DIGITAL IST KULTUR CULTURE IS DIGITAL – DIGITAL IS CULTURE

What lies ahead of us in the next decade – triggered by digital innovations in the Cultural
and Creative Industries?
How will product design change the way we live, our lifestyle, in the digital world? Just
think of the scarcest resource: water, of the cost of water. It is certainly no coincidence that
a design innovation for water usage was shortlisted for the N.I.C.E. Award and is also part
of the exhibition: “Airo and Fontus” by Kristof Retezár from Vienna. The project “Universal
Home” at Zollverein, here in Essen, is an example from North Rhine-Westphalia.
Another field of action can be drawn from the question how the digitalisation of the creative
industries will change the health sector. I am not speaking about the health insurance card
we now all call our own, but about how design can change the “production of health”, that
is the processes in hospitals. Such a project of the Royal College of Art and the Imperial
College London in collaboration with a hospital is also in the N.I.C.E. shortlist!
That is why we need knowledge. Prof Dieter Gorny and I agreed to take a closer look at this
change process and we will commission a study, which will examine in detail in how far the
creative industries and their business models will change under the influence of digitalisation.
This is not a navel-gazing exercise for the Ruhr region or for North Rhine-Westphalia,
but we will go much further. I am quite sure that at the next Forum d’Avignon Ruhr, this study
and the results we can obtain from it will become an item on the agenda.
Last but not least, I want to thank the Forum d’Avignon Ruhr for providing a platform for discussions
and for being a think-tank that is unique in Europe: another example of the things
we need to treasure in North Rhine-Westphalia!
How does Big Data change our newspapers, books and films? Will we only create cultural
and creative products that the majority “likes”? Such a monoculture must be questioned
not only in terms of our social values, but also economically. I believe that we in North
Rhine-Westphalia and especially in the Ruhr area know that such monostructures will not
prevail in the long run, but will bring about a massive structural change, which was and still
is a great effort.
We as representatives of the state government can in any case make a contribution – for
example, by supporting individual events, such as the c/o pop Convention or yesterday’s
N.I.C.E. Exchange Workshop, which fosters the know-how transfer of innovative products
and processes between the N.I.C.E. nominees and actors of the creative industries and other
sectors in North Rhine-Westphalia.
I already mentioned that since the beginning of this year, we have regular meetings
with ecce and important representatives from the creative industries. In my function as
Minister for Economic Affairs, I visit large industrial companies and craft enterprises
quite often, so it is very enriching for me to gain valuable information about the existing
problems and how to position oneself in the long run. The digital transformation – and
that is obvious – reached the creative industries long ago. Conventional models to use
content to create value and generate income have temporarily collapsed. In return, new
forms of distribution have developed. Such upheaval is set to continue. And we will try
to participate in this transformation with the creative industries in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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