About: The Creativity is a free accidental newspaper dedicated to the anonymous creative worker. The Creativity was produced by Sandberg Institute, the Institute of Network Cultures (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and the Centre for Media Research (University of Ulster). The newspaper was officially presented at the MyCreativity convention on creative industries research, which took place 16-18 November 2007, in Amsterdam.
Colophon: Editors: Mieke Gerritzen, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer, Ned Rossiter. Editorial Assistance: Shirley Niemans and Matthijs Rutten. Translator: Laura Martz. Design: Hendrik-Jan Grievink. Print: Drukkerij Boesenkool, Castricum. Circulation: 10.000
Mieke Gerritzen, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer and Ned Rossiter (eds.), The Creativity, Amsterdam: Instituut voor Netwerkcultuur, 2007. Order a free copy by emailing: books@networkcultures.org
About the book: The MyCreativity Reader is a collection of critical research into the creative industries. The material develops out of the MyCreativity Convention on International Creative Industries Research held in Amsterdam, November 2006. This two-day conference sought to bring the trends and tendencies around the creative industries into critical question.
The ‘creative industries’ concept was initiated by the UK Blair government in 1997 to revitalise de-industrialised urban zones. Gathering momentum after being celebrated in Richard Florida’s best-seller The Creative Class (2002), the concept mobilised around the world as the zeitgeist of creative entrepreneurs and policy-makers.
Despite the euphoria surrounding the creative industries, there has been very little critical research that pays attention to local and national variations, working conditions, the impact of restrictive intellectual property regimes and questions of economic sustainability. The reader presents academic research alongside activist reports that aim to dismantle the buzz-machine.
Contributors: BAVO (Gideon Boie and Matthias Pauwels), Danny Butt, Alex Foti, David Hesmondhalgh, Brian Holmes, Michael Keane, Aphra Kerr, Geert Lovink, Toby Miller, Monika Mokre and Elisabeth Mayerhofer, Max Nathan, Sebastian Olma, Marion von Osten, Merijn Oudenampsen, Matteo Pasquinelli, Andrew Ross, Ned Rossiter, Joost Smiers, Christoph Spehr, Annelys de Vet.
Colophon: Editors: Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter. Editorial Assistance: Sabine Niederer. Copy Editing: Michael Jason Dieter. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Cover image and design ‘The Creativity’: Hendrik-Jan Grievink. Printer: Veenman Drukkers, Rotterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, School of Design and Communication, and XS4ALL.
Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter, MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008. ISBN 978-90-78146-04-9