The speaker that was scheduled for today was actually Maurice Cockrill, R.C.A. Unfortunately, ill health meant that Dr Scott had to step in, at very short notice.
Dr Scott is a renown Shakespearian expert, and not surprisingly, William Shakespeare was very much the subject of his address.
He started by telling us he would be talking about a man who was 'a landlord, entrepreneur, pimp, and money lender. The son of a bankrupt glove maker, who is revered as a great poet and dramatist.
He said that this man - Shakespeare - was probably the best businessman ever, in the history of the UK, and pointed out that 400 years after his life, the 'business' he had created was still providing jobs and generating income, all over the world.
Shakespeare's earliest history is not known - Dr Scott explained that a lot of it had to be surmised from what was happening at the time.
When Shakespeare was around 10 years old, in Stratford, Queen Elizabeth I, paid a visit to her lover, Robert Dudley, in Kenilworth - a place within walking distance of Shakespeare's home. As was expected in the day, Dudley set out to provide the Queen with the best entertainment he could manage. He employed James Burbage to provide fireworks and a pageant, to this end, and threw open his castle to the public - and the young Shakespeare was probably one of the visitors. Burbage had arranged to fill the grounds with all manner of things that would provide a fantastic spectacle - all manner of 'mechanical curiosities' - including one piece that possibly gave Shakespeare a phrase he used in his later writing - "A mermaid on a dolphin's back" .
Despite all the expense that Dudley had gone to, it failed to impress enough, evidently, as after 3 days, he and Elizabeth rowed, and she left - however, Dr Scott cited this as probably Shakespear's introduction to the fact that putting on a 'big event', as Burbage had, was a way to make a lot of money.
Burbage then headed to London, and observed that a lot of money was to be made from the Bear Baiting Pits that provided entertainment in the day
And he also saw vagabond theatre players, who preformed in 'Inn yards' as people watched from windows - and realised that this was also a very popular form of entertainment, that could generate money.So - Burbage thought why not combine the two ways of viewing entertainment, and set an oblong or square platform into a bear pit - and thereby created a 'stage'.
At this time, 1576, licensing was required in order to put on any entertainment, and in inner London, this was controlled very much by the Puritans - who refused Burbage's application for a license. So, he set up this 'theatre' - people acting upon a stage - just over the boarder in North London - the very first 'theatre' in the UK. As this theatre started to make money for Burbage, and his son, Richard, became one of his actors, the government of the day decided that these 'theatre companies' had to be regulated - and Burbage made sure he had all the licenses required, and the money rolled in.
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| James Burbage |
By the 1590's, Burbage was looking for new plays to stage, and here enters Shakespeare - with a pregnant girlfriend and a desperate need to make a living. Shakespeare basically starts off by 'stealing' plays written by others, and re-writes them as his own - and he develops a popular following as more and more people start to go to the theatre. And Shakespeare starts to make quite a bit of money. The plays are bawdy and rude, and the audiences love them - as they do the Historical plays he then begins to write (or, as Dr Scott says, in Shakespeare's case, he begins to 're-write!)
In 1596, Shakespeare experiences a personal tragedy when his second child - his only son, named Hamlet - dies. This was followed by the death of James Burbage, leaving the theatre now owned by his son Richard. Will Kemp, who was the leading comedian of the day, walked out of the company, as Shakespeare wanted to change Kemp's comedy - and to publicise the fact that he, one of the biggest stars has left - he 'dances from London to Norwich'. This leaves Shakespeare facing bankruptcy.
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| The Globe Theatre |
Wise to what the viewing public want, he then writes a play called 'As You Like it' - which, as is suggested by the title, basically means 'what the public wants' - and he has two major hits on his hands.
Another business 'headache' is caused by the Puritans refusal to license theatres in London - but a man called Henry Evans works out a way round this. The Puritans have no control over anything that belongs to the church, and taking advantage of this, he does a bit of deal making and is able to put on shows in the Cloisters of St Paul's. He also takes over an abandoned monastery - and he now has two theatres in London, itself. These theatres were smaller, but demand was high, allowing him to charge the audience more to watch, and attracting a more 'elite' audience. Aside from the big competition that Shakespeare now faces, Evans adds insult to injury by openly making fun of a feature of Shakespeare's theatre - the 'elitist gallery', seats at the back of the stage, where the wealthy paid 6d a seat in order that they might face the audience, so that all might see how wealthy they were. These developments started to have a detrimental effect on Shakespeare's profits.
Shakespeare responded by coming up with 'Twelfth Night' - and business competition began . The dramatists of the day liked to satirise each other - and, unfortunately, satirise others as well. John Marsden, Johnson and Chapman - dramatists - after some serious disagreements, produce a jointly written play called 'Eastward Ho' - but Marsden is missing from the opening night - quite wisely as it turns out, as he has chosen to satarise the King - and has 'run away' to Norwich. The remaining two dramatists are imprisoned, Johnson being sentenced to having his nose split - and Chapman decides its wiser to give up Marden. Marsden is sent for, and given the choice of ceasing to write plays, marry the daughter of the Kings Chaplain and take orders to become a priest - or, he can be hung , drawn and quartered ! Not surprisingly, Marsden selects the first option - and there is a large part of Shakespeare's competition completely off the scene.
Shakespeare, not one to pass up opportunities, buys out the rival theatre, Blackfriars, and continues to write plays (or re-write stolen plays) for both it and the Globe. And for the next 6 or 7 years, the money rolls in.
He returns to Stratford in 1612/13, and having been thwarted in his quest to buy the biggest house in the area, buys the second biggest. He starts to lend out money and buy up land and properties, creating a massive and diverse business 'empire', that made him a very rich man, and as Dr Scott explained, a business man who made his fortune on the back of creative industries. In Dr Scott's words, he created 'art for the market', not for any lofty ideals - business creativity is what made him a success, not artistic creativity. And Dr Scott suggested that when we hit any 'low points', we do as Shakespeare did, and look for a way to utilise them to your business advantage.
Dr Scott was obviously incredibly knowledgeable, and undoubtedly, is extremely enthusiastic about his subject. However, whilst the information given was interesting in itself, I'm not sure the message that he left us with was entirely right for a hall full of Art and design students. Although I think every student there is savvy enough to know that in order to succeed we have to be business and opportunity aware, to have it strongly suggested that the creative side is of very minor importance, isn't something that sat well with many - including myself - and that was the message that I think several people I spoke to took away with them. And maybe I am being 'picky' but to be told that plagiarism, involvement in shady businesses like money lending, taking advantage of fellow professionals misfortune and utilising personal tragedy's to make a quick buck, is an example of the way to succeed in Creative Industries, isn't something I found to be be particularly inspiring .
Keynote Speaker - Angus Montgomery, Editor of Design Week.
http://www.designweek.co.uk
Angus started out as a journalist, became manager of an architects Journal, then moved on to work for Design Week, 3 years ago, becoming the Editor 1 year ago - Design Week is the UK's leading Design website specialising in design news and jobs.
He said he was splitting his talk into 3 sections -
1. Firstly - passing on advice from the design industry.
2.Show some examples of work from the last 2 or 3 years.
3.Explain why he is jealous of designers.
He firstly explained a little bit about the publication, Design week, which is currently changing from print to on-line format, due to time and cost issues. He described it as a publication that reports on two industries in particular - Design Industries and Design education.
With Design Education, the magazine looks at 2 area's - (a) How to break into the industry - can it be made any easier, and (b) the cost of Education - how to make it worthwhile for people to go into education for this industry.
The magazine asked a series of designers what advice they would give to 'new' designers/people who are trying to break into the industry. This advice included :-
Simon Manchip, founder of SomeOne, a branding agency, advises that you promote yourself as well as your work, and consider how you brand yourself.
Lizzie Mary Cullen, an illustrator reiterated this advice, saying that young/new designers needed to put more emphasis on promoting themselves in the industry, and think of themselves in a professional way.
the overwhelming tone of all the examples given suggests that marketing yourself correctly plays a major role in getting into the industry.
Looking at education , and student fee's in particular, several designers were asked would they pay up to £9000 for a design degree - everyone of of them said, yes, they would.
Greg Quinton, who is the overall creative director at The Partners, and extremely successful consulting agency, says it isn't what education costs - its what it does for you. Glen Tussel, Creative Director of Brand 'Union' agreed that whilst it costs a lot, if you pay for your education, then you value it more.
Angus talked about how it was the passion of designers that makes the industry so worth the difficulties of breaking into it, and the cost of the education - he says there is no other industry that generates that level of passion.
He then moved onto the second stage of his talk, in which he demonstrated the passion, inventiveness, humour and fun that the design industry offers, by sharing with us some of his favourite designs over the last few years. There were many examples given, and I am just going to touch on one or two of them here, to give some idea of how diverse this industry is.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)
This is a project set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational equipment for children to use in the developing world.
A consultancy Firm, Fuse Project Management and Consulting (FUSE), came up with the idea of, instead of a programme of donating old laptops, designing a low cost laptop that specifically met the needs of the children it was aimed at, and they came up with the $100 laptop
It's rugged and hard wearing, and uses a flash memory, which is more suited to the environment and needs its intended for, instead of a hard drive - 2.5 million have been shipped so far.
I thought this was a fantastic design concept, very effective and very well done.
The Pluman Lightbulb
Energy saving light bulbs are maybe environmentally sound, but few could call them attractive . So, this is the worlds first 'designer' energy saving light bulb, which is a Hulgar product, designed by Hulgar and Samuel Wilkinson.
This is the concept behind it, taken from http://plumen.com/about.html
"The energy saving light bulb is a neglected, yet inspiring invention. It uses 80% less energy than the traditional incandescent light bulb, keeps down electricity bills and is better for the environment. It also lasts around 8 times longer.
Despite this, we tend to buy them out of moral obligation. To some the problem is the light they give off, to others it is the way they look. Both can be solved. We believe the answer is in the design.
Make the bulb attractive and people will spend a bit more and enjoy a better quality of light and a design they appreciate every day. Glass tubes can be bent is many different shapes so why are there thousands of manufacturers but only three designs? Plumen aims to address the problem.
The name Plumen comes from the “plume,” the decorative feathers of a bird and “lumen,” the unit of light."
Another very cleaver design idea - although these bulbs are fairly expensive, compared to the usual (but ugly) energy saving bulbs, there is no doubt that given the option, most would prefer the option not to accept that energy concious bulbs have to be unattractive.
St Georges Crypt.
http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk
St Georges crypt is a charity who work with Vulnerable people, who wanted to high light the problems with alcohol and the homeless, in a hard hitting way. They used a company called B&W Studio to design their annual report, in order to do this, to raise awareness of the work that they do, and also encourage donations. B&W Studio's solution involved producing a report that was A1 size - about the size of a blanket, which might be used by a homeless person. It contained 6 accounts given by men the charity had supported, and contained life size, close up photographs by John Angerson, of the six men who's accounts are included.
The impact and success of this campaign won several design awards for B&W Studio's - to turn a usually 'boring' document into an impactive and hard hitting campaign was, I though, extremely inventive and interesting.
There were several other examples given, which unfortunately would take a lot more space to go into the many details and information. The above 3 are just my favourite examples of what we were shown - and showing these led onto Angus' 3rd part of the lecture - he is jealous of designers because these examples show and reinforce how lucky we are to have involvement with an industry that is passionate, and that has involvement with the creation of such a diverse and innovative range of idea's. I think above anything else, this lecture made me more appreciative of just what designers can do, the impact that they can have and just how much personal and professional enjoyment and fulfilment you can get out of working in this industry.
Copyright - What You Need to Know - Speaker, Janet Jones.
Janet is a journalist and lecturer at Glyndwr University.
This, in a practical sense, was one of several lectures that I found very useful this week. As a photography student, copyright as regards photographic images is something I am well aware that I need to know about, and I thought this lecture was clearly and well delivered.
She started by explaining what copyright is, using the current 1988 Copyright Design and Patent act. This act covers copyright, design, patents and trademarks.
Copyright gives protection from having your work copied or used without consent, gives you the right to be credited for the work and prevents its alteration. In order to be 'copyrighted', work must be original and derived from creative effort. Copyright comes into force as soon as original work is created, you don't have to apply for it, its automatic.
Janet tackled some of the myths surrounding copyright - for example, copyright can protect ideas - wrong! It only applies to something that is tangible - and idea's are not tangible. For example, the idea you may have for a book is not protected by copyright - once its written down, however, it is protected.
Janet gave a couple of examples of this legislation in practise - Creation Records came up with an idea for a shoot for the cover of an Oasis CD - a shot of a Rolls Royce emerging from a pool. It was set up in great secrecy, however, an enterprising journalist from the Sun newspaper, took up residence in a hotel that overlooked the shoot, and took photographs. Creation Records sued for copyright on the grounds that the scene they had created in itself constituted creative effort - however, the court disagreed, on the grounds that the scene wasn't permanent.
Its a civil offence to breach the Copyright, designs and Patent Act, allowing a plaintive to sue for breach.
Copyright gives the creator 'intellectual rights' to a creation - this is separate from an actual creation, meaning a 'creator' can sell the physical work he or she produces - but retains copyright. Copyright is an asset, so can be sold, or left in a will - exactly like any other asset owned.
Copyright also gives you Moral Rights, which are divided into two parts -
i) Paternity rights - you have the moral right to always be identified as the creator of a piece of work.
ii) Integrity Rights - you have the right to stop someone defacing, changing or distorting your work, or using it in a way that you don't agree with.
Janet also tackled the myth that posting original material to yourself, recorded delivery, will prove copyright - whilst it may help provide some supporting evidence to proof of copyright ownership, in itself, its not accepted by the courts - far better to post a copy to a solicitor - though as copyright is automatic, there isn't an absolute need to do that either.
One exception to automatic copyright is if the work you produce is done as part of your employment - ion that instance, your employer owns the copyright - however, you can negotiate this with your employer
She went on to tell us that copyright applies to original literature, dramatic literature, music, artistic work and artistic craft work. It lasts for the life of the creator, plus 70 years.
She explained how in film, for example, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the last of the creative team involved in the production - e.g. - there are directors, screen writers, composers, all of whom form part of this team.
It becomes more complex sound on film and video is also 70 years, but something like typographic arrangement - the layout of a page in a publication - is covered for only 25 years.
So - there may be more than one type of copyright attached to any creative production - for example, in a book the copyright of author, illustrator, typographic contributor - all may be attached .
Once copyright has expired, it is then in the 'Public domain' for general public use .
Another myth - a 3rd party can use up to 10% of another's original material without infringing copyright.
Regarding this there is a proviso within the act - Fair dealing or fair use - that allows that if the use of copyrighted material can be justified, if the amount of work is not substantial and if credit is given to creator - for example, quoting from a play or a book as part of a critique, or use in private study or research (non commercial).
However, there is no specific amount that is considered 'substantial' this refers more to content and quality, rather than quantity - so the '10%' is very erroneous . It is advisable to always ask consent, and always credit.
Janet also exploded the myth that 'everything on the internet is in the public domain and so free to use' - work only becomes part of the public domain once the copyright has expired - e.g. in the case of photographs, 70 years after the death of the photographer, when the copyright has lapsed - so just because it is available to view on the internet does not make it copyright free.
This causes a dilemma - the internet is a great platform to display creative work - but the lesson is learn to protect your work - use watermarks and low resolution, small images.
Recently, an example that illustrate this point was covered in the National News - this article is taken from deadlinenews.co.uk
Tesco forced to withdraw t-shirt after putting student’s face on front
Shocked Nicola Kirkbride has accused the supermarket giant of lifting the image from her blog and printing it on the girl’s top.
The yellow, long-sleeved top places Nicola’s photo in the middle of a heart-shaped daisy chain.
The words “loves me, love me not” are scrawled underneath.
In the original photograph Nicola, who is studying at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, is wearing a daisy chain around her head and is dressed in a floral top and shorts.
The 22-year-old student, who is in her final year of study, was only made aware the image was being used after one of her 5,500 blog followers alerted her.
Nicola said: “I had to start a fashion blog for part of my coursework last year at university and I enjoyed it so much I just kept it on.
“I have managed to build up quite a substantial following and I really enjoyed sharing my views on fashion with similar-minded people.
“So I regularly updated it with photos of myself, which I take with a self timer on my camera, so people can see what pieces I have been recommending.
Alerted
“But I was completely shocked when someone who had been following my blog said she saw one of my photos at her work in Tesco – on a child’s top.”She added that she was astounded that her image could end up being sold in hundreds of stores across the country without her knowledge.
Nicola said she had previously been approached by High Street chain Zara.
She said: “They asked me if they could use some of my images and I said yes.
“It is very flattering, but Zara said they would send me out a contract to sign if they decided to use my photographs and said they would pay me accordingly.
“The first I knew about my photo being on the Tesco jumper is when the girl alerted me online.”
Nicola even went to a Tesco store to check it was true and was amazed to find the top on the rail.
She has since contacted Tesco to demand answers as her blog states that all artwork on the site belongs to her, unless stated otherwise, and that permission must be sought before using images.
Tesco admitted they had withdrawn the top from their stores.
A spokeswoman for the firm said: “It’s been taken off sale until we have finished investigating.”
She added: “We are looking into this and we are speaking to Nicola Kirkbride.”
This story is a great illustration of what Janet was telling us about during this part of the lecture.
Janet went on to give us some advice from people such as Kirsteen Harris -Jones, illustrator - she advises that all terms and conditions in a contract should be thoroughly checked to make sure that the artist retains copyright - and if you are handing over copyright, then you need to make sure that the fee paid reflects this.
To finish, Janet gave us some advice regarding 'confusing contracts', and licensing agreements that can be included that we should be aware of.
'A buy out' - in this instance it means that you are handing over all control of your work - the fee for this should be substantial and reflect this.
'An exclusive all media licence in perpetuity' - this gives the 'buyer' the right to use your work in anything that they wish too, although they cannot alter it in any way' - and again, the fee should be substantial.
She ended the lecture by providing us with a list of useful websites.
I enjoyed this lecture and found a lot of it extremely useful - its given me a much, much clearer idea and knowledge about the copyright legislation, what protection and rights it gives me, and exactly what it means, and the advice given about protecting your work and understanding some of the terminology that can be put into some licensing agreements is extremely relevant and useful to know.
Getting Started in Photography - Paul Herman.
Redeye -The Photography Network.
Paul Herman comes from an editorial background, and is director of Redeye.
Paul began the lecture by telling us that these days, photography is very much a freelance occupation,and advised us to check out the 6 day 'freelance' course, that is offered by 'Go Wales'.
he then went on to explain what Redeye is - a non profit organisation, run by and for photographers - and what it does :-
It offers -
*The 'broad picture of photography'
* Networking and advice
*Information
*It organises and hosts events, portfolio's sessions, lectures, workshops, symposia and debates.
* It organises 'Big Projects' -for example 'Lightbox' which is a course, The Look Festival, and the National Photography Symposium.
*It provides volunteer opportunities
* Promotes Ethics and good Practise
* It offers membership which is aimed at developing photographers, offering
- contacts and networks
- Opportunities
- Discounts
- Exposure
- Knowledge
(the student price for membership is £30)
After explaining about Redeye, Paul went on to ask us to consider what we would be doing in 5 to 10 years - how many of us felt we would be involved in photography as a career.
For those of us who felt that, his next section was titled 'How to be a star photographer' and consisted of a series of quotes and advice, which all pointed to the same conclusion, summed up in a quote from Greg Hobson (National Museum) - "Your work, as a photographer has to distinguish itself from the ubiquity of photography that appears on the web"
He then asked what top photographers have in common - he listed the attributes that typified the 'old style' of photographer - primacy of craft, narrow range and a tight circle of clients - and the attributes of the 'new style' - idea's based, complementary range of work, international and virtual clients.
In order to succeed he said, you need to have interest and knowledge and research the photographic economy, that we need to be aware of marketing, through talking and writing, we need a 'strong voice', to have personality to enable us to build relationships with clients, buyers and curators, we need a good 'work ethic' and to practise good business, and we need long term commitment and motivation.
You have to have 4 main area's right - the photography, communication, efficiency and motivation.
On the Business side of photography, he advised us to think about employed verses freelance; To keep the business as a separate entity to our personal life; To get some business help; To consider the ethics, balancing growth with sustainability; and to champion alternative ways of working, by bypassing institutions, look at collaborating and collectives, look at community based projects, be cross -disciplined, and look at digital and on-line ways of supporting your business.
The most useful part of the lecture for me was the next section, where he supplied us with a model for working out the sort of fee's we should be charging for our work - work out our break even point, your minimum job fee - which equals your annual overheads (which include salary, marketing, portfolio, equipment and storage, maintenance of equipment, insurance, etc., etc) divided by the number of jobs you can reasonably do in a year.
Using this model, he says you have a good reason for saying 'no', if somebody offers you less!
Then, consider usage - and to this end, always retain copyright and get use to licensing (so you restrict a buyers ability to change your work or use it for anything other than the specific purpose stated). Factor the usage a customer will get out of your work, in your fee.
He advised only working for free in specific circumstances -
- If its advantageous for the photographer
- If its limited in duration
- If it doesn't replace paid work
- If Copyright is respected
- If its commercially or socially useful.
He emphasised the importance of protecting your work using metadata and watermarks.
To finish, he listed '21 things you can do to get on' -
Go to openings
Go to Festivals
Get business advice
Use social media
Use metadata
If you're in a rut, set yourself a project -stops you getting stale, keeps enthusiasm going.
Involve yourself in Partnerships and collaboration.
Have a website/blog
Slideshow/portfolios - they have to be good
Marketing materials - have good quality business cards
Write
Give talks
Apply for grants
Be written about
Investigate print sales
Exhibit
Books - you can have your own books made up
Competitions - enter, and look at who is judging, who will see your work
E mail/newsletter -send out a couple a year - remind people you are there and what you are doing.
Again, this lecture ended with a list of useful websites.
A lot of this lecture I found quite useful, and interesting - for a start, Redeye is an organisation that I think is well worth investigating, and I intend to do so. The section on working out fee's I found really useful - that's a situation that I and, I think, a lot of would-be photographers struggle with - having a formula that can be quickly explained and adhered to, is extremely handy - especially when dealing with people who assume friendship (or even mere acquaintance) is enough to guarantee a huge reduction, or people who don't see all the hours and work that you put in, or realise the expenses that you have. The tips on what you can do to get on contained a few idea's that I hadn't previously considered, too, and some are so basic and simple - but I can see that they could also be very effective.
So - the end of the first days lectures - and the end of a very lengthy blog (did I just hear a sigh of relief?)
I found today's lectures started off slowly - in terms of relevance, I'm afraid the opening lecture struck no chord at all - considering a good part of last semesters work centred on ethics and good practise, advice to follow some of the Bards less than moralistic practises neither inspired, nor impressed. And I still can't get over a hall of A&D students being given the message that creativity just isn't that important, if you want to succeed . . . But, the following 3 lectures did provide a level of inspiration, and in the case of the last two, information that is extremely useful and can be put into practise.
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