Collective and individual identities in an era of co-creation: a workshop

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Published

2023-01-20

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Section

Section 2. Implementing creative methods

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/3141

Authors

Abstract

This chapter describes a workshop developed as part of an effort by a European group of pedagogues, who developed insights and tools for supporting creatives to form a more powerful digital narrative of their often-fragmented career stories. Thus, the group explored and developed digital storytelling tools, media and online tools, autobiographical practices, design thinking, and embodied practices for identity formation. As part of the latter, this chapter is about a workshop that considers individual and collective identity formation for creating more powerful and holistic digital career stories that balance our individual nature with a more collective understanding of ourselves as human beings. A separate chapter about the conceptual framework underpinning this workshop can be viewed in this toolkit. Artists have a long historic tradition of forming collectives and co-creative processes. However, in a world that has emphasised individual endeavours and individualism as the highest concept associated with freedom, they have not always received positive value judgements. Thus, current neoliberal tendencies to elevate the individually identifiable creators established a perceived meritocratic society of individual power and choice. But the multiple current crises in governance, society, environment and economy suggest a dead-end of this trajectory. Perhaps, as a result, current discourses of more collective, cooperative and collaborative endeavours are on the rise in the art sector as in others. Thus, the concepts around Culture 3.0 are worthy of being highlighted, as in the absence of this phenomenon of Culture 3.0, authors and creative professionals have often needed to resort to other terms, such as “community arts”, “socially engaged arts”, “participatory arts”, “non-traditional arts”. But these terms are often associated with value judgments in themselves.

References

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Boehm C. (2023), Collective and individual identities in an era of cultural co-creation, «Il capitale culturale. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage», Supplementi, n. 14, pp. 69-82.

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Author Biography

Carola Bettina Boehm, C3 Centre for Creative Communities and Creative Industries, Staffordshire University

Carola Boehm is a Professor of Arts and Higher Education at Staffordshire University and the Co-Director of its C3 Research Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities. She holds degrees in music, computer science and electrical engineering. She has written more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and is on the peer review panels of EPSRC and the European Commission’s Research Frameworks. She holds a track record of research and enterprise projects (incl. EC, EPSRC, SHEFC, JISC, British Library, Leverhulme, HEA, EU, HLF). She is currently leading a flagship Arts Council-funded leadership programme, ‘Create Place: Placemaking and Co-Creation’, and holds the co-chair of a regional UK cultural compact, ‘Stoke Creates’. She is a member of the International Computer Music Association (ICMA), the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE), and a founding member of the Society of Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education (PaTHES). Her most recent work considers the role of arts in academia, considering how new ways of creative co-creation and knowledge production provide new structures for gaining sustainable collaborative partnerships between arts, academia and the public.

How to Cite

Boehm, C. B. (2023). Collective and individual identities in an era of co-creation: a workshop. Il Capitale Culturale. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, (14), 153–166. https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/3141