What are the Creative Industries?

Speakers include:

Professor Terry Flew, QUT

The Hunter region is famous for resources, wine and football, but it is increasingly becoming known internationally for its creative industries. Indeed, as Newcastle and Hunter people know, the region has a long history of engagement with creative industries. But what are 'creative industries'? Are hairdressing and sport a part of the creative industries? Or is it people selling paintings at the weekend street markets?  Where does design sit alongside the arts and media sectors, and how do digital technologies shift practices and perceptions? Can regional centres acquire international prominence in the global creative economy? Professor Terry Flew, inaugural speaker for the new Hunter Creative Industries and Technology Centre at University of Newcastle, talks about developments in creative industries policy and analysis in the context of a global creative economy.

Professor Terry Flew is Professor of Media and Communications in the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. He is the author of The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (Sage, 2012), Global Creative Industries (Polity, 2013), and other works dealing with digital media, global media and the creative economy. He is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts for the Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) Panel, and in 2012 was a member of the Research Evaluation Committee (REC) Committee for Humanities and Creative Arts in the second Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) evaluation round. He is an Executive Board member of the International Communications Association (ICA), heading the Global Communications and Social Change Division.

Grant Street, Senior Systems Engineer
Animal Logic (Inaugural winners of the NSW Creative Laureate Award)

I initially gained great experience as a student in the Computer Science course from icons such as Simon at University of Newcastle. As I worked on SGI Irix Graphical workstations I dreamt one day I might be making films, and I remember being stunned by the early shorts of a company called Pixar. I was truly bewildered with the complexity required to create animations at that time.

After volunteering for a local IT company I got a placement at BHP in research thanks to a recommendation from my final year project mentors.

After graduation I got offered two roles in Sydney and wasn't sure if I should pursue the large or small company role. My dad's advice? "Don't worry about picking which one - you go two offers! Whatever you pick will be right." So I picked the small Australian firm and had the opportunity to travel overseas and present at conferences.

After this role I changed direction from software development into a more operational systems engineer role. I worked for an Australian publicly listed company, turning over millions a day where system downtime meant big money.

Then I saw a Systems Engineer role for a company I'd heard so much about, that I had been following my whole career called Animal Logic.

I will cherish the email my dad wrote before he died the day I got the job. Typically a man if few words he was so proud that I'd fulfilled a life goal that started in High School, to help make animation and movies.

I joined Animal Logic as they were working on the children's animated feature, Happy Feet (released 2006). It was computing at a whole different scale. We were on the World top 500 super computing sites, but this means that finding solutions are never off the shelf. In my role I was instrumental in creating a platform that would take us to where we are today with the desktops of  500 staff, over 20,000 cpu's, Peta bytes of storage and a scale that gives us the super realistic detail of "The Lego Movie". I am proud to be making and supporting the creative film industry by building creative solutions to exciting new problems, whether it's 3d, 4K, 40fps. The industry will change and we have to change with it.