Final day presentation: MyCreativity

Coordinator Bas van Heur presented the outcomes of the MyCreativity network on this final day of Winter Camp. A network that, as Bas immediately indicated, isn’t particularly organized, or strong in its node-to-node connections. Rather, the network consists of a group of individuals with a shared interest in the particularities of the creative industries, brought together, assembled, especially for the Winter Camp event. These individuals operate from a multitude of different positions, which on one side is an advantage, because now finally not exclusively including creative industries criticasters. But on the other side also difficult, because during Winter Camp this made it particularly hard to find some common ground.

But a lack of organizational structure doesn’t per definition mean that a network lacks an added value. Because what especially is the added value of an organized network? What’s important for the MyCreativity network is that information is exchanged amongst its partakers as Bas explains. And from my own experience of sitting-in during some of their sessions this certainly happened, but if this is enough for a sustainable network to grow out of it, well, I have my doubts. Regardless of my doubts, a concrete group end product was realized, the intangible negotiation website. Described by themselves as, ‘a collaborative editing site for ethical guidelines and working contracts for collaborations of freelancers with institutions and funders’.

But only zooming in on the creative industries through a present day perspective didn’t provide the overview the MyCreativity network needed to map the issues at hand. They decided to project themselves into the future, the year 2020 to be exactly, and look to the present through a future day perspective. Well, see it yourself.