skill and talent and which have the The 13 industry sectors included in the UK rate of 8.7 per cent. By 2020 this sector will be worth potential for wealth and job creation through the definition have been accepted without much AU$6.1 trillion5. generation and exploitation of intellectual property’. disagreement in many countries; others like China This definition has remained dominant as the have extended the sectors to include tourism and Because of the uncertainties about data, and the ‘creative industries meme’ disseminated around the various craft manufacturing sectors. Ongoing need for better evidence-based policy, researchers world, notably in the period between 2003 debates remain about what constitutes creative at QUT have led the world in developing a more and 2009. activities and occupations as opposed to service and robust system of mapping the creative economy. routine manufacturing. Rather than dismissing these The ‘Creative Trident’ is an example of the highly The creative industries are important drivers of debates as distractions, we believe that it is necessary sophisticated approach we have taken to critiquing the knowledge economy and enablers for other to maintain a critical stance. One of the criticisms the standard UK model. It shows that the sector industry sectors, especially through the provision of often directed at policy makers has been a proclivity is much larger than indicated by any previous digital content. Realising the benefits of the growth to include too many sectors and sub-sectors findings by analysing creative employment of creative industries involves addressing many as ‘creative’ for the sake of boosting the overall ‘embedded’ in the broader economy in addition to challenges, requiring both fundamental and applied contribution to the economy. supporting and management personnel alongside research highly sensitive to the particularities of this ‘specialist’ creatives in creative industries. The sector. The creative industries have multi-faceted There have been various attempts to construct an Creative Trident can thus track the input value and complex supply, demand and consumer-driven evidence base for the importance of the creative of ‘creative occupations’ to the economy as a markets. The sector includes pre-market, third- industries. Some of the data is well known. In the UK whole. The establishment of new benchmarks sector, and not-for-profit enterprise, as well as some the creative industries represent 10 per cent of the and methodologies in determining the size and 2 of the world’s largest corporations. It is characterised economy ; contribute more than four per cent characteristics of the creative industries and ‘creative The QUT Creative Industries Experience 19

economy’ have been achieved in contract research In late 2005, a Prime Minister’s Science, a number of government portfolio areas. A key activity with further commercial potential in the Engineering and Innovation Council inquiry development has been the Australian Government’s UK (National Endowment for Science, Technology into ‘Creativity in the Information Economy’ was establishment, in 2009, of a Creative Industries and the Arts), and New Zealand (New Zealand released and this was followed in March 2006 by Innovation Centre, one of the centres in Enterprise Trade and Enterprise). The quest for concrete a Digital Content Industry Action Agenda. The Connect9, a national initiative to support small information has also led to the establishment of recommendations to boost Australia’s ‘Creativity in business enterprise in selected sectors and places a multi-year longitudinal primary data collection the Information Economy’ included inaugurating around the country. facility: the Creative Business Intelligence Service a local version of the UK’s NESTA (National or ‘Benchmarker’. This collaborative engagement Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts), The creative industries idea has grown rapidly in brings together the CCI, the Queensland developing better cross-disciplinary educational the decade since it was first developed in the UK. It Department of Trade, Development and Industry opportunities, and extending the country’s heavy has undergone some transformation as well—from and a number of professional bodies. investment in science and innovation to include a focus on specific industry sectors which could creativity and the creative industries. The Digital benefit from innovative government support to a The creative industries idea has been in play in Content Industry Action Agenda has been devised focus also on creative people and the contributions Australia since the late 1990s, with important to double the value of the digital content industry they make across most parts of a national economy precursors delineating opportunities for growth to the Australian economy, to $42 billion, by 2015. (a creative workforce). Creative sectors and in closely related fields up to the mid-1990s: Its recommendations concentrate on strategies creative people are being seen increasingly as Commerce in Content, The Online Economy, to improve private investment in the sector, making an essential contribution to an up-to-date Excellence in Content, the Broadband Services developing a stronger export performance, better understanding of the knowledge-based economy. 6 Expert group (BSEG) reports and Creative Nation . articulation between industry and skills and The current level of activity shows that the creative training providers, and with R&D institutions, industries are on the radar in ways they have not and making sure that intellectual property regimes 7 been since the mid-1990s . keep pace with technological and social change and establishing and maintaining sources of timely Since 2001, there has been a comprehensive data that can inform planning by both industry Creative Industries Cluster Study, a Digital and government. Some of these recommendations Content Industry Action Agenda, and a Prime have been taken up, while many await action across Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council inquiry into ‘Creativity in the Information Economy’8. What we are seeing is the development of an innovation framework appropriate for creative content. The focus has moved from the creative industries as a sector, to a closer focus on the ‘digital content and applications’ end of the 1 Advertising, Architecture, Arts and Antique Markets, Creative Nation: Commonwealth Cultural Policy, 1994, Crafts, Design, Designer Fashion, Film, Interactive Dept. of Communications and the Arts, Canberra. creative industries and a greater concentration on Leisure Software, Music, Television and Radio, 7 For a detailed account of this history, see Tom O’Regan the creative industries as a crucial value-adding Performing Arts, Publishing and Software and Mark David Ryan, ‘From Multimedia to Digital Content 2 www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_06/bud_bud06_ and Applications: Remaking Policy for the Digital Content input into manufacturing and the wider service speech.cfm Industries’, Media International Australia incorporating industries, such as health, education, government 3 Source: UK Creative Industries Minister James Purnell, Culture and Policy No 112, pp. 28–49. November 4 2005 8 Creative Industries Cluster Study, 2004, Department of and business services. www.culture.gov.uk/global/press_notices/ Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, archive_2005/147_05.htm Canberra. www.cultureandrecreaton.gov.au/cics/; Digital 4 E.g.: www.culture.gov.uk/global/press_notices/ Content Industry Action Agenda, available at www.dcita. archive_2005/creative_economy_conference.htm. gov.au/arts/film_digital/digital_content_industry_action_ 5 Source: www.sdi.qld.gov.au/dsdweb/v3/guis/templates/ agenda; Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and content/gui_cue_cntnhtml.cfm?id=2223. Innovation Council (PMSEIC) Working Group, 6 Montgomery, J. 1995, Excellence in content: the 2005, The role of creativity in the innovation economy, focus for Australian investment in multimedia content: www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/B1EF82EF-08D5-427E- a study of international trends in investment and B7E4-69D41C61D495/8625/finalPMSEICReport_ strategic alliances focused on multimedia content and WEBversion.pdf perceptions and awareness of Australia as a location 9 www.enterpriseconnect.gov.au/OurCentres/ to source or invest in multimedia content, Coopers and CreativeIndustries/Pages/default.aspx Lybrand, Sydney; Networking Australia’s future: the final report of the Broadband Services Expert Group, 1995, Australian Govt. Pub. Service, Canberra; 20

Creative Enterprise The QUT Creative Industries Experience 21

Creative Enterprise Australia A model for growing the creative economy Anna Rooke Prior to moving to Australia, Anna worked for more than 10 years supporting the growth of bioscience, creative, digital and arts-based businesses in the United Kingdom. Anna was responsible for the strategic and operational development of the UK’s first national ‘Science City’ in which 2700 new employment opportunities and 70 start-up companies were created. She also created the first dedicated one million dollar proof of principle fund in Yorkshire to enable creative entrepreneurs to explore the potential of their business venture. Anna’s goal is to help develop a healthy and expanding creative industries sector in Australia, with QUT’s Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) at the heart of powering the creative economy.

Creative industries are characterised by uncertainty, Beginnings • establish a Creative Industries Enterprise fast-evolving business models and global markets. Centre (CIEC) incubating start-up and small Moreover, it has often been suggested that creative Creative Industries Precinct Pty Ltd (CIPPL) enterprises, supporting independent contractor ‘types’ lack business acumen, that they value their was established by Queensland University of associates in the creative industries by providing art for its ‘own sake’. While this adage may have Technology in 2002 with the support of the entrepreneurial skills training, support, access to held true in the past, the new creative industries of Queensland state government. The founding facilities and stimulating enterprise and industry the twenty-first century provide a different way of principle of CIPPL was to ‘drive the commercial development. thinking about business development. Artists and and industry development objectives of the creatives may not present in suits and ties but they Creative Industries Precinct’. The overall vision of In February 2004, CIPPL commenced its are not averse to the latest innovation, novel market CIPPL was to: operational plan. The first tenant moved into the positioning, networking or brand development. premises on 9 February and within six months full • demonstrate a new mode of engagement between occupancy levels were attained. By the end of the Since 2004, QUT Creative Enterprise Australia the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) year, 12 companies were based on site in a range of (CEA) has supported the establishment of more community and industry stakeholders in the sectors including film and television, new media, than 25 new start-ups, raised over $8 million creative industries. This engagement would design, games and photography. investment and 140 creative industries businesses promote research excellence, innovation and in its capacity as a national creative business help develop the skills needed by the creative The focus in the early years was on providing development agency and Australia’s only dedicated workforce of the future support services to companies located on site at creative industries ‘incubator’. The Queensland the Creative Industries Precinct. Following the government has supported CEA to develop • develop Queensland’s creative industry sector as a appointment of a new Chairman, David Fishel specialist support services and incubator facilities major market in Australia and create a nationally in late 2006, a change of direction eventuated. aimed at boosting the success of Queensland’s networked, globally oriented cluster of business creative enterprises. and research creative enterprises 22

I was appointed the new CEO in March 2007. • Investment capital: Lack of access to investment CEA services My immediate task was to create a new strategic capital is a well known issue in the creative business plan, one which would expand the range industries and this is exacerbated by the regional CEA services are based on in-depth knowledge of of services and activities, as well as sector focus. In nature of Queensland’s creative industries; in today’s experience-led economy, business processes, June 2008, the new trading name for the company effect, remoteness from major markets plays a commercialisation knowledge, incubation models, was unveiled. The new identity symbolised CEA’s significant role in business dynamics. networks and workforce development requirements next phase of development, operating beyond the • Flexible workspace: Emerging creative for the creative industries. CEA assists emerging Creative Industries Precinct to offer services with entrepreneurs look for flexible workspaces; these creative businesses, in the areas of music, film and both national appeal and delivery capability. are at a premium, especially when there is a need television, fashion, new media and design, to grow and reach their full potential. Creative Industries to locate close to markets. businesses in Queensland: In Queensland (as elsewhere) many creative Creative businesses are provided with essential owner-managers have taken an ‘organic’ approach business skills through a range of services tailored What we know to the growth of their businesses, by adding to the creative industries as well as access to leading slowly to their customers and clients through the technology, office space and facilities. Many of the researchers at QUT have contributed distinctiveness of their creative work. However, the to the knowledge of how the creative industries purpose of a creative industries initiative should be Creative business solutions: work, locally and globally. CEA, moreover, has to harness and exploit creativity in a commercial applied a hands-on practitioner approach to context. Creative businesses need a greater Strengthening the business skills of those in the dealing with the creative industries to make them awareness of business strategy skills and related creative industries viable and successful businesses. I have carefully core sector skills to achieve their commercial • Launch Pad—we equip emerging companies listened to the concerns of local businesses, both potential and scale. with the skills, knowledge and experience they start-ups and more mature enterprises, to develop require to deal with the day-to-day challenges of industry relevant services. The structure of support Conventional and generic business support running a business, from short courses through programs offered by QUT Creative Enterprise structures alone are not effective in realising to 12-month business development programs. Australia reflects the main barriers facing growth. Creative businesses need to acquire the Australia’s creative industries businesses. right support skills that will enable strategic • Investment—we bridge the funding gap by business development and innovation, and the full connecting creative companies with investors and The common issues that we have identified in local exploitation of their assets. by offering financial support up to $15000 for creative businesses are: CEA has gained experience in providing businesses less than five years old. • Demand: The local market is not dynamic customised support; in doing so, it has brokered • Knowledge—we provide access to leading enough to sustain some businesses; consequently engagement from creative businesses and innovation, research, business guidance and there is a lack of critical mass compared to other entrepreneurs in business support services. This professional development programs. cities and regions; however this is building. would not be possible without an established • Skills gaps: There are human capital and training detailed understanding of the motivations of needs. Most respondents identify business creative owner-managers, different growth patterns, development, finance and marketing as areas levels of maturity and business models within of need. specific sectors of the creative industries, as well as the different stages at which individual businesses • Entrepreneurial culture: A more entrepreneurial need varying types of assistance. There is no single outlook is needed to overcome the critical mass route to growth. and skills problems. Failure to network and collaborate is evidence of market uncertainty. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 23

Creative connections: Creative Industries Enterprise Centre • networking and social events to connect with other creative companies Working with leading business advisers and some The Creative Industries Enterprise Centre (CIEC) • access to personal and professional development of the industry’s most talented, innovative and provides incubator packages for early stage creative and training seminars through QUT Creative successful players companies including office space, mentoring and access to research or student training initiatives for Enterprise Australia’s Creative Connections QUT Creative Enterprise Australia enables up to three years. Spaces from 24 square metres are program creative businesses—emerging and established— available for up to 15 companies on site. The CIEC • access to quality and competitive ITandT to exchange knowledge and best practice, build has been fully occupied since 2004 and currently infrastructure and business grade broadband networks, share learning and foster collaboration. there is a waiting list for incubator space. One of access We connect businesses with potential employees, the main barriers has been the lack of space to • professional reception area, with access to fax suppliers, business partners, investors and mentors. support creative companies to their next stage of growth after their first three years. This has facilities, personalised mail and courier handling Clients are able to learn and network with others, resulted in some ‘bottleneck’ issues, particularly as • board room and meeting room access with and benefit from the expertise and knowledge of companies are encouraged to ‘graduate’ so that new equipment facilities (e.g. video conferencing, data established practitioners, industry experts and business can move in. projector and polycom access) business advisers. Creative Industries Accelerator Hub • access to QUT’s leading-edge Creative Industries Creative workspaces: Faculty for innovation, R&D and graduate intern The Accelerator Hub provides expansion space opportunities Offering world-leading facilities, technology for creative companies after their initial three-year • opportunities to use QUT Creative Industries and infrastructure incubation program. Advanced mentoring and office space up to 125 square metres is located Precinct’s unique creative facilities and spaces CEA offers access to world-class creative technology at the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. This follows for creative experimentation: film and TV and facilities as well as flexible workplace solutions extensive demand from the existing businesses. production, performances, exhibitions and including business offices and hot desks. Facilities This Hub opened in December 2008 with conferences include computing and digital studios, media labs, 75 per cent occupancy and was fully leased within • security 24 hours/7 days. newsrooms, design, post production facilities, film the first six months. and television studios and productions workshops. Our activities centre on providing creative business This is in response to one of the main business All the facilities offered by QUT Creative Enterprise support services to build sustainable creative barriers facing creative companies—flexible and Australia provide: industries while, at the same time, profiling the affordable workspace appropriate to the creative • furnished dedicated creative offices typically sector’s role and value in the wider economy. industries. In Queensland CEA provides a ‘ladder available from 24 sqm. at competitive rates In the future, we will continue to accelerate of accommodation’ for early stage stages: designed for early stage companies with the business competitiveness of our clients and outsourced facilities management services A Micro Business ‘Hot-desk’ Hub help to develop new commercial opportunities provided by QUT internationally. These are workstations for pre-start-ups, • flexible lease solutions designed to support entrepreneurs and artists to use facilities as business growth required on a very flexible basis. The workstations are typically used by creative individuals who are • access to QUT Creative Enterprise Australia’s transitioning from a home-based office as they Creative Launch Pad mentoring services, build their company and require office support providing creative businesses with specialist facilities. This facility opened in August 2008 mentoring and business development support following extensive business demand. 24

Queensland government leads on creative industries Lindy Johnson

Lindy Johnson is the manager of the Queensland government’s Department of Employment and Economic Development and Innovation’s Creative Industries unit, which supports and develops the creative industries sector. Lindy’s passion for creativity and design combined with her keen nose for business and export opportunities is the result of years working in the sector. Initially trained as an artist, Lindy has worked extensively in government, conceiving and initiating innovative policies targeted at increasing employment opportunities for creatives, increasing the demand for Queensland’s creative expertise, and increasing the economic viability of the sector.

Queensland has a vibrant creative industries In addition to having a dynamic creative industries The Queensland government has made creative sector—with all the ideas and talent necessary sector, Queensland leads Australia in creative industries a priority because: industries practice and policy. The Queensland to successfully compete on a world stage. • they are viable in their own right Queensland might be a relatively small player, but government delivers its Creative Industries our innovative architects and designers, digital programs through the Creative Industries Sectoral • they are a key enabler across all industry sectors interactive games developers, writers and musicians Development Unit within the Department of • they create healthy, productive, vibrant are making significant inroads into local, national Employment, Economic Development and communities. and overseas markets. For example, Billboard Innovation. This is the only dedicated creative The work of the government’s Creative Industries Magazine recently named Brisbane as one of the industries unit in within any government in Unit focuses on three main activities: world’s live music hotspots. Australia. Over the past four years the unit has been actively supporting, developing, listening and • increasing international sales of creative The Queensland government recognises the practically responding to the creative industries. industries products and services through the dynamic growth of creative industries worldwide The unit targets its programs to make the most HEAT initiative and other activities and their economic potential. Our creative impact in potentially high-growth areas of the • measuring the economic value of creative businesses are the fastest growing in the nation Creative Industries. businesses and providing information to help and are employing more people than in any other them grow (through the Creative Business state—around 74000. Currently Queensland’s As previous chapters have shown there is currently Benchmarker) creative industries are worth $3.4 billion annually a large amount of theorising about the economic and generate $1.1 billion in annual exports. The viability and importance of the creative industries • Ulysses, transforming business through design—a government is confident that increased access to to governments and societies. However, there are business program to help businesses to use design new markets, combined with strategic government very few practical examples of where governments to commercialise innovation. policies will enable Queensland’s burgeoning and research institutions have tested these theories. creative industries to make an even greater contribution to our economy. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 25

Queensland government’s So how does the state government work to deliver Infrastructure creative industries strategy economic outcomes across all sectors? The Queensland government continues to make a The Queensland government takes a lead role In 2004 the Queensland government led the nation significant contribution to the development of this developing those strong connections that will make creative industries infrastructure. The government by initiating Australia’s only dedicated creative the difference—connections between ideas people industries strategy focused on commercialisation – invests in both the bricks and mortar as well as the and business, creative businesses and customers, research, educational and industry partnerships Creativity is Big Business—a framework for the future. researchers and creatives, industry representatives This framework laid the foundation for practical needed to grow the sector. In terms of ‘hard’ and government, and all the combinations in infrastructure the government takes a multi-faceted programs to develop and strengthen Queensland’s between. These connections go beyond the physical creative industries. approach, investing in both stand-alone creative ‘clustering’ of significant segments of the creative industries facilities and the type of clusters referred industries and other commercial, educational The commitment made by the government to the to in the Queensland model. and research entities. It’s about creating strategic creative industries through the Creative Industries networks which will bring industry, researchers, Strategy in 2004 effectively marked the beginning In 2000, the state government contributed educators and government together for the of an exciting conversation between government, $15 million to establish the Creative Industries economic benefit of all Queenslanders. creative businesses, researchers and industry Precinct (CIP) located at the Queensland representatives. The goal? To translate the creative University of Technology at Kelvin Grove. The ideas of Queensland’s creative businesses— The leading role of the CIP is Australia’s first site dedicated to creative including our architects and designers, writers Queensland government experimentation and commercial development in and musicians—into commercial success on a the creative industries. global scale. The Queensland government takes a lead role in developing the state’s creative industries through Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence The result is a program of activities aimed at innovative and focused policies. Queensland’s for Creative Industries and Innovation define increasing demand for Queensland’s creative strengths include the development of a world-class the ‘Queensland model’ as a unique approach services and products in new markets and building creative industries infrastructure to support the to creative enterprise and creative research and a strong creative industries sector. The Creative growth of the sector. development. This model connects business Industries Unit works with other government enterprise, education, research and development departments, industry and educational institutions and cultural production and exhibition in a creative and focuses on three main areas—exports, research industries cluster. Of course, the Kelvin Grove and measuring the economic value of the sector, Urban Village is a physical manifestation of this and design integration. geographical clustering of like-minded businesses, researchers, educators and creative talent.

As well the Queensland government has contributed $1.75 million to QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (the operational arm of CIP) to assist in its commercialisation activities. Queensland is the only state to have an Australian Research Council funded centre for creative industries—the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) also located at the Creative Industries Precinct. 26

Queensland’s South Bank on the Brisbane River Research: This major project will deliver increased economic is a magnificent example of a world-class creative outcomes for businesses as well as improve our industries precinct, transforming the riverfront The Creative Business Benchmarker global economic competitiveness. And the flow-on into a creative hub—attracting talent and audiences benefits from a design focus will naturally result in The Queensland government believes that increased from around the world. Educational institutions more attractive, healthy, vibrant, sustainable and emphasis on creative industries research will provide like the Griffith Film School and the Queensland creative communities. a significant competitive edge to Queensland’s Conservatorium of Music rub shoulders with creative businesses. To this end, the government the new Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, In summary, the Queensland government has contributed $316000 towards the development world-class creative performance spaces, the supports activities which will strengthen and grow and implementation of an Australian-first creative re-developed State Library of Queensland, and our creative industries sector. The Queensland industries analysis tool—the Creative Business recreational facilities. As part of its contribution to model is just one of many ways to encourage the Benchmarker (CBB). The project is a joint venture the creative industries infrastructure, the Creative commercialisation of great ideas. between QUT through the Australian Research Industries Unit administered the government’s Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries $5 million contribution to the establishment of the Changing economic and Innovation (CCI). The CBB provides useful, Griffith Film School (Griffith University) located at accurate, timely and relevant business data about perceptions: one end of the precinct. industry trends and performance to government The ‘creative economy’ National and international policy makers, industry organisations and individual businesses. This information is essential to the TheCreative Economy Report 2008, published by marketing: growth and development of the creative industries the United Nations in May 2008, characterises the creative economy as an ‘evolving concept based Creating demand and the response from individual businesses continues to be enthusiastic. on the potential of “creative assets” to generate The Queensland government works with the creative socio-economic growth and development, in a industries to stimulate demand and create new Ulysses: globalised world increasingly dominated by images, markets for our creative services and products. Since sounds, texts and symbols.’ Transforming business through design 2004 the Creative Industries Unit has partnered with The report acknowledges that modern economies industry bodies to support a series of international Modern economies recognise that creativity and are increasingly about creating wealth from ideas marketing showcases for our writers, photographers good design are key to innovation—providing rather than from the traditional bases of agriculture, and musicians. These showcasing activities have new solutions to human challenges now and in the mining and manufacturing. They’re about the resulted in millions of dollars in sales, licensing future. The Queensland government acknowledges enormous potential value of intellectual property. deals, commissions as well as increased global the crucial role of good design in our increasingly They’re about the power of design to transform exposure. The stand-out marketing initiative for knowledge-based economy. We believe that products so they work better, and are more desirable, 2008 was the launch of Heat—Queensland’s new wave Queensland has the potential and the talent to be the more marketable than their competitors. They’re of environmental architects. This ongoing project has design centre of the Asia-Pacific region. about using ideas in new ways to solve problems. garnered enormous international media exposure and continues to promote Queensland’s architectural Ulysses (named for the rare Queensland Ulysses The report recognises that creativity, knowledge and design services, with a view to increasing sales butterfly) aims to embed excellent design across and human talent, more than the traditional and commissions. Due to the positive response from Queensland mainstream businesses with a goal means of production such as labour and capital, the architecture sector, HEAT will expand to include of making our businesses more competitive in a are fast becoming ‘powerful engines of sustainable fashion, writing and publishing. global market. development.’ The report specifically notes that unprecedented globalisation and connectivity The project will do this by: through technology define this era in history. • providing businesses with access to design expertise • educating government and industry on the value of design as a key economic driver. a unique approach to creative enterprise 28

Research The QUT Creative Industries Experience 29

Renovating research and policy on creative industries and innovation Stuart Cunningham

Stuart Cunningham is Distinguished Professor, Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. This centre draws on contributions across the humanities, creative arts and social sciences to help build a more dynamic and inclusive innovation system in Australia. He is one of Australia’s best-known media scholars with a special interest in policy.

Research characterised by a burgeoning services sector and the Queensland Government Department of State The ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) was formed in the growth of a creative workforce to sustain it. Development, Brisbane City Council, and several 2005 to model a unique approach to humanities Outcomes from this broad research agenda are peak industry groups such as QMusic and the research in Australia, repositioning it as applied already being registered. Design Institute of Australia. International agencies and cross-disciplinary. Leveraging the $60 million have also been influenced by our policy research, investment in the innovative Creative Industries At state, national and international levels, policy in demonstrating the necessity of including the Precinct made by CCI’s administering organisation, the area of creative industries and innovation has creative and content sectors in any contemporary Queensland University of Technology and the been demonstrably improved by the work of CCI innovation system. Queensland Government, CCI has developed a researchers. In 2003, a research team led by CCI research program in the creative industries which Director Professor Stuart Cunningham and CCI Research results include demonstrating the is recognised as pre-eminent nationally and Advisory Board Chair Dr Terry Cutler developed a integral role that the creative sector plays in internationally. major conceptual policy breakthrough by placing incubating innovation, stimulating demand for the creative industries within an ‘innovation new products and services, and highlighting the CCI works to a coherent plan to address a set systems’ analytical framework—a world first. role of user-generated content in developing new of definable gaps and problems in the national business models to enhance the sustainability of innovation system, seeking to make it more This framework underpinned the successful creative enterprises. dynamic and inclusive of the contribution of the bid for the Centre of Excellence and has guided human sciences and the industry sectors, based on the research agenda of the centre in its working the knowledge they create. This is consistent with partnerships with agents of policy development international and national policy development, such as the Commonwealth Department of as post-industrial economies are increasingly Communications, the Australian Film Commission, 30

In Australia, the Queensland government has Our report for NESTA showing how the UK—the Australia’s research priorities recognise that ‘the been using CCI’s research to refocus its Creative home of the creative industries concept—can media and creative industries are among the fastest Industries Program since 2006, and has committed improve its data coverage of the creative economy growing sectors of the new economy. Research is to a medium-term partnership to deliver a Creative is a good example of ‘bringing coals to Newcastle’. needed to exploit the huge potential in the digital Business Intelligence Service which will provide In addition, the Arts and Humanities Research media industry’ and that ‘promoting an innovation in-depth strategic industry data. The Design Council in the UK is using CCI research to culture and economy requires research with a Institute has used our research into the extent of underpin a contemporary argument for the place of focus on developing and fostering human talent, designers’ employment across the economy to help the arts and humanities in the modern economy. societal and cultural values favourable to creativity promote design inputs into manufacturing. and innovation, and structures and processes for encouraging and managing innovation’. This could Our innovation research was used in the be a mission statement for the Centre of Excellence development of the national Digital Content for Creative Industries and Innovation. Industry Action Agenda (2005–06), and the ‘Imagine Australia’ report to the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in 2005. More recently, the Cultural Minister’s Council has relied extensively on CCI’s creative economy work to define and map the dynamics of ‘Building a Creative Innovation Economy’. The current Commonwealth government’s arts policy shows the impact of CCI’s work in defining the extent, dynamism and relevance of the creative economy, and explicitly models its proposed Creative Industries Innovation Centre on what has been dubbed the ‘Queensland model’. The ‘Queensland model’

What is this ‘Queensland model’? The term comes from Chinese policy commentators, and refers to our vision for integrated education, R&D, enterprise and digital creativity built into the Creative Industries Precinct. The Chinese have sought to emulate it in some of their many industry cluster initiatives. We have advised a succession of universities and governments intrigued by this model of applied humanities and creative practice aligned to education reform and enterprise development appropriate to the creative industries. The UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the New Zealand Department of Trade and Enterprise have engaged us to apply our model of the creative economy in their jurisdictions. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 31

What results has the Centre The quest for concrete information has also led Hartley’s team has developed a robust model for of Excellence achieved? to the establishment of a multi-year longitudinal understanding the relation between individual primary data collection facility: the Creative creative ‘literacy’ and scaled-up aggregation of Business Intelligence Service or ‘Benchmarker’. This content. Progress has been made on modelling The aim and objectives of CCI state that, over a collaborative engagement brings together the CCI, the relations between producers and consumers five-year period, it will contribute to a demonstrable the Queensland Department of Trade, Development in creative innovation, and on the nature of social improvement in national innovation systems. and Industry and a number of professional bodies. In network markets. The world’s first monograph Improved understanding: Australia, during 2008, a major review of the National on YouTube, published by Polity Press, has been Innovation System has approached the challenge authored by team members Jean Burgess and Josh Recognition of the nature and extent of the creative of renovating innovation policy in ways which are Green (who is now at MIT). industries and ‘creative economy’ consistent with, and influenced by, CCI research. New Literacy New Audiences was a major A conceptual breakthrough has been developed Improved understanding: three-year project bringing together an expert around the emergent notion of a ‘cultural science’ group of strategists and technologists from six through intense collaborative work between Recognition of the value of education and training major Australian cultural institutions to examine evolutionary economics and cultural and media for a ‘creative workforce’ how the evolution in digital literacy and content studies. Building on key papers outlining ‘four creation can create a new audience of active cultural Our Creative Workforce program investigates how models of the creative industries’ (Potts and participants. The project has led to significant formal education and training can be more fully Cunningham 2008) and defining creative industries international collaboration and input with engaged in building Creative Human Capital. The as ‘social network markets’ (Potts et al 2008), prestigious bodies such as the Smithsonian Cooper research has substantiated the notion and conceptual there has been a substantial contribution to the Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, underpinnings of a ‘second generation’ creativity economic analysis of creative industries and the the European Research Network in Open Cultural that structures creative responses and can be taught foundations of cultural science. A book series, Heritage (EPOCH), and Columbia University in and assessed. It has developed a set of pedagogical published by University of Queensland Press and the City of New York, Parsons School of Design, principles applying this conceptual framework to established under co-editors John Hartley and University College London, University of Oslo, formal learning environments, and it has developed Stuart Cunningham, is dedicated to consolidating Museums and the Semantic Web Group (UK). online research methodologies for investigating and disseminating this conceptual breakthrough. adoption of technology in schools and social Youthworx assists homeless or ‘at risk’ young CCI has developed a new model of mapping the networking in virtual learning environments. people to become media trainees and producers creative economy (the ‘Creative Trident’) which by introducing them to SYN Media, a successful shows that the sector is much larger than indicated Demonstrations of the social, youth-run Melbourne-based community radio. The by any previous findings by analysing creatives economic and cultural value research is longitudinal, and site based, following in non-creative industries and non-creatives in of digital literacy: participants as they work in a peer-led co-creation creative industries alongside creatives in creative environment that encourages them to make new industries. The Creative Trident can also track the Digital content innovation and user-led innovation media, make decisions, acquire new skills and input value of ‘creative occupations’ to the economy in diverse settings find a voice. Our research is multidisciplinary, as a whole. The establishment of new benchmarks connecting social, education and media studies John Hartley’s Federation Fellowship on ‘the uses and methodologies in determining the size and to explore interconnections between creative of multimedia’ focuses on how the modern, characteristics of the creative industries and ‘creative industries and social development, and has print-based, professional paradigm of economy’ has been achieved in contract research attracted substantial long-term backing from the knowledge-production is in process of dynamic with commercial potential in the UK (NESTA), New Salvation Army. Zealand (NZTE), and Singapore (MICA). change and creative destruction, with the number of multimedia users now exceeding a billion people worldwide. What happens to creative innovation when the ‘publisher-provider’ gives way to the ‘navigator-aggregator’; when agency passes from centralised institutions to distributed networks, and when expertise is widely distributed among networked populations? 32

Improved understanding: International leadership: in CCI-related areas including creative clusters, new television, independent cinema, copyright, creative Demonstrations of models for sustainable Broadening and extending the innovation system entrepreneurship, digital content, mobile phones, enterprises in the creative sector and the place within it of digital content and the and animation. creative industries The paradox of film and TV production is that it Creative Industries and the Development Agenda continues to make huge advances in technology The World Internet Project is an international seeks to have a direct impact on policy and practice but camera assistants use pencil and carbon paper, collaborative survey-based project examining in developing countries, and to inform the creative sound recordists use note pads and pens and the impacts of the Internet and other new industries and innovation agenda. Often it is at script supervisors use rulers, coloured pens and a communications technologies. Based at the USC the social and global margins that innovative stop-watch! There has been very little advance in Annenberg Center, the WIP has partners in solutions, with wider appeal and application, are to production processes in the past 100 years. The more than 25 countries, including in China. The be found. We hypothesise that both digital inclusion Business Process Management (BPM) group has first report of the project on July 2008 placed in and creative engagement with information and investigated how the principles of BPM could be the public domain the first detailed Australian communication technology are critical elements applied to the creative industries, in particular study of how the Internet is being used and by in the construction of knowledge societies whether screen production. Collaborating with leading whom. The research provides a level of detail these be in developing or developed countries. companies and independent Australian producers substantially greater than that of official surveys Working in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia, we have and directors, the group has trialled an automated or any previously published research. It provides now formed a multi-year partnership with Intel to Call Sheet module on location with a major data which is being used as the basis for close investigate the potential for mobile applications in feature film, produced a configurable reference international comparisons and as the project low infrastructure areas across India. process model which was developed to assist with develops, longitudinal analysis. complexity management and supporting creativity References in post production. Development of the Creative Industries in China has involved intellectual and policy work that has Jason Potts and Stuart Cunningham, ‘Four models focused on our contribution to the development Influence and impact: of the Creative Industries’, International Journal of of China’s creative innovation system, and its Cultural Policy, vol 14, no 3 (2008), 233–247 On understanding and policy around digital articulation and implementation. The ‘Queensland content and the legal and regulatory impediments model’ is well known in Chinese industry and Jason Potts, Stuart Cunningham, John Hartley and to growth policy circles. Several publications have been Paul Ormerod, ‘Social network markets: a new produced in Chinese, with more to follow. There The Legal and Regulatory Research program definition of the creative industries’, Journal of is very considerable publication and conference has investigated and applied new approaches to Cultural Economics, vol 32, no 3, September, 2008, activity, and 15 Chinese PhDs are working at QUT copyright management as well as advocated for 167–185 and brought change to the shape of copyright law. This work is characterised by close interaction with governments, the education and cultural The intersection of knowledge and experience from different linguistic sectors to implement Creative Commons licensing and cultural backgrounds is an important asset for any doctoral options; impactful advocacy around, for example, researcher. After all, no matter how knowledge evolves, it has to be reform of copyright law; and extensive international written and debated in a certain language, a process which conditions linkages around the growth and take-up of open the development, diffusion and distribution of ideas. This is the human content options in official, educational, scientific basis for critical and challenging discussions that stimulate innovative and creative content. thinking at the Creative Industries Precinct. And the give-away: it all takes place in a subtropical environment.

Thomas Petzold, international PhD candidate, Germany The QUT Creative Industries Experience 33

Effective collaboration for managing research and development (R&D) in Creative Industries Jeff Jones Professor Jeff Jones has been one of Australasia’s foremost leaders in interaction design for over a decade. After 10 years of working as a software engineer for ad agencies, publishers and museums in New York City he immigrated to Australia and has been involved in establishing design and engineering disciplines within universities worldwide. He has also led the establishment of commercially focused R&D capability, and managed innovation resulting in spin-off companies from industry-university collaboration. Current initiatives include cultural heritage in Wuhan China, an award-winning reproduction of Old Government House in Queensland, and collaboration strategy and knowledge management for mining companies.

In 1996, the development of an IT-based This is a story of conception in technology and Initially, QUT looked at related initiatives across discipline – Communication Design—was under the arts in 1996 to the birth of commercial Australasia and around the world3. For example, way as part of QUT’s Academy of the Arts. At the spin-offs in 2006. In those 10 years, research and the US centres, such as the MIT Media Lab, were same time, the context for growing ComDesign and commercialisation capability was created from thriving hives of artistic work that took on IT similar initiatives was being set out at QUT as an innovative university programs. The lessons learned as a creative medium. These contributed to the initiative for creative industries. in Creative Industries at QUT include the idea inspiration for research in creative industries that to achieve new capability, core leadership and described here. Similar European initiatives were The ambitious vision would give QUT artists and management abilities are as important as creativity also notable at the time, particularly the Equator researchers the confidence to create new ideas and multidisciplinary collaboration. In other words, project, which brought together researchers from for research in creative and arts disciplines and creating outcomes requires the right range of eight different institutions across the UK. for growing what would later be known as the people in a world-class infrastructure. Australian creative industries. The culmination Interaction Design at QUT was also modelled on of this newfound confidence was particularly Globally, the notion of creative impact had IDEO, a design firm based in San Francisco that embodied in an Australasian flavour of Interaction undergone a radical change. Creativity was being grew out of the Stanford University Design School. Design1 and would set the groundwork for what understood, even by corporations, as something IDEO is known for bringing creative thinking to would later become the Australasian Co-operative that is intrinsically integral to all procedures and all facets of commercialisation. Modelling on an Research Centre for Interaction Design (ACID). methods used in management, R&D, art, design, organisation like IDEO was imperative given QUT’s engineering, and new product development. In stated growth aspirations for creative industries. fact, management processes globally were being For this reason, an Australian Cooperative Research reorganised to integrate arts and social science with Centre4 was considered for focused research in science and technology2. the areas encompassing the commercial end of the creative industries5. 34

Attracting over $22 million in new research The establishment of ACID as a CRC was based Design. The commercial and government sectors funds, the CRC eventually provided the Creative on recognising that there was a gap in the CRC provided a strong growth context and included Industries with a more legitimate place as growth program, a source of strategic government-funding. software and game developers, marketing firms, areas for Australia. In fact, it was the first time The challenge was to prove that creative industries industrial and graphic designers, education and the artistic disciplines received a scale of research could create tangible impacts—equivalent to science training providers, hardware vendors and industry funding normally reserved for the high-technology and technology initiatives, and from the pool of development agencies. and science sectors. available talent. A way of thinking about content and creativity unique to the Australian context emerged In addition to these foundation partners, ACID As a CRC, ACID was set up to address a prominent and continues to be featured in discussions about recruited a number of micro-companies into deficiency that was both social and economic; national innovation and international competitive what was intended to be a consortium. During that is, there was no core body of researchers, no advantage. establishment, however, the formal structure was single identifiable industry, and no single industry rejected for a more agile approach to recruiting body that represented collective interests. Thus, Critical mass in a fragmented industry created growth micro-companies into projects. ACID eventually the CRC’s aspirations were based on ample global and new opportunities. The challenge was to manage benefitted from this agile method of knowledge evidence that critical mass could be harnessed and and direct people in the ways that they worked transfer to industry by bringing professionals into put towards resolving these deficiencies. together. The substance of this is seen in the hundreds the R&D activities early on and thereby achieving of new research papers, the experience and career industry impact success faster. Eventually, ACID brought together many of the paths of students, the outcomes related to spin-offs key organisations committed to research and and commercial R&D, in addition to the underlying The ACID structure was a new way to manage commercialisation in creative industries IP and know-how developed to manage the centre. people and IP, mitigating the risks associated with (see www.acid.net.au). the possibility that Australasia might miss global New links between the University and industry sectors opportunities in one of the fastest growing sectors were also created including a crucial link between of content and digital applications. In ACID, the micro-companies and international projects. industry now had a representative organisation big enough to be noticed nationally and internationally. By 2002, the centre was nearly ready to be established To succeed, research programs needed to be with six universities, various government agencies, articulated clearly and solid governance and five major industry partners and a host of creative management foundations were required. micro-companies6. The universities provided the disciplines of Art, Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology, Business and User Interface The QUT Creative Industries Experience 35

Research programs Governance and management The conceptual underpinnings of ACID were developed as a connected series of four industry-driven research programs. This provided the ability for participants to provide expertise through an ‘axis’ of inter-related The establishment7 of ACID as a company and the research themes. The research program guided the evolving partnerships over the period of establishment and appointment of the board of directors were two beyond. It was cutting edge at the time and unique to the geographic context and participants. initial challenges. The founders appointed a skills-based board’ as opposed to a ‘representative board’8 and chose to establish ACID as a company9. Skills-based meant that each member was appointed ACID Industry-driven research programs by shareholders for the skills that they could bring to establishing and guiding a company. This made Multi-User ACID agile and adaptable. Smart Living Digital Media Virtual Heritage Research themes Environments These were the two biggest departures from ‘normal’ research organisations. Apart from Devices and Content Modes of Immersive Human Interactive Systems Access Convergence Interaction Systems being a challenge to the standard practice on the establishment of CRCs, the top-heavy structure of a board and company was also foreign to many of Content New Interaction eLearning and Cultural Tools and Creative Expression Production Genres Games Conservation ACID’s micro businesses and artists. The challenge was to weave into the vision the notion that an appropriately managed and governed entity was Consumption and P2P vs. Multi-user Access and Community Networks Distribution Broadcast Interaction Availability imperative to achieving the stated international goals and objectives.

Creative Capital and Sustainable New Business Multi-platform Sustainable ACID established a unique management structure. Commercialisation Business Models Models Convergence Distribution As an independent organisation, it was able to establish its own branding, vision, mission and ACID Research Program (Foundation Years) values. As a relatively large company, it was led by a CEO, which is not surprising. However, as an R&D company for creative industries, the initial proposed management structure emphasised research, enterprise development and collaboration.

The emphasis on enterprise development and collaboration were important. In this case, a collaboration manager was hired to be a constant communicator aimed at aligning participants to a big, future-oriented vision and mission. The enterprise development function recognised the specific types of commercial activities in creative industries as different from commercialisation in more traditional, patent-oriented industries. 36

Research governance Research leaders Intellectual property management Once per year, a Scientific Advisory Group10 met The appointment of a Research Leaders Group to consider the current activities and to suggest provided the opportunity to look at ACID research IP management at ACID was driven by a ways to improve and take advantage of future programs in light of the Scientific Advisory Group content/document management methodology12 opportunities. The group, charged with reporting recommendations. This resulted in a new alignment and the particular needs of investors ensconced to the board on matters related to the viability of ACID’s research initiatives with global trends in with characteristics that provided an evolutionary and efficacy of ACID’s research, suggested specific Web 2.0, social networks and online communities. and people-centric approach to workforce changes and enhancements, and specified the development and management. This was just right This method of ongoing refinement of ACID’s methods of reporting research performance for creative industries and creative endeavours vision and mission would be the business of ACID and improvement in subsequent years. This was generally, emphasising the importance of managing for another of couple years. One important lesson not only good governance, but it also provided key people, content and copyright. researchers and industry staff with the opportunity learned from this is that constant reflection and to discuss their work with global luminaries. renewal served to keep initiatives fresh, dynamic One lesson learned early was that in the university and in tune with global industry trends. ACID context, IP was often confused with what 11 Leading up to the first visit of the Scientific Research Leaders were selected on the basis of might more aptly be called Intellectual Capital. Advisory Group, ACID’s first Innovation Forum how they would contribute to mentoring people Intellectual property comprises actual assets, brought all partners together in Brisbane to and projects, as well as profiling the centre whereas intellectual capital is more like whatever consider the current situation and to decide on nationally and internationally. The group became people might have swirling around in their heads. ways to refine the work and direction. This was a key component of ongoing transformation Generally, IP is tangible and separate from the reflected in the refinement of ACID’s research and worked enthusiastically with the CEO to individuals who create it, but very often—especially into new categories. The first Scientific Advisory continuously refine the vision and mission. in creative industries—the know-how developed Group visit resulted in some very specific with tangible IP assets is integrally linked. As a recommendations. commercial entity, ACID had to learn to distinguish itself from industry as well as schemes competing 1: Construction of a compelling ACID research for the attention of the core group of researchers. vision (by identifying grand challenges) ACID also needed to make sure that there was a 2: Build the means to support a clear mapping clear line between its funding and funding required from the vision to research practice for the next stages of commercialisation.

3: Hold an ACID wide retreat to build a vision This consistent management also ensured that statement and a roadmap ACID could distinguish between its own R&D context, the market context for the R&D, the 4: Improve the scientific research strategy across multiple platforms to make it world class specific initiatives, clear objectives for a given financial year and the next steps leading toward 5: Create and sustain a culture of research commercialisation. Without this discipline, the excellence (defined by external measures) cross-functional, cross-institutional collaborations plagued by huge distances would not have been 6: Demonstrate and articulate the clear benefits of guided and aligned effectively. involvement with ACID as a researcher

7: Appoint a COO [Business Manager] to balance the visionary role of CEO

Scientific Advisory Group Recommendations 2005 The QUT Creative Industries Experience 37

Commercialisation: one ACID Initial results show that the augmented study group The success of the Diversionary Therapy success story patients recorded lower pain scores throughout spin-off is due in part to the ways ACID’s burns dressing changes when compared to control commercialisation plan recognised the need group patients. The study group recorded lower for flexible commercialisation models. ACID’s Since ACID was established as a company rather pulse and respiratory rates. Parents also indicated commercialisation strategy emphasised: than a research centre in an existing organisation, it lower pain scores for the children in the augmented was more agile at exploiting IP once something of 1. the evolving nature of emerging strengths and reality group14. value was invented. This made it capable of taking core competencies its various interaction design practices and human Based on these initial results, ACID commercialised 2. unique combinations of classes of IP assets dimension methods into new areas under the the Diversionary Therapy prototype by: umbrella of contract R&D. 3. a business model that integrates services, 1. recruiting an investor from ACID’s existing products and know-how. For example, ACID used interaction design industry partners strategically to develop an ‘augmented reality device13. This structure also acknowledged that ACID’s 2. recognising that the right people were required strengths include access to specific places, and to extract the IP and build a new business The device was developed in a world-first clinical captive audiences in those places, which could trial of technology and digital content for pain 3. creating a spin-off company15. become test-bed communities for new products and management. Eventually the term diversionary services. This resulted in the possibility for constant therapy was adopted to characterise the use of the In this example, the ACID IP registry proved to market engagement and required yet another layer device with paediatric burns patients at Brisbane’s be useful in its intended way. The IP, as well as the of agility. A subsidiary company, ACID Services, Royal Children’s Hospital. This example illustrates research outcomes and the skills of the key people was formed to manage spin-off companies, licenses how the design process was used to integrate pain who worked on the project, were all documented in and other commercial ventures16. measurement procedures with a group of designers a way that would simplify the formal due diligence in the hospital context. It also emphasises how the process during investor negotiations. Normally, Lessons learned creative, design process may be used as a research a due diligence clause in an investor agreement methodology within a scientific context with the takes 30–60 days. ACID’s aim with its IP registry This is by no means the whole the ACID story. It objective of creating a pain management device and was to reduce this to 60 seconds. To this end, represents the start-up phases that were led from animated content for kids. The initial study … the IP registry linked key business processes and innovative disciplines, the CRC application process, formal, contractual arrangements to the documents and the subsequent four years of establishment. … was a prospective randomised controlled trial. associated with research outputs and outcomes Fifty patients aged between three and 16 years were as described above. This allowed for all of the The progression from education to research and randomised to a control or augmented reality group. information related to people, confidentiality, IP, commercialisation, if examined carefully, would Simple distraction techniques such as age-appropriate content and contract to be viewed or printed at the reveal important insights about how new skills and video programs or music therapy were used in the click of a button. This is a very important capability capabilities can be rapidly established on the basis control group and various prototypes of augmented in fast moving industries sectors. of known industry needs, untapped networks of reality systems were used with the study group. intellect, and seed capital. From this experience we now know that fostering a critical mass of people and enhancing the ways they work together can create commercial opportunities. We also know that size and coordination matters. So does girth, depth and breadth. 38

Artists nurture creative talent and this must be matched with an equally sharp management talent and the substance of a mature, highly specialised management community and culture. ACID’s effective collaboration methods and approaches to creating and managing critical mass in spite of the so-called ‘tyranny of distance’ is one important solution with some of the requisite depth, breath and girth.

ACID itself is a source of intellectual property, demonstrating how to manage and direct collaborative projects in creative industries. Forms, guidelines and other documents used to structure projects and various reviews implicitly contain a world’s best practice method for directing creative people working on multidisciplinary research.

The ACID story represents an exercise in how 17 to manage collaboration effectively . Effective 1 As technologies are often overly complex for their intended target audience, interaction design aims to minimise the collaboration involves learning new skills and learning curve and to increase accuracy and efficiency of a task without diminishing usefulness. The objective is to reduce frustration and increase user productivity and satisfaction. making information more accessible, which will REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design determine the speed at which financial benefits 2 BRW: The Innovation Issue, August 2005. 3 In Australia/New Zealand: The Information Environments of the University of Queensland; The College of Art at Griffith and knowledge can be transferred and used University; RMIT in Melbourne; UTS Creativity and Cognition in Sydney; Murdoch University; the Interactive Television beyond research groups and individual creators. A Research Institute in Perth; and at the HitLabNZ in Christchurch. In North America: The HITLab at the University of Washington; MIT Media Lab in Boston; the Stanford Design School in substantial lesson learned from the establishment of Northern California; and the Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University. In Europe: the Equator Project ACID is that effective collaboration is a hallmark of in the UK; the Interaction Design Institute project in Ivrea, Italy; the K3 Institute at Malmo University in Sweden; and the Interaction Design research centre at the Royal College of Art, London. productive, world-class R&D management. 4 www.crc.gov.au 5 It was John Rimmer, then the CEO of the National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE), who suggested the initiative in his report and business plan for the Creative Industries Precinct. 6 One university and two other partners came into a Supplementary Bid two years after establishment. 7 The Australasian CRC for Interaction Design was formally established in March 2003 when an interim board and chairman were recruited. Official establishment came in October 2003 once the CRC Program approved the funding and formal arrangements were finalised. 8 Representative boards were normal for CRCs, comprising members who were entitled to a board seat simply by virtue of their institution’s funding and participation. Some ACID members were still ‘entitled’ to board positions by virtue of their status as a ‘sponsor’ shareholder (QUT) or by being voted in by other industry shareholders or university shareholders. 9 The ACID Board of Director (Foundation Years): ‘Entitled’ or Elected Members included Professor Jeff Jones, ACID CEO, Professor David Gardiner, QUT, Professor Neil Furlong, RMIT, Graham Edelstein, AURAN Technologies P/L, and Bill Trestrail, SGI; Independent/Appointed Members included Dr Terry Cutler, Chairman, Dr Mary O’Kane, Mr Michael Begun, and Katherine Woodthorpe (CRC Visitor) 10 Members of ACID’s Scientific Advisory Group: Prof Tom Rodden, The Equator Interdisciplinary Research Project (UK), Dr Sandy Pentland, MIT Media Lab, USA, Dr Harry Shum, Microsoft Research, Asia, and Prof Pele Ehn, Malmo University, Sweden. 11 ACID Research Leaders: Prof Mark Burry (RMIT), Prof Mark Billinghurst (HitLabNZ), Ernest Edmonds (UTS), Dr Margot Brereton (UQ), Prof Greg Hearn (QUT), Prof Duane Varan (Murdoch). 12 Document methodology is based on object oriented business modelling and the notion that enterprise knowledge is captured in objects such as documents and that these objects are the inputs to as well as the outputs from enterprise processes. A substantial IT infrastructure and support system were developed. 13 This was also the first example of what would be transformed into a contract R&D business with notable clients such as Nokia, RedMed and Cochlear among others 14 Imagine Australia: The Role of Creativity in the Innovation Economy. Dec 2005. 15 www.dtt.net.au 16 The structural relationship between ACID and ACID Services was intended to make business development, IP management, and professional training both easier to manage and integrated with related research programs and commercial R&D. For more information see www.acid.net.au 17 www.experience-xc.com/collaboration/ The QUT Creative Industries Experience 39

Six planes of engagement Interdisciplinarity in the QUT Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Philip Graham

Professor Philip Graham is Director of QUT’s Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation. His career as a professional musician includes work in the recording, publishing, and advertising industries. He was awarded a Canada Research Chair at the University of Waterloo in 2002 and is widely published across the Communication disciplines. Phil is an international board member of numerous communication journals including New Media and Society, Cultural Politics, Discourse and Society, and Pragmatics and Society. He is founding executive editor of the Critical Discourse Studies journal and author of Hypercapitalism: New Media, Language, and Social Perceptions of Value

We live in an age of rapid change, a time of includes the Australasian Centre for Interaction recurrent economic and social crises. It is also an Design (ACID) and the CCI. At the time of writing, age of unprecedented technological innovation. iCi had 268 members from its affiliated entities, The twenty-first century university has been working on projects across the spectrum of creative forced to adjust to change, and with this, the way industries research. it approaches research. At QUT we are meeting the challenge of ensuring quality research, for our Within iCi our endeavour is to bring the best funding bodies, for our consultancy clients, and researchers together from different disciplines. This especially for the profile of our researchers. In ensures a convergence of talent and a richness of mid-2007, when I took over the role as Director of ideas. We observe many approaches to research— the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation, from the practice-led paradigms of the performing I was immediately struck by the potential that was arts to the complex statistical tools of economics, hidden within disciplinary structures. to the highly specialised languages of cultural and media analysis. I’d like to give a couple of examples Our approach to research within the Institute to illustrate the potential of interdisciplinary for Creative Industries and Innovation (iCi) research collaboration. parallels the Australian Research Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) in many On a current iCi project architects and art respects. Whereas the CCI is a national centre historians are working together with urban design with geographically diverse constituents, iCi is one and human–computer interaction specialists to of four cross-disciplinary institutes within QUT. design new information and communication iCi has six member faculties. Its research capacity solutions for an urban development project. 40

Elsewhere, a classical composer is working with a The Infrastructure Plane is concerned with that enable the making of creative work. At marketing analyst and animation experts to design research into the platforms that facilitate creative the same time tensions between collaborative, new approaches to building audiences. And on a interactions: tools, connections, energy sources, proprietary, open, dispersed and ‘accidental’ third project, legal experts, health professionals, principles of practice, roads, studios, buildings, working relationships have never been so psychologists, cultural theorists, and education museums, and libraries. Without common pronounced. From ethnographic work in the researchers are collaborating on a model for the platforms for production, dissemination, and primary schools of suburbs experiencing poor improvement of youth sexual health outcomes. exchange, no creative industry is possible. This socioeconomic conditions; to analysing relations These are exciting collaborations, provoking a plane of research involves engineers, architects, within the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; to sharing of ideas and methodologies. urban planners, information systems designers, the chaotic production systems afoot in global and high performance-computing experts. We forums like YouTube and the proliferating social In any intellectual pursuit however there are focus on planning, problem-based innovation, and networking sites, iCi researchers from all faculties traditions of conflict. Beyond disciplines, these large-scale project implementation. It is not ‘purely’ are researching the modes of production that will can translate into outright antagonism. The QUT practical or systematic because it must—if it is to be shape the future of creativity for decades. model of creative industries research has had excellent—confront the messiness of real life and to contend with a very fast and intense transition the incalculable complexity of people. The Content Plane is the most visible aspect from a faculty of relatively isolated, of creative industries: the finished design, the discipline-bound researchers in the fine and The buildings we work in have profound effects performance, the digital artefact, the news story— performing arts to interdisciplinary, interfaculty upon how we work together; the speed of our everything is ‘on show’ here. This is the plane of collaborations involving practically every discipline national broadband system is directly related creative products, their expression, their delivery, represented in the University. As Institute Director to our place on the global stage; the quality of and their analysis. It is where we find visual artists, for this vast and fast-moving complex of new our education infrastructure affects the quality actors, scriptwriters, storylines, songs, animated research interactions, I have found it very useful of our cultural production and the health of characters, and every kind of expression bound to conceptualise research relationships as planes of future generations; and the materiality of the for an audience or an ideas marketplace. New engagement. infrastructure plane shapes every interaction and forms of expression, radical ontologies, unfamiliar trajectory. From the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, narratives, and hybrid genres characterise The planes of engagement we observe within to new peri-urban developments to the north and innovation in this most public part of the creative iCi are: Infrastructure, Production, Content, south-west of Brisbane, to the streets and bars industries. Alongside the producers of these objects Dissemination, Culture, and Policy. Within these of Newcastle, to a proposed national eresearch are their analysts. Critical analysis has a historical planes the entire spectrum of creative industries system integrating major creative media archives, legacy; it remains a core philosophical endeavour; research takes place. Practice and theory are iCi researchers are engaged in interdisciplinary it is essential for the integrity and coherence of our equally valuable, equally necessary, and completely research with industry and government. iCi industrialised symbolic life. iCi researchers from intermingled. The hardware of construction, researchers are documenting, analysing, shaping, every faculty are involved in the production and engineering, and urban design depends on software and implementing the future platforms for analysis of the content plane. informed by cultural and policy analysis. The creativity across very large and significant spaces ancient songlines of Indigenous culture are played in Australia. The Dissemination Plane reflects worlds of on the complex instruments of digital marketing exchange. Here research is concerned with access, algorithms. Laws about ownership of expression The Production Plane is about the relationships audiences, reach and frequency of communication, and ideas that have evolved over centuries are that define how and where things are made in the and the complex of rights associated with speaking challenged by the design of social networks creative industries. On this plane iCi researchers publicly in a commercialised global ‘shopfront’. which provide a virtual stage for any artist who are examining the production technologies and Intellectual property law is the single most pressing wishes to participate—an installation space for processes of organisational science, psychology, and visible issue along this plane of engagement. Yet every aesthete, radical, or citizen journalist who anthropology, communication, cultural studies, for the creative industries professional, and for the wishes for an audience or a global display space. education, and economics. How we work together industries so thoroughly disrupted by technological Each of these planes is integral to understanding is shaping our lives. Because digital technologies advances, sustainability is the burning question. creative industries research; each is intimately have had such a deep and direct impact on It ignites intellectual property disputes that will intermingled with all others; all are necessary to the production processes of creative work, likely continue for years to come. Consequently, comprehending how the creative industries are organisational work patterns are increasingly business, law, music, new media, and marketing transforming our world. diverse. Nor has there been a time when people collide on this plane, confronting some of the most have had such access to sophisticated technologies pressing problems of the day. Access to audiences, The QUT Creative Industries Experience 41

sustainability requirements, intellectual property Across the planes law, and new business models are tied together in an intensely fascinating environment that refuses As the Director of iCi, I am fortunate to have a to settle or be easily pinned down to a reliable and comprehensive view of the Queensland model and replicable business model. Yet the future of the its impressive array of researchers and projects. creative industries is bound up in our ability to My first challenge has been to make sense of identify the business models of the future. this remarkable landscape so that the institute can best contribute to the overall richness and The Cultural Plane is above all about values. Ethics, continued growth of the research community. The morals, norms, and expectations deeply influence six planes of engagement that I have outlined here what is produced and how things are understood have helped me to identify what I see as the most within any given culture. Analysis along the important points of disciplinary intersection in cultural plane is essential for understanding the creative industries research. They are the points contiguities and chasms that must shape the path at which the most growth, tension, and change is of any successful industrial pursuit of creativity on occurring. The planes of engagement perspective an international scale. Despite earlier hopes and has also helped me to ensure there is balance promises for a smooth and friction-free world of between practice, analysis, and theorisation in the exchange, culture has proved to be a recalcitrant, development of creative industries research. truculent, yet ultimately porous medium through which all our meanings must move. Cultural Along each plane of engagement, different analysis, ethics, education, economics, and legal skills and disciplines come to the fore during studies combine along this plane to clarify how different stages of any project, not always in culture is embedded within the industrialisation of predictable or smoothly negotiated ways. As creativity globally. always, interdisciplinary research is both exciting and challenging. Interdisciplinary conversations The Policy Plane is where we find debates about have the habit of being mutually misunderstood legislation. Legislation defines who gets to do on fundamental levels yet continue to produce and say what to whom, under what circumstances, surprising new insights into our world. The in any nation, state, or locality. Policy allocates challenges to interdisciplinarity are also sources funds, dictates intellectual property regimes, of productive tension. The different motivations defines standards of decency, and implements that underpin different disciplinary approaches, the cultural tendencies of a nation. Of course for example, a new urban development or youth legislation does produce the final word on what media production—provide a heightened sense of happens on a day-to-day basis in every case, but it focus by being juxtaposed; in other words different establishes many important patterns that impact understandings of the same problem lead to acts of upon the nature and feasibility of any creative ‘discovery’. This is the strength of the Queensland industries sector. The Queensland model is very model: productive intellectual tension deployed much about partnerships between the academy, along clear and specific planes of engagement industry, and government and accordingly our to achieve mutually agreed outcomes that are research in this area has an influence upon both nevertheless unpredictable. the interpretation and production of policy in education, intellectual property, cultural policy, urban development, and upon research priorities on a state-wide, national, and international scale. The ethos of the Queensland model is very much oriented towards open innovation, a challenge for legislation, theory, and practice in the creative industries and elsewhere. 42

Community The QUT Creative Industries Experience 43

Kelvin Grove Urban Village: a creative and clever community By Stephen Pincus

Stephen Pincus was QUT’s project director for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village and Creative Industries Precinct from 2000 to 2008 and was responsible for all aspects of the University’s involvement in the urban village. This included the development of the master plan, negotiation and liaison for the agreements with the state government, design and construction of the infrastructure, community development, planning and funding for University facilities, development applications and contracts. Prior to this appointment, he had worked for 10 years in higher education policy in the federal government and at QUT. Stephen is now the Executive Director, Finance and Resource Planning for the University.

Brisbane, like many other growing modern cities At the same time, Queensland University of University had been progressively buying up houses in the late twentieth century, found itself with Technology was considering its future. The in the area as sites became available, but was not pockets of under-developed land in the band University had been established in its current form able to consolidate and provide good, flat, large sites surrounding the inner-city area. South Bank in 1988 through an amalgamation of a previous for major teaching or research buildings. had been redeveloped as an extremely successful technical institute (with professional studies in tropical playground from the light-industrial site engineering, law, architecture, commerce, science While the Kelvin Grove campus had a high position that housed the 1988 World Expo. Urban renewal and IT) and a college of advanced education (with with a good aspect in a quiet suburban area, road for residential and lifestyle commercial activities education, health and the arts). The University infrastructure had isolated it and its neighbourhood was occurring in Teneriffe, Red Hill, West End and was based in two city campuses to the south-east in a pocket with few services or amenities. Like Kangaroo Point where there had previously been and north-west of the central business district, many other parts of inner-city Brisbane, the area boarding houses and a mix of low-cost housing. with education, health and arts faculties at the was very hilly and the slopes made walking and One of the most strategic sites was the Gona Kelvin Grove campus. The Gardens Point campus cycling very difficult. The University was looking at Barracks which had been used by the Australian had an excellent site adjacent to the City Botanic ways that it could improve the accessibility to the Defence Force for almost 100 years. During the Gardens and Queensland Parliament on a bend of site and the visibility of its activities. There was also 1980s and early 1990s many of the defence activities the Brisbane River. It was easily accessible and very a focus on breaking down the town-gown divide were relocated from the site to a major Army base visible to Brisbane residents. On the other hand, the and making the University campus part of the further out from the city and the military were Kelvin Grove campus had little visibility and poor neighbourhood rather than an isolated ivory tower. considering options for the future of the site. access. The campus was land locked and there was At the same time that the University was attempting very little capacity for new institutional buildings to improve these aspects of the campus, it was also among the residential streets of Kelvin Grove. The renewing its academic focus and the notion of creative industries as a discipline was coalescing. 44

1996 saw the election of a new federal government. Several departments of state government expressed having previously been used as a residential Following over a decade in opposition, the Liberal interest in participating in the development of the garbage tip and having had some contaminated Party and National Party led by John Howard came Gona Barracks. In particular, the Department of material moved to the site as land fill. The existing to power with an agenda for change with particular Housing was interested in providing affordable neighbours were also concerned about the focus on fiscal management. The government accommodation in the inner-city area, as the inner redevelopment and how it would impact on their identified a number of key assets to be sold across suburbs were undergoing renewal and boarding lifestyle. Part of the land was relatively low-lying Australia, including a number of military sites houses and low-cost housing were being lost. The and formed an overland flow path and flooded in major cities. The nine-hectare Gona Barracks Department of Housing purchased the site from regularly. There were also two pockets of vegetation was adjacent to QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus and the federal government, on the understanding that with significant trees and wildlife which would was advertised for sale. The University expressed a mixed use development was preferred, taking need to be maintained in any redevelopment. interest in the site, as did a number of residential account of the requirements of the University and and commercial developers, other education other local interests. While there were a significant number of challenges providers and the state government. in the site, both QUT and the state government The site itself was not without its challenges. New could see the great opportunity there was to The state government had a number of interests road infrastructure including the Inner-City achieve a new approach to development. There in the Gona Barracks site. In the late 1990s Bypass and Inner-Northern Busway made access was enthusiasm for the success of the development Queensland commenced a significant population from Kelvin Grove to the city extremely difficult within staff of both the University and the increase with the south-east of the State, in for pedestrians and cyclists. The Gona Barracks State, and importantly there was very strong particular, attracting thousands of new people was listed as a site of cultural significance with the support and interest in the project from the then each week. South-east Queensland became one Heritage Council (because of its history associated Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Dennis of the fastest growing areas in the western world. with the Army) and several buildings and the Gibson and the then Director-General of Housing, The Gona Barracks site was a key location which parade ground were considered to be particularly Linda Apelt. The support that both chief executives could provide capacity for affordable housing important. Part of the land was contaminated showed during the development of the project was and increased density of development. This could a key factor for its success. provide a model that could be used elsewhere in Brisbane and Queensland to take the pressure off continuing expansion of the urban footprint.

Queensland University of Technology and the state government found that they shared a number of objectives and interests in the Gona Barracks opportunity. Both QUT and the State were keen to see the area redeveloped and to provide improved services and amenity. Should either party be able to secure the Gona Barracks site, there was additional land adjacent to the site owned by QUT and the State that could be included in any new development. In total, 16.5 hectares could be incorporated into a single development if the parties could cooperate. Both the University and the government could see the opportunity for increased housing, education, retail and commercial activity without losing the essential neighbourhood feel of the area. However, neither the State nor the University had any experience in the development of land. Both organisations were fiscally conservative and did not have substantial capital that could be invested in the site. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 45

The years 2000 and 2001 were particularly The KGUV master plan represents a new approach In considering the built form proposed for the important for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. to urban redevelopment, with its involvement of village, there was also a fine balance between the The Gona Barracks land had been purchased by public organisations and explicit incorporation density of development and continued friendly the Department of Housing and the University of university, residential, retail, commercial, atmosphere of the village. While high-rise buildings and the State government had agreed to make community and recreational uses. The master had the potential to provide a good economic the additional land available to the project. While plan takes advantage of the sub-tropical return, it would also have made the area less both parties were not able to finance the entire environment and provides distinctive urban friendly and not encouraged interaction between project, sufficient funds were made available to amenities (including theatres, performance spaces different residents and other users. In general, undertake a master plan, reconfigure the land, and interface between business and university). It buildings are between four and eight storeys high develop the infrastructure and create new lots for provides a range of housing options with expensive so that the village has a people-friendly scale. development. The idea was that private capital could and more affordable accommodation for families, then be attracted to the site for the development of empty-nesters, retirees as well as specialist housing Construction of the infrastructure commenced individual lots, with the original investment being for students, and aged care facilities. The master in 2002. The master plan had been completed returned to QUT and the State through the sale or plan provides for an open and safe community, and agreed between the parties, and planning lease of the land. with emphasis on accessibility, activity and permission had been given for the proposed amenities. KGUV allows residents, workers, uses. The University and Department had agreed The success in attracting private finance would students, University staff and visitors to be able that each party would be responsible for the be dependent on being able to create a value to walk between the various uses, lessening the development of land it owned, and a formula proposition for developers. Developers needed need for car travel. It is also well linked to public was agreed for funding common infrastructure to be able to see and understand what was being transport with regular bus services to the city and (including the streets, parks, footpaths and created and that there would be significant demand rail transport. The urban village environment community development activities). As the and interest in the housing, retail, commercial and encourages interaction between the various users village was to be developed on a fully commercial community facilities in the urban village. It was by mixing education, research, commercial, retail basis, Housing and QUT purchased and sold important for QUT and Housing to acknowledge and community facilities. land to each other at full commercial rates. A set that the urban village did not only need to meet their of design guidelines that provided builders and objectives, it also needed to be attractive to residents, Housing and QUT also recognised very early the architects with requirements and expectations shoppers and businesses. This was a key challenge. importance of the built form and design on the for the built form was developed. The University overall success of the village. Queensland country and Department also agreed to establish a design QUT and the Department of Housing developed towns traditionally have a main street which review committee that would evaluate and approve a very good understanding of the constraints and provide the key place for commerce and activity all designs to ensure proposed developments met objectives of each party. Rather than entering into a and it was decided early that a new main street the requirements of the urban village. Housing formal, legal, commercial arrangement, each party would be the focus for retail and commercial and QUT have also considered very carefully how agreed to enter into a simple Deed of Cooperation. activities at Kelvin Grove. Musk Avenue was all proposed developments will contribute to the The Deed states that each party will cooperate in the developed to link Kelvin Grove Road to the activity and environment of the urban village and development of the urban village, sets out a process University campus and provides this main street. It have been committed to achieving high standards for project management and land valuation as well is the location for the shopping activities, most of in design. as the objectives of each party. It also contained a the commercial activities and is the most dense part dispute resolution mechanism where it was agreed of the site. The University also provides a linked The urban village had a number of unique that the Vice-Chancellor and Director-General set of facilities and activities along Musk Avenue challenges. The project partners needed to take a would meet and resolve any issues that could not including teaching, research and administrative financially conservative approach to the funding be managed and agreed through the normal project facilities as well as key points for interaction with of the project, but there was a requirement for management process. This joint understanding the community. Wide footpaths were included substantial seed funding to get the project up and common objectives were significant to the to provide for a variety of uses and a lively public and running. At the time of the approval of the success of the project. Each party was able to take a realm. The master plan also contains a commitment master plan and commencement of infrastructure longer term view and did not need to seek a quick to the sustainability of the community from an works, QUT had finalised funding for the Creative economic return. In reality, the dispute resolution economic, social and environmental perspective. Industries Precinct and a new teaching facility was mechanism was rarely required because of the good required for the beginning of the 2004 academic cooperation between the parties. year. By mid-2002 the University commenced construction on the Creative Industries Precinct, 46

on a section of the site that was still owned by • The University also entered into an 2008 and 2009 presented a number of challenges Housing. At that stage there was no road access innovative agreement for the development for the urban village. Residential and commercial to the site and arrangements needed to be made of a mixed-use facility incorporating commercial development all but stopped with the global between the contractors constructing the roads space, University teaching and research space and financial crisis and a number of projects in the and contractors building the University facilities. community facilities. This centre, which opened urban village that were in planning were halted. However, the commitment to the completed project in early 2008, has the new State centre for the The tightening of the availability of finance and by both parties allowed the project to proceed and Australian Red Cross Blood Processing Service the failure of some projects has impacted on all major deadlines to be met. with good opportunities for cooperation and joint the development schedule for the urban village. research in the adjacent Institute of Health and However, the University is confident that the master The Creative Industries Precinct opened in early Biomedical Innovation. The centre also houses plan and existing facilities provide a sustainable 2004 to much acclaim from staff, students, visitors the University’s health clinics for the clinical base that will allow development to spring back and users. Construction of the major infrastructure training of students in optometry, podiatry, quickly in the area as the development industry was completed and the public were able to use the human movement, psychology and counselling recovers and finance becomes available. new roads and parks. Other projects commenced and provides these services at little or no cost design and construction in quick succession: to members of the public. In addition, there is a QUT has been involved in the Kelvin Grove Urban sports centre with an indoor pool, multi-purpose Village for over a decade now. In that time a vibrant • A private Queensland developer, Indigo sports court and gymnasium which is open to the and successful community has been planned, built Developments was identified to deliver the major public as well as being used by the University for and developed and the University has been able to retail centre which includes a 2000 square metre teaching and research. completely transform its campus with innovative supermarket and a mix of shops including a buildings and facilities that have proved very pharmacy, butcher, newsagent and cafés. There By mid-2008, 23 of the 37 sites in the urban popular with staff, students and visitors. has been some turnover of businesses in the retail village had either been developed or had approved centre as the most appropriate mix of types of developments ready for construction. The urban retail offerings is reached. The shops commenced village still had a number of sites for future servicing the staff and students of the University development, but was a busy and active place. The but increasingly have attracted residents from the University’s facilities were proving popular with neighbourhood and surrounding suburbs. The staff, students and visitors; the retail shops and development also includes 210 residential units businesses were operating well and the residential above the retail centre. units had good demand.

• The University also developed the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, a purpose-built research facility which houses My work desk is 300 metres away from the Creative Industries Precinct. I 350 researchers and students working on a range walk down a hill past the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, health improvement projects. the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries, a supermarket, several • A range of residential developments were cafés and restaurants, and a gym where I do yoga. Along with small parks completed in 2005, 2006 and 2007 so that by and some other buildings for housing or commerce—it is called Kelvin mid-2008 there about 400 residential units across Grove Urban Village and it is a creative community like I imagined. the urban village as well as a 456-bed student I visit the Precinct regularly, for meetings with my supervisors and for accommodation complex. seminars with scholars and creative practitioners. It is quite a mysterious There have been several new and innovative place. Big research ideas mix with technological R&D and business. It’s buildings completed in the urban village: there for all to see; like the huts where fashion students create their work behind a glass wall, the Block where student work is exhibited and the • The Queensland Government opened a new Roundhouse Theatre, where you see theatrical works being created. I also specialist high school focused on creative arts like the open space where people can have coffee or a glass of wine when in the urban village. It is a selective school that talking about their work, or have a BBQ party! is well placed in the centre of the village to take advantage of the facilities and activities around it. Wen Wen, international PhD candidate, China The QUT Creative Industries Experience 47

A view from the design perspective Interview with Christopher Wren by Helen Klaebe

HASSELL, one of Australia’s leading multidisciplinary design and planning practices was selected as the master planner. The project was led by Christopher Wren who used, among many examples, photographs of New York University and its relationship with the city. This, together with a strong social agenda, formed part of the HASSELL bid. The Department of Housing and QUT were centrally involved in choosing consultants who they believed were in-tune with their brief. In this interview with Helen Klaebe in September 2005, Christopher Wren talks about the gestation of the project.

Helen Klaebe is Head of Postgraduate Coursework Studies at the Creative Industries Faculty, QUT. Klaebe is a published author, public historian and her research focuses on engaging communities and urban renewal. She also designs and manages co-creative media projects for both commercial and public sector organisations. 48

When and how did you get involved with the including QUT, the Department of Housing, the Queensland (SEQ) Plan. However, there was a great Kelvin Grove Urban Village Project? Department of Main Roads, the Brisbane City attitudinal change within the development industry Council, Brisbane Grammar School, and interested to the site. While there was enthusiasm to capitalise Our involvement began in 1999 through military and Indigenous groups. on an opportunity and become involved in Kelvin discussions with Vice-Chancellor Dennis Gibson Grove by the major players, there was still some about the social role of universities and the The strength of the initial concept was rigorously doubt about the site and certainly some reticence potential for QUT in locations such as Caboolture tested and fine-tuned via a master planning process. about the sustainability requirements placed on and Kelvin Grove to be more integrated with the The success of this charrette was largely due to the developers. Now there is no doubt about the success community. Subsequently the opportunity at Kelvin way QUT involved the key stakeholders and in of the urban village. Most developers have fully Grove arose. This involvement has continued particular representatives from the Department of embraced the sustainability objectives and now through to the present day. Housing who played a key role in the process. often offer more than required in accordance with community/market expectations. From our perspective the urban village was an How do you remember the development of the ideal project that required the collaborative effort KGUV concept, particularly the Master Plan? How do you see the KGUV now? of many of our disciplines: architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and urban planning. During the course of the workshop and the The urban village is evolving into the intense Ultimately it also involved our interior designers on master planning process, common objectives were inner-city centre that we all anticipated and it will various components but this was not anticipated at established for the site and how the University be a very special place. It is sustainable as much the time. might be integrated with private and public for its mix of uses and the ability to access them, housing and with other commercial and and indeed much of the Brisbane CBD, without It also involved an ideal, though complex client, community facilities. Several broad directions for driving. It is exciting for the diversity of uses, and with strong leadership and an ideology that was planning the site were investigated from relatively the special quality that the research and University closely aligned to best practice objectives both low intensity use to strong urban infill integrating uses bring to the area. It is important because it within Queensland University of Technology the various uses. will create a village centre, a community focus, and the Department of Housing. Because it was in an area currently devoid of such a centre. It is coordinated by Major Projects and managed by Fundamental issues, particularly pertaining to different from other parts of Brisbane because of Project Services this gave the project a high priority topography, infrastructure, drainage, heritage, its urban character and hence its importance to the and ensured its rapid implementation. Without existing vegetation, accessibility, and transport and metropolitan area as a new model of development. this mix, and the support of a team of consultants existing adjacent uses were major constraints to It is significant as a real place that will grow and and advisers at various stages, it could have been the way the site planning evolved. However, the change over time and not be branded by one just another study. Instead it went from an idea to strong vision became the driver and we ensured architectural style. It is a place that will become reality in a remarkably short time frame. that the concept of a mixed-use urban village was progressively safer as more development occurs, never subsumed by the myriad of constraints, since the development has to address and overlook What was your role within the project? including traditional planning, zoning, density and the streets and public spaces making them active development imperatives that existed at the time. and safer to use. Our role began as workshop facilitators and master planners in 1999 initially via a charrette that tested What changes you have seen in the project? How do you see the project in the future? out the potential of the site and ultimately led to the conceptual breakthrough that formed the basis There were some relatively minor site planning To a large degree I have answered this above but of the new village. The charette was hosted by QUT changes but the overall strong framework of the urban village will be Brisbane’s Soho, albeit to raise questions and ideas with the Brisbane streets and regular shaped blocks of land proved on a reduced scale, and hence an inherently community about what might be possible at Kelvin to be sufficiently robust to accommodate various interesting experience for those living, working Grove. A number of interested groups were invited forms of development. Even the density proposed or visiting there. to discuss possible uses for all the pieces of land, originally, which was based on realistic and desirable urban design outcomes, has proved to be prophetic given the advent of the South-East The QUT Creative Industries Experience 49

Staying in step with the emerging community The Hornery Institute

The Hornery Institute (THI) is an independent not-for-profit organisation dedicated to enhancing the wellbeing of communities. THI’s charter is to help make communities better places to live, learn, work and play. Based in Brisbane, THI is working actively throughout Australia to pursue opportunities in the property, resource and infrastructure sectors where it can help government, business and the community to work together to deliver long-term outcomes that benefit all stakeholders.THI believes in striving to create socially sustainable and inclusive communities where all people feel valued, their differences respected and their basic needs met so they can live in dignity.

Whether it is planning a major greenfield Planning for Kelvin Grove A key aspect underpinning the development of development on the urban fringe or an inner city Urban Village the integrated master plan was understanding the regeneration project, it is important to design needs, appetites and aspirations of both the existing and develop vibrant, inclusive and engaging community in and around the site and the future An initial master plan for the 16.57 hectare Kelvin places and programs for the future community. target community who might be attracted to live, Grove Urban Village (KGUV) site was prepared by The first step in this process is to understand work, learn and play at KGUV. Establishing this HASSELL and endorsed by the State Cabinet and the who the future community will be and what are from the outset ensured that the master plan University Council in July 2001. THI subsequently their needs, appetites and aspirations. The more responded accordingly. undertook a score card evaluation of the master complex challenge is to recognise that communities plan against a series of defined key performance are not static entities—people age; families grow The project team initially completed a indicators and reported the long-term risk return or alternatively decrease in size; people gain socio-demographic analysis based on Australian profile of maintaining the current direction. education; they face obstacles; and aspire towards Bureau of Statistics 2001 data, which mapped the Resulting from this process, Kate Meyrick, the certain goals. key characteristics of the community residing in Hornery Institute’s CEO in partnership with Andrew approximately a one-kilometre radius of the site Hammonds of HASSELL, led a team of consultants The Hornery Institute proposes that the key to (the KGUV site was predominantly uninhabited at to develop an integrated master plan, incorporating designing successful communities is to develop this time), to provide a contextual framework within the requirements of social, cultural and economic places, programs and mechanisms that meet the which to position the emerging community development with detailed place making strategies needs and appetites of the existing audiences, while at KGUV. to provide a blueprint for the emerging community having the capacity to be flexible and responsive to at KGUV. The resultant plan sought to translate the communities’ emerging drivers and aspirations It was identified that the eventual success of KGUV the concepts of the original report, with its ambitious as they change and mature over time. depended on its integration with the surrounding vision and strong urban design intent, into a community—encouraging the outside in and linking living neighbourhood. This included a framework the Village with the broader community. The for its delivery. support of surrounding residents would be key to the long-term viability of services provided at KGUV create a vibrant, inclusive community The QUT Creative Industries Experience 51

while also activating, diversifying and contributing To provide this layer of detail for the KGUV • formal and informal meeting spaces integrated master plan the project team applied to a vibrant community. Alternatively, KGUV would • a presentation space provide an urban heart with retail services, places for an informal segmentation tool to the current social interaction and opportunities to participate in and projected population at KGUV and in the • a computer room for training and educational a creative, learning environment for the people living surrounding one-kilometre catchment. This purposes and working in the surrounding suburbs. exercise provided valuable insight into the • a range of learning, social and cultural programs, socio-demographic characteristics and the values activities and events to encourage community Based on the proposed building typologies and and appetites of the proposed community. It was participation and develop social capital at KGUV. densities in the physical master plan, the project then used to inform the fine grain urban design team predicted that the future KGUV community detail, provision of key amenities and identification A range of programs, activities and events would be as follows: of community development strategies. were developed and delivered to engage with specific audience groups. Some projects focused The current planning consent allows for in Based on this understanding of the emerging on particular cohorts from the local Village excess of 900 new units to be added to the community, their socio-demographic community in response to identified needs, local housing stock through the development of characteristics and basic value drivers, and the while others engaged at a much more general Kelvin Grove Urban Village. project partner’s overarching desire to create level providing opportunities for people from the a vibrant, inclusive community, a collection of surrounding suburbs or across Brisbane to engage Assuming a residency rate of 2.2 per unit and community-centric strategies were developed a 90 per cent occupancy rate, this will result with the Village and local community. within the following five program streams: in excess of 1500 new residents in the Village by 2008 (based on assumptions made in Projects focusing specifically on the local KGUV • Belong—aimed to help new residents identify Thomas Consultants’ report for Indigo Projects community included: August 2003). with their surroundings as they took up residence or visited the Village. • the Village Handbook—produced as a resource It is currently estimated that of these new • Wellbeing—addressed the health and safety of the for new residents moving into the Village, dwellings approximately 200 will be affordable local community. providing a summary of the key aspects of the housing units and these will accommodate Village and where new residents could access between 400 and 450 people. • Communiversity—encouraged local residents to their nearest facilities and services. engage with new formal and informal learning Given the housing typology and size, it is opportunities. • free computer terminal and Internet access anticipated that the balance of residents will be provided at the Community Hub where local a mix of students in managed accommodation • Connected Communities—aimed to connect residents could access the Internet free of charge. and investor units; managed accommodation the community utilising a range of user-friendly for seniors, affordable units and housing for city information technology to build social capital • Computer skills for seniors provided basic workers in owner-occupier and rented stock. from the grassroots. computer skills training for local senior residents.

Extract from Kelvin Grove Urban Village • Community Events—provided opportunities Projects focused on encouraging interaction Integrated Master Plan, p.19 for local residents and visitors to the Village to between the KGUV and the surrounding participate in a range of activities and events. community included: While a basic demographic profile provides a useful starting point from which to think about Community development • The Sharing Stories History Project collected an existing or emerging community, it does not the stories and history of the local community including the site’s teaching and military history capture the lifestyle preferences or psychographic Following completion of the KGUV integrated master plan, the Hornery Institute performed and made it accessible both in print, on the drivers (the values and appetites) of the current the role of Community Development Manager, Internet, and through locally held inclusive and emerging population. It is when this focusing on delivering an activated Community exhibitions. depth of understanding is used to inform the Hub at the Village that would provide: master planning process that a truly responsive • Vocational Education Training – breaking the unemployment cycle aimed to assist long-term environment can be planned and delivered • a serviced front desk where community unemployed residents to gain valuable work which incorporates the preferred kind of places, members and visitors to the Village could source related skills. amenities, community identity and spirit being information or pathways to other services sought by the target audiences. 52

• Movies in the Park provided family friendly Learnings The challenge facing the Hornery Institute as the evening entertainment and encouraged residents community development project managers was from the surrounding community to visit During the two-year period 2006–2008, when the firstly identifying issues as they arose within the the precinct. Hornery Institute managed the Community Hub at community and secondly developing appropriate KGUV, the population increased significantly. The responses. In many instances issues arising in the Projects which aimed to engage at a whole-of-city number of residents grew from approximately 300 community initially have low levels of visibility and in some instances a state-wide scale, included: people to over 1000; the daily working population and it is not until they reach a ‘crisis point’ that increased significantly with the development of the their profile is raised. Consequently, responding to • SCAPE (Sustainable Community and Planning Village Centre and major commercial tenancies. them becomes far more reactive than proactive. In Education) was a computer simulation learning The number of students also increased with the many instances informal conversations and word of tool aimed at 12–16-year-old students. It opening of the Queensland Academy for Creative mouth were the best way of staying in contact with aligned with key curriculum objectives and Industries. the community and attempting to keep abreast of provided an opportunity for students to learn what was going on. about urban design, community development The community profile mapped during the initial and sustainability issues. Students built their master planning process generally aligned quite Much of this formal and informal community own version of the KGUV in a small team closely with that of the emerging residents, workers interaction, planning and program delivery environment by making negotiated decisions and students. Many of the initial community occurred at the Community Hub at KGUV about the types of land use, the building heights, strategies, projects and events that were included in where there was always a ‘familiar face’ at the front housing types, transport choices, and the the integrated master plan responded to the needs desk and local residents could drop in (without arrangement of urban design elements within and appetites of the emerging community. an appointment) and ‘have a chat’. Monthly a three-dimensional virtual replica of the KGUV community meetings were held where residents environment. Unlike master planning physical infrastructure, could come along and express concerns and • Game On provided a program of free talks by planning for people is never a static endeavour provide input into the planning of future events professionals from the booming Australian which can be documented and ‘set in stone’. and activities and informal community ‘sessions’ computer games industry to share their ideas People and communities are dynamic and were held each Friday afternoon where community and learnings with University staff, students experience considerable change, and sometimes members could share lunch, use the computer and residents. stress, during periods of rapid population increase facilities and get together. and development. Therefore the community • 48-Hour Game Making Challenge was a two-day building component of any master plan must be With the insight that was gained through ongoing lockdown where small teams attempted to make a flexible, adaptive and able to respond to changing interaction with the local community, the original playable computer game prototype from scratch. government policy and the dynamics of the strategies and programs included in the KGUV At the end of the period a panel of experts chose emerging community. integrated master plan could be developed, the best game prototype. fine-tuned and in some instances substituted The KGUV community experienced a number for more applicable activities which better Due to the success of these three activities they of challenges during the early development responded to the specific needs and appetites of continue to delivered. SCAPE is currently being period including: the emerging community. This responsive process adapted for use as an online teaching tool in has resulted in KGUV being acknowledged as a classrooms and QUT’s Public Programs continues • gaining access to the required social services new address in the city fringe offering a lifestyle to deliver and grow the Game On and 48-Hour • responding to the rapid population growth that is strongly associated with social inclusion, Game Making Challenge. as large numbers of new residents moved into creativity and learning. the Village Bibliography • disruptions from ongoing construction • meeting the particular needs of cultural groups The Hornery Institute + Hassell (August 2004). who were moving into the Village (for example, Kelvin Grove Urban Village Integrated Master Plan. the Saudi Arabian community). Brisbane, Australia

Thomas Consultants (August 2003). Report prepared for Indigo Projects. Report provided as commercial in confidence. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 53

QUT Precincts: creating a new model of public engagement Lubi Thomas

Lubi Thomas has been curating from The Block New Media Exhibition Space located at QUT Precincts, Kelvin Grove since 2006. She has worked on a number of local, national and international exhibitions, on large-scale new media programs, and on diverse creative projects. She is responsible for developing the current and ongoing exhibition program for The Block as well as the extensive public program schedules that scaffold, not only the exhibition program, but also engage with the Creative Industries Precinct’s communities.

How do you build a new model of public I began working as curator at the Creative Challenges engagement and community outreach in a Industries section of QUT Precincts in 2006. Up completely new urban periphery environment until that time, Peter Lavery had shown incredible Challenges have brought new insights which in turn when technologies of social interaction are foresight in developing the framework for a have changed the way we plan for the future. Our changing so rapidly? It’s a challenge but it’s community engagement program, having been first major challenge came at the very beginning something that captures the QUT Creative involved in the planning of the Creative Industries of my role in 2006 when working from the QUT Industries Experience quite well. We have had to Precinct from the very beginning and working Art Museum at Gardens Point. We brought the adapt fast and learn to anticipate change. closely with the architects and planners. Art Museum’s well-established and successful programming model to The Block and the Creative Our experience at QUT Precincts has My job has been made easier by having excellent Industries site. It failed. produced new insights about how to engage facilities as well as professional colleagues. We have with communities: whether these are local or managed to work creatively on a limited budget It was at an empty public program session that international communities, virtual communities or which has since been boosted by sponsorship and I realised I had to respond to the community face-to-face models of engagement. It’s been a time meaningful partnerships. These have supported the in a new way. Even though the content being of intense activity across many levels of community program as it grows and responds to community. programmed seemed relevant to the intended engagement. By the same token, it has been target audience the delivery system wasn’t, so with extremely rewarding. I want to provide a snapshot of the scope of our a near to no budget I started to look at new ways of work as well as noting some of the challenges engagement, programming styles, presentation style we have faced. I believe we have been incredibly and content that would appeal and be relevant to productive: exhibitions and projects have gone from the communities at Kelvin Grove. humble beginnings with a few people attending to global participation. One of our digital gaming projects, the 48-Hour Game Making Challenge, drew an audience of 15000 online participants. 54

The other major challenge has been audience We build projects that enrich the educational The Block exhibition program has been in development. The public programs, which I programs of our local partner high schools, development over the past four years. A highlight will discuss below, now run at close to capacity. namely, Kelvin Grove State College (KGSC) and of 2009 was the very successful Big Eye: Aboriginal However, the exhibition audience remains at a Queensland Academy for the Creative Industries Animations—works from Australian and Canadian much lower level of participation. This is partly (QACI), which is a recent addition to the Precinct, Aboriginal artists. This was co-curated with Jenny due to the nature of the exhibitions and artworks located opposite the Institute of Biomedical Health Fraser and Cyber Tribe. The exhibition is touring we show as per our mandate—new media, digital and Innovation. It was opened in 2008. In the same nationally from 2010 to 2012. Another successful and interactive exhibitions. This is art that pushes year we organised an introductory show to the exhibition was Cherbourg Time: Young Black and boundaries and is often not acknowledged by more International Digital Arts Projects. Deadly Art. This featured works by the children of conservative mainstream audiences. The challenge the Cherbourg Indigenous community, north of is how to move away from the established model, IDAProjects are one of our professional partners. Brisbane. It was made possible through an extended re-thinking exhibition programming and curatorial This partnership was further developed in the 2009 community engagement program undertaken by roles while maintaining a strong focus on audience program through a co-curated exhibition of Istvan Geoff Bonney and Peter Widmer as part of their development. Horkay, an internationally renowned artist and masters studies at QUT. creative partner of Peter Greenaway. A passionate Inside and outside educator, Istvan saw the unique opportunity this The Block is designed as a moving image, digital idea offered and kindly consented to a showing of display space and it is where we hold most of our The important contribution we make, however, is his work in a high school gallery. He even travelled professional exhibitions. The adjacent Para Place to provide a link from QUT to the outside, and by to Australia to participate in an intensive program screen occupies most of Z2 building, facing into the the outside I refer to the idea of many communities, of talks and workshops with the students. precinct. Our exhibition program has given us an across all ages and cultures. We purposely activate international reputation, especially in Asia. ideas and create opportunities that encourage We also provide physical lab spaces as part of our people to get involved. QUT Precincts operates exhibitions program to local high schools. These IDAProjects has been working with QUT since the on three level of engagement: local, national and labs provide access to ‘hard to come by’ equipment early 2000s. The partnership has been dynamic and international, through our public programs and as well as inspirational presenters in the realm of has allowed IDAProjects to transition from a focus ongoing exhibitions. digital art production. on digital photography to a wider nexus of digital and interactive digital media. The partnership has The local level is extremely important and it is We are currently creating a linked Kelvin Grove allowed us to take works to venues in China and very tangible. First of all we provide opportunities Urban Village Screen Network through a project Japan through co-curated exhibitions. We have for undergraduate and postgraduate students to that manages content on all the available screens grown relationships with important institutes such learn about curating in the digital age. This is part in the community. So when people are shopping at as the Beijing Film Academy and Platform China of a teaching module called Creative Industries the Village they may see student work or work by Contemporary Art Institute. Working with Chinese Transitions, and is an active internship that allows one of our international partners. As a founding and other Asian partners has provided a way for contact with professionals in a ‘state of the art’ member of the International Urban Screens us to move into Europe. At the same time we are environment. Participants generally come from Association and Queensland representative, my sought out for our knowledge and networks into fashion, visual arts, communication design and role places our program and public screens in the Asian contemporary digital art. These partnerships interdisciplinary faculty courses. We also have a international arena. Now in its second year, the provide opportunities for our students to program that allows school students to participate Parer Place Project curated program exhibits works participate and exhibit at an international level. and understand the principles of curating. This is from current and graduated students, as well as part of our educational outreach. national and international artists. This program runs every night of the year, activating the space and providing a backdrop of creative engagement in the public domain. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 55

Game On The future

One of the most successful public program streams Our multifaceted community responsive program is Game On. This program started in 2007, and continues to develop a wider scope of programs, is an ongoing partnership with Truna of the events and audience bases. In doing so it extends International Games Developers Association education and research opportunities. With (Brisbane Chapter). Now supported by iCi at QUT, a ‘live’ framework, great resources and Griffith QCA, QANTM and Southbank Institute University-wide support the creative industries of Technology, Game On is a program of monthly curatorial unit continues to grow in both numbers talks by industry professionals from both ‘the big of participants and its aspirations. Current end of town’ and independent games companies. postgrad and recent graduating interns are busy The program also provides workshops, some of developing and curating new programs while our which are designed for students to show their work ever-growing professional network—the Intern to professionals and potential employers in the alumni network—gives new students the edge with field. Every October we hold ‘The 48-Hour Game a growing knowledge bank and amazing access Making Challenge’, which is an intensive challenge: opportunities into a highly competitive industry. a competition where ‘you and five mates’ sit down Our future is indeed a creative one. for the weekend and create a playable game. The blog entry below captures the feeling:

The 48-Hour Game Making Challenge is kicking off in a few hours!!! Truna and her crew are currently setting up the location where teams of game developers (three pro-league and *17* standard teams) will be sitting it out for 48 hours straight to complete a game using the three keywords supplied. Currently, everybody is filing into the building and getting ready for the 4pm start. This event is quite obviously the biggest one yet, and if you want to keep in touch with all the progress and reports, you can do no better than head to the 48hr Game Making Challenge website at www.48hrgamecomp.com

Top right and centre Exhibition opening of Cherbourg Time: Young Black and Deadly Art

Bottom right 48-Hour Game Making Challenge 56

QUT’s international programs and linkages Christopher Meakin

Christopher Meakin is an alumnus of Griffith University, Beijing Foreign Studies University and The University of Queensland. He worked at the Australian Embassy in the PR China from 1996 to 1999 and 2002 to 2006 and has altogether lived in Beijing for more than 10 years. Since 2007, Mr Meakin has worked in the Division of International and Development of Queensland University of Technology, with responsibilities for policy and research matters concerning internationalisation. In November 2009, he was supported by QUT to be the first non-Chinese citizen to work at the China Scholarship Council in Beijing.

Queensland University of Technology was created Why students choose QUT As well as its degree and diploma programs, QUT in January 1989 by the redesignation of the provides opportunities for international students Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT). Since The student population at QUT is drawn from to study for one or two semesters. These short-stay then the University has developed an impressive more than 100 countries and regions. It is truly an students come mainly from Germany, Norway and range of international services, programs and international community. International students the United States of America, as part of formal linkages. These focus on commitments to are enrolled in disciplines at both the undergraduate studies in their home universities. teaching, graduate employment outcomes and and postgraduate level. Enrolments by international internationally award-winning applied research. students at QUT currently account for more than Students from Asia These new services reflect significant changes one in 10 of all enrolments; however, this varies globally in higher education. During the past according to the discipline. There are several reasons QUT has students from nearly every part of the Asian 20 years, universities have seen ever increasing why QUT is a popular choice for international region. Students from Singapore, Malaysia, India, movement of persons, programs and institutions students. First, it is a university with an outstanding Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong at QUT make for a across borders for the purposes of employment and research profile in multidisciplinary institutions, multicultural campus experience for all students and financial outcomes, knowledge creation and mutual high rates of graduate employment, and has nearly a place where lifelong friendships are made. understanding. 40000 enrolments at the two main campuses in the From 2003 onwards, students from China centre of Brisbane. Second, Brisbane is a modern have grown steadily, which is not unlike most but affordable city, one in which students feel safe universities in Australia. QUT has students from to bring their loved ones and families. Third, the all regions of China and is one of only 16 Australian University provides excellent support services for universities with formal relations with the international students. Chinese government’s National China Scholarship Council (CSC). There are CSC research students undertaking programs at the Kelvin Grove and Gardens Point campuses. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 57

QUT’s growth in international enrolments is The East-West Program Linkages and QUT students indicative of global and Australian trends in abroad higher education. From 1975 to 2006, the number A major activity of International Student Services of students studying abroad grew significantly. is the East-West Program. This aims to encourage QUT’s international linkages have grown For example, 60000 students enrolled outside interaction between international and local considerably in recent years. These international their country of citizenship in 1975; by 2006, students. The East-West Program promotes linkages include agreements for academic this number had increased to 2.9 million. In recreation opportunities such as trips and social and research collaboration, student and staff 2006, Australia had the highest percentage of functions, specific cross-cultural activities, exchange and study abroad. QUT has a number of international students at tertiary level among accommodation services and linkages with important formal linkages with higher education OECD member countries. international student associations. institutions in the region of China. In relation to creative industries these include the Beijing Pathway programs Employment Dance Academy, the Communication University of China, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, QUT’s International College provides Pathway QUT has an International Work Placement Scheme, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Programs for international students. Such which is provided by Careers and Employment An important linkage between QUT, the Jiangsu programs assist students to meet university entry services. International students win a place on Provincial Department of Education and the requirements, as well as providing opportunities to the scheme through competitive selection, and National Confucius Institute Headquarters of enter into the university community. For example, QUT provides assistance to find internships and China was established in 2009, with the opening of the University Diploma in Creative Industries offers short-term employment opportunities in their the Confucius Institute at QUT. It is the first such pathways to second-year Bachelor degree programs home country. The program gives an opportunity institute in Queensland and focuses exclusively in the Creative Industries Faculty. The International to develop networks for finding employment, while on Chinese language teaching and promotion of College provides English language programs: still being students at QUT. Chinese culture. English for Academic Purposes and General English. The International College is located at Research and research In 2009, approximately 400 QUT students the beautiful Kelvin Grove campus. For many support undertook a study experience at QUT overseas international students these pathway programs are partner universities in some 25 countries. key to a successful transition to new pedagogies. The QUT Research Students’ Centre provides This included QUT students going to partner services specifically for research candidates. The universities for one or two semesters as part of their The International Student services include a program called Introduction to formal QUT degree. Among the many programs Services Office Research for International Students, which assists for study abroad, QUT students were awarded the newly arrived international research students. nationally competitive and prestigious Australian The International Student Services (ISS) office Other services provided by the Research Students Prime Minister’s Endeavour Asia Awards to at QUT has been operating for more than 20 Centre include management of research degree undertake studies in Asia during 2010. years. It helps international students with making enrolment, scholarships, candidature and theses the transition to study, and with practicalities examination. While the range of activities, programs and linkages of adjusting to a new country. Services has become integral to QUT’s mission, it is the include academic and personal counselling, At an institutional level, international research student experience that clearly illustrates successful accommodation and employment assistance, linkages are a high priority. There are four internationalisation at QUT. homestay, orientation, airport reception, language cross-disciplinary research institutes at QUT, and learning advice and workshop and seminars. including the Institute of Health and Biomedical ISS has offices at all campuses. For eligible Innovation (IBHI), the Information Security international commencing students, ISS provides Institute (ISI), the Institute for Creative Industries students with airport reception and transfer to and Innovation (iCi) and the Institute for accommodation on arrival in Brisbane. Sustainable Resources (ISR). QUT has achieved national and international prominence as the managing institution of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. 58

Alumni

Aware of the mobility of international students upon graduation, QUT focuses on maintaining linkages between the University and international alumni. QUT alumni in Australia and internationally have formed chapters and groups that aim to foster opportunities to connect and remain in touch with the University. QUT international alumni chapters are present in a number of cities including Taipei, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The QUT Alumni China group was established in 2008. It provides networking for alumni in mainland China with activities in Shanghai and Beijing. QUT Alumni groups are also located in Sweden, Malaysia, Norway and Thailand. The future

With increasing global mobility in the provision of higher education, the scope of QUT international linkages, both at a person-to-person and institutional level, touches many parts of the University. Internationalisation at QUT will remain central to the University’s mission, given that forecasting for global mobility in higher education has estimated that international higher education student numbers will increase to 3.72 million by 2025. The mobility of higher education students from North Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia is expected to be a dominant influence on Australian higher education in the coming 20 years. QUT and the Creative Industries Faculty will continue its extensive range of international programs and activities to further engage in the historic high I spent four of the best years of my life with QUT’s Creative levels of global mobility of higher education. Industries. Three as a BA and research Masters student and one as academic staff. These qualifications and experience, in the new media field, became a passport for me to work anywhere in the world. Since then, I have worked in four out of five continents as an educator, consultant, journalist and web specialist.

QUT provided me with an all-round education—learning basic industry skills, practices and theoretical perspectives are one thing. But what was more valuable was the ability to trial and test out new ideas, and watch them progress or fail, and learn from mistakes. I picked up very useful thinking strategies which I was able to apply with every job I encountered.

Nisar Keshvani, QUT Bachelor of Journalism and Master of Arts (Research), Singapore the queensland model 3

high levels of global mobility

1. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, Björn Johnson, Esben Andersen, and Bent 2. Helga Nowotny, Insatiable Curiosity: Innovation in a Fragile Future Dalum, ‘National systems of production, innovation and compe- (Cambridge: MIT 2008) tence building’. In Karen Polenske (ed). The Economic Geography of Innovation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007) 60

Coda The QUT Creative Industries Experience 61

The uncertain journey Michael Keane

Michael Keane is a Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. Michael is author of several books including Created in China: the Great New Leap Forward (Routledge 2007). His research interests include innovation policy and creative clusters in China; audio-visual media in China, South Korea, and Taiwan; and television formats in Asia. He has worked at QUT since the establishment of the Creative Industries Faculty.

In different ways many of the essays in this place is different from the hundreds of emerging Mixing the ideas publication reflect the view that both the Creative creative clusters in East Asia. With so much interest Industries Precinct and the Kelvin Grove Urban in China in the notion of creative clustering, According to a leading European sociologist of Village are environments responsive to both inside I am often prevailed upon to reveal the ‘secret innovation, Helga Nowotny, in these times of rapid and outside—to the people who work here and who ingredients’ that make this development successful. and frequent change people are empowered to have businesses here, and to those who live here. In build economic and cultural niches, and to become adaptive environments people need to have a greater I usually reply by saying that success is relative, the entrepreneurs of their own occupational capacity to handle complexity, and this entails and that it is still too early to know what success biographies’1. Moreover, research tells us that embracing uncertainty rather than retreating into really entails. I also explain that ‘the Queensland the innovation journey is often uncertain. With the the familiarity of repetitive activities and routines. model’ is not a typical cluster, although it does have design of technological systems responding to the ‘cluster effects’ such as knowledge spillovers and architecture of computer systems, expectations Soon after graduating with my PhD in 1999, I was co-location benefits. In order to explain this, I will of change are embedded into systems. Whereas fortunate to be awarded a research fellowship at make some general comments about knowledge in the past policy makers and corporations the new research centre (then called the Creative and innovation. I will then distil some of the key favoured hierarchical and centralised control Industries Research and Applications Centre). insights that have emerged while compiling this mechanisms that rewarded standardisation, Over the past decade I have been in the position collection of papers. now the trend is towards loosely coupled and of participant-observer of the many changes that heterogeneous systems. have occurred. I have also presented the story of ‘the Queensland model’ many times in China since then and have tried to articulate how this 62

The ‘creative industries’, sometimes referred Divergent thinking As one person situated within the business side to generically as ‘the creative economy’ or the of the model suggested to me, if ‘the Queensland ‘experience economy’, has coincided with the desire However, to see developments simply as trial and model’ was an organisation or a corporation there to provide smarter learning environments together error is misleading. People have worked through would be more synergy. As it is, all the components with a greater awareness of educational reform. changes while the physical infrastructure was retain autonomy and respond to specific goals and The creative industries by definition embrace being constructed. They had to undergo periods key performance indicators. Indeed, in compiling change: think of advertising, design, fashion and of frustration, euphoria and even scepticism as this publication this became obvious to me. Despite the Internet and you see powerful urges to generate new practices were adopted and old practices efforts to instil a sense of identification with the new ideas. There is increasing demand for the discarded. In the innovation literature, continuous bigger picture, we are still a work-in-progress. In creative industries to express innovation more adaptation is a characteristic of projects governed an organisation of this size and complexity it is successfully, to mix genres creatively, and to by goals and plans. In contrast, projects governed hard for people to see where the connections are re-imagine a future fuelled by the inventive power by institutional rules—for instance, the traditional being made, especially when they are locked into of networked subcultures. model of managing the educational sector—tend to the realities of workload pressure and competition follow a more conservative and unitary sequence of for resources. Meanwhile, those that have chosen Creativity is a sought after ingredient in clusters, stages. We have taken the former journey. to connect with the networks of interdisciplinary whether these be technology parks, cultural centres, collaboration have reaped rewards. business districts or educational precincts. In The Creative Industries experience at QUT has at the Creative Industries Precinct and the Kelvin times taken multiple paths, which have encouraged Creative space, thinking Grove Urban Village there is a mixing of disparate divergent thinking, but this has in turn produced space creative ingredients, which emerge from small uncertainty. In the process there has been constant business entrepreneurship, cutting-edge research debate, often intense, about how to define the The issue of space is central when a large number and meetings of students, lecturers and industry creative industries, about the development of of aspiring creative people, students and researchers professionals. This is far from a production line human capital, about the effectiveness of our public are moved into a relatively small geographical model. Indeed, the scale is small compared with programs, and the demands of commercialisation. location. The term ‘open plan’ is probably the industrial clusters and particularly cultural clusters In particular, the emphasis on interdisciplinary last thing that senior academics want to hear. in China where there might be over a hundred collaboration has provided a distinctive set of It is fair to say that space has been a major enterprises. challenges, which I think we are only part way to issue as demand has increased, particularly resolving despite a strong intent to become a world from international researchers. The article Whether large or small, however, success depends leading interdisciplinary model. by Anna Rooke in particular addresses how upon the ability to coordinate resources and enterprise development initiatives have creatively actions. As several contributors to this publication While the probability of new insights increases accommodated the demands for space. have noted, in the beginning of the Creative with the permeability of boundaries across diverse Industries Precinct story a vision was sold to the sources, harnessing these opportunities requires Optimising learning effects requires putting investors and stakeholders, namely the Queensland willingness on the part of participants to listen people in the best possible space and this has state government and the Queensland University of to other viewpoints and to engage in purposeful not always been possible. When I commenced Technology. As the contributions by John Hartley, dialogue. In any environment you will find people working in the new research centre, The Centre of Stephen Pincus, and the Hornery Institute note, who are disinclined to engage across academic Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, extensive modelling and demographic analysis was boundaries and who are unwilling to listen. There I shared an office with a colleague. Similarly, conducted. As development proceeded, a process of are large egos involved. The silo effect that is often most of our research higher degree students were re-thinking models took place. In my area, which associated with university faculties, departments presented with smart new cubicles to work in, a is research, different experiences were evaluated and schools has been hard to eradicate even with similar approach to what one might expect in an and new personnel were recruited. Resources the new terminology of ‘disciplines’ and ‘portfolios’. advertising agency or a newspaper editorial office. were exhausted in some projects and in turn new It would be fair to say that while we have funding came from other sources, including the constructed a model of interdisciplinarity we are Australian Research Council and professional still hamstrung by ‘old university’ legacies. consultancies (these are noted in appendix 1). The QUT Creative Industries Experience 63

The open plan model was adjusted over time: some On the other hand, success across the whole model Contributors have all presented ideas that are of the researchers preferred quiet space. While not is not so much about scale as quality and local at the forefront of how the creative industries reverting to the closed door model typified by the responsiveness. The ‘model’ allows the development are being redefined. As Stuart Cunningham has traditional university, there were adjustments to of a pipeline, a virtuous circle rather than a linear noted, the QUT Creative Industries Experience, maximise optimal knowledge-sharing; some were input-output model. The researchers provide input through its cutting-edge research, is contributing moved to the old campus because there simply and new ideas into teaching curricula; the teaching massively to the innovation agenda in Australia was not room in the Precinct, although there are in turn nurtures human capital, which feeds into and internationally. The chapter by Jeff Jones has plans to overcome this problem in the next stage small and medium enterprise start-ups. In turn, picked up on the topic of managing innovative of development. This experiment with openness is these start-ups, and the policy makers responsible partnerships. Phil Graham has outlined a viable typical of many of the processes that we have put in for the creative industries, need research data and template for interdisciplinary collaboration. place in working collectively and separately. the latest ideas. The loop is completed. What can others do? The pipeline effect The process operates in a fluid and purposely interactive way. The small businesses located at What then are the key lessons that others So what is different so far? Many universities the Precinct provide a connection for students might learn from the QUT Creative Industries are making similar progress in embedding with the real world. Creative entrepreneurs give Experience? First, the process of mixing education, interdisciplinary processes; some are encountering lectures and in the process they identify emerging training and business is an ongoing challenge. similar challenges. In many institutions there are talent. The internship model and the work with Creative businesses are ultimately concerned examples of intelligent design, cutting-edge spaces local communities discussed by Lubi Thomas is about their bottom line; academics about that are meant to allow creative juices to flow and to evidence of how far the model has progressed. The reputations, awards, publications and workloads. enable human interaction with new technologies. role played by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia Mentors are important to success in such an consolidates the pipeline effect between the environment and this mentoring happens across The Creative Industries Precinct is one of many University, with its special expertise and resources, the whole spectrum. Success also depends on such global experiments. I believe we are much and the emerging creative business environment. leaders who broker communication and knowledge further down the road than most other educational The ongoing support for the creative industries across boundaries. Such people are essential to institutions and are well placed to build on the from the Queensland state government is also a maintaining the goodwill and trust necessary for human capital and infrastructure we have. To crucial link in the chain. knowledge sharing. understand the real value of the Creative Industries Precinct and the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, Education reform comes from inside the model Second, and related to this, the communication we have to take into account their geographical as well from outside. As the article by Executive of a common vision is crucial to maintaining situation in a large Australian city with a Dean Susan Street notes, QUT is changing the way cooperation and interactivity. This is more difficult provincial ethos. Brisbane does not have the large ‘creatives’ are educated and trained. No student to manage when highly motivated individuals cultural institutions that we see in Sydney and graduating from the Creative Industries Faculty is come together from different backgrounds. While Melbourne. The creative industry occupations and underprepared for the future. QUT’s ‘real-world’ we talk about change in the creative industries not opportunities in Queensland are therefore smaller commitment is evident through its attention to everyone is comfortable especially when change in scale and qualitatively different from Sydney and industry-relevant courses, internships, public brings inconvenience. As noted above, there is a Melbourne. The kinds of research conducted here is programs, community initiatives, and its utilisation tendency among academics to retreat into familiar consequently more outward looking. of professionals in developing its courseware. It is routines and interests when under pressure. a broad vision. As Chris Meakin has mentioned, QUT International is committed to making the University a more globally linked environment. 64

Third, divergent thinking is essential to 1. Helga Nowotny, Insatiable Curiosity: Innovation in a Fragile Future (Cambridge: MIT 2008) creativity: it produces novel ideas and needs to be encouraged. But divergent thinking also needs to be channelled into productive outcomes which reflect common goals: in the case of ‘the Queensland model’—educational renewal, innovation, clever communities and interdisciplinary collaboration.

This leads to the final point: the journey is a long-term one: resources have been invested strategically but expectations need to be realistic. These resources, which are fundamentally human capital resources, take a long time and sustained efforts to build. The journey we are all taking is one of discovery. While we may be aware of the processes and inputs, we are almost certain to be surprised by the outcomes.

The open space that is on offer at the Creative Industries Precinct is a genial invitation for ideas to be shared, picked up, transmitted and boosted. Indeed the continuous intellectual buzz across and within knowledge and cultural boundaries has afforded an ideal breeding space for creativity and innovation. As crucial as the multiplicity of voices are world-class researchers who would go to great lengths to guide and mentor, and to encourage original thinking in research.

Henry Siling Li, international PhD candidate, China maximise optimum knowledge- sharing 66

Appendix 1: Selected research projects

The following is a short list of research projects that reflect in some way the experiences of the QUT Creative Industries Precinct. For more information on QUT Creative Industries research, see www.cci.edu.au/projects and www.ici.qut.edu.au

New media in the urban Remembering the past, Swarms in urban villages: village: imagining the future: New Media Design to Augment Social Networks of Mapping Communicative Ecologies and Embedding Narrative and New Media in Urban Residents Socio-Economic Innovation in Emerging Inner Planning ARC Linkage 2008–2010 City Residential Developments ARC Linkage Project 2008–2010 The researchers in this project developed advanced ARC Discovery Project 2006–2008 This research project enhanced new media, knowledge of how urban neighbourhood This research looked at factors that stimulate creativity and literacy in two Australian communities can be assisted to grow through the an innovation culture in local communities, communities. It empowered people to bring about use of new media and ICTs. By careful attention showing how social, cultural, educational, and change within their local community. In doing so, to cultural and social assets in the community, economic capital encourage public consultation, the project re-invigorated a more contemporary innovations occur which enhance economic and civic engagement and debate, and how they interpretation of community values in a knowledge social development. assist Australians to be creative and innovative in society. The project demonstrated that Australia’s Partner organisations everyday life. capacity to interpret and engage with its urban Queensland Department of Housing; Brisbane City environment is enhanced when awareness is raised Council; 4UTV; Optus Research team of socio-cultural backgrounds, heritage, and the Professor Greg Hearn; Professor Steffen Lehmann; future aspirations of local community members. Research team Associate Professor Barbara Adkins; Dr Marcus Foth Associate Professor Marcus Foth; Professor Greg (APD) Partner organisations Hearn; Professor Paul Roe; Dr Christine Satchell Sunshine Coast Regional Council; Noosa District (APDI) State High School; FKP

Research team Professor Greg Hearn; Associate Professor Marcus Foth; Associate Professor Bhishna Bajracharya; Professor Kerry Mallan The QUT Creative Industries Experience 67

Creative suburbia: Partner organisations Research team Arts Queensland and Dept of Premier and Cabinet; Professor Stuart Cunningham; Distinguished A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Department of Further Education; Employment; Professor John Hartley; Professor Greg Hearn; Cultural Development in Australia’s Suburban and Science and Training; Australian Interactive Professor Jennifer Radbourne; Mr Ivan Catlin; Peri Urban Communities Media Industry Association; AEShareNet Limited; Mr Stuart Macintyre; Mr Mark Paddenburg; ARC Discovery Project 2008–2010 Lab.3000; Digital Trends WA; Billy Blue School of Dr Abbe Ninan; Peter Higgs; Dr Stephen Cox; The creative industries enterprises account for 5.5 Graphic Arts Pty Ltd; Southbank Institute of TAFE Sasha Lennon per cent of Australia’s national income. But much Research team research and policy assumes that these enterprises International projects Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham; only exist in inner cities. This research examines Professor Greg Hearn; Professor Hitendra Pillay the work patterns of creative industries workers in Governance, human capital the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne, to Creative digital industries in and regional investment in look at how they develop enterprises and maintain China’s new creative clusters networks in the suburbs of Australian cities. This Australia: work will produce better empirical data on where Innovation in economic and qualitative mapping ARC Discovery Project: 2008–2010 creative industries workers are located and how Creative clusters in China vary from large-scale they work, providing better information to policy ARC Linkage Project 2004–2006 urban developments to regional film and animation makers in both the cultural policy and economic The project has established new benchmarks in centres. The project examined cluster governance policy domains. establishing the size and characteristics of the issues and how they impact on innovation. In Australian creative digital industries. To do this it transforming non-productive sectors of the Research team has made significant advances in developing the Chinese creative economy, the researchers focused Professor Terry Flew (Team leader); Professor Philip conceptual framework, the methodologies and the on human capital, particularly the competition Graham; Dr. Mark Gibson; Dr. Christy Collis; classification, datasets and analytical infrastructure for new talent, and regional investment from East Dr Emma Felton and Ms Anna Daniel necessary to implement them. The project Asian sources. The findings highlighted benefits developed and implemented the CCI Abstract that foreign investors and businesses (including Developing a creative Classification spine for managing the consistent Australian companies) obtain from participating ecology as a community of selection of hierarchies of occupation, industry in the cluster model as well as the social and practice: and qualification classifications through the three economic dividends that accrue to local actors and changes that have occurred over the 25 years being communities. The pathway from training to profession in the studied by the project. The project developed digital content industries and implemented the Trident methodology for Research team determining the employment related impact and Associate Professor Michael Keane (QUT); Professor ARC Linkage 2006–2008 characteristics of the creative workforce that is Xiaoming Zhang (Chinese Academy of Social The findings of this study provided valuable insight more robust than previous studies of the creative Sciences) and an anticipatory framework to help sustain the industries. The methodology enables more Australian government’s declaration that Australia consistent and detailed analysis of very large is strongly committed to knowledge creation, multi-dimensional employment data-sets such as innovation and economic growth and that we need census and labour force surveys and is capable of a to build a culture within Australia that applauds higher degree of accuracy than traditional approach innovation and ensures that research, education, of segment focussed surveys. business and governments work together to harness the potential innovation offers. The project Partner organisations has allowed industry and community to better Department of Communication, IT and the Arts; understand the social and cultural implications of National Office for the Information Economy. media and digital technologies and has led to an awareness of socially responsible and innovative applications within education and training contexts. 68

Creative clusters, soft ARC Centre of Excellence Authors infrastructure and new projects Peter Higgs, Stuart Cunningham and Hasan Bakhshi media: www.nesta.org.uk/assets/features/beyond_the_ Research and innovation Developing Capacity in China and Australia creative_industries systems in the production of ARC Linkage Project 2009–2011 digital content Creative Business Clusters of diverse creative businesses are Benchmarker increasingly important for creative industries In 2002/3 QUT researchers and leading Australian and urban policy makers in the West and especially technology and policy strategist Dr Terry Cutler, The Creative Business Benchmarker service is an in China. In order to plan and design such undertook a major research project commissioned online data capture and business analysis project clusters in way that responds to the needs of these by the (then) Australian Government Department that seeks to address the historical lack of accurate, businesses, we need a much better understanding of Communications, Information Technology and time series and up-to-date creative industries of how they work. The success of creative clusters the Arts (the Department) and the National Office data that hinders all segments but most especially depends as much on their ‘soft infrastructure’ for the Information Economy (NOIE). The study those firms within the newer or fastest growing (networking, knowledge, human capital, sense of was the first in the world to connect the innovation segments such as design and interactive content. identity etc.) as on their ‘hard infrastructure’. A research literature to the cultural and creative sector, It was established at the beginning of 2008 to crucial addition to this soft infrastructure are new and to consider the latter’s role in the light of its work with businesses and industry associations forms of digital networking, advanced workspace contribution to national innovation systems. This to progressively collect data from businesses and design, urban screens and other kinds of digital report provided key intellectual architecture for the provide valuable personalised benchmarking place-making—all of which build on the fluid, application for the Centre of Excellence reports back to them. In doing so Benchmarker is face-to-face interaction of physical space. The in 2004. able to collate and manage a wealth of information project involves a survey of best practice in ‘the about the size and characteristics of creative West’, followed by an in-depth investigation of Research team industries and firm dynamics. Benchmarker’s the planning, design, management and usage of Terry Cutler (Cutler and Co); Distinguished Professor objective is to provide a confidential information different creative clusters in China allowing the Stuart Cunningham; Professor Greg Hearn; Associate service that meets the specific needs of four adaptation of models generated from western cases. Professor Michael Keane; Dr Mark Ryan different types of stakeholders:

Partner organisations Beyond the creative • the businesses—including sole practitioners ARUP (Sydney); Communication University of industries • the industry associations and professional bodies China, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology; • the policy makers within government Qingdao Creative 100 This was a report conducted for NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and • the academic and industry researchers. Research team the Arts: UK) in 2008 which sought to improve on Professor Justin O’Connor; Associate Professor the available data about the true extent of creative Research team Michael Keane; Professor Greg Hearn; activity within the economy. The research compared Peter Higgs, Simon Freebody Professor Fan Zhou (CUC: PI) Dan Hill (Arup: PI), the effectiveness of the Creative Trident—a CCI www.benchmarker.org.au Professor Zhang Jingcheng (BAST: PI); Ma Da employment metrics methodology—in both (Creative 100: PI) Australia and the UK. The research recommended that the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Office for National Statistics should work together to provide better data and improve the usefulness of their datasets by, among other recommendations, increasing the sample size of the Labour Force Survey to improve its accuracy and to allow for more detail about occupations within industries. The QUT Creative Industries Experience 69

Appendix 2: QUT Creative Enterprise Australia businesses

The following are businesses currently located at QUT Creative Industries Precinct and the Kelvin Grove Urban Village.

NITV Caustic Pictures Cherry Red Music

National Indigenous Television (NITV) is a new Caustic Pictures is a creative visualisation company Cherry Red Music offers entertainment consulting, 24-hour television service established by Aboriginal located in Brisbane, Australia. They create a wide band management and touring services. and Torres Strait Islanders to improve the lives of range of still and animated imagery to effectively www.cherryredmusic.com.au their people. http://nitv.org.au communicate any idea to the desired audience. www.causticpictures.com Two Small Blondes The Big Ideas Group ACID Two Small Blondes is a Brisbane-based production Big Ideas Group provides a seamless service to company, specialising in training DVDs, corporate enable timely delivery across the full marketing ACID is the Australasian Cooperative Research DVDs, television commercials and television pilots. spectrum in areas such as branding, media, signage Centre for Interaction Design. They find better www.twosmallblondes.com.au and display, brochures, photography, marketing ways for people to interact with each other using strategies, copywriting, print management, web communication technologies. Their expertise lies development. www.bigideasgroup.com.au in helping people participate in the digital world. Internetics www.interactiondesign.com.au Internetics is an innovative iPhone application and Cognitia Studios web development company in Brisbane, Australia Mustang Promotions www.internetics.net.au Cognitia Studios are Internet developers and innovators based at Queensland University of Mustang Promotions caters to independent Technology’s “Creative Industries Precinct”, Kelvin musicians and performers by guiding them in Girls Made This Grove. Cognitia provides online solutions and merchandise services, communication techniques, business tools for small to large enterprises. touring services, database management, Girls Made This is a cooperative of gifted www.cognitia.biz/V2/index.html performance bookings, logistics and preparation, craftspeople who have banded together, led by contracts and worksheets, marketing and publicity, long-time designer, Jane Peacock. The website travel and accommodation, on-road representation, displays jewellery from each designer. merchandise supply and control, and client liaison. www.girlsmadethis.com www.mustangpromotions.com.au 70

Coalface Communications Carbon Media Events

Established in 1998, Coalface Communications Carbon Media Events Pty Ltd is a new media produces documentaries and develops feature films. agency and content creator based as a resident at www.coalfacecommunications.com.au QUT Creative Enterprise Australia. Creator and Managing Director Wayne Denning became the first official resident of the program in October Flick Chicks 2007. www.carbon-media.com.au

Flick Chicks is a film, video, media and documentary production company based in Brisbane. www.flickchicks.com.au

The Post Lounge

The Post Lounge is a Queensland-owned and based full-service post production facility with offices located in the Creative Industries Precinct Brisbane and at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. The Post Lounge is recognised internationally and domestically for its exceptional post production capabilities and, in particular, the ability to maintain high creative standards. www.thepostlounge.com

achieve the most ambitious competitive target QUT Creative Industries Precinct Kelvin Grove Road and Musk Avenue Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4059 Phone +61 7 3138 5495 www.ciprecinct.qut

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