Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Blaðsíða 20

Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.07.2010, Blaðsíða 20
The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 10 — 2010 20 In a downtown office loft, the staff of Caoz is immersed in the making of ‘Thor: The Edda Chronicles—Iceland’s first full-length 3D animation film, ad- opted from old tales of the Nordic God of Thunder. Caoz is perhaps not what you would expect of a movie studio. In fact, it is not so much a studio, as it is a computer cluster. One of the largest one in Iceland at that. “We are a high-tech company, really. Every frame in the movie contains 10mb of data,” explains Managing Director Hilmar Sigurðsson. “There are 250.000 frames in the 3-D version of the movie, and behind every frame, there is prob- ably twenty times that amount of data. So we need considerable processing power.” In fact, Caoz is typical for the kind of company that more and more experts consider vital for restoring the Icelandic economy. A company that harnesses human resources, rather than natural ones. A company that above all places a premium on creativity. Welcome to the creative economy MAPPING THE CREATIvE ECONOMy The term ‘creative economy’ first ap- peared in John Howkins’ book, ‘The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas’, published in 2001. In John’s view “creativity is not new and neither is economics, but what is new is the nature and the extent of the re- lationship between them and how they combine to create extraordi- nary value and wealth.” The United Nations’ Cre- ative Economy Report of 2008 states that the creative economy is founded on the creative indus- tries, which are at the crossroads of the arts, culture, business and technology. The term ‘creative industries’ is a loosely defined concept that incorporates “the cycle of creation, production and distribution of goods and servic- es that use intellectual capital as their primary input.” The creative industries are grounded on the for- mulation of new ideas, and the ap- plication of those ideas to “produce original works of art and cultural products, functional creations, sci- entific inventions and technologi- cal innovations.” Creative industries are a burgeoning sector of modern economy that ranges from fine art to software development. And everything in between. Worldwide, trades in creative services increased on average by a staggering 8.7% annu- ally between 2000–2005. In Europe, the turnover of creative industries in 2003 totalled 654 billion Euros, employed more than 5.6 million people, and grew 12.3% faster than the overall EU econo- my. In 2007, creative industries were re- sponsible for 6.2% of Gross Value Add- ed in the UK, and export of services by the creative industries equalled 4.5% of all good and services exported. These are large numbers, indica- tive of a rapidly expanding sector that will play an increasingly important role in the future. These are desirable eco- nomic indicators. THE CREATIvE CLASS “Economic growth is driven by creativ- ity, so if we want to increase it, we have to tap into the creativity of everyone,” says Professor Richard Florida, at the Rotman School for Management at the University of Toronto. “That’s what makes me optimistic. For the first time in human history, the basic logic of our economy dictates that further econom- ic development requires the further de- velopment and use of human creative capabilities. The great challenge of our time is to find ways to tap into every human’s creativ- ity.” In 2002, Pro- fessor Florida coined the term ‘the c r e a t i v e class’ to identify a s o c i o - e c o - nomic class of people that he believes will drive economic growth in modern so- cieties through creativity. This class includes pro- fessional, scientific and artistic workers whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content. I asked Professor Florida to expound on his definition of the creative class: “I define the creative class and the creative economy a little broader than Peter Druker’s knowledge economy. I extend the definition to include design- ers, artists and entrepreneurs who are critical to our economic growth. The creative class describes two segments of workers: Creative Professionals— these are the classic knowledge-based workers and include those working in healthcare, business and finance, the legal sector, and education; and the Super-Creative Core—these workers include scientists, engineers, techies, innovators, and researchers, as well as artists, designers, writers and musi- cians.” In his estimate, some 40 million Americans, nearly a third of the Ameri- can workforce occupies the creative class, and 12 million of them belong to the Super-Creative Core. Florida maintains there are three key factors to nurturing creative in- dustries: “Talent, technology and toler- ance represent what I call the three Ts of economic development. The driving force behind any effective economic strategy is talented people. We live in a more mobile age than ever before. People, especially top creative talent, move around a lot. A community's abil- ity to attract and retain top talent is the defining issue of the creative age. Tech- nology and innovation are critical com- ponents of a community or organisa- tion's ability to drive economic growth. To be successful, communities and or- ganisations must have the avenues for transferring research, ideas, and inno- vation into marketable and sustainable products. Universities are paramount to this, and provide a key hub institution of the creative age.” Tolerance is equally impor- tant, and according to Professor Florida, creative people thrive in a tolerant atmosphere. “ E c o n o m i c p r o s p e r - ity relies on cultural, entrepreneurial, civic, scientific, and artistic cre- ativity. Creative workers with these talents need commu- nities, organisations, and peers that are open to new ideas and different people. Places receptive to immigration, alternative lifestyles, and new views on social status and power structures will ben- efit significantly in the creative age.” SEARCHING FOR THE ICELANDIC CREATIvE ECONOMy This June, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, announced a project to map the economic effects of creative industries in Iceland for the first time. Official figures for the Ice- landic economy do not accurately re- flect the increasing importance of this sector in our society. Minister of Edu- cation Katrín Jakobsdóttir said at the time: “The knowledge that this project will create will be invaluable for mak- ing important policy decisions on how we want to reshape and reconstruct Icelandic society, in particular, how we want to shape our economy.“ Despite little official information on the economic effects of creative industries in this country, we do have clues that clearly indicate the eco- nomic effects are considerable. In 2004 Ágúst Einarsson, Professor of Econom- ics at Bifröst University, published his research on the economic effect of creative industries, in particular cul- ture and music. “My conclusion was that nearly a quarter of the Icelandic workforce is employed by the creative sector. This conclusion has later been confirmed by other studies. I found that culture was responsible for 4% of the GDP in 2004, and music alone was responsible for 1% of the GDP,” Ágúst explains. “I have been fol- lowing this development since, and the share of creative industries has increased in the last years. The world’s economy is at a milestone where the creative indus- try is as valid as primary produc- tion, industry, and service as a foundation for our economy. The rapid expansion of soft- ware development and computer games plays an important role, and Icelandic companies have gotten good results in these fields.” He is very optimistic for future de- velopments in this sector and believes creative industries based on culture and arts can be the industry of the fu- ture in Iceland. “There is a lot of cul- tural activity here, compared to other nations. This claim is supported by the large contribution of culture towards the GDP, in particular Gross Value Added. There is a strong music indus- try in Iceland that creates a lot of value, and there are many opportunities for growth in the film industry if we play our cards right. The same can be said for design. There is an industrial revo- lution taking place, fully comparable to the last one, 250 years ago with the ar- rival of steam power. We have great op- portunities to be at the forefront of this revolution and improve our standards of living considerably. The foundation, interest in culture and creative ambi- tion, is already in place,” Ágúst says. IT’S ALL IN THE GAME Another positive sign for Icelandic creative industries is the expansion of computer game development in Ice- land. Fifteen years ago there was no gaming industry to speak of in Iceland. In 1997, a few young men founded CCP with the goal to become a leading com- pany in massively multiplayer on-line role playing games (MMORPGs). In 2003 the company launched their flag- ship title, Eve Online. Today, Eve Online has over 350.000 subscribers, employs 450 people and the yearly turnover ex- ceeds 40 million Euros. And CCP keep developing more games. The Icelandic gaming industry as a whole consists of at least ten compa- nies, and the yearly turnover exceeds 60 million Euros. “We didn’t even know that there was a gaming industry here until we planned a meet-up and realised that there were at least seven or eight differ- ent companies work- ing in this field,” says Finnur Magnússon, a founding member of the Icelandic Gaming Indus- try (read more about this or- ganisation on page eight), who moved back to Iceland two years ago after working for a com- puter game developer in London for several years. “That’s when we figured this was an in- dustry and created a community called the Icelandic Gaming In- “We have all the conditions in place – economical, historical, cultural and educational – to succeed in the economy of the future, but Icelandic authorities don’t seem to recognize that possibility.” Feature | New Economy Because that would be great

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