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Victorian College of the Arts

The Creative City (FINA10038)

Walk the City.  Talk the City.  Create the city.  The Creative City Breadth at the VCA.  Join a class exploring the everyday creative spaces around your city.  Sounds, images, public spaces.  Let the city come to your senses.

Through ideas of urban creativity have a long history; over the last decade discourses of creativity have become central to debates about the value and future of cities and communities in a global economy. Often these accounts of urban creativity are uncritically celebratory or narrowly focussed on particular elites. While providing a introduction to key ideas in the filed of urban creativity in institutional like, "informal creativity" and the role of creativity in new conceptions of urbanism, such as "inter-cultural or "post-carbon" cities.

For more information contact Dr James Oliver (joliver@unimelb.edu.au) or follow this link to the handbook.

This subject examines how traditions of independent and community media are being reactivated in contemporary culture, from DIY publishing and citizen journalism to digital storytelling and open source media. It examines how forms of community media are theorised politically and philosophically (for example, the idea that information ‘wants to be free’) and how community media are ‘built’: how they are sustained and organised socially. Through a series of case studies we will trace some key issues: the role of communications technologies in community development, the future of ‘community media’ and what it means to seize the means of production in a knowledge economy. Students will engage in a series of assignments to be completed in written, video or audio essays.

 On completing this subject students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of community media across a range of locations and institutions;
• critically analyse the uses of concepts in community media discourse;
• develop concepts, propositions or project proposals that critically engage with the notion of community media.

Assessment:

Inlcudes an Essay/report of 3000 words worth 70% and due in the examination period; and a class presentation of 10 mins during the semester worth 30%.

Hurdle requirements:

Students must attend 80% of all scheduled classes and attempt all elements of assessment to be eligible for a pass in this subject.

Breadth Options:

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Science

 For further information on this breadth subject please follow this link to the handbook.