Katja Fleischmann

Making things in Fab Labs: a case study on sustainability and co-creation

ABSTRACT Digital fabrication laboratories (such as Fab Labs) are a global initiative of workshops that offer open access to technologies to produce objects from beginning idea to final production. Fab Labs encourage open and free knowledge-sharing among ‘experts’ and the general public. Claims are being made about community-based digital fabrication workshops transforming practices of design, innovation, production and consumption, while describing positive impacts on the environment and social goals. Research that examines such claims is sparse. This paper explores realities of using digital fabrication technologies within a Fab Lab. It draws on a case study that describes practical outcomes of a design workshop in which a multidisciplinary team engaged in issues of sustainable design and processes of co-creation to design and fabricate a prototype. This experience provides insight into the impact of digital fabrication technologies within a sustainable and co-creational design context and critical reflections are presented.

Developing a regional economy through creative industries: innovation capacity in a regional Australian city

ABSTRACT Creative industries are driving economic growth across the world with their employment of innovation methodologies, including Co-creation and Design Thinking, which has spawned disruptive but beneficial business models. Creative industries are, therefore, cross-pollinating their ideas within other business sectors, primarily in major urban areas. This study examined whether those same innovation methodologies are used and can grow a regional economy, specifically in Townsville, Australia. Surveys and interviews were employed to gauge local business demand for creative industries services and also the creative industries sectors’ understanding of human-centred innovation methodologies and the potential for their use. Survey and interview results indicate confusion about the specifics of innovation methodologies – particularly in engaging with the end-users of services – but there is a general support for their use in the wider business community. Interviews with business owners highlighted a willingness to engage with regional creative industries, but concerns were raised about the affordability of such business services when compared to services offered in major urban centres. The findings propose that there is strong potential for creative industries to grow a regional economy, in this case Townsville in northern Australia, but only if the creative sector markets itself better to the wider business community.

Creativity in the ‘Torrid’ zone: policy, creative industries and the vision for Northern Australia

Creative industries are recognised as a key driver of economic growth in both developed and developing nations. In addition to recognising the importance of creative industries, the Australian government has recently renewed a focus on the vast northern tropical area of this island nation as key to future economic and population growth, via the release of a white paper focussed on development options for the north. However, the white paper contains virtually no references to creative industries. In addition, Australia’s most recent national cultural policy, Creative Australia, has after only a few years slipped into obscurity and despite major resources being invested towards its development. Drawing on the almost 100 years of policy documentation relevant to Northern Australia, this paper highlights the limited attention paid to arts, culture and creative industries, and considers this relative policy vacuum in the context of global developments in creative industries.

The rise of the embedded designer in the creative industries

Work practices in the creative industries have changed significantly since the turn of the twenty-first century. The design profession in particular has been influenced by rapidly emerging digital media practices and processes. While the design sector remains a significant source of employment, in recent years, there has been considerable growth in the number of designers working – or ‘embedded’ – in other sectors of the economy. The extent to which tertiary curricula cater for this shift in work practices and employment types is not well known. In this article, we report on original research on the preferred work destinations of a cohort of design students. This research was supplemented by a set of interviews with a small group of embedded designers in order to gain insights into the characteristics of embedded positions. Our research reveals that an embedded design position, while not well understood by undergraduate students, is a significant career path and one that should receive greater attention in undergraduate design curricula. We conclude that greater emphasis should be placed on assisting embedded designers to maintain creative networks that support them in what is a relatively isolated creative role.

Increasing authenticity through multidisciplinary collaboration in real-life scenarios in digital media design education

Undergraduate digital media design education is linked to a professional or vocational model, given that students are typically focused on the industry and its employment opportunities. Introducing authentic real-life scenarios in digital media design education is an effective strategy to replicate industry and the profession in order to prepare students for a successful transition from the classroom to their future multidisciplinary collaborative work environment. Linking industry and education in the scenario allows students to explore workplace issues and interact with practitioners, enabling them to understand the realities and complexities associated with multidisciplinary teamwork within the sector in which they will work.  This article overviews the design of a real-life scenario to foster collaborative learning for digital media design and information technology students. Key findings include the fact that the majority of students indicated a future preference to work on real-world projects, they found the integrated feedback from an industry professional helpful, and more complex projects of a higher standard were completed. Students also experienced ‘authentic’ challenges during the collaborative process (e.g. communication challenges) and which reflect those of industry. The study also revealed that the introduction of multidisciplinary teams leads to a more enriched learning environment for all participating students.

Women on Walls: The Female Subject in Modern Graffiti Art

Modern day wall art featuring women as subjects is usually painted by male artists, although women graffiti artists are challenging that male dominance and there are ample examples of their work on social media. The choice of women as subjects dates back to ancient Rome and Greece where idealized female images provided a template for desire, sexuality and goddess status. In modern times, wall artists present women as iconic subjects of power, renewal, and social commentary. Feminine graffiti appears to be idiosyncratic in its subject matter—the product of history, geography, culture and political discourse based on feminine power and influence. Although it is impossible to generalize stylistically about street artists, who are sui generis by their very nature–and wall art defies easy labelling–there are some patterns that are apparent when wandering city streets and encountering women subjects on walls. This photo-essay explores women who feature in wall art in open air galleries in Western Europe, South America and tropical Cuba and seeks to define female archetypes found in these examples. The historical antecedents to modern wall art are presented followed by specific examples of wall art featuring women; succinct interpretations are presented with each example. The journey takes us to Paris, Berlin and Venice, with a stopover in the small fishing town of Huanchaco, Peru, the colourful artistic hill city of Valparaiso, Chile and ends on the worn and tattered streets of tropical Havana, Cuba. In crossing the equator and cultural divide between Western Europe, South America and the Caribbean some surprising trends are suggested in this exploration of women on walls. Keywords: wall art, women in graffiti, city streets, tropical, female archetypes, Europe and South America graffiti

Creative industries in a regional city: How much work is lost to rivals based elsewhere?

The ability to exploit the fruits of agglomeration in metropolitan environments may foster the perceived superiority of metropolitan vis-à-vis rural creative industries practitioners. Based on a unique survey conducted among the business community of the regional city of Townsville, the article quantifies the industry linkages between the creative industries sector in the regional city and the city’s wider business community; and the share of demand for creative industries services/products generated in the city that is sourced elsewhere: the import leakage. The import leakage – estimated at a quarter – is a yardstick for the competition that the industry faces from creative industries practitioners based elsewhere. The article shows that policies that reduce the import leakage have considerable impact on gross business income of the local creative industries sector.

Online design education: Searching for a middle ground

At its heart, design is a studio-based discipline, which makes it difficult for design educators to adopt technology-driven changes into an online teaching and learning environment. Globally, few universities offer online undergraduate degree design courses, despite an overall growth in online higher degree curricula. Anecdotal evidence and limited research studies exploring the design educators’ view lament the potential loss of direct interactions between educator and design students in an online learning environment making it impossible to offer design education online. However, the attitude of design students towards online learning is largely underexplored. Given that today’s design students are considered tech-savvy, and there is a growing student demand for flexible study options, it would seem that design students would embrace online delivery options. The aim of this study is to explore the perception of undergraduate design students towards the idea of studying design online and whether or not blended learning could provide a transitional middle ground to a fully online design course. This study also touches on any student reservations about online delivery and identifies the barriers to study design online.

Professional development in the creative industries: methods and insights from regional practitioners

Professional development for those pursuing a career in creative industries is typically driven by individual practitioners, given most areas (e.g. photography, design, film) do not require membership with a regulatory organisation or evidence of continuing skills development. For those based regionally, opportunities for professional development are also less available than for those in capital cities. This paper reports on the findings of a survey (N = 151) and follow-up interviews (N = 29) with current creative industries practitioners in the regional city of Townsville in northern Australia, in relation to professional development opportunities and issues faced as a result of being located a substantial distance from the nearest capital city. The findings reveal a range of key challenges for regional practitioners due to distance and access to specialists in the field, yet at the same time a number of opportunities for those who display human agency and who are agentic learners.

Creating an Authentic Learning Environment

The education of digital media designers is largely structured around design students working individually on projects or in teams of designers. This is despite the fact that the intersection of several disciplines is a workplace reality. As a result, design students are being poorly prepared for working as part of multidisciplinary teams. In recognition of these shortcomings, a learning and teaching approach – the POOL Model framework – was developed to create a learning environment that is reflective of industry practice. The framework structures learning around multidisciplinary collaborative teamwork, engaging design students in project work with students from other disciplines such as information technology or multimedia journalism. The effectiveness of this approach in supporting real-world learning was first investigated in an undergraduate digital media design degree program over a period of three years. The relevance of this experience in the workplace was later explored once students had graduated and were working in the industry.