CAIRO: In the information society, culture and creativity have seemingly taken a backseat. People regard the gathering of information as a means of making profit and earning a quick buck.
Research has proven that this belief isn’t always true. Efforts, especially in developing countries, have abounded to boost creative industries. There has been a realization that, in the age of information, creative activities are not only profitable, but are also narrowing gaps between culture and entertainment, the masses and the elite, the private and the public.
This is the message that is coming across in a book entitled “Creative Industries, How Culture is Produced in the Age of Technology and Globalization. The title alone warrants more than a passing glance at a time when the question of culture in the age of technological advancement is puzzling researchers and the general public alike.
The book is the first part of series scheduled for publication by the National Council for Culture and Arts and Literature in Kuwait’s Alam Al Marifa series. For the last few months the council has been focusing on subjects related to the open market and new global policies.
“Creative Industries is a translation of a number of articles authored by some British researchers. Unlike previous titles published in the series, this one is not about the negative political repercussions of globalization.
Rather, it gives a glimmer of hope to many a frustrated writer, musician, sculptor, scientist, researcher as well as other groups whose professions are talent and copyright-based.
But creative industries are not only restricted to culture; they have expanded to include other fields like tourism, transport, security, advertising, taxation, online trading and environmental services, to name a few.
In the introduction to the book, Johan Hartely, the articles’ editor, pointed out that “creative industries, a term of multi-definitions, are an important element in the formation of advanced economies.
Citing statistics Hartely writes: “In 2001, the net revenues of American copyrights reached $791.2 billion, making up 7.75 percent of the GDP and an export rate that amounted to $88.97 billion, a figure that outshone chemical, motoring, IT and electronics industries. In the UK, the industries which employ 1.3 million realized revenues that were put at $112.52 billion, making up 5 percent of the country’s GDP.
Hartely added: “The social role of creativity never comes out due to the fact that the individuals involved are creative. Only when those individuals are provided the necessary basis, organization, finance, market and copyrights, the state will take best advantage of their work.
Producing the book stemmed from the necessity to confront the challenges imposed on a world where creativity, entrepreneurship and inventiveness are expressing the need for mass economic and cultural production so that knowledge and new ideas should lead to modernization and the formation of wealth, clarified Hartely.
The book also focuses on the connection between creative industries and investments, companies, education, government and partnerships. It cites successes like Silicon Valley, which has been the product of creative power assisted by established organizations.
Creative industries are particularly relevant when it comes to cultural production. These industries place culture directly side by side with the media and entertainment machinery. By doing so, creative industries remove the distinction between the elite and the masses, art and entertainment, sponsor and trader, the vulgar and the refined, all of which have distorted the idea of creativity in political and intellectual circles.
Educational institutions have lately diverted their attention to creative industries in particular because the focus of the new economy has turned to consumers and services, after being bound to industrialization for decades.
“It was a time when Microsoft and mammoth communication companies took the lead, says the researcher in his introduction.
“Technology then left behind organizations and headed towards people’s homes, cars and pockets . But in time it became obvious that, by itself, information was not the major player in economic activities, for people were more particular about knowledge and ideas than just about information value.
That shift has obviously opened doors for creative industries. In Egypt, some news reports are discussing the dilemmas and problems of the talented groups for the first time, highlighting how their energy is dissipated.
