First Week - 26th September '19
I have just started my second year at the University of South Wales. As part of the course, I will be tracking my progress throughout the 'Digital Media in the Creative Industries' module. This particular module looks into the impact of technology within the creative industries (particularly music) and what effects it has had. In particular, I will be working towards creating a press pack for a particular up-and-coming artist; who their fanbase are, and how they can engage with their social media platforms in order to create a wider following.
The first lecture focused primarily on the meaning of 'creative industries' and how we can define them. As it turns out, this is not easy! There are many different types of creative industry and we have been discussing what it is in particular that makes them so. We agreed that it covers a whole umbrella of different areas and professions, however in conclusion realised that they all consist of three factors that connect them;
- An element of human creativity is required; someone has put time and effort into the 'ins and outs' of something.
- They carry some form of meaning or symbolism; we also went into detail about what this means.
- They contain some form of intellectual property, or at least have the potential to, which is owned by an individual or group.
We investigated further into what this 'symbolism' could be, and whether or not we could define some kind of scale. This, of course, is very much impossible - symbols and meanings are completely subjective. Even by looking at a piece of abstract art there can be a meaning found, whether or not it was the intended meaning by the creator of said piece of artwork becomes irrelevant when it is in the eye of the consumer. What was intended to be interpreted could not be taken by anyone but the creator, however this does not mean that it therefore lacks meaning. I may look at the same painting as someone completely different stood next to me and take something completely different from it, but this does not make either of our interpretations wrong or any less relevant than the other. Similarly in any other creative industry this still applies. Let's take a song for example; the songwriter may have used metaphors in their lyrics in order to convey a certain emotion, which will be picked up on by some and taken literally by others. This can again be interpreted differently depending on the context of the lyrics - more simply the song that they are written to. The juxtaposition of, for example, sad song lyrics to a happy, lively sounding song can create various different meanings to the consumers, the audience and the fans.
Our task alongside this discussion was to find something within the vicinity of our University building that we could take a photograph of, which would fit the criteria mentioned; it is creative, it holds some symbolic meaning in some way and contains intellectual property. We soon discovered that the final point, to contain intellectual property, would be covered the second we took the photograph, as we then owned said picture. The next part could be a little more complicated. Our lecturer told a few of us that there was one part of the building in particular which would stand out above the rest, and attached the riddle 'it can be seen from every floor of the building'. I had a very good feeling that I knew what he was referring to, however upon reflection did not quite capture it right!
I took a photograph of the building's architecture, in particular the spiral staircase on one end of the building. This held symbolic meaning as every student uses the building every day, and is what can be associated back to all of our University experiences. The human creativity element can be found in the architecture of the building and it's features, which have all been carefully planned out in order to account for the capacity of the University, the classroom sizes needed and what each room's purpose is. The staircase, more specifically, is arguably the most defining feature in the whole of the Atrium building, which is used daily by all students and staff to access various parts of the building.
(See the attached photo!)
I will be continuing to post about my progress throughout the module, alongside posts similar to those done previously; music updates, attending shows and festivals and maybe even some more reviews!!
Stay tuned,
Katey.
