ICC News Highlights 2010-2022
2022
Our colleagues in the University’s Research Impact Team featured ICC’s AHRC-funded research for InGAME. See Supporting Video Game Innovation in Dundee | Research Blog (st-andrews.ac.uk)
2021
ICC’s Prof Shiona Chillas and InGAME colleagues and the UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport publish Loot Boxes and Digital Gaming: A Rapid Evidence Assessment (Jayemanne, D., Chillas, S., Moir, J., Rocha, A., Fraser, S. & Wardle, H.). The report provides evidence to government, helps engage policymakers, informs policy debate, and sets an agenda for future research and data collection.
2019
ICC’s Director, Prof Barbara Townley, and co-authors Philip Roscoe and Nicola Searle, publish Creating Economy: Enterprise, Intellectual Property, and the Valuation of Goods, which demonstrates how creative individuals—today’s makers of films, videogames, fashion and more–are successfully transforming into creative entrepreneurs. While remaining dedicated to their art, creatives are becoming economic agents who manage risk, extract revenues and protect their future profits. Key to the process, the book reveals, is their grasp of the intellectual property (IP) that resides in their work and which is enshrined in law.
Creating Economy was published 30 January 2019 by Oxford University Press.
2015
Tales from the Drawing Board: IP wisdom and woes from Scotland’s creative industries is a new book by ICC and Creative Scotland which details creative producers’ everyday efforts to manage and benefit from their Intellectual Property (IP). Told in creative practitioners’ own voices, the collection of cases can be downloaded for free from our Publications page.
Readers can learn from the IP experiences of workers in Computer Games, Dance & Theatre, Fashion & Product Design, Film & Television, and Music & Publishing. Each case deals with daily issues of IP management, such as development and early research, documenting work for protection, partnerships and collaborative working, licensing agreements, developing brand strategy, self-publishing and digital rights management, and handling claims of infringement. Legal comments from creative industries specialist solicitor Philip Hannay address the issues raised.
Tales from the Drawing Board is the result of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between ICC and Creative Scotland. It received funding from the Economic & Social Research Council, Innovate UK, Creative Scotland National Lottery and the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe).
ESRC Grant Report Published: Details of ICC’s recently completed ESRC Capacity Building Cluster grant (RES 187-24-0114) have been published as a full-colour report, Creative Industries Scotland: Capitalising on Creativity (Townley 2015). The document can be downloaded for free from our Publications page.
The Capitalising on Creativity programme was designed to enhance collaborative research and knowledge sharing between creative and cultural industries and higher education institutions in Scotland, a goal which has been achieved through more than 65 research projects and outreach activities, and the involvement of 58 students, academics and associate researchers; the staff and stakeholders of 31 cultural and creative industry organisations; and 16 additional academic and funding organisations. More details about the grant are available at https://icc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/creative-industries-scotland/
2014
Residencies with Resonance: An ICC-sponsored event in July hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London marked the first attempt to gather professionals from across the UK who have experience in producing artist residency programmes or are considering incorporating a residency programme into their organisations.
Residencies with Resonance featured speakers sharing their experiences of managing a wide range of residency models, with participant discussions focussing on the key challenges and benefits of such programmes. The event will inform research being conducted by ICC PhD student Saskia Coulson, who benefitted from a placement during 2013-2014 with the V&A residency programme. Saskia worked with the department to deliver the event, with support from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (University of Dundee).
ICC Student Launches World-first Children’s Theatre App: The world’s first children’s app inspired by theatre, the product of a year’s work by Ben Fletcher-Watson, an ICC and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland student, and digital app designer Hippotrix, can now be found online. White, an app based on the internationally popular children’s theatre show of the same name by Catherine Wheels Childrens Theatre, has just been launched as a free programme in the iTunes store for iPad and iPhone users. The download is available at https://itunes.apple.com/app/white-inspired-by-theatre/id831470213?mt=8
Ben worked on the app production while on placement with Hippotrix in 2013.
2013
ICC Students Launch Journal of Performance: A new academic journal for research on performance has been launched by ICC-Royal Conservatoire of Scotland PhD students Ben Fletcher-Watson and Beth Whiteside. The co-editors announced the digital release of the Scottish Journal of Performance at http://www.scottishjournalofperformance.org, to be followed by a print version in January 2014.
SJOP is an open-access peer reviewed journal focussing on performance in Scotland (contemporary and historical) and wider aspects of performance presented by scholars and practitioners based in Scotland. Performance encompasses a wide range of arts and entertainment and takes as central themes dance, drama, film, music and television.
2013
Tartan and tweed measuring up to the future: The impact of tartan and tweed on the fashion-world is being studied by a team of researchers from the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity, as part of an International research programme on fashion.
The Enterprise of Culture: International Structures and Connections in the Fashion Industry since 1945 is a three-year project on the history of the European fashion business. The European Union-funded programme, coordinated by Leeds University, began in August this year and will continue until 2016.
The St Andrews contribution will examine Scottish businesses, particularly fashion designers and textile manufacturers, to understand the opportunities for the engagement of culturally specific, local textiles with the fashion industry in the UK and abroad. Tartan and tweed both play an important role in the creative output and cultural heritage of Scotland, but are on the periphery of the fashion market, both in terms of geography and use in fashion design.
Professor Townley, who is also Director of the Institute for Capitalising on Creativity, said: “Scotland is a world leader in certain indigenous products which are valued for their high quality and strong associations with place and culture, including textiles and increasingly, fashion design. By focusing on two of our most famous products, tartan and tweed, this project provides an exciting opportunity to examine how the operations and challenges of the textile and fashion industries can be addressed to ensure their continuing prominence in Scotland’s cultural production.”
ICC projects impress at ESRC conference: Digital apps for babies, design research, dance steps, and box office data crunching featured among the diverse contributions from 17 ICC student and staff researchers at the recent ESRC National Summit Conference for Capacity Building Clusters, held 26 June at Aston University, Birmingham. The team authored 12 papers on the conference theme, “University – Industry Collaboration in Challenging Times”:
Ben Fletcher-Watson contributed “Apps for babies: implications for practice and policy” regarding his ESRC funded Placement with Hippotrix.
Jo Bletcher, Saskia Coulson, and Dr. Louise Valentine: “Making it happen: the role of design research in an emerging design museum”. This presentation, based on Jo and Saskia’s CASE PhD studentships with V&A at Dundee, was selected as “Best CASE award at the conference”.
Beth Whiteside’s presentation of “High kicks, heel stomps and high cuts: performing the data collection”, related to her CASE PhD studentship with Creative Scotland, included a short demonstration of some of the dance steps she has learned during her ethnographic research.
Orian Brook: “Relating cultural participation to cultural opportunities using commercial and Government data” related findings from her geodemographic work with box office data, supported by her CASE PhD studentship with The Audience Agency.
Ciaran McDonald and Lorenzo Pergola: “Managing expectations, retaining independence”, related to their CASE PhD studentships with Edinburgh and Dundee city councils.
Sara Schumacher presented “A modern day renaissance: the Christian Church as an unconventional locus for Creative Arts Research”, based on her CASE PhD studentship with Art & Christianity Enquiry.
Dr. Charlotte Gilmore contributed a report of several Business Vouchers she has conducted with Red Note Ensemble, “The benefits of interdisciplinary relationships: breaking barriers to contemporary classical music”.
Holly Patrick: “Audiences outside the auditorium: delivering a CASE award with a Scottish theatre”, based on her CASE PhD studentship with Dundee Rep.
Eilidh Young and Henning Berthold: “Evaluating knowledge transfer partnerships: collaborative research between creative
Scotland and the University of St Andrews” related to Eilidh’s KTP with Creative Scotland.
Chris Lowthorpe contributed “Spaces of possibility: real world research in independent game development” in connection with his CASE PhD studentship with Denki.
Michael Franklin’s presentation, “How worker introduced skills, tools and collaborations can lead to adapted work practices in response to digital disruption”, related to his CASE PhD studentship and KTP with Creative Scotland.
Prof Barbara Townley, Mindy Grewar and Judith Winter contributed a paper on a Voucher project focussed on business modelling for Winter Projects art consultancy, “Thinking in Capital Mode”.
Proceedings of the conference have been collected in Clegg BT., Scully J., Bryson, J. (2013). ‘ESRC Research Capacity Building Clusters; National Summit Conference 2013’. Aston University. ISBN 978 19058 66670. 229 pages. Further information about the ICC research team can be found at https://icc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/research/creative-industries-scotland/
ICC Students to present Film research to CinEcoSa: ICC students Fabiola Alvarez and Michael Franklin will present findings from their research on Scotland’s film industries to the CinEcoSA International Conference, Film and Television Policies in English-speaking Countries, on 25 October in Paris.
Fabiola will speak on “The role of the Scottish National Screen Agency: Justifications of worth”, and Michael will present “Investing in digital innovation, marketing and distribution: A public funder’s new role in film market construction”. Their research, which has been supported by Creative Scotland, will comprise the Scottish section of the conference, which compares international policy approaches. CinEcoSA (Cinéma, Economie & Sociétés Anglophones) brings together academics working on the cinema and television industries of English-speaking countries.
More details of the event can be found at http://www.cinecosa.com/cycles/film-tv-policy/film-and-tv-policies-in-english-speaking-countries-2013/
2011
The results of two studies supported by ICC Business Vouchers will be discussed at Chamber Music Matters, an international event for the chamber music sector and associated creative industries. The conference will be held 25-26th May at Glasgow Royal Concert Halls and is organised by Enterprise Music Scotland.
Dr. Charlotte Gilmore of the School of Management, University of St Andrews, conducted two voucher projects for Red Note Ensemble, a professional contemporary music group based in Scotland. The research aimed to explore the perceptions and attitudes of Red Note audiences (current attendees/non-attenders; stakeholders/peers) through the nature of existing relationships with the ensemble, the strengths and weaknesses of Red Note’s experience/offering and positioning within the wider Scottish contemporary music scene.
ICC Researcher Publishes Changing Business Models Report: The UK Intellectual Property Office has published a report by Dr. Nicola Searle, Senior Knowledge Exchange Associate with the University of Abertay, entitled Changing Business Models in the Creative Industries: The cases of Television, Computer Games and Music. The report was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Nicola, who also supervised a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project with ICC and Creative Scotland, wrote the report following a research fellowship with IPO earlier this year. Her research examines the business model response to the change from analogue to digital in the creative industries. Looking at both traditional and emerging business models, the project focuses on three sectors: television, computer games and music. A series of six case studies, two from each sector, provide illustrative cases of the business model response to challenges to enforcement of copyright and the advent of digital technologies.
The six business model case studies provide a snapshot of the current state of business models in three key creative sectors and suggest four emerging themes. These four themes are: IP; high rates of change; sectoral differences in models; and the changing role of intermediaries.
2010
Researcher’s audience monitoring guide recommended: ADUK Audience Monitoring Guide Monitoring Audience Diversity, a best-practice guide written by ICC PhD student Orian Brook, won praise in the June (2010) newsletter of Audiences UK. “I can highly recommend Orian Brook’s excellent guide,” wrote AUK Chief Executive, David Brownlee. “It starts from the premise that monitoring is not about numbers, it’s about making sure that your serious attempts to be a more inclusive organisation (and potentially a more sustainable organisation) are working.”
Orian wrote the guide, available from CultureHive, when she was Research Director for Audiences London. She later worked as a freelance researcher for AL, The Audience Business and Arts Council England before joining ICC in 2010 to begin a CASE studentship with Audiences London. This current project uses geodemographic techniques to examine rates of arts attendance at major venues in London and Scotland, and is being supported by the Economic & Social Research Council and Audiences London.