Creativity in Peripheral Places

Book excerpt: Creativity is said to be the fuel of the contemporary economy. Dynamic industries such as film, music, television and design have changed the fortunes of entire cities, from Nashville to Los Angeles, Barcelona to Brisbane and beyond. Yet creativity remains mercurial – it is at the heart of industrial innovation and can attract investment, but it is also an intangible, personal quality and experience. What exactly constitutes creativity? Drawing on examples as diverse as postcard design, classical music, landscape art, tattooing, Aboriginal hip-hop, and rock sculpture, this book seeks to explore and redefine creativity as both economic and cultural phenomenon. Creativity also has a peculiar geography. Beyond Hollywood, creativity is evident in suburban, rural and remote places – a quotidian, vernacular, eclectic enterprise. In seeking to redefine the creative industries, this book brings together geographers, historians, sociologists, cultural studies scholars and media/communications experts to explore creativity in diverse places outside major cities. These are places that are physically and/or metaphorically remote, are small in population terms, or which because of old industrial legacies are assumed by others to be unsophisticated or marginal in an imaginary geography of creativity. This book reveals the richness and depth, the challenges and surprises of being creative beyond city limits. This book was originally published as a special issue of Australian Geographer.