Creative Directions 2020 Program

Wednesday 7 October
6:00pm - 7:15pm

OPENING NIGHT SESSION
Including official opening & 'Welcome' from the Dean of Arts (Prof. Sharon Pickering)

CREATIVE LABOUR AFTER COVID-19

(Link to video of the session)

Work in the cultural and media industries is notoriously insecure, precarious and contingent -- and that was before a global pandemic. With the arts, recreation and media sectors some of the worst affected due to the impacts of COVID-19, the post-pandemic future of cultural work has become an urgent question. Who will work after the pandemic? And what sort of workforce do we need to work towards? This panel brings together international research leaders with local artists to examine the pressing dilemmas of cultural work after COVID-19.

Panel Members:

Moderator: Dr Ben Eltham (Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

Thursday 8th October
11:00am - 12:00pm

(Choose from Sessions 1, 2 or 3)

SESSION 1

BASIC INCOME FOR ARTISTS

(Link to video of the session)

As Coronovirus struck, governments around the world rushed to implement income and wage subsidies for citizens in need. Months later, it has become apparent that these welfare payments have been crucial at alleviating the worst impacts of the 2020 recession. Artists and workers in the hospitality, entertainment and creative sectors have been amongst the hardest hit of any group by the downturn. In this context, it is interesting that in Canada, artists and cultural workers have been at the forefront of calls for a basic income for all citizens in need, regardless of their work status. This panel examines the role that cultural workers are playing in the developing global campaign for a basic income.

Panel Members:

  • Zainub Verjee (Executive Director of Ontario Association of Art Galleries, Toronto)
  • Troy Henderson (Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Sydney)
  • David Pledger (Artistic Director, Not Yet It's Difficult)

Moderator:  Dr Aneta Podkalicka (Deputy Director Research - Impact and Engagement, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

SESSION 2

FESTIVAL AND PERFORMING ARTS ADAPTATION AFTER THE PANDEMIC

(Link to video of the session)

Festivals and performing arts companies have been faced with extraordinary challenges in 2020, and have been forced to respond with breakneck digital adaptation. This panel brings festival directors and arts managers together to discuss how they have faced, endured and sometimes surmounted the difficulties of presenting live experiences in a worldwide pandemic.

Panel Members:

Moderator: Dr Ben Eltham (Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

SESSION 3

COMMUNICATING AND REPORTING A CRISIS: CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM IN THE MOMENT OF COVID-19

(Link to video session)

An unprecedented crisis has created extraordinary challenges for both professional communicators and for the journalists who must report on them. This panel examines crisis communication in Australia during the pandemic and asks what we should demand from our communicators, as well as our reporters, when faced with urgent events.

Panel Members:  

Moderator: Alison Stieven-Taylor (Assistant Lecturer, School of Media, Film & Journalism, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

1:00pm - 2:00pm

(Choose from Sessions 1 or 2)

SESSION 1

INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM IN A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE

(Link to video session)

Collapsing advertising revenue has placed further strain on already precarious media business. With thousands of jobs lost in Australian journalism in recent years, the future for mainstream news media looks bleak. But independent publishers and broadcasters continue to break stories and make compelling media despite challenging conditions. This panel asks independent journalists, writers and editors what it’s like to report news in a time of radical change.

Panel Members:  

Moderator: Dr Ben Eltham (Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

SESSION 2

1:00pm - 3:00pm

CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENTS PITCHING SESSION

(Link to video session)

The growth of the creative economy has led to a heightened interest in entrepreneurship skills. Graduates from disciplines of creative arts, design and media are more entrepreneurial than their peers according to a research conducted by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE). And it is clear that traditional business approach to entrepreneurship education is not working for the creative industries. Newer approaches which introduce entrepreneurship skills as a core part of the curriculum will have longer impact on developing students’ entrepreneurial mindset. The creative entrepreneurship unit is modelled on such thinking.

This session designed as part of the teaching program will give students in the Master of Cultural and Creative Industries the platform to pursue entrepreneurial careers. It asks students to pitch their creative ideas to a room of fellow students, media and cultural industries professionals and our expert panel of judges.
This session is produced in collaboration with T-Shirt and Suits ® and Coworking Indonesia.

Panel Members:

Chair: Dr. Xin Gu (Senior Lecturer in Communications and Media Studies, Monash University. Coordinator of the unit ‘Creative Entrepreneurship in the Cultural Industries’)

Registrations closed.

3:00pm - 4:00pm

SESSION 1

MELBOURNE DURING THE PANDEMIC

(Link to video session)

Melbourne has endured the toughest and longest lockdown of any Australian city during the pandemic. How has that affected Australia’s second city? What has ordinary life looked like during stage 4? And how will Melbourne emerge?

Panel Members:  

Moderator: Associate Professor Tony Moore (Head of Communications and Media Studies, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

4:30pm - 5:30pm

(Choose from sessions 1, 2 or 3)

SESSION 1

WELCOME BACK! MEDIA AND CULTURE GRADUATES SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES

(Link to video session)

Graduates of Masters programs from Monash return to discuss their experiences moving from education and into the workforce.

Panel Members:

Moderator:  Dr Emily van der Nagel (Lecturer in Social Media, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

SESSION 2

4:30pm - 6:00pm

EXPLORING AND TRACKING DARK ADS (WORKSHOP)

(Link to video session)

This workshop will give attendees a chance to explore a library of dark ads collected by researchers in the Automated Society Working Group. We will discuss the consequences of dark ads for the future of society, and consider how further segmentation might cause issues within our political system. If attendees are willing and have Chrome running on a desktop or laptop (no mobiles, sorry!), they can choose to take part in data gathering too.

They’re called ‘dark ads’ – advertisements on social media that follow different logics around how public or visible they might be. With mass media, our adverts were always immediately public, their meaning would be apparent, and they could be subject to debate or disagreement. Adverts posted in newspapers, added to billboards, or broadcasts on television or radio were designed with the whole public in mind. Yet advertising on social media is different; you can create an ad that’s only seen by a small group of people.

In this workshop, we will provide attendees access to a library of Facebook adverts, and discuss the consequences of dark ads for society with a short panel. We will report back on interviews with research participants, and also provide an opportunity to trial the tool yourself.

Attendees will be given the option to fill out a short survey at the start and end of the workshop. Attendees wishing to interact with the database should use a desktop or laptop computer with Chrome installed.

Monash Ad Scraping Team
(Simon Schippl, Matthew Bertoncello, Jeffrey Kang, Aiden Kathriner, Ashman Kumar)
The Ad Scraping Team is developing an automated tool for scraping behaviourally targeted ads. The tool creates Google profiles that exhibit customized behaviour (searching on designated terms and visiting designated sites from a specified location) in order to capture the ads associated with that behaviour. The tool is currently being deployed to capture ads received by profiles located in swing states in the US in anticipation of the November election. The team will discuss the capabilities of the tool as well as the challenges of developing a tool that provides accountability for targeted advertising.

A workshop with the Automated Society Working Group

Panel Members:

  • Dr Robbie Fordyce (Lecturer in Communications and Media Studies, Monash University)
  • Dr Verity Trott (Lecturer in Communications and Media Studies, Monash University)
  • Nick Evershed (Journalist and Data and Interactives Editor, Guardian Australia)
  • Dr Natalie Hendry (Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, Design and Creative Practice, RMIT University)

Chair:  Professor Mark Andrejevic (Professor in Communications and Media Studies, Monash University)

Registrations closed.

6:00pm - 7:15pm

CLOSING NIGHT SESSION
Including closing address from the Head of the School of Media, Film & Journalism (Prof. Brett Hutchins)

IS MEDIA FREEDOM IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC DECLINING?

(Link to video session)

Recent events in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia suggest media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region is declining. Despite this, journalists, publishers and academics continue to report stories, publish news and conduct research in trying, dangerous and sometimes oppressive conditions. This panel brings prominent journalists and academics together to ask whether media freedom is declining in the Asia-Pacific region, and what might be done to try and safeguard it.

Panel Members:  

Moderator:  Associate Professor Fay Anderson (Head of Journalism, Monash University)

Registrations closed.