Creative Economies Forum 2023

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CEF Forum 2023

Keep your Dreams Alive - Why the cultural sector needs new strategies

Generative AI instead of design practices, skills-based activity profiles instead of cultural professions, social impact and green deal instead of arts... The cultural sector is intensely challenged by external developments. Do the actors of the creative economies need new strategies to realise their ideas? What does this mean for art academies and funding agencies?
Under the motto "Keep your Dreams Alive", the Creative Economies Forum 23 addresses the question of how successful strategies are developed in and for the cultural sector: What does it take today to make a relevant impact as an artist or designer? What will (cultural) funding look like in the future? What data basis and what processes do we need for the development of worthwhile futures? Do art colleges have a new role to play in these developments?

At the centre of CEF 23 are various workshop and information formats on the theme of "strategizing", which will be repeatedly related to each other by a moderation team in joint sessions.

CEF 23 is the Swiss platform for exchange and networking opportunities in the creative economies. The diverse programme with and for creative professionals, entrepreneurs, cultural administrators, researchers, students, alumnae and (cultural) politicians is regularly updated here.

The CEF is the annual event of the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) for agenda setting and community building in the Creative Economies. As an international centre of excellence of the ZHdK, the ZCCE deals with research, teaching, incubation and consulting with questions of value creation and strategy development at the interfaces between culture, economy, education, politics and society.

The international research project "Creative Impact Research Centre Europe" (CIRCE) is this years guest at CEF Forum. As one of five European research labs, the ZCCE is working on the focus "Entrepreneurial Strategies" in the Creative Economies within this project: www.creativeimpact.eu

Programme

Wednesday, October 4th, Opening, 5:30 pm, Room 5.K12

Welcome and introduction by Christoph Weckerle (Head of the ZCCE) and Karin Mairitsch (Rector of the ZHdK).
Afterwards, the keynote "Zero Bullshit Strategy" by Mariska van Lavieren will open CEF23. At the age of 22, Mariska von Lavieren founded NAVADA, a "female-driven" production company and creative studio based in Zurich, dedicated to the promotion of female directors/FLINTA*. Fairness, respect and "girls to the front" are lived values. Women form the core team, all others are welcome.

Afterwards, Simon Grand will moderate a panel and ask Miriam Walther (PUBLIX, Gessnerallee Zurich, Labor mit Utopieverdacht, artFAQ) and Daniel Freitag (Co-Founder Freitag) as well as Mariska van Lavieren and the Rector of the ZHdK, Karin Mairitsch, the question: "How can we shape the future in the present?".

Mariska van Lavieren is 22 years old. With her production company Navada, she is shaking up the industry. Fairness, respect and "girls to the front" are values she lives by. Women form the core team, but all others are welcome.

Miriam Walther is a project manager and part of the founding team of Publix gGmbH, the new home in Berlin-Neukölln for all those who do journalism, create publicity and strengthen democracy. From season 24/25, she will take over as co-director of the Gessnerallee Zurich. Previously she was, among other things, (co-)managing director of the Swiss media company Republik, co-director of the Zentral-Bühne of the Zurich theatre Spektakel, co-founder of the Zurich production platform artFAQ, the Unconference Labor with Utopieverdacht and the collective Neue Dringlichkeit. In 2015 she received a recognition award from the city of Zurich in the field of theatre and in 2021 she was named "Media Manager of the Year" by the industry magazine Schweizer Journalist:in. She studied theatre directing at the ZHdK.

Daniel Freitag is a graphic designer and worked for a long time as a freelancer for various advertising agencies in Zurich before he decided to make bags from used truck tarpaulins together with his brother Markus in 1993. In 2003, the TOP CAT model was included in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). FREITAG lab.ag, headquartered in Zurich Oerlikon, is still owned by the Freitag brothers and today employs around 250 people and runs 29 stores around the world.

Networking, Bar & Fingerfood, Room 5.K06

Thursday, October 5th, 9:00 am, Room 5.K06

Welcome with coffee.

Workshop I / DE, 9:30 am, Room 5.K12

Opportunities and consequences of AI in the Creative Economies
Moderation: Grit Wolany and Eva Gabriel-Jürgens
This workshop is organized and curated together with Netzhdk, the Alumni Network of ZHdK.

The participants of the workshop will get an overview of the possibilities and current developments in the field of generative AI. Different AI tools will be briefly presented and legally classified. Together we will discuss digital-ethical challenges and creative opportunities.

Grit Wolany began her creative career as an art director and designer in Hamburg. Her curiosity led her first to Switzerland and then, after more than 15 years in practice, back to university. In the ZHdK Master Design, Trends & Identity she dealt with the topics of artificial intelligence and the future of creativity and AI. What began as trend and design research developed over time more and more into an explorative artistic engagement with generative algorithms. Grit lives in Zurich and works as a freelance art director and AI scout at the ZHdK.

Eva Gabriel-Jürgens is a lawyer specialising in copyright and media law in Hamburg for over 20 years and has been dealing with the legal and social challenges of using artificial intelligence for many years. As a lawyer, she advises and represents both developers and users of AI and gives lectures on this topic. Among her clients are mainly companies and self-employed persons from the creative industry, such as image and advertising agencies, film and television productions, photographers, designers, game developers and artists.

She also advocates for the protection of civil liberties, such as the general right to privacy, data protection and the right to equality, and has mandates in press law. In addition to her legal training, she has also been practically active in the media industry in many ways and knows its special features. She is a lecturer at various universities and gives professional lectures, seminars and workshops.

She has supported the six public universities in Hamburg in the digitalisation of teaching content and the implementation of data protection. In addition, she has successfully advised and accompanied company founders for years on all related legal issues and acts in an advisory capacity for the members of the Bundesverband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler Hamburg (BBK).

Workshop II / DE, 9:30 am, Room 5.K06

Curriculum development and assessment - against the background of the rapid development of AI.

Moderation: Hanja Blendin

The Quality Commission of the ZHdK invites you to an interactive workshop for an contemporary art university in the 21st century. Through joint discussions, the participants will be invited to share their experiences and to develop strategies for dealing skilfully with the ever-changing cultural, creative and educational landscape.

The aim of the workshop is to find out how art universities can ensure that their education meets the demands of today and that their students are adequately prepared for the challenges. For example, how can we find out blind spots in our curricula and how can we make sure that we teach skills that are relevant to the field. And for example what opportunities are opened up by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the cultural and creative industries.

Guests in discussion include: Jessica Guy, CIRCE Research Fellow and head of research for Distributed Design at Fab Lab Barcelona | IAAC; Karina Kaindl, Quality Officer Design & Art, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts | HSLU; Renato Soldenhoff, project manager of Digital Council ZHdK; Sara Rutz, artist and alumna Fine Arts ZHdK; Joana Racine, ZHdK alumna "Trends & Identity" and co-founder of the start-up "forplanetstrategylab" (requested).

Closed Workshop / DE, 9:30 am, Room 5.C12

Closed workshop (by invitation) on the topic of Creative Economies in data. What data basis do we need for strategic and sustainable discussion? As a basis for the discussion, we will bring in our contribution to the federal government`s consultation on the Culture Dispatch 2025-2028.

Moderation: Roman Page

Workshop III / EN, 11:45 am, Room 5.K12

Live AI-Performance
Connecting the AI Workshop and the Curricula
Expert: Samuel Huber

Samuel Huber is on a mission to introduce the planet-centric perspective to organizations of all kinds to enable them to transform towards a regenerative value generation. He is the co-founder of the For Planet Strategy Lab, a new kind of organization that runs risky projects and daring experiments through a number of engagements. In addition, he is a research fellow at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), where he contributes the experience and network which he acquired during his many years being an active part of the startup and design ecosystems of Berlin, Tokyo and Zurich. He was also a founding member of UBS Y, the future think tank of the world’s biggest wealth manager, worked long nights for ARTonAIR, a New York art gallery, and focused on development economics with Biovision. Being both a design entrepreneur and researcher, he aims to translate between a variety of stakeholders that are participating in creating a regenerative economy. He holds a Ph.D. on the topic of “Strategizing as Prototyping” from the University of St. Gallen’s RISE Management Innovation Lab and continues to practice engaged scholarship. Previously, his studies in sociology, economy, management, and design led him to the Universities of Zurich, St. Gallen, and all the way to Stanford and Keio in Tokyo.

Lecture / EN, 2:00 pm, Room 5.K12

New Philanthropy
Conversation between Frédéric Martel und Carole Gürtler

This workshop will be organised as a conversation between Carole Gürtler and Frédéric Martel (ZCCE) about the newest study that Ms Gürtler published this year on Swiss philanthropy at ZHdK : Philanthropy and the Creatives

Participants will be invited to take part in the workshop and interact with the author. The main topics will be:

The state of philanthropy in Switzerland and its interaction with both the arts sector and private corporations.
How the arts and culture sector has broken out from their bubble into other fields of society and economy, creating thereby the so-called Orange Economy. Private grant-making foundations are key supporters and donors of the cultural and creative sector. With crises everywhere, shifting demographics, diverse requirements, and complex ecosystems, how will however their collaboration evolve?

Carole Gürtler is an independent consultant with over 20 years of experience in sustainable development, cultural & creative economies and media in the areas of philanthropy and NGO/NPO work.

Workshop IV / EN, 2:00 pm, Room 5.K06

New Impact Strategies: Street Protests in HongKong
Justin Wong, Research Fellow ZCCE

The use of networking and social media for mobilization and communication has become an indispensable tool in modern-day protests. The Anti-ELAB Movement in 2019 in Hong Kong exemplified a decentralized and leaderless protest model, facilitated by social media platforms such as Telegram and online public forums. However, previous research has overlooked a significant factor in the formation of such decentralized structures: the impact of graphic artworks that appeared on the internet and the Lennon Walls.

Throughout the six-month protest, artists developed strategies to maximize the impact of their works, aiming to connect different sectors of the movement. This workshop aims to discuss the roles of graphic art in the Anti-ELAB Movement and the factors that facilitated its development: 1) The formation of creative clusters 2)The ”Open-Source culture” 3) The formation of public hybrid space between social media and Lennon Wall and, 4) Graphic styles and the youth culture.

Research Slam / EN, 4:00 pm, Room 5.K06

The stage belongs to the Zurich CIRCE fellows. They are invited to present their research projects in a Research Slam. Teresa Koloma Beck - CIRCE Research Director - will open the Research Slam and place the event accordingly in the context of CIRCE and the current topics.