Surviving in the »Creative Industries« – Joy and burden of the informal
Internationale Konferenz der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, connexx.av u.a.
Prater der Volksbühne Berlin, 13./14.11.09
The »Creative Industries« are considered key to the city development in the 21st Century. Cities such as Berlin put them at the center of image and location policy. The debates are mainly of benefit to the economy and capital development at the forefront - the changed living and working conditions of creative people are in contrast scarcely taken into view. They will be the topic of the congress. The digital revolution in production and distribution, the struggles for intellectual property and realization rights, more flexible corporate structures and labour relations, the project form of work and the privatization of cultural institutions have changed jobs and lifestyles as subjectivities.Schönes Programm, hingehen!
An unwieldy number of opportunities face enormous competition for jobs and contracts, increased chances of expression the pressure of conformity by the market, more self-determination the self-exploitation in informal and precarious employment relationships and with unfettered income at the same time.
Commercialization and gentrification displace the Creative of the Creative Cities, resistance and misfits are transformed and integrated. But the city, work, and life remain highly competitive. Survival in the »Creative Industries« is to be interpreted from different sites and with different shapes: scientific analysis meets journalistic opinion and literary, cinematic and performing art form.
(Was ich selbst tun würde, wäre ich nicht im relevanten Maße krank.)