White paper on creativity - ebla center

<strong>White</strong> <strong>paper</strong> on creativityTowards an Italian model of developmentEdited by Walter Santagata

Cover image:Michelangelo Pistoletto “ConTatto” 1962 - 2007Screen print on polished reflecting stainless steel, 22 x 16 x 23 cmEdition for the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural ActivityPhotograph: J.E.S.English Translation by David KerrEditing by Federica CauItalian original version:Walter Santagata (Editor) “Libro Bianco sulla Creatività. Per un modello italiano di sviluppo”.Università Bocconi Editore, Milano. 2009Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike 2.5license.To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ or send a letter to“Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.”

IndexAcknowledgements ....................................................................9Foreword................................................................................... 10Part I ......................................................................................... 121 Culture, Creativity and Industry: an Italian model .................. 14Walter Santagata, Enrico Bertacchini, Paola Borrione1.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................141.2 Creativity and social quality: building an Italian model...................................................151.3 Styles and models of cultural production and creativity.................................................211.4 The Macrosector of the Cultural Industries and Creativity in Italy ..............................291.5 Conclusions............................................................................................................................392 The Italian model of creativity and international positioning. 41Enrico Bertacchini, Aldo Buzio, Sergio Foà, Walter Santagata, Emanuela Scridel2.1. Italy’s position in Europe and in the world .....................................................................412.2 Creativity and the European Union : European policies for creativity and theproduction of culture..................................................................................................................422.3 Comparative analysis of approaches to creativity and the production of culture.......502.4 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................563 Creative Cities and Territory ....................................................58Guido Martinotti, Irene Tinagli, with the collaboration of Pier Luigi Sacco3.1 Changes to 20th-century urban systems............................................................................583.2 The “geography of creativity” and the role of cities........................................................723.3 Cities as places of attraction, consumption and sociality................................................763.4 Cities as places of production and dissemination ............................................................783.5 Beyond production and consumption: how to cultivate “creative milieus”................803.6 Risks and dilemmas for creative cities ...............................................................................813.7 Concluding remarks : Italian cities as a model of creativity ...........................................83

IndexPart II........................................................................................854 Design and material culture: an Italian blend .........................94Tiziana Cuccia, Pier-Jean Benghozi, with the collaboration of Andrea Granelli4.1 Towards a definition of design ...........................................................................................944.2 The roots of Italian design...................................................................................................974.3 Design in the metropolitan cultural districts ....................................................................984.4 Design in the industrial districts .........................................................................................994.5 Collaboration between designers and businesses...........................................................1014.6 An emblematic case: Milan and the designer actors in the furniture sector..............1044.7 Italian industrial design in figures.....................................................................................1074.8 Training designers and safeguarding the profession .....................................................1104.9 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................1125 Fashion True excellence and great international visibility.....114Walter Santagata, Paola Borrione, with the collaboration of Christian Barrère5.1 Fashion as a system of systems.........................................................................................1145.2 Fashion and the production system .................................................................................1155.3 Fashion and the world of creativity..................................................................................1165.4 The quantitative picture: structures and trends..............................................................1175.5 The fashion design sector, from conception to distribution........................................1215.6 The fast-changing fashion market....................................................................................1255.7 The fashion houses and generational change .................................................................1265.8 The luxury industry.............................................................................................................1275.9 Intellectual property and counterfeiting ..........................................................................1285.10 Fashion, museums and exhibitions ................................................................................1285.11 Fashion and professional training ..................................................................................1305.12 Conclusions........................................................................................................................1306 The Taste Industry ................................................................. 132Annalisa Cicerchia, Caterina Federico, with the collaboration of Priscilla Altili and Christian Barrère6.1 Taste, food and cuisine : Italian excellence in gastronomy .........................................1326.2 The geography of taste.......................................................................................................1356.3 The taste production chain................................................................................................1386.4 Counterfeit food: adulteration and violations of certification regulations.................1506.5 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................152WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 4

IndexPart III...................................................................................1537 Film .......................................................................................159Severino Salvemini, with the collaboration of Francesco Casetti, Armando Fumagalli, and AndreaRocco7.1 Italian cinema: a promising resurgence ..........................................................................1597.2 A change in business model.............................................................................................1617.3 Clearer audience expectations..........................................................................................1627.4 The film market.................................................................................................................1647.5 Television fiction productions and spin-offs for location areas .................................1837.6 Italian Film Commissions ................................................................................................1857.7 Conclusions........................................................................................................................1878 Television, Radio and Publishing..........................................192Peppino Ortoleva8.1 General Remarks...............................................................................................................1928.1 Company size.....................................................................................................................1938.2. Characters of enterprises.................................................................................................1948.3. Market size ........................................................................................................................1958.4. The geography of production.........................................................................................1988.5 The individual sectors.......................................................................................................1998.6 Conclusions........................................................................................................................2069 Software, Computer and ICT.................................................209Cristiano Antonelli, Francesco Quatraro, with the collaboration of Aldo Buzio9.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................2099.2 The origins of information technology ..........................................................................2119.3 The Italian case..................................................................................................................2159.4 Conclusions........................................................................................................................22710 Communications, Advertising and Branding........................230Stefano Rolando, Ariela Mortara10.1 The background to Italian communications and advertising ....................................23010.2 Creativity and communications in Italy today.............................................................23410.3 Conclusions .....................................................................................................................249WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 5

IndexPart IV..................................................................................... 25011 The Cultural Heritage ............................................................ 255Martha Friel, Guido Guerzoni, Walter Santagata, with the collaboration of Paolo Leon and AndreaGranelli11.1 Creativity, the cultural heritage and the cultural industry...........................................25511.2 The national heritage as a cultural industry ..................................................................25711.3 Cultural tourism and art cities.........................................................................................26111.4 The economic impact of institutions and cultural events...........................................26311.5 Growing visitor demand..................................................................................................26811.6 Conclusions........................................................................................................................27312 Architecture............................................................................ 275Erminia Sciacchitano12.1 The creative sphere...........................................................................................................27512.2 Creativity and architectural quality.................................................................................27612.3 The Italian model..............................................................................................................27912.4 The bricks of creativity ....................................................................................................28512.5 The wings of creativity.....................................................................................................28612.6 Conclusions........................................................................................................................29313 The Performing Arts: The powerless stage ........................... 297Michele Trimarchi, Alessandra Puglisi13.1 The performing arts and creativity : introductory remarks ........................................29713.2 Opera, Italiana ma non troppo.......................................................................................29813.3 The production structure: lavish sets and union restraints ........................................30113.4. Italian opera houses: income and expenses .................................................................30413.5 The performing arts: bureaucracy in the limelight.......................................................30713.6 Education for the performing arts: “an ass, but a solemn ass!”................................30913.7 Towards a reform law ......................................................................................................31213.8 The recording industry: weaknesses and potential ......................................................31413.9. Conclusions.......................................................................................................................31714 Contemporary Art .................................................................. 319Pier Luigi Sacco, Angela Vettese14.1. Contemporary art as driver and mirror of post-industrial change ...........................31914.2 The effects of selection. Italy in the international context.........................................32114.3 Elements for a contemporary art policy in Italy ..........................................................32214.4 The difficulties of young Italian artists and shortcomings in the education system......................................................................................................................................................325WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 6

Index14.5 Repercussions on art collecting.....................................................................................33014.6 The corporate view of contemporary art.....................................................................33114.7 Museums and raising public awareness about contemporary art..............................33214.8 A radical change in language..........................................................................................33415 Creative Italy.........................................................................340Criastiano Antonelli, Enrico Bertacchini, Annalisa Cicerchia, Tiziana Cuccia, Martha Friel, AndreaGranelli, Guido Guezoni, Paolo Leon, Gian Paolo Manzella, Peppino Ortoleva, Stefano Rolando,PierLuigi Sacco, Severini Salvemini, Walter Santagata, Erminia Sciacchitano, Emanuela Scridel,Michele TrimarchiAmbitions and Key Decisions ...............................................................................................341Creative cities and local territories.........................................................................................349Giving more space to creativity in the world of information, communications and theproduction of content.............................................................................................................359Increasing the value of the historic and artistic heritage ....................................................365Bibliography…………………………………………………...379Authors…………………………………………………...........392Appendix….…………………………………………………...394WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 7

Study commission appointed to draft theReport on Creativity and the Production of Culture in ItalyProfessor Walter Santagata, PresidentProfessor Tiziana CucciaProfessor Paolo LeonProfessor Severino SalveminiProfessor Irene TinagliProfessor Michele TrimarchiProfessor Angela VetteseProfessor Stefano Rolando, Secretary CoordinatorArchitect Pio Baldi and architect Erminia SciacchitanoDr. Annalisa CicerchiaDr. Giuliano Da EmpoliDr. Gian Paolo ManzellaDr. Emanuela Scridel

AcknowledgementsThe <strong>White</strong> Paper on Creativity is the result of a collective endeavor. It certainly wouldnot have been completed without the enthusiastic cooperation of the authors and that ofsome friends that I would like to thank. Gian Paolo Manzella, who has been the firstpromoter of the Study Commission and has followed with care and competence thedifferent steps of our project, Michelangelo Pistoletto who has admirably interpreted inimages all the sectors of the creative industries that we have analyzed.I wish to thank Sen. Francesco Rutelli who believed in the project and its political value,and Sen. Sandro Bondi, who has received the Report in its final version. I do hope hewould accept this work, both for the policy recommendations and for the analysis, as acontribution to the policy of conservation and enhancement of Italian cultural heritage.I am also grateful to Dr. Feleppa Alfonso, director of the Istituto G. Tagliacarne for thePromotion of Culture and Economy in Rome and Dr. Alessandro Rinaldi of the sameInstitute for their kind cooperation. I wish to thank, finally, the Compagnia di San Paolodi Torino, and in particular its President Dr. Angelo Benessia and its Secretary GeneralPiero Gastaldo, for supporting this research during their approach, the Englishtranslation, editing and publication of results.

ForewordThe Study Commission appointed on 30 November 2007 to draft a Report on Creativityand the Production of Culture in Italy was established by a decree with the followingbrief:a) describe the features of an Italian model of creativity and cultural productionb) estimate the economic value of the Italian cultural industriesc) analyse and compare the cultural policies of the EU and its member statesd) make recommendations for revitalising the production of culture.The <strong>White</strong> Paper on Creativity thus had two main objectives. Firstly, outline an Italianmodel of creativity and cultural production in the belief that creativity must be boostedto help the country develop and improve its position in the international context.Secondly, make a contribution to knowledge and define the macro sector of the culturalindustries which, because of the geographical diffusion, cross-sectoral nature andintangibility of many of its components, does not have a clearly-perceived and evidentstatistical identity in Italy.To contribute to the success of the Italian cultural industry, this <strong>White</strong> Paper alsooutlines some strategies for co-ordinated actions to meet the challenges and removerestraints which reinforce rigidity or weaken the sectors and contexts: i.e. creative cities,design and material culture, fashion, architecture, the knowledge economy, advertising,film, television and radio, publishing, the taste industry, contemporary art, theperforming arts and the cultural heritage. The urgent need for action is almost a warningsignal: we must achieve the same kinds of standards as the material and humanist cultureof our past and not lose touch with the technological culture of the future.Chapters 1 and 2 provide a theoretical and quantitative picture of the Italian model ofcreativity and describe the framework of European and international policies.Chapter 3 adds a reference to creative cities, historically excellent examples of Italiancreativity.Chapters 4-14 address the issues in the various sectors. Firstly, however, they offer atheory of goods in art and culture, revealing specific factors often undervalued intraditional analyses. They then provide a picture of the various sectors, illustrating theirstrengths and weaknesses. These chapters are partly focused on the description ofmarkets and partly on the issue of cultural production. The link between creativity andcultural production is often explicit and is carefully analysed. But at times there is also animplicit link in the socio-economic structures described, and here we also address theproblems of strategy for those structures. Creativity is always the primary strategicprerequisite for success in all sectors.The final chapter contains recommendations and suggestions for cultural policies thatcan be implemented in the long-term (“17 Key Decisions”) and in the short term (“53Actions”) for the various cultural sectors.

We would like to thank Michelangelo Pistoletto for having selected the images for thecover and for the introductions to each chapter. His participation was an excellentexample of the relationship between art, knowledge and social quality and at the sametime a creative signal for all those who have collaborated in producing the <strong>White</strong> Paperon Creativity.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 11

Part I

Chapter 1Michelangelo Pistoletto - “Division and multiplication of the mirror” 1978Action at the exhibition: Division and multiplication of the mirror - Art assumes religion, Galleria Persano,Turin 1978 - Photograph: P. Pellion

Chapter 1Chapter 1Culture, Creativity and Industry: an Italian model…one of the strengths of our country [is] the culture of creativity, which should make us realise that ourenterprises and work have great potential. And in this new expression of Italian creativity we find theresurgent vigour of a tradition, heritage and sensibility to which we must devote much more attention.Giorgio Napolitano 31 December 2007President of the Italian Republic - Palazzo del Quirinale1.1 IntroductionCreativity matters. It matters in art,science, culture and, not least, in theeconomy. In Italy the macro sector ofthe cultural and creative industries in2004 accounted for just over 9% of theGDP and employed over 2.5 millionpeople. The Italian culture macro sectoris one of the most important in theworld, and we can no longer overlookits overall unity and strategic value.Although many studies have beenconducted since the 1990s, there is stillno widely shared consensus ondefinitions of the cultural and creativeindustry. This basic weakness hasrepercussions on identifying the sectorsmaking up the field of the cultural andcreative industries. In fact the numberof sectors may vary according to thepre-established criteria and the way theyare combined.In the early 1990s, the UK Governmentand its Department of Culture, Mediaand Sport were the first to focus moreclosely on the creative industries.“The creative industries as those industrieswhich have their origin in individual creativity,skill and talent and which have a potential forwealth and job creation through the generationand exploitation of intellectual property. Thecreative industries include advertising,architecture, the art and antiques market,crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video,interactive leisure software, music, theperforming arts, publishing, software andcomputer services, television and radio.”Other definitions are more restrictive orwider-ranging.Among the more restrictive definitionsis the French version, which identifiesthe sectors of the cultural industries onthe basis of“the existence of the reproduction of mass goodsand cultural services through industrialprocesses and communications techniques.”The approach adopted by WorldIntellectual Property Organisation(WIPO) is also narrower and the sectorsinvolved are those protected byWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 14

Chapter 1intellectual, literary and artistic propertyrights.“Those industries that are engaged in thecreation, production and manufacturing,performance, broadcast, communication andexhibition, or distribution and sales of worksand other protected subject matter” (WIPO,2003).Lastly, we can cite the “contentindustries” (i.e. industries producingcontent), which bring together thefunctions of the conception, productionand marketing of products. In thisapproach, proposed by the OECD(2005), the technological andtelecommunications component play alarge part.Among the wider-ranging definitions isthe one adopted in this study, which aswe will see in the following paragraphs,adds a variant to the interpretation ofthe cultural and creative industries thatis based on the production of content,their intellectual protection and the newcommunications technologies. Thisvariant highlights the cultural value ofthe design-based industries associatedwith a model in which quality, traditionand material culture have a strategicrole. The two interpretative modelswhich emerge from combining thevarious definitions are not mutuallyexclusive but co-exist, especially inEurope, and arise with varying intensityin defining creativity and the culturalindustries in terms of nationalexperiences.1.2 Creativity and socialquality: building an ItalianmodelThe unrelenting progress of thecultural and creative industriesThe last two decades have seen aconsiderable growth in the importanceof the cultural industries and theproduction of culture according to achain of value production made up ofthe selection of artists, the conceptionof goods, conservation, production,marketing and consumption.The cultural and creative industries havebeen driven by a growth in globaldemand, stimulated by the NewEconomy and, as we will see below, bya new qualitative phase in the economyof material culture or the economy ofgoods for people and their livingconditions.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 15

Chapter 1Figure 1.1 - Drivers of the demand for cultural and creative industriesTechnological InnovationNew EconomyInternet EconomyICTQualityTraditional KnowledgeIndustrial design,symbolic valueWorld DemandGrowth in the demand for goodsof the Cultural and Creative IndustriesThe reasons for the growth in demandin the cultural and creative industriesmay be briefly summarised as follows:1. The development of the NewEconomy driven by ICT and theInternet Economy, which have theirorigins in key scientific innovations(computer science, information andcommunication science, digitisation,the Internet and software applications).This has made it possible to produceinstruments and equipment for theconsumption of audiovisual culturewhich is available and accessible forbillions of people worldwide atrelatively low costs. The demand forculture, in turn, has recorded a veryhigh growth rate following thedevelopment of education processes,new urbanisation phenomena, thecreation of meta-cities, and the rise inincome and individual wealth. Thisworldwide trend has driven thedemand for content-industry goods(publishing, films, music, audiovisualproducts, museums and libraries) andthe goods of other cultural industriesand auxiliary services supplying themarkets of cultural and creative goods(advertising, legal systems andeducation).2. The international trade system hasalso developed new trends in terms ofboth increased exchanges and thevariety of products traded. Theconcessions introduced by new tradetreaties have made it possible to gobeyond the old logic of trading naturalresources and/or low-cost labour fromemerging countries for high-tech goodsor goods with symbolic value producedby advanced industrial countries. Inparticular, the enormous market formaterial culture goods, i.e. the marketfor all the goods and services producedfor a person’s survival, protection,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 16

Chapter 1leisure, entertainment, culture and wellbeing,has not only been broadenedand consolidated but has also becomefairer and more open. The market forgoods based on material culture isradically changing, thus shifting fromcompetition based on low productioncosts to competition based on thequality of products, their symbolicvalue and the quality of the experiencewhich they offer. Consequently, theimmense production sector of materialculture goods, which in Italy mainlycorresponds to the so-called “Made inItaly” sectors (industrial design,designer fashion, house design andhousehold goods, lifestyle, tourism, thewine and food industry, and lightengineering), has been driven by a risein demand for quality productsexpressing aesthetics, decoration,design and traditional knowledge.The decision-making processesinvolved in consumer choices also tendto diverge: while in the model ofcreativity for innovation the prevailinglogic is of rational choices based onoptimising benefits, in the model ofcreativity for social quality theprevailing logic is of choicessymbolically influenced by processes ofidentification with less stringent costbenefitratios (Santagata, 1998).The two dimensions defining thereasons for the success of the creativeindustries, i.e. technological innovationand a focus on social and culturalquality, tend to combine and overlap:industrial design, for example, dealswith new models of mobile telephones,while the online marketing of fashionproducts has carved out significantmarket shares. Technological cultureand material culture at times crossoverbut are also successful as sectors intheir own right.Culture and CreativityCulture is our history, our present andthe gift we leave to future generations.Culture is our inexhaustible wealth.The more culture is consumed, thegreater it grows and makes Italiansgrow, along with their identity andexpertise. Culture is a consolidateduniversal good which we have alwaysbeen so used to considering to be ourown that we have overlooked theimportance of developing andprotecting it. And in particular we failto measure it: we do not know its valuein terms of the market and production.To use some suggestive images, wewould point out that creativity can befound in our culture, in oursurrounding territory, in the quality ofour everyday life and our products. It isnot an end in itself, but a process, anextraordinary mean to producing newideas. In this sense, creativity andculture are the pillars of social quality,seen as a context of a free,economically developed, fair andculturally lively community with a highquality of life. Creativity and culture areinextricably bound. They are asuccessful combination which canposition our country at a time ofstrategic transition in the internationalprocess of globalisation. Italy knowshow to look to advanced countries andtheir technologies, but also todeveloping countries and their greatcultural traditions. With the former itWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 17

Chapter 1shares history and institutions, andwith the latter the presence of strongfamily, territorial and social bonds inwhich culture is mainly tacitlytransmitted. Italy competes with theadvanced countries, albeit withdifficulty, in innovations and theknowledge economy, and with thedeveloping countries it collaborates inenhancing the value of their cultureand creativity.Why producing culture is anindispensable objectiveIf we classify cultural policies infunctional terms, we can distinguish atleast four classes, the first two withnegative values and the other two withpositive values: on one hand are policiesof cultural destruction and of neglect ofcultural goods; and on the other arepolicies of conservation and production ofculture (Santagata, 2007).Unfortunately, Italy excels equally in allfour classes. But we must nowconcentrate on reacquiring our capacityto produce new culture. In themeantime this concept has beenextended to include – as stated in thenew “Code of Cultural Goods” – allevidence of civilisation and everyexpression of the historic and artisticheritage.We have conserved, managed andsafeguarded our cultural heritage. Wehave also allocated a good deal of publicand private resources to them. But thetime has come to dedicate much greaterresources to the production of newculture, to avoid destroying ourlandscape, and to go beyond neglectwhich does little for the education ofthe young or the progress oftechnological research. We haveforgotten that things never stand stilland that in the increasingly highperforming world of creativity and thecultural industries only those who areahead of the field way will be equippedto continue to be leaders.The economic development of thecultural industries is strongly indebtedto the phenomenon of creativity.Creativity is an asset in economicdevelopment for several reasons:as an input of aesthetic, decorative anddesign processes, creativity has animpact on the intangible component,which includes intellectual property ofproducts• as an input of innovativetechnological processes, creativity hasan impact on innovation, productivityand the technical quality of products• by adding a symbolic dimension toproducts, creativity has an impact ondemand and competitiveness• creativity tends to lead to thereorganisation of companies around an“epistemological community” (Crepletet al., 2003) and a “community ofpractice” (Wenger, 1998). We thus finda kind of joint presence of anintellectual/artistic/aesthetic/cognitivespirit and a more economic spirit(focused on the market andorganisational rules).In short, great changes to society andculture have led to the transition fromstatic systems to more dynamic, openWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 18

Chapter 1systems, in which there is a more urgentapproach to the issue of change,flexibility, and the capacity to tackleproblems and deliver new solutions indecision-making.A basic definition of creativityUntil neurobiology and psychology revealthe physical mechanisms (brain and body,mind and emotions) of the production ofcreativity (Damasio, 1994), we cannotrely on a general theory of creativity. Forpractical purposes, therefore, we willrefer to creativity as a process and to itsdependence on emotions and the outsideenvironment.Faced with a far from well-codifiedconcept of creativity, various cognitiveapproaches were developed in the 19thand 20th century. Some researcherssought to measure it in terms of itseconomic value and defined the creativeeconomy as the overall set of creativeindustries and services (Howkins, 2001):from the “content industries” to softwareand design. Others have analysedcreativity through its interaction with thelabour market and the urban socialstructure (Florida, 2002): who are thecreative workers? What is their worldlike? What are the rules of the market?Some experts have investigated topicssuch as: the cognitive and psychologicalaspects of creativity (Amabile,1996;Legrenzi, 2005), the phenomenon ofcreativity with reference to the art andculture economy (Bryant and Throsby,2006; Santagata, 2007) or with referenceto linguistic processes (Chomsky,1968) orcreative inferential learning mechanisms(Boldon,1991). Lastly, some studies haveanalysed the extraordinary dramaticbiographies of artists in an attempt tomap out the intellectual andpsychoanalytical features of creativegenius in behavioural variables such asthe manic depressive syndrome, feelingsof guilt, schizophrenia, etc. (Kris andKurtz, 1934; Jameson,1984). The creativeprocess of a genius seems to be neatlysummed up in this context by the ratherelitist vision of Pablo Picasso whoclaimed: “I do not seek, I find”.For the practical purposes of this <strong>White</strong>Paper we will initially refer to a workingdefinition made by the Nobel prizewinnerfor economics Herbert Simon(1986) and to a specific feature of therelation between creativity and theoutside environment.We said that creativity is a way the mindworks. We might add that creativity is anact of the human brain which takes theform of a process helping us to think andsolve problems in a way that may beconsidered creative. For Simon, creativitybasically lies in the capacity to solveproblems. "Acts are judged to be creative whenthey produce something that is novel and that isthought to be interesting or to have social value.Interesting or valuable novelty is the touchstone ofthe creative" (Simon,1986). This nonsubstantivedefinition has the advantageof describing a process or a procedureinvolved in producing creativity. In fact,according to Simon to be creative, aperson must be trained, have expertise, andknow how take risks; and these objectivescan be reached through the tacit orexplicit transmission of knowledge.The second distinguishing feature ofcreativity has been highlighted byneurobiological research on the relationsbetween brain and body, and emotionsWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 19

Chapter 1and environment. In this view theemotions are seen as the vehicle fortransmitting information and stimulifrom the outside environment to ourbrain. Good emotions facilitate thegeneration of good ideas, and a culturallycreative environment facilitates theproduction of creative ideas (Simonton,1977; 2000). But the social, productiveand educational environment issomething which depends on people andthe quality of their actions. As we willsee, in Italy, the local territory, localinstitutions and local systems of smallenterprises constitute a stimulating andcreative environment for the productionof material culture, but at times they mayalso curb and stifle creativity. Whatpolicies favour local (or glocal) creativedevelopment and what policies cause aprocess debilitating creativity? Answeringthese questions will be of vitalimportance for the purposes ofencouraging the process of culturalproduction in Italy.The world of creativityTo establish boundaries for the analysisin this study we must distinguishbetween two main environments inwhich creativity is expressed: theobjective environment and thesubjective environment.At an objective level creativity can beeither built into goods and services orbuilt into a logical, organisational andproductive process. To give someexamples of positive incentives forcreativity, we can cite the organisationalstructure of cultural districts, researchenterprises, venture capital enterprises,departments of innovation, and socialresearch institutes or companies. Theyare all organisational tools whichgenerate elements of creativity withintheir own structure.At subjective level creativity is analysedas an individual and human trait, whichis socially and individually reproducible.If creativity is a fundamental resourcefor post-modern society, which needsgrowing intellectual capital to face up tothe challenge of the knowledge society,the question arises: can we producecreativity? And if it is possible toproduce creativity, how do we maintaina high social level of creativity or, inother words, how do we transmit it tofuture generations?The creative process is stronglyinfluenced by the cultural milieu inwhich it develops. This is the key to theproduction of creativity. In fact, thefreer and more interdisciplinary andstimulating a cultural environment(school or community) is, the greaterthe production of creativity and talent.Herein lies the importance of trainingcreative human capital both in theeducational system and through tacitlearning in the field.The subjective aspect of creativity thusinforms the strategies for maintainingconstant or increasing the social level ofcreativity by means of:• academic educational processes(fine arts schools, design schools, dramacolleges, music schools, etc)• learning by doing processes increative contexts, such as the city andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 20

Chapter 1territory, a cultural district and a systemof music production• attracting talent from foreigncountries• reducing costs in the access toculture (entrance to museums, freeaccess to cultural goods on the Internet,less tax on cultural products), so thatthe country attains, with the obviousaddiction effects, a higher level ofindividual participation and involvementin creative activities; cultural goods, artand culture become an input underlyingthe development of future generations’creativity• the application of the intellectualproperty rights and safeguards forcreativity.1.3 Styles and models ofcultural production andcreativityCulture and creativity combine indiverse ways according to the historicalconditions of the various countries,giving rise to partly different models. Insome countries technological aspectsprevail and technical innovations play adominant role, in others economicaspects related to the development ofmarkets and business prevail; in some,legal aspects and the application anddevelopment of copyright prevail and inothers cultural aspects, based ontradition and social quality, are thedominant features. Although thedifferences between the variouscountries’ models of creativity and ofculture industries are expressed more interms of shifts in emphasis than incontent, we can, nonetheless, outlinetwo distinct profiles. This is not aneutral exercise because each profileultimately contributes to defining andidentifying various sectors in the cultureindustry.The first profile considers creativity andculture production as an input of theknowledge society (according to the strategyof the Lisbon Agenda, approved in2000) of communication technologies, ofinnovations and of the content industries. Thisvision deeply informs the British andScandinavian approaches and theapproach commissioned by theEuropean Union (Kea, 2006). We willcall this model: Creativity forinnovation. Creativity is defined inrelation to innovation and to anindustrial model of producing culturalcontent. The focus in this approach ison scientific research, markets, business,and marketing products and creativeservices. In a variation to this approach– elaborated by the WIPO and widelypresent in the American experience –the production of culture and creativityare enlisted in the development of theproduction of intellectual property. Thecultural and creative industries takeninto consideration become a subclass ofthose based on the assigning ofcopyright: the audiovisual sector, film,music, software, the performing arts andpublishing.The second profile conceives ofcreativity and cultural production as aninput of social quality. We will describe thismodel as Creativity for social quality.It mainly refers to the products ofculture and social life and the sectorsexpressing them. There is a specialWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 21

Chapter 1focus on the world of material culture,i.e. the set of goods and services whichman has produced since the dawn ofhumanity to modify his relationshipwith nature and society as it developed.Today the notion of “material culture”,a term originally from the field ofanthropology, has been extended tosociological and economic analysis andembraces the enormous variety ofmarkets of goods and services forpeople. Secondly, some importantfactors of progress in social qualityinclude the growth of the contentindustries (film, radio and TV,publishing, software, and advertising)and the use and development of thecultural heritage (archives, libraries,museums, monuments, art, music andthe performing arts). This approachenables us to identify an Italian modelof creativity and of the culturalindustries, characterised not only by thelogical coherence between the sectorsincluded in the analysis (for example, itexplains the inclusion of the foodindustry) but also its capacity to gobeyond considering the impact of theculture industries only in terms ofmarkets and business in order tohighlight their great importance forsocial quality.Figure 1.2 - Models of creativityTwo models of creativityCreativity forInnovationCreativity forSocial QualityNew technologiesThe Internet economyCommunicationsMarket and economicdevelopmentCultureTerritoryCultural districtsMarket and economicdevelopmentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 22

Chapter 1Social qualitySocial quality may be defined as theextent to which people can participatein social, economic and cultural life andin the development of theircommunities in conditions, whichimprove well-being and individualpotential. At the same time socialquality may be defined as that whichenables individuals to pursue variablecombinations of actions bothelementary (access culture and itsvarious forms and the cultural heritage,access the fundamental goods ofcitizenship, enjoy good health andenhance human capital) and complex(participate in community life andincrease capacity to realise life aims)(Torino Internazionale, 2005).Culture is a major component in socialquality. Primarily, because its dailyproduction and consumption favoursthe development of the social fabric interms of tighter community cohesion,better-quality human relations, feelingsof trust, willingness to co-operate, and astronger sense of identity. All of thismodifies the restraints andopportunities of daily life, making theformer less stringent and the latterbetter and more numerous.Creativity as a means and not anendCreativity is an essential input in theproduction of culture. Yet creativity isnot an end in itself. If it was an end initself, it would simply be acceptable alsoas in-built in activities expressing valueswhich are not necessarily sharedsocially. For example, creativitygenerates great novels, but alsohundreds of weekly hours of junktelevision; the Mafia and organisedcrime express forms of sociablydeplorable organised creativity.If creativity is not an end, as a means itmust be interpreted and filtered by theculture of the community in question.Seen in this way, creativity is the way ofpursuing socially shared objectivesendowed with value, also in the culturaland technological fields.Italy with its qualities and faults isarguably the country best placed toassess the production of new goods,creativity and innovations, also of atechnological nature, through the filterof its culture, ethics, art and history. Asin the case of “naked technology”,originality or the abstract beauty ofcreativity are not enough.To become social quality, creativitymust pass the test of culture and art.The advent of atomic energy was anincredible leap forward for humancreativity, scientific research andinnovation, but to become social qualityit must pass the test to guaranteehuman life is protected; and the ethicalends, which the atomic means cantranscend, must be safeguarded throughthe refusal to accept destruction or abalance of terror.Creativity, tempered by ethical, culturaland artistic values is, thus, anextraordinary means for producing newculture. Mass production anddistribution of the new goods andservices of the cultural industries andthe continual search for andaccumulation of material culture goodsWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 23

Chapter 1and services enhance the quality ofeveryday life.Both in terms of the variety andvastness of the phenomenon, Italyboasts one of the most importantcultural macro sectors enhancing socialquality in the world. In Italy creativityand the culture industries can rely onspatial and temporal conditions forsuccess, especially in the creative spacesof its cities and its industrial districtsand local enterprise systems.Culture as history and local territoryAt the heart of the Italian model is thebond between our creativity andcultural production with history and thelocal territory. Time and space are thehistorical dimensions of theextraordinary waves of creativityrunning through the history of Italy.Culture industries and creativity havebeen shaped by the local territory,which for the Italian model primarilymeans material culture production, thequality of urban space and the space ofenterprise districts.Culture is an idiosyncratic asset, specificto a spatially defined place and able tocommunicate its content to the wholeworld. Thus, for example, we haveHollywood for film culture, Murano inVenice for the art of glass making,Rome for the ancient historical heritage,and Paris for fashion. Or to cite to acase in dance culture, we could mentionthe Calle Caminito, a small alley in thepoor Boca quarter of Buenos Aires,where the tango originated and thenwent on to become an internationalcultural phenomenon.The territorial origins of a culture andof the goods and services of itsconsequent cultural production do notfollow standard patterns (Scott, 2005)but after a chance beginning, grow andare expressed around a system ofclustered economies. Our historic cities,many of our industrial districts, ourperforming arts and to a lesser extentour technological innovations have along history of accumulating knowledgeand experience.a) Creative cities and creativespacesCreative cities and creative spaces,which we will analyse in greater detail inthe next chapter, represent in anexemplary and innovative way howspace and time are at the origin and arethe outcome of creative and culturalphenomena.History is an accumulation of ideas,knowledge, mindsets, culturalatmospheres, identities and symbols. Ateach transition, successive generationsleave enhanced creativity which forcenturies has characterised the workand thought of the best talents. Thecontext in which talents live influencesthe production of creativity and culturebecause the spatial phenomena ofclustering have turned out to beimportant pre-requisites. These mayinclude external economies, theproduction of trust and co-operation,and the strengthening of a sense ofidentity, of pride and of entrepreneurialenergy (Scott, 2000). In other words,the city has been and partly continuesto be the ideal framework for theproduction and social distribution ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 24

Chapter 1intangible cultural goods and flows ofinformation and knowledge. Today’scities are still meeting places of culture,where dialogue provides vital new sapand energy.A theoretical reconstruction of thevalue of local territory in explainingconcentrations of creative talent hasonly been made relatively recently(Hall,1998, 2000). Hippolyte Taine wasone of the first to speak of a “moraltemperature” and the culture of thespirit which enables a talent to emergeat a given time and given place. Thenotion of a “creative milieu” was laterthen taken up by others and is based onthe free circulation of ideas, theaccumulation of knowledge and thedevelopment in specific places ofspecial expertise or skills (Tornqvist,1983).Creative cities are also places in whichculture and creativity show very highlevels of social quality. This can benoted in lifestyles, the quality ofconsumption, the cultural offering,policies of social inclusion, easy accessto the historic and artistic heritage, andthe capacity to attract cultural tourism.In Europe, creative cities arephenomenon of supreme importance.They are found not only in largemetropolises, but also in small tomedium-sized cities. In Italy the densityof creative cities is at a maximumcompared to similar internationalphenomena. Thousands of towns withancient origins preserve the secrets ofthe strength of a local territory, itstraditions, its capacity for socialinclusion, and its communities.In particular, the concept of spaceenclosed by walls, natural peripheries ordefences, typical of the city dimension,is a notion now being replaced by thatof unbounded space defined by thelocal territorial area. Thus we no longerhave cities of culture, but culture isexpressed in larger territories, whichalso give rise to creative and culturalexperiences.b) Cultural districtsThe district areas, or clusters, with anindustries or tourist attractions areanother form of spatial experiencesrooted in the territory which, becauseof their cultural features, express astrong creative vocation.From the economic point of view,Alfred Marshall (1890, 1919) was thefirst to draw attention to localisedindustry, assigning five majorprerogatives to industrial districts: a) thefree circulation of information andideas – “the mysteries of the tradebecome no mysteries, but are as it werein the air”; b) the rapid spread oftechnical innovations and processes andorganisational innovations in general; c)the development of induced activities inneighbouring areas; d) the reduction ofunitary costs and the greater use ofmachines following the introduction ofhighly specialised technology; e) thecreation of a stable market for skilledlabour due to the high concentration ofcompanies.From the sociological point of view andin terms of an economicreinterpretation, the Italian industrialdistricts have been analysed byWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 25

Chapter 1Bagnasco (1987, 1988) Becattini (1987)and Trigilia. Santagata (2000, 2002,2006), Sacco and Pedrini (2003), Cucciaand Santagata (2004) and Valentino(2003) have studied the more strictlycultural content, while Antonelli (2007)and Rullani (2002) have dealt withaspects connected to knowledge andtechnological change.The vast majority of Italian industrialdistricts, which produce design goodsbased on the local culture and tradition,are also cultural districts: from artceramics at Faenza, Deruta andCaltagirone to string musicalinstruments at Cremona, textiles atBiella and jewellery at Arezzo, Vicenzaand Valenza Po.In addition to the idiosyncratic natureof the cultural component of theirproducts, these districts arecharacterised by:• the production of goods in whichthe significant intangible elementsprevail – aesthetics, design, decorationand symbolic elements• strong social cohesion generatingtrust and co-operation, albeit in acontext of mutual competition• a strong sense of identity• intense free circulation ofinformation about markets andtechnological innovation• the development of positiveexternal factors and their spillover• tacit knowledge and learning-onthe-jobphenomena• an atmosphere which cannot bereplicated elsewhere, i.e. outside thecultural and spatial context whichproduced it• a local labour market characterisedby a vast range of specialisations,flexibility, and to a large extent nonunionised,with medium to low wagesand contracts for individual projects orlimited in time• a high concentration of small andmicro enterprises which operate withno vertical integration but may behorizontally integrated in the samevalue chain of a given good, and boundby restraints of specialisation and bycomplementarity• a trend for crafts to evolve intoindustrial design, thus offering bothhigh quality and considerable quantitiesof products (Friel and Santagata, 2008).Moreover, collective intellectualproperty rights are now enforced moreeffectively. This means thatconsiderable incentives for increasingthe quality of district productions canbe made on the basis of the assignmentand management of such rights. Theymainly have information, managementand identifying functions, whicheffectively inform about the quality ofthe product and the reputation of theproducer, as well as building a strongerterritorial identity. In particular creatingcategories of collective brands(Protected Designation of Origin-PDO,Protected Geographical Indication-PGIWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 26

Chapter 1and quality certification) is a usefulinstrument congruous with theintangible elements of products. Thiscreates a “productive club” within acircumscribed local territory,stimulating co-operation and collectiveaction.In these contexts, the most significantaspect of social quality pursued throughthe production of culture is cohesionand social inclusion, since the localsocial fabric encompasses culturaldifferences and develops relations ofsolidarity, favouring the individual andcollective entrepreneurial spirits and theability to pursue projects. This conjuresup the picture of a society which doesnot exclude people on the basis of theirphysical, distinguishing or genderfeatures but enables each to expresstheir own ideas and potential.In the typical dynamics of districts,projects evolve in the traditionalsettings of local knowledge and materialculture. Moreover, a tightly boundsociety, based on inclusion and trust,encourages development insofar as itgives people more freedom to exploitopportunities that otherwise would betoo risky or uncertain, and to introducethe necessary deep processes ofindustrial restructuring. Lastly, cohesionand social inclusion and the attendantforms of freedom are important factorsin attracting new, different andunpredictable skilled resources.We can list a number of otherphenomena underlying the creativeexpression of a local territory (Hall,2000; Scott, 2006):• the presence of places of socialand intellectual dynamism, i.e. a nonconservativecommunity undergoingrapid social change• the spatial concentration ofknowledge and creative activitiesencouraging the achievement ofindividual career ambitions• a special kind of relationshipbetween enterprises, through horizontalor vertical integration.Historical and spatial conditions aloneare not sufficient requisites for asuccessful industrial culture. It mustalso be able to guarantee a constanthigh level of creativity, and here publicpolicies can play an important role. Inparticular, Italy should repeat thesuccess of its historic cities and itsmaterial culture districts in all sectors ofthe cultural and creative industries.Technological knowledge andinnovation as the cutting edge in theItalian cultural industriesUnlike what has happened in itsmaterial culture industries, in Italy thecultural industries have slightly laggedbehind in reaching the cutting edge ofknowledge – i.e. innovations intechnology, information, content,communications and intellectualproperty as new strategic resources.Film, the audiovisual industry,videogames, publishing, and radio &television communicate content whichItalian enterprise struggles to bring tofruition on the international markets.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 27

Chapter 1As expression of the knowledge society,the cultural industries are based oninnovations and technologies developedin the 20th century and which maytherefore be considered relatively recentacquisitions. Yet in the Italian andinternational experience they toodeveloped in clusters of enterprises,university resources or research centres.These knowledge clusters then requiredthe construction of a demand for theirproducts, a skilled labour market and amarketing industry on a worldwidescale. In this sense, the knowledgeclusters share many aspects of thematerial culture districts.As we will illustrate further in thechapter on software and ICT, the Italiansituation is commonly underestimated,because it is mainly seen in terms ofinvading foreign technologies and of avague picture of the evolution of thetechnological knowledge system. To gobeyond appearances, we must bear inmind that in the last twenty years thecutting edge of knowledge has shifted tothe fields of nanotechnology andbiotechnology, and that computersystems, software and ICT are nowmature, diversified industries. This is somuch the case that we cannot grasptheir significance without an accuratebreakdown of hardware, softwaresystems and applied softwareproductions.Interpreted in this way, the Italiansituation shows a significant delaymainly in the fields of producingoperative software and non-personalisedsoftware applications; in these fieldsmarkets are currently dominated bylarge foreign multinationals.The hardware sector, on the other hand,has developed great potential in veryrecent years, mainly through theproduction of electronic semiconductorcomponents by ST Microelectronics,the fifth leading company in the sectorworldwide, which has driven thedevelopment of the Cataniamicroelectronic district in Sicily.The software applications sector, especiallyas regards business consultingapplications (9 billion euros of valueadded in 2004) and tools ofdevelopments, also shows a fastgrowing trend. Again we can see,although there are some excesses, a linkbetween creativity and social qualitythrough the production of “mobilecontent” (multimedia content anddigital entertainment services for mobiletelephony and the Internet). In thissector the Italian company BuongiornoVitaminics is a world leader.In a certain sense, these success storiesseem to suggest that the technologicalgap in the Italian economic model innow being closed, mainly due to the useof derived technologies, typical of“creative adoption” or “ absorptivecapacity” phenomena.“Creative adoption” – i.e. theacquisition of “process technologiesbuilt into fixed capital including original,innovative and locally ‘appropriate’grafting” – played a very positive role inthe years of the economic miracle, butgradually became less influential withthe rise of the economy based onknowledge and innovative processes inthe 21st century (Antonelli, 2007).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 28

Chapter 1In the case of “absorptive capacity”, theverdict on the Italian technological delayis tempered by the acknowledgement ofan indispensable positive, innovativecapacity to absorb knowledgetechnologies. The model based on theabsorption of innovations is typical ofcountries whose industrial structure isfounded on systems of small and microenterprises whose developmentproceeds through the spread ofinnovation from one firm to another,thanks to a system or network andsocial capital (Rullani, 2002). Moreover,the capacity to explore new solutions interms of innovations in processes,products or markets, means theadoptive process is not passive but isable, in turn, to generate subsequentstages in the creative re-elaboration ofthe innovations adopted.In conclusion, a mixed picture emergesin which technological knowledge andinnovation as the cutting edge for thecultural industries in Italy seem to showpotential and developments which, ifadequately supported, also by publicprojects, could make up a slightlyalarming delay.1.4 The Macrosector of theCultural Industries andCreativity in ItalyThe model of creativity and culturalindustries has an equivalent inquantitative terms in a vitally importantmacro sector of the Italian economicsystem. This sector (henceforth referredto as the Macrosector) is often notconsidered in official documents,because of its cross-sector nature, whicheludes statistical analysis, and because ofits contemporary nature, still not subjectto accounting and quantitativeassessments. In fact because of itselusive nature, it is still difficult to makea complete economic analysis of theMacrosector according to theconventional classification of industryand services adopted by official statisticagencies.In this paragraph, we will attempt anexercise in quantification which has stillnot been officialised in nationalaccounting data, nor in the estimates ofthe Italian National Institute of Statistics(ISTAT). The data must therefore beinterpreted with due caution.Definition and method for studyingthe MacrosectorIn line with the reports on creative andcultural industries produced by othercountries (UK, 2007a, 2007b; EU, 2007;Hong Kong, 2003; US, 2006; France,2006), the reconstruction of theeconomic value of the Macrosector ofthe cultural and creative industries inItaly may be divided into three stages:WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 29

Chapter 1• mapping out production sectorsharnessing the twofold influence ofcreativity and culture• identifying the value chain ofcreativity in the production process ineach sector• aggregating and estimating statisticaldata to assess the economic influenceof the Macrosector, especially interms of value added, jobs andproductivity.Mapping out the sectorsOn the basis of the approach used so farin this report, we can identify threespheres in which creativity is involved ineconomic processes characterised by theproduction of culture.Firstly, creativity is associated with acountry’s historic and artistic heritage,made up of both its cultural capital, theoutcome of the creativity of pastgenerations, and the artistic productionof the current generations.Secondly, creativity is an input in theproduction and communication ofcontent in the cultural industries whichsupply goods and services with a highsymbolic content. This is the sphere ofthe content industries.Thirdly, creative processes stronglyinfluence the sphere of material culture,which is the expression of a localterritory and its communities. In this casecreativity is mainly the outcome of acollective, local and cumulative process,in which the cultural element is aninextricably part of craft and everydaygoods.Table 1.1 - The Sectors in the Cultural and Creative IndustriesMaterial cultureFashionIndustrial Design and CraftsFood and Wine IndustryComputer & SoftwareProduction of content,information and communicationsHistoricand artistic heritagePublishingTV and RadioAdvertisingFilmsCultural HeritageMusic and Performing ArtsArchitectureContemporary ArtWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 30

Chapter 1According to this classification, we canidentify 12 economic sectorscharacterised by creativity and theproduction of culture (Table 1.1). Eachsector will be dealt with below in aspecific chapter describing the mainstrategies in the sector and the relatedstakes.The sectors related to material culture inItaly are Fashion, Industrial Design andCrafts, and the Food and Wine Industry.The sectors of Fashion and IndustrialDesign and Crafts are based on historicalexperience, the accumulation ofknowledge through various generationsof creatives and on industrial districtsystems. In these sectors we not onlyconsider the role of the designer andstylists but also the creative contributionof the material culture handed downthrough the generations and whichconstitutes a fundamental intangibleinput in most of the high-qualitymanufacturing and craft industries inItaly.While the definition of the Fashionsector includes textiles and clothing, theIndustrial Design and Crafts sector is moredifficult to define. Stressing the value ofthe material culture, this sectorencompasses economic activities mainlyconcerned with wood products, musicalinstruments, toys, art glass, ceramics,jewellery and household goods.Similarly, the Food and Wine Industry, theexpression of the Italian gastronomictradition, is strongly bound to a localterritory and its history. This sectorincludes high-quality wine and foodproducts and tourism related to thefood and wine industry. The economicvalue of this sector has beenenormously enhanced by the capacity todevelop symbolic attractions for theconsumer-tourist.The sphere of the production ofcontent, information andcommunication embraces the classiccultural industries, associated with thecapacity to conserve, reproduce andtransmit, often in digital form, soundsand images (Publishing, TV and Radio,Film). This sphere also includes thesectors of Computers and Software andAdvertising. The Computers and Softwaresector is strongly characterised by thecreative content of products and themass distribution of their content. Themarket value of these products isgrowing rapidly, as is demonstrated bythe fact that the market value ofvideogames in 2007 outgrew that of thefilm industry. At the same time, thissector is characterised by creativeprocesses involved in applying andpersonalising software and operatingsystems, which today is vitally importantfor the computerisation of processesand the digitisation of content.Although never considered a culturalindustry in its own right, Advertising is asector in which creativity and theproduction of culture are crucial aspects.Advertising and communicationtechniques require a strongly creativepersonal input and, in turn, produce andcommunicate messages and contentwith high symbolic value. The cultureproduced by advertising is of a stronglyrelational type and is able to transformcreative ideas into lifestyles and rolemodels.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 31

Chapter 1Lastly, the sectors of the historic andartistic heritage include activities andgoods of key importance in theproduction and expression of cultureand its economic use. Its productionactivities, however, are often not of anindustrial nature.The Cultural Heritage – with its arthistorymuseums, monuments, archivesand libraries – is a showcase for Italianculture and has a considerable impacton related economic activities, especiallycultural tourism.Contemporary Art and Architecture are alsosectors which express cultural goodswith high symbolic content. Theirworkshops and studios produce goodsnot according to the logic of theindustrial system, but as servicesfollowing a neo-craft logic. Aesthetics,art, form and geometry are the basiccontent of expertise in these sectors.Contemporary art, in particular, is purecreativity and the two terms are almostsynonymous. When we enter the worldof visual arts, however, we also discoverhow much social relations, the market,production and institutions areimportant and modify the very meaningof the concept of creativity.The Music and Performing Arts sector isincluded in the sphere of the artistic andhistoric heritage, especially withreference to the cultural production oftheatres and festivals. In this case, too,artistic expression and creation areextremely closely linked to economicprocesses allowing their spread andincreasing their value.Defining the creativity value chainIn addition to mapping out theMacrosector, this analysis divides up theproductive sectors according to thestages in a common chain of valueproduction.The underlying idea in this approach isthat a more detailed analysis of thestages of conception, production andmarketing of products will lead to abetter understanding of the variouscomponents in the supply structure of agiven sector and its trends.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 32

Chapter 1Figure 1.3 – The creativity value chainCultural HeritageInput andsupport todistributionConception Production MarketingEducation/trainingInput andauxiliaryproductionFigure 1.3 shows a simple model ofvalue chain in the cultural and creativeindustries. The two rectangles representthe prerequisites for the existence anddevelopment of the creative andcultural industries and, according to thepoint of view, restraints and initialendowments. There is explicit referenceto two fields: (1) the Italian culturalheritage accumulated over the centuriesand an inexhaustible resource for newcreativity and culture; (2) theeducation/training of human capital orthe selection of artists and creatives.This field is of strategic importance indeveloping human capital andtransmitting creativity to futuregenerations.Conception, Production and Marketingare the key stages in the generation ofvalue:• Conception is characterised by theinvention or conception of products,their protection in terms of intellectualproperty, and violations in terms ofillegal markets• Production translates the creativecontent or a cultural good/activity intocommercial goods and services• Marketing is seen as a network forthe distribution of products andservices and relies on traditional andnew-generation channels.Lastly, a further two elements in thevalue chain may be considered. Theyconcern activities supplyingintermediary inputs and the activitiesconnected to their production (forexample, textiles for fashion) or sectorssupplying auxiliary goods required forWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 33

Chapter 1the marketing and consumption ofcultural goods (CD players, radios,televisions and computers).The decision to include these twoelements in the value chain of thecultural industries meets the need tocomplete – depending on the sectors –the whole length of the chain from theconception of the product to the endconsumer. In this sense, for example, ifwe failed to include textiles in thefashion chain, we would distort thedefinition of the district itself: i.e. wewould overlook the fact that textiledesign already contains per se a strongcreative component. Similarly, failing totake into account the production ofDVDs in the software sector, wouldmean logically truncating the full extentof the end consumption of a large partof the content industry.Aggregation and estimate ofstatistical dataMapping out the sectors and providinga specific description of the structure ofthe value creation are two key stagesrequired to arrive at an estimate andanalysis of the economic value of theMacrosector of the cultural and creativeindustries in Italy at various levels ofdetail.From this point of view, to define eachsector we referred to ISTATclassifications of economic activities(ATECO 2002), which provide arelatively detailed description in termsof value added, jobs and productivity.Moreover, since the ATECO 2002system is at the five-digit detail level,we can rely on more precise data,highlighting the economic contributionof the various stages in value creationin many sectors.We must also stress that the ATECO2002 classification provides a suitabledegree of uniformity required tomeasure the economic value of theMacrosector and, as far as possible,make comparisons between sectors.Nonetheless, for some sectors –contemporary art, the cultural heritageand the food and wine industry – thedata was gathered from other sources,which allow us to make estimates witha lower level of data detail or tocomplete the analysis of the productionchain. The method, the source of dataand the classification by sectors isdescribed in the Appendix.The economic value of theMacrosectorOn the basis of data supplied by theIstituto G. Tagliacarne for 2004, wecarried out a preliminary assessment ofa number of variables in theMacrosector, in particular the valueadded and jobs.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 34

Chapter 1Table 1.2 - Value Added and Jobs by sector in the whole value chain in Italy (2004)ValueAdded(m €)Jobs(in thousands)% VAofGDP% Jobs insector out oftotal jobsFashion 38,024.2 1,112.6 3.04% 4.59%Material CultureIndustrial Designand Crafts19,659.7 520.7 1.57% 2.15%Food & WineIndustry5,054.8 125.1 0.40% 0.52%Computer &Industry of Software14,641.4 282.7 1.17% 1.17%Content, Publishing 10,781.8 224.9 0.86% 0.93%Information and TV & Radio 4,070.8 89.4 0.33% 0.37%Comunications Advertising 2,405.8 64.9 0.19% 0.27%Film 1,929.8 37.6 0.15% 0.16%Cultural Heritage 7,811.0 105.4 0.63% 0.44%Architecture 6,683.5 172.3 0.54% 0.71%Historic andArtistic HeritagePerforming Arts 5,186.2 120.2 0.42% 0.50%Contemporary Art357.2 15.0 0.03% 0.06%*TOTAL 116,606.2 2,870.9 9.34% 11.85%Sources: our elaboration of Istituto G. Tagliacarne (Rome) data*Elaboration and estimate by the CommissionTable 1.2 shows the estimated economicvalue of the cultural and creativeindustries in Italy. If we consider thewhole production chain, theMacrosector was worth 9.34% of theItalian GDP in 2004 and employed over2.8 million people.The table highlights some specificfeatures of the cultural and creativeindustries in Italy.Firstly, the most important sector ineconomic terms in the cultural andcreative industries is Fashion.This figure is confirmed by the fact thatthe sectors in the sphere of materialculture (Fashion, Industrial Design andCrafts, Food Industry) contribute over50% of value in the whole Macrosector.Thirdly, the Computer and Software sectorhas considerable importance in thecontent, information andcommunication industries, which showshow the Italian economy, although insome areas belatedly, is now orientedtowards ICT.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 35

Chapter 1Figure 1.4 - Value Added in sectors according to stages in the chain of valuecreation4000Added Value by activity350030002500ActivitiesConnected toDistributionm€2000Distribution15001000ActivitiesConnected toProduction5000FashionDesignMaterialCultureFood & WineIndustrySoftwarePublishingTV & RadioAdvertisingFilmIndustry ofContent,Information andCommunicationsCulturalHeritageArchitecturePerforming ArtsHistoric andArtisticHeritageContemporaryArtCreation andProductionFigure 1.4 shows the data for valueadded in individual sectors, brokendown according to the various stages inthe creation of value.In each sector or group of sectors, thechain of value production has its ownspecific features.In the sectors linked to the sphere ofmaterial culture, and especially Fashionand Industrial Design and Crafts, marketingplays a key role, mainly due to modelsof consumption and the marketingsystem for goods produced in thesesectors (e.g. clothing, furniture andjewellery).Similarly, in the Software and TV andRadio sectors, direct marketing activitiesof content are almost negligible in termsof value added, whereas thoseassociated with marketing – i.e.television and computer manufacturing– acquire greater importance.The stage of marketing and its relatedactivities are of little importance in thesectors of the Artistic and HistoricHeritage, in which the use of culturalgoods and services is more direct (as inthe case of goods and activities in theCulturalHeritage or in Music and the PerformingArts) or services supplied oncommission (Architecture).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 36

Chapter 1Figure 1.5 – Contribution of the Macrosector to the economy according to thestages in the chain of value productionContribution of the Macrosector to the economy (% of GDP)10.00%9.00%9.03%9.34%8.00%7.00%7.15%6.00%5.00%4.46%4.00%3.00%2.00%1.00%0.00%Conception andProduction+ Activities Connectedto Production+ Distribution + Activities Connectedto DistributionAs highlighted by Figure 1.5, the stageof conception and production, the coreof the cultural and creative activities,accounts for around 50% of theeconomic value of the wholeMacrosector and has a significantweight per se on the entire Italianeconomy.If we narrow the field of enquiry to thisstage in the chain of value production,the activities in the cultural and creativeindustries in Italy account for 4.46% ofthe GDP and employ around 1.3million people (Table 1.3).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 37

Chapter 1Table 1.3 – Value Added and Jobs in the sectors, only taking into accountConception and Production (2004)Material CultureProduction ofcontent,information &commun-icationsHistoric andartistic heritageValueJobs % VA ofAdded(m €)(thousands)GDP% JobsFashion 16,578.7 544.5 1.33% 2.25%Industrial Designand Crafts14,179.1 345.9 1.14% 1.43%Food & WineIndustry3,077.1 73.7 0.25% 0.30%Computer &Software1,427.5 28.4 0.11% 0.12%Publishing 2,770.5 52.1 0.22% 0.22%TV & Radio 1,888.9 37.8 0.15% 0.16%Advertising 1,875.7 50.4 0.15% 0.21%Film 1,348.9 25.2 0.11% 0.10%Cultural Heritage 5,536.1 53.4 0.44% 0.22%Performing Arts 3,411.5 74.5 0.27% 0.31%Architecture 3,260.1 84.6 0.26% 0.35%Contemporary Art 357.2 15.0 0.03% 0.06%TOTAL 55,711.1 1,385.5 4.46% 5.72%These figures are further evidence thatthe Macrosector of the cultural andcreative industries has a significanteconomic weight in the Italianeconomy. In fact, if we again limit theanalysis to the activities of conceptionand production, the value addedproduced by the creative and culturalindustries in Italy is equal to that offinancial activities, double that of thesectors of machine manufacturing,energy, and post andtelecommunications, and four times thatof the sector of production of means oftransport (Figure 1.6).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 38

Chapter 1Figure 1.6 – Comparison with other industries in terms of conception andproduction activities% Value Added of GDP9.00%8.00% 7.68%7.00%5.83%6.00%5.00%4.70% 4.46%4.00%3.00%2.53% 2.31%2.01%2.00%1.01%1.00%0.37%0.00%Transport, Storing andCommunicationsBuildingFinancial activitiesCreative and CulturalIndustriesMachine & EquipmentManufacturingPost & TelecommunicationsProduction and distributionof electric energy, gas andwaterVehicle manufacturingMineral Mining1.5 ConclusionsThe final chapter of the <strong>White</strong> Papercontains recommendations andsuggestions for cultural policies to beimplemented both in the long term (18Key Decisions) and the short-term (72Actions) concerning creative cities,design, fashion, architecture, theknowledge economy, advertising, film,TV and radio, publishing, the food andwine industry, contemporary art, musicand the cultural heritage.The need for urgent action may be seenas a wake-up call. We must attain thestandards of the material andhumanistic culture of our past withoutlosing touch with technological culture,material culture and the contentindustry of the future. In this sense the<strong>White</strong> Paper on Creativity also wishes be asign of the changing times. We have setout to gauge a little-known situation butalso to understand the Italian model ofcreativity marking the transition forpolicies designed merely to conserveculture (protection, restoration andmanagement) to policies designed toproduce culture. Such policies mustprovide solutions about how to selectcreative talents and how to increase theproduction of new ideas and transformthem into new products to be marketedworldwide.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 39

Chapter 2Michelangelo Pistoletto - “Europa tra Mediterranei” 2009Computer processing over manual processing

Chapter 2Chapter 2The Italian model of creativity and international positioning2.1. Italy’s position inEurope and in the worldPossessing distinctive features bothmarks out differences and assigns anindependent position. In the case ofnational states, the position a countryachieves in a given field turns out to bepolitically significant because it willattract alliances and contribute to asubjective sense of identity.In the field of creativity, the model ofcreativity for social quality positionsItaly on the international scenealongside those countries who valuethe use of culture and creativity inimproving the quality of individual andcollective life.By contrast, in Italy the concept ofcreativity as a phenomenon totallydriven by the impetus of technologicalinnovations is weaker.Since Italy is one of the majorindustrialised nations, we must have apositive view of the component oftechnological creativity – certainly alsoa feature of the country but which onlypartially identifies its content.The two models – creativity forinnovation and creativity for socialquality – are also an example of theNorth-South geographical divide of thecreative issue which features on theinternational agenda. In fact, whereasthe model of creativity for innovation andits insistence on technological aspectsis typical of North European andNorth American countries, the modelof creativity for social quality and itsreference to culture, territory, society,cultural districts and creative citiesseems to interpret better the trend ofcreative processes in Mediterranean,African, Latin American and Asiancountries. In this division of the worldaccording to models of creativity, Italyhas an interesting bridging positionbetween those who aspire to move thecutting edge of technologicalinnovation towards even greatersuccess and those who want theprogress of creativity to be constantlyinformed by ethics, the aesthetic andsocial quality of collective life.Lastly, both models acknowledge thepotential of the creative economy togenerate economic development,income, exports and jobs.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 41

Chapter 22.2 Creativity and theEuropean Union :European policies forcreativity and theproduction of cultureOver the last few years, in the mainEuropean administrations there hasbeen a deep change to policy onculture. Firstly, the British experience,and then that of the Scandinaviansimmediately afterwards, made animportant contribution to a shift inperspective which, in many ways is stillongoing. Culture in these countries hasnot exclusively been seen from thetraditional point of view of conservingthe heritage and promoting theperforming arts, but more as a meansto pursuing a qualitatively higher levelof development. Hence the advent ofthe experience of the creativeindustries. This flexible concept hashad the merit of linking the concept ofculture to a series of activities – fromfashion, to design and the engineeringof computer games – previouslyconsidered outside the sphere ofcultural policies.Partly on the grounds of its importanteconomic spin-offs, this new approachimmediately won followers. As early asthe end of the last century, variousstates and regions adopted programmesaimed at boosting creativity andintroducingadministrativeorganisations specifically dedicated toits promotion as well as setting upagencies with mixed public-privateparticipation for piloting purposes.Inevitably, given the growing interestshown in the question of culturalcreativity in various experiences andtheir potential in terms of economicgrowth, the European Union alsogradually became interested in thistheme. And it did so through a changein policy almost configuring a differentparadigm as regards the theme ofculture. Although culture had receivedmore attention in recent years(evidenced, for example, by theinclusion of a reference to culture inthe Treaty of Amsterdam), it had neverbeen conceived in forms strictly linkedto current mainstream European policyand even less to economic policy.Previously, in fact, attention to thetheme was basically focused oninternational programmes on identity.But these were very far from thecomplete inclusion of the subject inEU politics and economic policies.The EU cultural policies were onlygiven a legal basis with Title IX of theTreaty on the European Unionintroduced by the Maastricht Treaty.From this point, culture was raised tothe status of “first-rate EU publicinterest”. Before the reformulation ofarticle 128 (now 151) of the Treaty, itcould not be said there was an overallcultural project, given that the EU hadno specific competences on thesubject.Thanks to the provisions made in theTreaty, cultural policies are no longer asimple corrective to theimplementation of the otherCommunity policies, but culturebecomes a “first-rate EU publicWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 42

Chapter 2interest”. Thus since 2002 the Councilof the European Union has invitedMember States to co-operate to enablethe Commission to assess theapplication of article 151. The Councilitself then appealed to Member Statesand the Commission to treat culture asan essential element in Europeanintegration.When we move on to consider theforms of EU action in the sector, wediscover that so far they have consistedof a series of financial actions forcultural activities: firstly, throughspecific programmes concerning theart-historical heritage (especiallyprogrammes in the sectors ofaudiovisual co-operation, research andtechnological development for theconservation of the cultural heritage)and, secondly, through programmes inthe framework of social and regionalpolicies.From the first point of view, theactions were connoted in apromotional key: improving knowledgeand the spread of culture and thehistory of European countries, supportfor non-commercial cultural exchanges,and encouragement of artistic andliterary creation. The projectsimplemented so far have aimed toencourage European co-operation inthe sector, developing specific actionsand supporting cultural initiatives tofavour cultural exchanges and eliminateobstacles to citizens’ access to culture.From the second point of view,through structural funds, projects werepromoted with the aim of developingthe cultural heritage in depressed areasor in areas undergoing deep economicdecline.Moreover, the Treaty establishing aConstitution for Europe introduced aclause (article 1-3), whereby the Unionaims to respect cultural and linguisticdiversity (the so-called “culturalexception”) and to monitor thesafeguarding and development of theEuropean cultural heritage, especially inthe case of agreements (in the sector ofexchanges of cultural and audiovisualservices) liable to undermine thecultural and linguistic diversity ofMember States.As far as cultural policies areconcerned, the Treaty confirms theguidelines of the EC Treaty not onlyon encouraging co-operation betweenMember States and supporting actionsto develop the spread of knowledgeabout peoples’ culture and history butalso in terms of state aid.On the strength of this legal basis, theprocess of expanding the role ofculture went through a number ofdistinct stages.The first came in March 2000 when theEuropean Council of Lisbon and theheads of state and government of theMember States agreed on the objectiveto make the European Union the mostdynamic and competitive knowledgeeconomy worldwide by 2010. In thiscontext the interest in the themeshown by the Commission washighlighted by the linkage betweenculture, capacity for innovation and theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 43

Chapter 2knowledge economy. As theCommissioner Figel pointed out, “Artand culture are anything but marginalfrom the point of view of theireconomic contribution to the EU.Culture is the driving force ofcreativity, and creativity, in turn,underwrites social and economicinnovation.” The first study on the“economy of culture” commissionedby the European Commission (andpresented by the Ministers of Cultureof Member States in November 2006)must be seen in these terms. Ithighlights the importance of culture foreconomic growth and stresses its rolein the framework of the LisbonAgenda, especially as regardsinnovation and creativity scenarios inregional development.The second stage was marked by theconclusions of the Presidency of theCouncil on 8-9 March 2007, whichcalled for countries to boost “thepotential of small and medium-sizedenterprises, also in the cultural andcreative sectors, considering their roleas a driving force in growth, thecreation of new jobs and innovation.”In fact this statement sanctions thelinkage between the policies for smalland medium-sized enterprises andcreativity with the European policy ongrowth and employment.The third stage came in May 2007,when, in the “Statement on theEuropean Agenda for Culture in aGlobalising World”, for the first time,the European Commission proposed aEuropean culture strategy withsignificant references to creativity. Thenew strategy affirms the fundamentalrole of culture in the process ofEuropean integration and sets acultural agenda for Europe and itsrelations with third countries.This policy statement presents threemajor objectives, which together forma cultural strategy for Europeaninstitutions, Member States and thecultural and creative sector:1. promotion of the diversity ofcultures and intercultural dialogue2. promotion of culture as a catalyst forcreativity in the framework of theLisbon strategy3. promotion of culture as a vitalelement in the Union’s internationalrelations.To reach these objectives, theCommission suggests new forms ofpartnerships and working methods: theimplementation of a structureddialogue with the cultural sector; thecreation of an open method of coordination;and support for draftingpolicies based on the facts andintegration of culture in all the relevantpolicies. With a resolution of 16November 2007, the Council approvedthe three objectives, which willconstitute a common cultural policy,and the principal working methodsproposed by the Commission.As a move in this direction, 2008 wasproclaimed the European Year ofIntercultural Dialogue, with the objectiveof laying the basis in the sector ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 44

Chapter 2intercultural dialogue for long-termstrategic European initiatives meant tocontinue after 2008. The EuropeanYear highlighted, moreover, theimportance of the new Europeanagenda on culture in the age ofglobalisation. The actions on theagenda in favour of cultural diversityand intercultural dialogue constituteone of the three major objectives. Tenmillion euros were allocated to supportan information campaign, financeenquiries and studies on interculturaldialogue and jointly fund sevenEuropean lighthouse projects and 27national projects (one from eachMember State) on the theme ofintercultural dialogue through theEuropean Union.Since the EU has a favourable view ofthe application of the UNESCOConvention on the Protection andPromotion of the Diversity of CulturalExpressions (Santagata - Foa, 2004),the Agenda also affirms the externaldimension of culture in Europe.The statement on the Agenda thusacknowledges the need for a Europeanculture strategy open to diversity inEurope, and at the same time open tothe world. It suggests measures tostrengthen the importance of culture asa component in political dialogue withpartner countries and regions in therest of the world, promote culturalexchanges, and systematically integrateculture in development programmesand projects.In order to support specific actions inACP countries i , the EuropeanCommission suggests creating an EU-ACP Cultural Fund as a joint Europeancontribution to supporting themarketing, and in some cases theproduction, of ACP cultural products.This Fund will encourage thedevelopment of local markets andindustries and will improve access forACP cultural products to Europeanmarkets. The European Commissionhas proposed allocating a Communitycontribution to the Fund of around 30million euros for the period 2007–2013 and has invited the MemberStates to top up the fund with furthercontributions.One key feature of the new policy isthe proposal to introduce a more highlystructured system of co-operationbetween Member States and the EUinstitutions in the cultural sector, basedon an “open co-ordination method”,which was used successfully to organisecollaboration between Member Statesand the EU in the area of educationand training, youth and socialprotection.The European Commission will thenlaunch 2009 as the European Year ofCreativity and Innovation, with the aimof promoting a wide-ranging action toboost this field.In addition to the Commission’s role,the European Parliament has assumedan equally important stance. In 2003Parliament put the topic on the agendaby adopting special resolutions on thecultural industries. Since 2003 and therecent Bono Report, the Europeanparliament has continued to supportWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 45

Chapter 2the promotion of the culturalindustries: i.e. those activities providingadded value to existing activities andwhich have also contributed to thepromotion of cultural diversity, moredemocratic access to culture, theEuropean identity and integration. As amove in this direction, the EuropeanParliament called for a structuredpolicy on the development of theEuropean creative industries as part ofa European strategy for culture.The Commission’s strategyIn May 2007, José Manuel Barroso,President of the EuropeanCommission, stated that: “Culture andcreativity touch the daily life of citizens.They are important drivers for personaldevelopment, social cohesion andeconomic growth. But they mean muchmore: they are the core elements of aEuropean project based on commonvalues and a common heritage which,at the same time, recognises andrespects diversity. Today's strategypromoting intercultural understandingconfirms culture's place at the heart ofour policies.” To a certain extent, this isthe conclusion of the line of thoughtwe have summarised here and it allowsus to describe more clearly the strategicperspective of EU policy, which maybe divided into the following points:a) The importance of the culturaland creative sectorThere is considerable awareness of theeconomic importance of the culturalindustry in Europe (see the quantitativedata presented in the next sections).With reference to a KEA study andgiven potential shortfall in theestimates of some economic variables,the contribution of the cultural sectorto the European economy still turnsout to be very significant in terms ofshare of GDP, employment andgrowth rates.b) Culture, growth and employmentWhile the preceding figures haveshown the quantitative importance ofthe sector, there are also someimportant qualitative effects due to thelink between the cultural and creativeindustry and the Lisbon strategy forgrowth and employment.A series of indicators reveals thelinkage between industry and culture.Firstly, the importance of the sector interms of employment. In this case, too,the qualitative trends are also veryimportant. A significant initial figure isthat 46.8% of people employed in thesector are graduates (compared to anaverage of 25.7%). Secondly, there is alarge percentage of self-employedworkers: double that recorded in theother sectors of the Europeaneconomy taken as a whole. Lastly,intellectual capital is of fundamentalimportance as the real element ofinnovation for a knowledge society.The contribution of the cultural andcreative sector to European economicgrowth is not limited to the directquantifiable impact, but generatesimportant results in a host of nonculturalsectors, especially in the ICTsectors and those related to localdevelopment, thus indirectlycontributing to economic growth.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 46

Chapter 2There is a strong interdependencebetween the cultural and creative sectorand the ICT sector. The latter’scontribution to overall EU economicgrowth is estimated to be around 25%.The development of “creative content”and the expansion of the ICT sectorare two sides of the same coin: thecreation and improvement oftechnologies strongly depends on theattractiveness of content. This impliesthat if the EU wishes to becompetitive, it must look to contentand the capacity to create and innovate.They constitute a distinguishing factorand a real competitive advantage.Europe should thus concentrate on thedevelopment of non-replicablecomponents and not focus only on theICT industry, which can be easilyreplicated elsewhere by emergingcountries, such as China and India,with considerable advantages in termsof costs.c) The social function of cultureThe EU administration’s vision on thesocial function of cultural actions isparticularly interesting. Culturalpromotion is seen as a way ofsupporting the creation of an inclusivecommunity capable of being a factor ofintegration.Compared to other sectors in theeconomy, the cultural sector has anextra value. It not only generates valuebut also contributes to social inclusion,better education and strengthens thesense of belonging to a people.The value of culture is linked to thefact that it is an instrument fortransmitting values and promotingobjectives of public interest. It thus hasa multiple political and social functionof key importance for spreading theEuropean values of tolerancedemocracyand diversity-pluralism.From this point of view, “The opinionon the social dimension of culture”adopted by the European Economicand Social Committee on 15 March2006 is very important. Starting from abroad definition of culture with anemphasis on acquiring knowledgeabout and understanding the wealth of“different cultural expressions”, theOpinion points to the interdependencebetween cultural and socialdevelopment, and argues that aconception of a systemic culture whichdoes not divorce the social,environmental and economic aspectscan, if logically applied to various EUpolicies, “establish a cultural unity forEurope, which lies in its diversity andin improving the living conditions of itspeoples”. The Committee thuscriticises the insufficient emphasis onthe cultural factor in the Lisbonstrategy, the shortfall in support for themobility of workers in the artistic andcultural sector and the absence of an“authentic economic development ofthe intangible” (Quadranti, 2006).d) The strategic functionLastly, there is also a line of thoughtlinking action on culture to thequestion of the European role inglobalisation. In this sense, action onculture is strategic in making Europemore competitive. Firstly, on thegrounds of Europe’s greater capacityWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 47

Chapter 2for engaging in intercultural dialogueand therefore in international relations.And, secondly, because – going back towhat we said about the Lisbon strategy– this functional approach is aimed atimproving the quality of labour andultimately the competitive edge ofEuropean industry.The overall implications of the EUvisionOver the last few years it has beenacknowledged that the cultural andcreative sectors will play a key role inthe thrust to reach the Lisbon targetsfor growth and employment. On thissubject, the European Council ofMarch 2007 called for a special focuson boosting the potential of small andmedium-sized enterprises also in thecultural and creative sectors, given theirrole as a drivers in growth, creatingjobs and innovation. The EuropeanCouncil of 24-25 May 2007 onEducation, Youth and Culture adoptedconclusions on the “contribution of thecultural and creative sectors inachieving the Lisbon objectives”.The various methods adopted so far bythe EU to promote cultural actions inEurope include: EC programmes;programmes proposing the promotionof the use of foreign languages throughspecific cultural projects and theencouragement of personalexperiences; programmes supportingmultilingualism; programmes in theaudiovisual sector; and programmesfunded in the framework of otherpolicies, such as the social cohesionpolicy and the information societypolicy.The background to EU thinking is theawareness that cultural and economicobjectives must be pursued in synergyin order to construct a competitive,inclusive system, strong at internationallevel.This is a crucial point. It isunderpinned by the idea that a societybased on innovation and inclusionmust be a society in which culture has adetermining role. As described in theStatement on the European Agenda forCulture, such a society “is a catalyst forcreativity in the framework of theLisbon process”.European Union statements not onlyillustrate the reasons for its interest inculture but also provide operationalrecommendations. They specify theneed to construct European “creativecities”, which invest in culture andcreativity, and the need to work in thefield of education, on the basis of theawareness that creativity can be taught.On the point of synergy betweencultural and economic objectives, therecommendations can be translated atnational level and organised in thevarious domestic systems. In fact,European resources dedicated toculture are often spent through theEuropean structural funds andtherefore managed at national andregional level. Consequently, the EUrecommendations should contribute tothe drafting of guidelines to befollowed at state and sub-state level.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 48

Chapter 2On this point the recommendationsconcern the aspects of aims,organisation and function.As far as the nature of the aims areconcerned, they should lead – atnational and regional level – toprovisions for specific programmesdedicated to creativity and a greatereffort to integrate cultural andeconomic objectives in planningactivities.In operational terms, therecommendations made by the EUadministration highlight the need tochannel national and Europeanfinancial resources towards new aims –other than those connected with thestraightforward recovery or restorationof goods – much more carefully tunedto fostering artistic talents, improvingthe quality of teaching and promotingthe cultural industries. From thisspecific point of view, in the light ofthe European recommendations,special attention should be accorded tothe question of creative cities and toraising the profile of creativity inschool programmes.Moving to the more strictlyadministrative level, and given theEuropean Union’s interest in the topic,it would seem the time has come to setup administrations responsible for thissubject, opportunely configured as aninterface with the EU administrationand eventually to form a network ofspecialised administrations workingclosely together on these themes formutual benefits.The various aspects mentioned heretake on a specific significance in theItalian system, especially given: thedelayed response to the theme ofcultural creativity; the at timesinadequate organisation of theadministration responsible; and theabsence of a single co-ordination forthe activities of cultural promotion,which are currently divided up andgoverned at local level without anyoverall co-ordination.Action is thus required at the level oforganisation. In particular, there is aneed to create a more flexible structuremaking use of qualified specificcompetencies so that it can interfacesmoothly with the key figures in theEuropean Union and the otherEuropean administrations responsiblefor the promotion of culture.This more flexible administrativestructure which, in line with the mostadvanced models should consultclosely with the business world anduniversities, would carry out thefollowing actions:• benchmark the best practices atEuropean level• analyse the creativity sector atnational level• follow the progress of the Lisbonprocess in close co-operation with thecompetent administrations at state level• provide assistance to the regionaland sub-regional administrations intheir programming and actionsWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 49

Chapter 2• define a national position ahead ofnegotiations at EU level• implement the initiatives plannedfor the European year of creativity inItaly.2.3 Comparative analysis ofapproaches to creativity andthe production of cultureThe exercise of mapping out andestimating the economic value of theItalian Macrosector of the cultural andcreative industries can be compared tovarious approaches adopted over thelast decade by other countries and byinternational organisations. In this waywe can arrive at a clearer idea of theircontent and define the position of Italyon the international scene.Although the aim of the variousmodels is the systematic measurementand understanding of the economicvalue of the cultural and creativeindustries, they offer a very mixedpicture because of the differences inapproach to establishing theboundaries of the cultural and creativeindustries and because of the methodsof economic and statistical analysisused.The Cultural Industries ModelThe Cultural Industries Model isarguably the first to have emerged froman analysis of economic activitieslinked to the production of culture(Adorno and Horkheimer, 1947):industrialisation meant that goods withcultural content could be reproducedon a large industrial scale with massdistribution.The main feature of the culturalindustries, defined according totechnical and economic criteria(reproducibility and communicationfunction), is also associated with thelegal criterion of the intellectualprotection of copyright and culturalcontent. The sectors traditionallyconsidered to be cultural industries arepublishing, film, TV and radio, andpress agencies. As such, the culturalindustries offer a relatively narrow fieldfor analysis, making possible anaccurate collection of statistical dataand a more detailed economic analysisof the macro sector. This approach wasrecently adopted by the Départmentdes études, de la prospective e desstatistiques in France and by Eurostatin the elaboration of statistics oncultural industries.The Creative Industries Model (UKDCMS)In Europe the so-called “CreativeIndustries” began to be mapped out inthe mid-1990s by the CreativeTaskforce of the UK Department forCulture, Media and Sport (DCMS).The DCMS set about monitoring andanalysing the economic performance ofthe creative sectors. This led to severalpublications: The Creative MappingDocument (1988, 1998 and 2001); thereport entitled Staying Ahead: the economicperformance of UK’s creative industries(2007); and Creative Industry Performance,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 50

Chapter 2edited by Frontier Economics for theDCMS, also published in 2007.By mapping out the creative industriesan attempt was made to identify thosesectors of economic activity in whichindividual creativity, skill and talent arethe main inputs in the productionprocess and show a potential for wealthand economic growth through thedevelopment of intellectual property.The creative industries are classifiedaccording to products. The Britishapproach is very wide-ranging, andincludes the traditional culturalindustries and other sectors, such asarchitecture, advertising, software andvideogames, performing arts, fashion,design, and the art and antiques market.On the subject of the CreativeIndustries Model, it is worthmentioning the study on the creativeindustries in Hong Kong made by theCentre for Cultural Policy Research.This study placed the emphasis on twofurther elements of creativity, whichbroaden and deepen the analysis of thecultural and creative industries. Firstly,the contribution of creativity inproducing social and cultural meaningsis made explicit. The creative industriesgenerate externalities, which go beyondthe simple economic dimension oftheir products and activities. Secondly,the Hong Kong approach concentrateson the definition of a “CreativeIndustries Production System”, i.e. thecluster of economic activities makingup the chain of value productiongenerated by creativity.From this point of view, economicactivities are classified according to thestages of conception,production/infrastructure anddistribution. This is a powerfullyinnovative approach since the focusshifts from a definition of the sectorsin terms of goods and services to thevarious stages in the chain of valueproduction. The sectors are no longeridentified as being more or lesscreative, but may be distinguished byhow important the conception stage iscompared to the others.The Copyright Industries Model(WIPO)The approach adopted by the WorldIntellectual Property Organisation(WIPO) focuses on the analysis ofintellectual property rights (especiallycopyright) linked to the creation ofgoods or services.The sector of the Copyright Industriesis mapped out on four concentriclevels, according to the degree ofimportance which property rights havein the overall value of the goods. At thecentre are products totally based oncopyright. These core sectors arepublishing, film, music, entertainmentsoftware, and TV and radio. A secondlevel encompasses those industriesproducing goods which in part or insome aspects are covered by copyright,such as jewellery, designer objects andtoys. The third level consists of theindustries marketing material protectedby copyright, while the fourth groupstogether the copyright-relatedindustries, i.e. those industries whoseWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 51

Chapter 2products provide the means forconsuming copyrighted products, e.g.CD and DVD players, televisions andcomputers.The main strength of this approach isthe straightforward matching of thedefinition of the industries and thestatistical classification used to measurethe most significant economic variablesat national level.The KEA Concentric Circles ModelA study carried out by KEA for theEuropean commission describes andanalyses the economic contribution ofthe sector defined as the “Economy ofCulture” on the European scene.In this approach, first proposed byThrosby (2001), an analyticalframework describes the Macrosectoraccording to a concentric model. At thecentre are more strictly artistic activitiesor those connected to the culturalheritage. Round this core are thetraditional Cultural Industries, i.e. thoseinvolved in reproducing andcommercialising cultural productsgenerated by artistic activities. Beyondthe Cultural Industries are the CreativeIndustries, which include activities suchas design, architecture and advertising.Lastly, the outermost circle containsthe Connected Industries, characterisedby the production and marketing ofsupports for the fruition of goods andservices supplied by the cultural andcreative industries.On the basis of this classification, theEconomy of Culture approach isintended to be a synthesis of theCultural, Creative and CopyrightIndustries models.The UNCTAD ModelThe model put forward by UnitedNations Conference on Trade andDevelopment (UNCTAD) is the mostrecent approach to the subject and waslaunched with the Creative Economy 2008report.This model identifies four main areasof the cultural economy and creativity:the Cultural Heritage, Visual andPerforming Arts, Media, andFunctional Creations.The Cultural Heritage, seen as culturalcapital, is the origin of all cultural andartistic expressions in a country. Thisarea includes museums, archives,libraries, monuments and sites ofcultural interest. The Visual andPerforming Arts encompass those goodsand services generated by artisticexpression, i.e. performing arts and artobjects. The category of Media groupstogether goods and services producedby the traditional cultural industries, i.e.books, films and music. Lastly, thegroup of Functional Creations includethose services and goods which haveboth a strong symbolic content and afunctional value. This group includesfashion and design goods, the servicesof architecture and advertising,software and videogames. TheUNCTAD classification is based on thestatistical need to measure theinternational trade of cultural andcreative products, rather than a need toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 52

Chapter 2measure the sectors of economic andindustrial activity.Table 2.1 provides a summarycomparison of the foregoing fivemodels in relation to the model wepropose in this work. As can be seen,some sectors considered in this <strong>White</strong>Paper are not contemplated or onlypartially included in the other reports.The food and wine industry, forexample, is not considered in any ofthe other models. Moreover, the sectorof the cultural heritage is notconsidered in the Cultural, Creative andCopyright Industries models.Table 2.1 Classification of sectors in the six models of cultural and creative industries1. <strong>White</strong>Paper onCreativity2. CulturalIndustries3. CreativeIndustries4. CopyrightIndustries(WIPO)5. ConcentricCircles(KEA)6. UNCTADMaterialCultureFashionDesignFood and wineContentIndustriesFilmSoftwarePublishingAdvertisingTV & RadioHistoric andArtisticHeritageCulturalHeritageArchitectureMusic andPerforming artsContemporaryartPublishingCinemaMusicTV & RadioPress agenciesAdvertisingArchitectureArt marketCraftsDesignFashionFilmMusicPerformingartsPublishingSoftwareTV & RadioCoreAdvertisingFilmMusicPerforming artsPublishingSoftwareTV & RadioVisual artsPartialcopyrightindustriesArchitectureFashionDesignToysInterdependent copyrightindustriesAudio-videosupportsElectronicproductsMusicalinstrumentsPaperproductionOptical andphotographicinstrumentsCoreVisual artsPerforming artsCulturalHeritageCulturalIndustriesFilmPublishingMusicTV & RadioVideo GamesCreativeIndustriesFashionDesignArchitectureAdvertisingConnectedIndustriesAudio-videosupportsElectronicproductsProduction ofoptical andphotographicinstrumentsCulturalHeritageMuseumsMonumentsHistoric sitesVisual andPerformingArtsMediaPublishingFilmTV & RadioMusicFunctionalCreationsArchitectureAdvertisingDesignFashionSoftware andvideogamesWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 53

Chapter 2The differences in classificationhighlight how studies on the culturaland creative industries are stronglyinfluenced by socio-economicassessments and the need for statisticalmeasurements of the context analysed.The choice of a model obviouslyinfluences the assessment of thecultural and creative industries’contribution to the economy. In somecases, moreover, there is no exactmatch between sectors identified in thetheoretical approaches and thoseconsidered in the economic estimatesbased on statistical classification.Independently of the model adopted,however, there is no doubt that thecultural and creative industries play amajor role in the economy of thecountries considered.Table 2.2 sums up the main variablesof the cultural and creative industries ina number countries where approachesbased on different definitions wereadopted.Table 2.2 - The main variables of the cultural and creative industries accordingto the studies consideredCOUNTRYAPPROACH YEAR % OF VAJOBS(% of total)PRINCIPALSECTORSUKHONGKONGUSFRANCEEU25(KEA)CreativeIndustriesCreativeIndustriesCopyrightIndustriesCulturalIndustriesConcentricCircles2004 7.30%* Minimum and maximum % of the value added of EU states1,000,000(2.7%)2001 3.80% 167,180 (5.1%)2004 6.48%2003 n.d.2004 0.6-3.4%*ITALY <strong>White</strong> Paper 2008 9.33%5,344,000(4.07%)256,350(1.038%)5,885,000(3.1%)2,855,900(11.7)SoftwarePublishingPublishingArchitecture-AdvertisingPublishing-FashionDesignAccording to the Staying Ahead report,in the UK, the creative industriescontributed 7.3% of the GDP in 2004and employed over 1 million people (towhich should be added another800,000 creative working in otherindustries). The leading sectors of thecreative industries are software,computer games and electronicpublishing, publishing, and TV & radio;together they account for around twothirdsof the creative industries.In the case of Hong Kong, thecreative industries contribute 3.8% ofthe GDP and employs 5.1% of theoverall workforce. In this case,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 54

Chapter 2publishing and architecture are theprincipal sectors, accounting for almost50% of the creative industries.Moreover, two highly technologicalsectors (IT and related services and theInternet) were included in the estimateof the creative industries and accountfor 25% of the macro sector. Aninteresting inclusion is the Jewellerysector, also considered in terms ofmanufactured production, whichalthough limited, plays an importantrole in the Hong Kong creativecontext.In the United States, the CopyrightIndustries contribute 6% of the GDPand employ over 5 million people. Thisestimate only contemplates sectorsproducing goods totally or partiallycovered by copyright. If we alsoconsider the connected industries andmarketing activities, then the share ofthe GDP is around 11% with around11 million jobs. These figures arehigher than other major sectors in theUS economy, such as the constructionindustry and health.in Europe because the KEA studyconcentrates on the aggregate value ofthe cultural industries in individualcountries rather than a breakdown bysector. At the same time, the objectiveof establishing uniform statistical datafrom various heterogeneous countriesinevitably led to a narrow economicestimate. In fact, the contribution tothe GDP of the Economy of Culturevaries from 0.6% (Malta) to amaximum of 3.4% (France). Thebiggest economic contribution inabsolute terms is found in the largestcountries (France, Germany, UK, Italyand Spain), which account for around75% of the European culture andcreative sector. As regards the numberof jobs in the cultural and creativesector, the KEA estimate is almost 6million, i.e. around 3.1% of overall jobsin the European economy; this figurealso takes into account people workingin the Cultural Tourism sector.In the case of France, sales volume,rather than value added, was used asthe economic variable. Consequently,comparisons can only be made in termsof number of jobs. Given the veryrestrictive definition of the CulturalIndustries, the sector has around 1% ofoverall jobs. Publishing and advertisingaccount for the lion’s share of culturalproduction, since they record thehighest sales volumes.Lastly, it is more difficult to makecomparisons with the overall situationWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 55

Chapter 22.4 ConclusionsIn short, an international comparisonof studies on creativity shows how themodel proposed in our research formeasuring the creative and culturalindustries in Italy does not depart fromthe statistics gathered for othercountries. The Macrosector of thecultural and creative industries in Italycontributes 9.31% of the GDP, if weconsider the whole chain of valueproduction. If we focus on the stagemore strictly involving the conceptionand production of goods and culturalservices, the contribution to the Italianeconomy is around 4.6% of the GDP.Lastly, we must stress the EuropeanUnion’s interest in policies to promotethe creative industries and knowledge.Only ten years have elapsed since theLisbon statement on the knowledgesociety in 2000 to the proclamation of2009 as the European year of creativityand innovation, but the awareness ofthe importance of policies and actionspromoting the creative industries hasincreased more than proportionally tothe European delay at the time of theLisbon statement. Today all countrieshave rearranged the ranking of theirpriorities and the debate on creativityhas firmly placed it as a major issue onthe agenda.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 56

Charter 3Michelangelo Pistoletto – “News<strong>paper</strong> sphere” 1966Action by the students of the Fine Arts School, Bucharest 1997Photograph: M. Scutaro

Chapter 3Chapter 3Creative Cities and Territory3.1 Changes to 20th-centuryurban systemsThe recent trends observed in theurban systems of most advancedeconomies show that deeptransformations are underway. Theirmain features have now been outlinedbut their repercussions are still farfrom being fully understood. In 1938Louis Wirth wrote what was tobecome a seminal article for theAmerican Journal of Sociology: “Urbanismas a way of life”. This text had anenormous influence on theconceptions of contemporaryurbanism not only among socialscientists, but also architects and townplanners. Wirth suggested that citiescan be defined by three variables: size,density and (correlatively)heterogeneity. Half a century later, bythe last decades of the secondmillennium, these criteria had becomeoutdated in defining urbanism, eventhough so far no one else has managedto come up with such a neatinterpretation. The population in largecities is declining everywhere, and, oncloser examination, we no longer evenknow what area to use in measuringurban population size. Metropolitandensity has diminished to such anextent that in the United States thedensity of metropolitan areas is equalto the overall density of countries likeItaly. Heterogeneity is still animportant element, but newsegregation processes have emerged,no longer based on social classes buton different populations, especiallynocturnal and diurnal populations.Cities worldwide are being affected bythree macro-processes which aredeeply changing the nature ofurbanism: continually recedingboundaries, which transformpreviously easily circumscribableentities into “unbounded territories”whose limits and size elude easydefinition; the advent of “non-residentpopulations” (NRPs), especiallycommuters, who use new forms ofmobility to distribute businesses inbroad, low-density areas; and, lastly,phenomena linked to the diffusion ofthe media and mass culture, whichhave brought deep changes to theforms of governance and also to thecommonly perceived image of socialreality, thus contributing to thephenomenon of “doublehermeneutics”.These major trends affect both themacro-system of housing, i.e. theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 58

Chapter 3physical setting of our homes, and themicro-system of dwelling, i.e. theinternal organisation of homes andtheir relations with the outside world.The two levels are obviouslyinterrelated but refer to different setsof variables. I will try to sum up themain issues in a series of points partlytaken from previous works(Martinotti,1999, 2002, 2005) butintegrated and further developed inthis work.The urbanisation of society and themetamorphosis of the urban objectPopulation trend estimates at the turnof the 21st century suggest that ourage is witnessing a phenomenon on aworldwide scale: for the first timesince it emerged as a physical productof human organisation 120 to 50centuries ago, the urban populationaccounts for the majority of theworld’s inhabitants. And in theabsence of unpredictable events on ahuge scale, wars, epidemics or naturalcatastrophes, always possible even ifnot very likely, this proportion willprobably rise and especially in theless developed regions of the world.The final stages in this transformationwere a feature of the 20th century,during which the world populationdoubled twice. To provide acomparative quantitative idea: theprevious doubling of the worldpopulation up to 1.6 billion (thepopulation at the beginning of the20th century) took place 150 years agoin the 19th century. By the 1970s thepopulation was 3 billion and after only30 years, it rose to 6 billion, and overhalf of this figure were people living incities. The common perception of thisprocess is that country and city are likecommunicating vases, i.e. one emptieswhile the other fills. But this is amisleading and ingeniously mechanicalmodel. As happens in all livingsystems, change is an interactivephenomenon: as the “countryside”depopulates, its nature changesradically.Only in the last 200 years, followingthe worldwide spread ofindustrialisation in increasingly largecircles out from Britain, the ratio ofurban to rural dwellers changed fromthe pre-industrial figure of 1:9 to theexact opposite of 9:1. As onegeographer has pointed out “thepeople who live in today’s Europeancities would like to conserve thecountryside as the rural population leftit. While some experts stress the needto keep enough farmers to conservenature and the open spaces as they are,others accuse the farming industry ofbeing one of the main causes of thedemise of the landscape, the pollutionof water-bearing strata, the destructionof river banks and the proliferation ofbuildings in the country.” But whenthese accusations are levelled atfarmers, urban dwellers forget thatsuch situations are the result of theirown growing numbers and thecontinually rising demand for low-costfood. “Urban dwellers would like thelandscape to be the outcome of a ruralsociety living harmoniously with itselfand nature, immutable and foreverfrozen in a legendary Golden Age. InWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 59

Chapter 3this kind of picture there is very littleroom for the modern rural landscapeproduced by contemporaryindustrialised farming practices(Staffan Helmfrid, Dimensionemetropolitana, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1999,pp. 65 ff.).Moreover, as the city grows, it istransformed beyond recognition, notso much for urban dwellers whoexperience and change it, as for allthose who wish to describe andadministrate it and are no longer ableto keep up with the pace of changesince they rely on outdated models ofinterpretation and governance. Wewere used to identifying the source ofthese changes in productiontransformations and of course this iscorrect. But this has led to focusingwholly on the visible aspects of thephenomenon – such as the opening upof huge gaps in the urban fabric due tothe relocation or transformation offactories during the industrialtransition – diverting attention froman equally if not more importantphenomenon for the lives of millionsof people: changes in dwellingpractice. To take one example, theturn of the 1960s saw the largestinternal migration of people fromperipheries (countryside) to centres(cities) in Italian history and one of thelargest migrations of its kind in thecontemporary world. Most Italianobservers – always liable to forego anunderstanding of the facts in the nameof aesthetic or prescriptive judgements– stress the apparent foolishness ofmillions of domestic immigrants readyto crowd into crammed quarters onthe city outskirts and metropolitanperipheries, abandoning a supposedlyhigher quality rural life. But few realisethat the offer of a house with sanitaryservices and running water wasirresistible for people who forcenturies – when not actually livingwith animals, as was the fairlywidespread case in the ruralpopulations, especially in the south –had to satisfy their physical needs in allconditions of weather and health bygoing outside and crouching over astinking hole. The bourgeoisintellectuals, who had no experience ofsuch problems, easily triumphed intheir sarcastic attacks on the “whiteclaycivilisation”, and even spreadurban legends about terroni (“clods” –term of abuse for Southern Italians)who cultivated basil in their bathtubs(so what anyway?). Today, thanks tothe careful studies by more objective,rigorous observers we know that therelationship between the body and thedwelling context and the complexinterplay of intimacy and the public(an integral and apparently trivial partof our daily lives) actually concealsymbolic and prescriptive meanings incomplicated effects. In pursuing the“art of living”, we unconsciouslycomply to these meanings, whichcareful analysis reveals as beingintermeshed in the overall socialsystem.As we will see, this is not the only casein which the internal micro-sociologicalorder of the conditions of dwelling(structures, hygiene and buildingstandards) are directly linked to themacro-sociological order (urbanWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 60

Chapter 3morphology and peripheralsettlements) and if we fail to focussufficiently on these links, we will bemisled into writing off as banal andunworthy of the lofty interest ofintellectuals those concretephenomena which build up societyfrom daily life and have majorrepercussions on the structure of oursettlement system. We must not stopshort at the purelyquantitative/material situation,important as it is: the transformationof urban dwelling and city livingcannot simply be accounted for by thefact that cities are larger. They are alsodifferent, and one of the greatdifferences concerns dwelling,especially the relationship between thephysical position and internalorganisation of homes: in technicaljargon, the relation between the“front” and “back” of our house.Receding boundaries and the riseof the metacityThe most significant aspect ofcontemporary urban reality is relatedto the changes to the physical and socialmorphology of cities which took place inthe 20th century. It is now clear thatworldwide the traditional city and the“first-generation metropolis”, whichcharacterised urban life in the mid-20th century, have now given way to acompletely different kind ofmorphology which is producing aseries of what United Nations officialreports call Mega Urban Regions(MURs). In these regions variousforms of human settlements areinextricably woven, creating a new stillill-defined urban entity. For analyticalreasons which I will mention below, Ihave suggested calling this new entitythe metacity. ii This reflects thethreefold meaning of an entity that has“gone beyond” (meta) and even wellbeyond the classic physicalmorphology of the “first-generationmetropolis”, which dominated the20th century with its core and rings;the name also alludes to “goingbeyond” (meta) the traditionaladministrative control exercised bylocal authorities over the territory; andto going beyond (meta) the prevailingsociological reference to theinhabitants, with the development ofthe “second (and third) generationmetropolis”, increasingly dependenton “non-resident populations”. iiiThe traditional city had well-definedboundaries and a well-definedpopulation, albeit in both cases withsome variations to these definitions,but the concept was clear and widelyheld. The fact a population coincidedwith a well-defined territory is not onlythe outcome of original ancienturbanisation, mainly based on the ideaof the city-state, i.e. thesuperimposition of polis and astu, ofthe social city and the built city, butalso the consolidation of this matchingthrough the rationalisation of theterritory for administrative purposes,driven by the rise of the modern state.Even in linguistic terms bond,boundary, boundedness, and bondage(all terms derived from the Germanbund), describe both the spatialdefinition of a given social unity andits internal cohesion. Similarly, weWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 61

Chapter 3should also interpret the word schaft, asin Gemeinschaft, which refers to an ideaof stem or shaft. Weber’s concept ofthe Verband, or rather the politischeVerband, alludes to this idea ofcommunity, which curiously has noequivalent in Italian, although theword confine (confine, border) doesrefer to a restriction, but mainly in thenegative sense of loss of liberty(confining and confinement) ratherthan the bonding of solidarity.In the early decades of the 20thcentury this matching orsuperimposition began to cease: theboundaries of the real city wereconfigured on the metropolitan area,i.e. a functional regional entity madeup of a “core” and a surrounding area– the “periphery” (rings, hinterland,periurbain). The functional unit isbasically a commuter areas which hasat various times been called the DailyUrban System (DUS) or theFunctional Urban Region (FUR). Theimportant feature of this development,which affected first the United Statesand then Europe, is the loss of anyprecise territorial limits to the“functional” urban unit. The core isnormally defined by clear-cutadministrative boundary, but themetropolitan area is not easily definedbecause it is in fact a functional andnot a territorial concept which canvary over time. The boundaries of thesystem recede, move outwards,become less sharp and are difficult todefine, although they never disappearcompletely. The city is thus dispersedin an uncertain space. This idea hasfired the imagination for popularhyperbole, producing the “continentcity”and even the “world-city” or theunwitting oxymoron of the “infinitecity” in bombastic tones that areinversely proportional to the clarity ofunderlying ideas. In the case of thenew urban form, an accurate definitionin good Italian was suggested byMichele Sernini in his excellent Terresconfinate (“Unbounded lands”) iv whicheschews all bolstering rhetoric.The demise of the validity of sharedboundaries, such as the old communaladministrative boundaries, replaced byuncertain city limits, only identifiablethrough statistical operations or othermeans of representation, has lead tosome serious errors of assessment. Foryears popular (and less popular)literature described the flight from thecity and return to the countryside. Inrecent years in Italy this phenomenoncan be attributed to a rise in holidayhomes, but in the past it was only theresult of a spurious relationshipbetween the growth rate and theposition of the town of residenceengulfed by urban sprawl.In the traditional city – on which allcurrent knowledge on urban life is stillmainly founded – the inhabitants, thepopulation residing in the city, almostentirely coincided with the populationworking in the city. The city limitsenclosed both populations in a singleterritory: for centuries and until veryrecently, this space was surrounded bywalls and was neatly separated fromthe rest of the territory. The industrialrevolution did not change thissituation. The production of goods inthe secondary sector mainly involvedWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 62

Chapter 3moving raw materials, manufacturedgoods and capital, whereas theworkers and managers basicallycontinued to live in the urban areas. Aradical change only eventually came inthe 20th century. Observing the formof the city in the first half of thiscentury, we see that mobilityinfluenced the urban scene in terms ofinfrastructure, the creation of newdistinct residential estates and radicalchanges to the old historic centres.The new urban populations and therise of the entertainment cityThe urban transformations in the 20thcentury brought an important changeto the social morphology of urbansettlements. The emergence of secondand third generation metropolises had majorimplications for the governance ofurban systems. Once again we aredealing with new concepts and newapproaches. For centuries the basis ofthe financial sustainability of the citywas the wealth produced by itsinhabitants. The residents or citizenswere the prerequisite for various formsof taxation. Historically, some citystateshad been very efficient ingathering taxes from those citizens. Inthe 15th century, city-states like Milan,Venice and Naples raised annual taxproceedings rivalling those of thewhole of the Kingdom of France,Castile or a respectable chunk of theOttoman Empire. Today the economyof cities is increasingly based onconsumption by mobile populationswho do not live in the same areas theywork in. The growth in city users has ledto the development of a model of themetropolis reflecting today’s situation.This modern city is very different fromwhat we are used to finding in popularand academic terms as the “secondgeneration metropolis”. Yet now afourth metropolitan population is evenemerging. This is a small but veryspecialised population ofmetropolitan business persons whocome to city centres to do businessand/or establish professional contacts:business persons and professionalswho visit customers (therefore mobileby definition), consultants andinternational managers. This fourthpopulation, relatively small but stillgrowing, is characterised by largeresources of private and companycapital. They only usually stay for afew days, but at times also for longerperiods, and spend part of the timeworking and the rest of the time usingthe city, albeit in a relatively upmarketway. This is a population of wellinformedcity dwellers. They tend toknow what is going on around them.They are very selective in terms ofshopping, restaurants and hotels, andattend high-brow events such asconcerts and exhibitions, or visitmuseums but also saunas and gyms.High-class tourism and business thusincreasingly rub shoulders.City users and metropolitanbusinesspersons are a product of thetertiary sector. Unlike the secondaryindustries which moved goods,services mainly require the movementof individuals, and this aspect of thetertiary is still relatively unexplored.Although a growing portion ofservices can be supplied electronically,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 63

Chapter 3most of them still depend on personalcontacts, even when final consumersare not involved, but B2B services.Consulting, public relations, sales, etc.are all activities requiring repeatedintense face-to-face interaction. Butmore generally the new metropolis isbecoming a great place for our“urbantainment” and city marketingbecomes a key activity of the localurban government (Terry N. Clark[ed.], The City as Entertainment Machine,Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2004). Althoughself-evident, to avoid any possiblemisunderstanding, we must point outthat the rise of the entertainment citydoes not bring happiness for everyone,nor does it eliminate marginality orconflicts, but coincides with the rise ofan economic system based on thecommercialisation of places.In debates on the public sphere incontemporary society, these nonplacesare usually compared to earlierkinds of public space – the Europeansquare/piazza or American mainstreet. But this comparison tends to beideological rather than real. Can we besure that the transformation of the lateRoman city with the spread of basilicasdid not arouse similar fears(Gombrich,1966)? What hadhappened to the reassuring rush andbustle of the classical temples? Wherehad the lively crowds of donors,dealers and officiants gone? TheOlympian gods fed off the fumes ofmeat burned during sacrifices(hecatombs). What had happened tothe animals used in the ceremonialsacrifice, giving off a permanentbarbecue smell to whet the God’sappetite with the aroma of roast meat?One of the jobs of the Vestal Virginsin the Roman temple was that ofstercoratio (dung carting), a job whichconsisted in cleaning the rooms of the“fertiliser” left by cows which grazedaround and inside the temples. I amconvinced, therefore, that most of thenegative connotations of non-placesare due to an inaccuratecharacterisation, which, as happenswith all generations, we have not yetcome to consider our own. Unlike therelative, illusory stability of the naturalenvironment as it passes from onegeneration to another, the urban sceneis variable and especially duringhistorical periods like the one we livein. Rather than being handed downfrom one generation to another, thebuilt environment changescontinuously and becomes alien to itsolder inhabitants.New forms of the division of labourAs we have seen, the contemporarycity is not only conceived for itsinhabitants, but also for the nonresidentpopulation (NRP) andmobility. To observe places of radicalmodernity we must observe thoseplaces in which there is mobility.Private automobile traffic is one formof mobility. Naturally, traffic is not aplace, and not even a space, but a“space of flows”, according to thecelebrated definition by ManuelCastells (1996). The daily trafficsystem is characterised by very specialinteractions taking up enormousquantities of resources (time, people,money, energy) in cities all round theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 64

Chapter 3world. But it is also a very specialsystem of dividing labour. In fact it isone of the largest in the world and ischaracterised by the fact that millionsof people are involved in a cooperative-competitiveactivity withoutany previous knowledge of theirpartners. And in a highly risky contextin which reaching a specific objective– getting to a destination safe andsound – mainly depends on complyingto essentially non-written rules andconventions, while everything takesplace in conditions of extreme speedand unpredictability. Studies ondriving have often focused on thepsychological aspects and the aspectsof perception, such as visibility andposition of signals. Little attention hasbeen dedicated, however, to social andcultural factors which affect drivers’performances, such as respecting rulesand understanding the laws. And thesefactors are crucial, because much ofthe smooth working of the trafficsystem depends on them.This simply means that our everydayexperience of driving, with itsattendant real dangers, is regulated byconventions and regulations whosecomprehension is crucial for individualsurvival but which are not reallyconsidered systematically by decisionmakers.All of this leads us to anotheraspect. The “space of flows” generatedby the automobile system is part of thepublic space. We move throughsquares and streets not only on footbut also in vehicles. The driving spaceis thus one of those socialenvironments recently shaped bymodernity and which depend greatlyon the public culture of eachcommunity. In turn, the ways weinteract during these long hours ascitizens of the mobile city, engaged inthe co-operative and competitiveexercise of the division of labour,reinforces customs and approaches tosocial relations. An average welleducatedmiddle-class man may betransformed by road rage if his path issuddenly crossed incorrectly. But it isprecisely the perception that agenerally accepted rule has beenviolated by a cyclist or jaywalker whichgenerates the highest level ofaggressiveness, as can be seen whenobserving drivers. There is no roomfor doubt: the driver’s etiquettereflects a larger system of customs andbehaviour belonging to each specificplace, within the regional or nationalculture.In reality the interrelation betweenprivate and public is much morecomplex than appears. Public spacemay not only be an extension to orcomplement private space but mayalso be dialectically opposed to it. Thefinal result may be obtained bysubtraction, when public space isconsidered as what is left over fromthe private sphere of life. “Citieswithout civic communities” is aconcept which has been discussed indepth by Yanis Pyrgiotis (Delors,1994: 173), especially with reference tosouthern European cities, in whichdressing up the city for foreigners isconsidered a waste of money and thereis no interest in the “public eye” andits related consciousness (Sennett,1992). The lack of a public eye orWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 65

Chapter 3overall vision is probably a legacy ofthe ancient way of conceiving thepolis, in which there was no publicspace, because the city was a sum ofprivate residences divided according tofamily religions (Fustel de Coulanges,1924) – a kind of pre-politicisation ofindividuals (Bairoch, 1985; Glotz,1926).Mobility technologies andinformation technologiesThe current situation is the product ofcomplex social processes, and inparticular two technologicaltrajectories (to use the more accurateterm suggested by Alain Gras, insteadof the much abused and loose“technological trend”): i.e. those oftransport and information. Contraryto what is commonly believed, thepowerful technological trajectory ofinformation has not replaced the needfor physical movement in space, buthas been potently summed to it, thusallowing the development of a citywidely diffused in space. Thanks tofive processes identified by BillMitchell – dematerialisation,demobilisation, mass customisation,intelligent operation and softtransformation (DDMIS) – we cansum up the potential interactions forwhich a strong physical support is nolonger required and therefore thephysical structure of settlements cangradually be reduced. Demobilisationis in a certain sense the consequenceof dematerialisation and consists in thepossibility of reducing physicalmovements while continuing toengage in intensive actions. Masscustomisation is possible thanks to thelow-cost of controlling individualoperations in the production systemsand the flexibility low cost affords.Similarly, intelligent operation meansadapting many processes, especially asregards utilities (water, electricity, butalso processes such as sowing seeds)to the specific needs of each stage (seefor example drip irrigation). Thisflexibility makes it possible for specificor soft transformations to take placeinstead of operations once carried outon a mass scale or in a devastatingway. For example, the creation of theplattenhausen quarters can now bereplaced by softer operations, such asthe cabling of Siena.The technology and culture ofmobilityIn traditional societies, movementsand mobility were difficult, hazardous,costly or almost disadvantageousactivities. But mobility and movementsare necessary and positive features ofcontemporary life. What was once adislike for travel has become thetourist industry. Important culturalmovements like Futurism anticipatedand encouraged the culture ofmobility. Our culture is so intent onmobility that we basically overlookthe undercurrents dragging us towardsthe acceptance and use of mobility as avalue in itself. One important factor isthe drive to knowledge, part of thebildung of each individual. It isincreasingly the case that culturalevents can attract thousands or evenmillions of people. This should comeas no surprise: the “knowledgeWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 66

Chapter 3society” also involves the massconsumption of cultural productsand the symbolic representation of acultural product has not replacedpersonal first-hand experience; on thecontrary, it tends to encourage the realexperience.In its various forms and connotations,mobility is a dominant socialphenomenon, but whereas themovement of peoples across the faceof the planet is one of the oldestactivities of the human species, thecity, and especially the contemporarycity has undoubtedly furnished acultural and physical environment inwhich the system of mobility hasdeveloped to a maximum. When wesay the “system of mobility”, we arereferring to both technologicalsystems, such as the infrastructuresupporting mobility, and the fact thatthose systems are not only limited tothe physical infrastructure (thehardware, so to speak) but also includeeconomic, cultural and socialcomponents (the software). This pointhas been stressed by many writers,especially Alain Gras (Paris,1993) withhis concept of macrosystème. Although itwould be difficult to argue against thisapproach at conceptual level, it has notbeen widely accepted at the everydaylevel of problems in the transportsystem and metropolitan mobility, thuslimiting its verifiability. The social andcultural aspects, and even theeconomic aspects are often treated asresidual variables, gathered togetherunder a single (vaguely defined) entryin the “demand” for mobility, thusoverlooking the complementary aspectof mobility, i.e. accessibility, adominant and highly valuedrequirement for contemporary socialorganisations.The culture of mobility isinterconnected with the spread ofinformation and communicationtechnologies (ICT). Unlike the widelyannounced expectations, the spread ofhome ICT tools has not led the city tothe technological “playback” of theindustrial revolution, transforminghomes into a widespread constellationof “electronic cottages forteleworkers”. Our homes have actuallybeen transformed into a platform for ahost of ICT machines, but at the sametime (in a still not fully explainparadox), the cities continue todevelop and transport systems arealways under unrelenting pressure,despite (or rather in concomitancewith) the spread of informationnetworks. An analysis of what ishappening in the large urbanmetropolitan areas in the world canhelp us clear up this paradox. Since thebeginning of the third millennium themajority of the world’s population haslived in urban areas and in manycountries most people live in areas onthe fringes of cities (periurban areas).For example, by 2002, 51% of theoverall French population was living inthe periurbain. Moreover, this figurecannot be considered independentlyfrom electoral events in that same year(Pumain and Godard, 1996).From various points of view, the cityis an intriguing phenomenon: it liesout there in front of our eyes, explicitWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 67

Chapter 3and conspicuous so that each humanbeing recognises it. Yet rivers of inkhave been poured out in search of alasting definition. The city isundoubtedly the place and seat of themost advanced expression of humancivilisation and at the same time it isfeared and hated because it alienates. Itis the most important protective manbuiltstructure against the adversitiesof nature for all human beings, but atthe same time is seen as an unhealthyenvironment for everyday life. Thesecontradictions are as old as the cityitself and are not easily resolved, sincethey express a permanent quandaryabout the society we live in. The city isboth intimate and occult and we arecaught up in it. In every age, manylayers of its complex reality mostlyremain concealed. This is even truer ofthe sociological city behind thephysical city. The city encloses manyfamiliar images, each shows a specificfacet of the physical city – of nonurbansociety. We see constructions,streets, cars and even people. But wecannot see urban society. No matterwhat kind of lens – infrared, radar ormagnetic resonance (or any other kindof wave or chemical sensor) – we useto help us see the layers and layers ofextremely detailed physical reality, itwould not reveal urban society. To seeurban society, like society in general,we must use a different kind of lens,an intellectual lens capable of revealingsymbols, rules and symbolic orexpressive behaviour (Verstehende).Urban sciences contribute to ourunderstanding of not directlyobservable phenomena and enable ustherefore to frame the hidden featuresof urban society. Yet in the last 30years, changes have affected theinnermost essence of the relationsbetween social and physicalphenomena, introducing radicalinnovations in the space-timeinteraction between human beings(and machines).No matter how deep and radical thesecontinuous changes, we should notexpect the old city to crumble topieces as if blown away in someHollywood blockbuster. According toAnthony Giddens, the city has “aspecious continuity with pre-existing socialorders” (Giddens 1990: 6). Changes arecontinuous, they grow like stalagmitesand we feel the immediateconsequences first-hand, especiallywhen they affect everyday urbanpractices, increasingly both hard tobear and indispensable. The yardstickfor the fast pace of change is suppliedby historical examples: whenphenomena progress in a non-uniformway, the final results are onlyperceptible in leaps. “Energy andinformation”, writes Herbert A. Simon,“are two basic currencies of organic and socialsystems. A new technology that alters theterms on which one or the other of these isavailable to the system can work on it themost profound changes… the IndustrialRevolution… changed a rural subsistencesociety into a urban affluent one. It is easy byhindsight, to see how these inexorable changesfollowed one other, how ‘natural’ aconsequence, for example, suburbia was ofcheap privately owned transportation. It is adifferent question whether foresight could havepredicted the chains of events or have aided inaverting some of their more undesirableWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 68

Chapter 3outcomes. The problem is not that prophetswere lacking – they have always been in goodsupply at all times and places. Quite thecontrary, almost everything that hashappened, and its exact opposite, have beenprophesied. The problem has always been howto pick and choose among the embarrassingriches of alternative projected futures: and inthis, human societies have not demonstratedany large foresight” (Simon 1980: 420).On the contrary, as another Simon(Julian) remarks: “a prediction based onpast data is sound if it is sensible to assumethat the past and the future belong to thesame statistical universe” (McKibben,1998). This remark is particularlyimportant in our case, because as wewill see, changes have also affected thetraditional tools of observation.Now but not here: time, space andtechnology in the metacity.Receding boundaries and living inthe Italian systemThe most traditional-type remarks ontrends in urban morphology, mobility,social exclusion and dwelling quality –in short the physical and social world –cannot be separated from the trends ofand reflections on the “knowledgesociety”. This is important in terms ofthe metacity. At times developments ininformation and communicationtechnologies (ICT) are viewed as ifthey were separate from the physicalenvironment of metropolitan systems.But in fact the relation between ICT –and especially everything concerningthe Internet – and the visibleenvironment is very subtle, mainlyunexplored and in many ways moredestructive of the previouslyestablished orders than is generallythought. The tangible and intangiblecomponents in the urbanphenomenon are equally important.The city is a profoundly ambiguousobject. Firstly, because it is large andcomplex, and therefore itscomponents are difficult tosummarise, but secondly, and mostimportantly, because in every city andin every general idea of the city thereare two interrelated but separateobjects. One is the “visible city”,familiar to every city dweller in everyage (the exclamation Ei ten polin, “thecity is there” gave rise to the name ofIstanbul). If we show the image of acity to someone, it will immediately berecognised as such, despite the factthere is an almost infinite variety ofurban forms and typologies. But thereis another city which cannot be seen,at least not by using physicalwavelengths. This is the liveable city orthe lived-in city: the urban society orsociological city which is not only asreal as the visible one but is at thesame time both generator and productof the visible city with which it formsan inextricable whole.What kind of product then is the city,and what categories can we use todistinguish it from other complexsystems? In a short essay on theproduction of mutant organisms, thebiologist Glauco Tocchini-Valentinimakes a useful distinction between acomplex living system (whetherbacteria or human) and other complexsystems found in nature. Onlyorganisms have the key feature ofpossessing an internal description or“design”. This is the differenceWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 69

Chapter 3between organisms and environments.For example, the weather is a complexsystem that can be described by thelaws of physics and these laws allowsus to make forecasts about theevolution of the system. But we willnever be able to find a place in themeteorological system containing itsdesign. vCities are complex entities that can beclassified both as living organisms andlarge physical systems. No citypossesses a DNA automaticallyconstructing its future development,although some cities, at the time oftheir foundation, were designed anddeveloped according to a “plan”. Andthe evolution of a city cannot bedescribed by strictly physical laws,although there are structural limitswhich even the most spontaneoussettlements are forced to accept.Therefore, to understand, forecast andto a certain extent influence thechanges affecting cities, we must usetwo kinds of lenses: the lens of oureyes and an internal lens in the mind,which can only be used with the aid ofwords expressing concepts. This iswhy we must be very cautious inhandling concepts and words todescribe the sociological city and inrelating what we see to what we thinkor imagine.eGovernance. Administering thecity in the transition to the thirdstageIn examining the claims of a proposedevolution towards a “network society”,and from eGovernment toeGovernance, we must pay closeattention to various aspects:a) the connections between thevarious information systems and theircapacity to communicate and to beused for strategic endsb) the capacity, especially in theresidential use of new technologies, toprovide individuals with access toadvanced uses; here even thetechnological aspects of connectionare important – now what counts isthe “last metre” rather than the “lastmile”c) The interactive use of networktools to link people to people andcitizens to the administration.In other words, completing what wehave called the “transition to the thirdstage” (the knowledge society, i.e.following on from the society ofobjects and the society of services)requires a strong thrust in terms ofinfrastructure and support for themost innovative uses, involving thedevelopment of technical indicators tomeasure the accessibility toinformation in the field ofeGovernment.Here are some relatively little knownexamples.• The extremely successful“Internet Saloon” organised by theAssociation of Metropolitan Interestsin Milan (AIM) for elderly people wasattended by over 6,000 pensioners infour years. The participants wereWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 70

Chapter 3greatly empowered in terms of socialrelations, especially when initiallyassessed on the basis of the qualitativeobservations (more accuratequantification is still ongoing); asimilar initiative is now beingorganised in Rome.• A great deal has been writtenabout the spread of the mobiletelephone and its trivial uses; even ahigh-ranking Catholic clergyman hasspoken out against them. But almostno one knows that the infamous“mobile” has enabled deaf people(their incidence is one in a thousandon a world scale and there are 30-70,000 deaf people in Italy) to createor recreate remote communities andtherefore to establish acommunications world beyond thevisual language of signs.• In only a few years, from Seattleto Evian (1989-2003), thanks to theuse of the web, a powerful grassrootspolitical movement was created,capable of mobilising millions ofpeople through a structure typical ofthe space of flows.• The MIT has always beenconsidered a kind of intellectual“factory”, boasting that its professorswere always in their studies, which wasfairly unusual even for Americanuniversities. When the MIT introduceda very efficient wide-reaching wirelesssystem a few years ago, the professorswere suddenly no longer there. Usingthe wireless network to work with thelaptops had freed both lecturers andstudents from the “tyranny of space”.The classic spaces of the university –offices, lecture halls and libraries – alsochanged form, a laptop with a wirelessconnection was its own office.Although the system is always able toidentify a wireless entry point, ongrounds of privacy, this cannot befreely used. It requires renegotiating,which is currently ongoing, with thedevelopment of a software whichobtains approval from each individualas regards his/her availability in termsof time, modes and choice of subject.In this way a network free from thetyranny of space can be reconstructed,but only on the basis of consent, afterasking for directions from the systemas regards the availability, for example,for a meeting of members of aresearch group, also suggesting theplace, or portion of open space (whichFrank Gehry has introduced in suchabundance).This example raises the issue of dataand privacy. Bruno de Finetti, whoanticipated the problems of theinformation society as early as 1962,suggested using new technologies not“to do better or more rapidly oldoperations” but “to do new operationsfor strategic purposes”. Here greaterattention must be paid to the culture ofinformation and not only the structureof information. This strongly impliesthat the legitimate claims to protectindividual privacy must not interferewith the use for the purposes ofknowledge and exchanges ofinformation which are a commonheritage. As we saw in the MITexample, new protocols are required toregulate these new relations.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 71

Chapter 33.2 The “geography ofcreativity” and the role ofcitiesIn the 1990s many observers believedthat the enormous progress made intelecommunications and thedematerialisation of many businessactivities would have led to the “deathof distance” or “the end ofgeography” – to cite titles whichappeared at the time in majorinternational magazines like theEconomist, Fortune and some others.But in fact none of all this hashappened. The rise of the knowledgeeconomy and creativity have, on thecontrary, seen the emergence of somepowerful geographical trends: somecities and regions have experiencedvery high growth rates and a social andeconomic renascence – for example,the re-flourishing of old cities likeBoston, Chicago, New York in theUnited States or London and Paris inEurope – while others have fallen intomore or less deep decline, which theyhave great difficulty in turning round(most examples – from Pittsburgh toDetroit – are found in the UnitedStates, where the more mobilepopulation makes certain trends moreobvious).The phenomena of localisation andconcentration of resources andbusiness activities are clearly still verypronounced, but follow differentcriteria from those that haddetermined the development of someareas during the industrial age.Whereas in the past the geographicalconcentration of business activitieswas more or less linked to their beingclose to certain natural resources, rawmaterialmarkets, suppliers or otherhighly specialised producers, todaythese features no longer seemsufficient conditions. The gradualfragmentation and globalisation ofproduction processes, on one hand,and the growing preponderance ofmore intangible business activities,linked to creativity, knowledge andinnovation, on the other, haveradically reshaped the factors guidingthe concentration processes of manybusinesses. What emerges today as themost critical element in the processesof development and innovation is infact the proximity and access to avariety of forms of knowledge, ideasand highly-qualified professional skills.All this appears to be closely linked tothe presence of elements such asuniversities, research centres, advancedservices and a labour force which ismore varied, better-educated and moreinternational than that involved intraditional production processes.That is why the urban environment,capable of bringing together thefeatures of density and concentrationbut also the variety of diverse culturesand economic and social activities, isonce more playing a leading role in theprocesses of growth and development.This role had had become weaker inthe 1960s and ‘70s, when many citiesbecame grey and dirty, dominated byindustrial activities and offices,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 72

Chapter 3widespread crime and poverty. Thecities then gradually reacquired theircentral position as the economicsystem shifted its centre of gravitytowards more intangible activities andcreative and innovative processes.The city in the age of knowledgeand the rise of “creative cities”As a place in which a large number ofpeople live and work in close physicalproximity, the city is alreadyconfigured as a pool of people,activities and varied ideas that almostnaturally lends itself to being ahothouse for the creation of newideas, knowledge, interactions and theemergence of new economic andsocial combinations. This has alwaysbeen a feature of the city, but it hasonly been exploited and developed inalternating phases in the course of itshistory.Today the city’s role as a “workshopof innovation and creativity” has beenrevived thanks to world economictrends and the renewed emphasiswhich experts, politicians andadministrators give to factors such asinnovation, creation and the diffusionof new forms of knowledge,information and creativity. All theseprocesses benefit greatly from thephysical proximity and the diversitywhich the cities – and especially largecities – are able to offer. That’s whywe often hear talk today of creativeregions or creative cities.But what is a creative city? How can itbe defined, recognised or measured?And most importantly: how can wegenerate, nourish and maintain this“creativity”?For many years creative cities weredescribed ex-post: i.e. what wereidentified and studied were citieswhich in the course of history hadstood out on the grounds of theirhigh-standard artistic, cultural andintellectual production and aboutwhose creativity there was wideranging,almost unanimous agreement.On the basis of this definition, mostresearch on the subject has studiedand analysed the great creative cities ofthe past: Athens in the fifth centuryBC, Renaissance Florence, VictorianLondon and late 19th-century Paris(i.e. in the initial analysis by thephilosopher of art Hyppolite Taine in1865 up to the more recent studies byPeter Hall, collected in Cities inCivilisation, 1998).These studies help us understand thetrends and specific features of eachcity’s development and, moreover,must be credited with havinghighlighting some very importantfeatures of creativity. Firstly, theyshow how creative cities and regions,although ultimately being identifiedwith a few leading personalities orgreat works, especially over time, are,however, the fruit of a collectivecreative climate transcending theindividual and characterising the socialsystem as a whole. As MihályCsíkszentmihályi writes, creativity canonly be understood and studied byadopting a systematic approach,framing it in the social context inWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 73

Chapter 3which it is manifested and of which itis part (Csíkszentmihályi, 1996). viSecondly, the studies also highlighthow the conditions for the existenceof these “creative climates” are notfixed and unchanging, but vary andtypically dry up in time. In Cities inCivilisation Peter Hall speaks of “instant creativity” precisely to stress itschanging and transitory nature (Hall,1988).Although fascinating and rich in usefulideas, these works have a majordrawback for our purposes: they onlyidentify the creative cities ex-post onthe basis of an overall judgementconsidered to be unchallengeable (whocould argue today that RenaissanceFlorence was not creative?). Thisinconfutable definition of a creativecity is not very useful for the purposesof contemporary research. How canwe assess and recognise the creativepotential of today’s cities. How can wemanage that potential and guide theirfuture development? Such works donot help us answer these particularlyimportant questions raised by policymakers.Some more recent works tend toassess creative cities not in relation tothe results of the past, but on the basisof a set of conditions consideredcritical forms of a very different kindof creativity, more wide-ranging anddiffuse compared to some individuallyexcellent and very conspicuous artisticforms. These more diffuse expressionsof creativity range from fields such asresearch and development toinformation technologies, engineering,biotechnology, science andmultimedia.Adopting an approach of this kindmeans being able to assess the creativepotential of a city not only byacknowledging excellent outputs butalso through activities and investmentsex-ante which lead to the creation andspread of new knowledge through thepresence of important researchcentres, an innovative business fabric,and cutting-edge communicationtechnologies.The American economist, RichardFlorida, for example, suggests anapproach combining various “systemindicators” like those just mentioned.But he adds another concerning thepresence in the city of what he calls a“creative class”. The creative classincludes people engaged in nonstandardised,non-routine businessactivities in any industrial orcommercial sector and who arecontinually asked to tackle and solvenew problems and situations. They areprofessionals (architects, engineers,physicians, lawyers, researchers,scientists, computer experts etc.) butalso managers and entrepreneurs – abroad group of people which includesbut goes well beyond the stillconventionally used limited notion ofcreatives as artists, writers andmusicians (Florida, 2003).According to Florida, then, the size ofthe creative class in a city (together,obviously, with other conditions ofcontext) is one of the main indicatorsof the creative potential of a region.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 74

Chapter 3The Harvard economist EdwardGlaeser stresses, on the other hand,how the capacity to compete in thecreative economy is in fact linked tothe much wider and overall variable ofthe presence of a creative class, i.e. tothe spread of education andconcentration of well-qualified skilledpeople (Glaeser et al., 2001).In following these wider-ranging andmore holistic approaches we mightseem to have lost sight a little of therelationship with culture and thecreative industries. But that is not thecase. The creative industries play a keyrole in the processes of growth anddevelopment of cities, just as the havea very important role in thedevelopment of many creativeindustries. This double-bonded linkcan be briefly illustrated through ananalysis of two critical functions of thecity affecting the cultural and creativeindustries: consumption, on one hand,but also new forms of production, onthe other.Moreover, in addition to the creativeindustries, culture in the wider sense isstill a key element in organising morebalanced local urban developmentoriented towards the quality of thegrowth processes to be pursued. As anumber of Italian experts have written,culture becomes a platform ofaggregation and social learning whichhelps the local community to approachideas, problems, and life styles, whichare outside familiar patterns, and toengage in continuous creative dialoguewith them. Culture becomes athoroughgoing cognitive infrastructurenot only used to fill in leisure time butalso to stimulate learning andinvestment in skills. It increasinglyinforms the meaning of daily life,shapes models for the quality of life,forges visions of the future with whichthe local community dialogues in aconscious participatory way, giving riseto an “industrial atmosphere” nolonger based on a culture of theproduct but on a shared interest in theproduction and spread of knowledge(Sacco, Tavano Blessi and Nuccio,2008). viiWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 75

Chapter 33.3 Cities as places ofattraction, consumptionand socialityThe consumption of cultural goodsand activities in cities – trends andfeaturesBecause of their high concentration ofpeople in a relatively small space, citieshave always been important places fortrading and consumption processes.But these aspects have often beenneglected by the academic literature,especially in economics, which hasusually dealt more with the advantagesthat urban agglomerations brought forcertain production activities (Glaeser,Kolko and Saiz, 2001).Only in recent years have someeconomists acknowledged theimportance and the influence ofconsumer activities on urban dynamicsand the processes of regionaldevelopment. This discovery hasmainly been due to the extraordinarygrowth in specific consumptionprocesses which have little to do withtraditional goods and products but arerelated to intangible services andgoods and to cultural and creativeactivities.The growth in consumption linked tocreative, recreational and culturalactivities has been most oftenmonitored and studied in cities such asLondon, New York and Toronto. Thesame trend is also found in Italy,however, where the consumption ofmany recreational and culturalactivities has constantly grown overthe last 15 years.In addition to constant growth, another interesting feature of theconsumption of cultural, creative andrecreational activities is itsconcentration in the cities, andespecially the large or medium to largecities. Typically studied and analysed ina number of countries, this feature hasemerged in a very similar way also inItaly.By referring to SIAE figures on theconsumption of performing arts inItalian cities, divided according toprovincial capitals (which are usuallymedium to large cities and includeregional capitals, like Rome, Milan,Naples, etc.) and all the other townsand villages, we can analyse how theconsumption of performing arts isdistributed between these two types ofcities and towns. The survey shows thelevel of concentration of performancesin provincial capitals to be very high(for example, 64% of classical musicconcerts take place in provincialcapitals and only 36% percent in theremaining towns). But the figures areeven more significant in terms of thenumber of consumers and especially interms of money spent by audiences. Inthe same example of classical music:with 64% of all concerts in theprovincial capitals, we find 80% ofconcert-goers nationwide and as muchas 87% of the overall nationalspending on concerts.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 76

Chapter 3This means that consumption ofculture and creative activities isconcentrated in the medium to largesizedcities. We must also highlightanother feature: i.e. that the greaterconsumption in the larger urbancontexts is not simply a question ofhigher population density, but agreater inclination of people to spendon this kind of activity (probably alsodue to the higher quality and valueadded of the performances and higherpersonal incomes). The averagespending on shows per inhabitant inprovincial capitals is several timesgreater than the sum spent byinhabitants in smaller towns. Forexample, in the case of theatre, theaverage spending per inhabitant in thesmaller towns is just under 1 euro peryear, whereas in the provincial capitalsthe equivalent figure is almost 7 euros,i.e. seven times greater (elaboration ofSIAE data, Quaderni dello spettacolo,2005).These figures, although only a roughguide, do demonstrate how cities areable to create and maintain marketconditions so that the creativeindustries can develop and prosperboth quantitatively and qualitatively.The cities and the new creativeclassesThe presence of many varied culturaland recreational activities is importantnot only because of their generaleconomic impact on consumption, butalso for their effect on some socialprocesses in the city, as well as theattraction they exercise over somespecific categories of people orcategories of professionals.Access to cultural and recreationalactivities helps make the urbanenvironment particularly attractive forpeople with higher levels of education(Glaeser et al., 2001), and especiallythose people involved in intellectualand creative activities; in short, theabove-mentioned creative class. Andsince these categories are the mostcritical for the development andgrowth of a place, the capacity toattract and keep them becomes astrategic objective for every city orregion.We must stress, however, that thecapacity of places with a highconcentration of amenities to attractcreatives and highly skilled people isnot only linked to recreational andconsumption elements, but also to thesocial and economic value that thesefeatures take on for that category ofpeople. In fact a high-density and widevariety of cultural activities offers theopportunity to come into contact withpeople with similar and/orcomplementary interests, objectivesand backgrounds. These encounterspotentially give rise to new ideas, newcombinations of forms of knowledgeand new opportunities for professionalgrowth (Currid, 2007). viiiThis is also one of the reasons why themovements and geographicaldistribution of the better educatedpopulation and the creative classfollow very specific trends, such as thetendency to greater geographicalWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 77

Chapter 3concentration compared to theaverage population (Tinagli, 2008). ixFor example, of the 360 metropolitanareas in the United States, seven alonebring together as much as 25% of allAmerican talents: New York, Chicago,Boston, Seattle, Washington, Atlantaand San Francisco. x In Sweden, thetop-ranking country for allclassifications of innovation andcompetitiveness, around 60% of thecreative class and 70% of all artists livein the three regions of Stockholm,Gothenburg and Malmö (Tinagli et al.,2007). xi3.4 Cities as places ofproductionanddisseminationThanks to their capacity to attract andmix people with different backgroundsand with growing consumption needslinked to culture and creativity, citiesalso encourage the development of allthose productions in which thecreative, human and cultural elementhave a predominant role: from musicto theatre, the visual arts, cinema butalso fashion, design and all thoseprocesses using and developingcultural goods (e.g. museum systems).As Peter Hall (1998) wrote on thesubject of recreational and culturalactivities which individuals seek in thecity:Culture, creativity and beauty areincreasingly becoming elements ofvalue – not only cultural but alsoeconomic and developmental value –and sources of new forms ofenterprise and entire industrial sectors.That is why understanding howcreative industries are organisedgeographically and how theirdevelopment is related to somespecific features of the urban contextis an important element when wecome to devise growth strategies forthese sectors. Below we sum up andillustrate some general features of thegeographical distribution ofproduction activities linked to thecreative industries.1) The creative industries leastconnected with manufacturingactivities, such as advertising andbranding, the creation of software andcomputer services, or film, areparticularly highly concentrated andunevenly distributed geographically.Thus, for example, of the 103 Italianprovinces only nine have filmconception and production activitiesof any importance (i.e. with over 100people employed in the wholeprovince).Publicity and marketing, althoughmore substantial and widespread thanfilm activities, show a similar trend:51% of all jobs in conception andproduction activities in this sector areconcentrated in only four provinces(Milan, Turin, Rome and Bologna).2) Moreover, in these creativeindustries less closely linked totraditional manufacturing activitiesthere is a very sharp trend toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 78

Chapter 3concentrate in larger and denser urbanzones, i.e. in provincial capitals ratherthan in the rest of the province.3) The situation, on the other hand,is more complex and multifaceted forthose creative industries in which, onthe contrary, the production phaseinvolves major traditionalmanufacturing industries, such asfashion or material culture. In thesesectors the geographical localisationappears to be more widely distributed,less dense and less closely linked tolarge urban centres. But this is onlytrue in aggregate form. If we look atthe geographical distribution of thevarious stages, we note that theconceptual stage of ideation anddesign is distributed throughout thecountry in a much more uneven waythan production activities (in thewhole of Italy, only around 20provinces have significant conceptionand design activities linked to fashion)and they tend to be more concentratedin the bigger cities than the otherstages.The message is that the conceptionand design stage is much more highlyconcentrated than the productionstages in the provincial capital (onaverage around 40% of peopleinvolved in design are concentrated inthe provincial capital as opposed to18% of those in the production stage).We must stress that this “urbanconcentration” is, however, less thanthat recorded for the moredematerialised sectors mentioned atpoints 1 and 2. This demonstrates thatthe relationship between design andproduction in sectors with a strongmanufacturing component is howevera powerful bond, often presupposingthe physical proximity of design toproduction and not only to themarkets of human resources and endproducts.4) Marketing activities for all thecreative industries, from fashion todesign, advertising and film show acertain concentration in urbancontexts, which obviously offer muchgreater physical proximity to the endmarkets.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 79

Chapter 33.5 Beyond production andconsumption: how tocultivate “creative milieus”As some experts argue, cities with thegreatest cultural traditions are notalways the most creative, just as citiesin which creative industries are mostdeveloped may not be the mostcreative (Hall,1998; Pratt, 1987).There can be periods in the history ofa city in which culture does not findthe right social and economic climateto nourish effective creative processes,just as there can be times whenindustries which have developedround given cultural and creativeproducts lose their roots and deepestsources of inspiration and of creativeregeneration.Although cultural tradition and marketconditions are two major factors forany creative city, the existence andcontinuity of creative processes in alocal urban context also depend onother factors which contribute togenerate what in the late 1970s theSwedish scholar Gunnar Tornqvistdescribed as a “creative milieu”.But what are the main features of acreative milieu and, most importantly,what contributes to its continuousrenewal?According to Tornqvist’s definition, acreative milieu is characterised by fourmain elements: a) the presence ofinformation transmitted betweenindividuals; b) knowledge, whichconsists in the ways in which thisinformation is absorbed by people; c)people’s skills; d) creativity, or the wayin which previous elements recombineand interact (Tornqvist, 1993).This very broad and in some waystautological definition raises thepractical issue of how to create suchmultiform conditions.There are many elaborate suggestionsand interpretations. Tornqvist stressesthe role of the size and diversity ofcities (which encourage the exchangeof ideas and information); AkeAndersson places the accent on whathe defines as “structural instability”,i.e. a condition of uncertainty andunpredictability which stimulates thecreative process and brings people toconfront new paradigms (1985).xiiPeter Hall, on the other hand, throughan analysis of the creative cities of thepast, lists a series of common featuresof such places, from size to wealth andcosmopolitanism (Hall, 1988).Despite the various nuances anddifferences found in studies on thesubject, one element emerges as beingfundamental in all approaches: thediversity and coexistence of variegatedcultures, styles and backgrounds. Wealso found this aspect in more recentapproaches, such as that of RichardFlorida, who argues that creativecommunities are characterised notonly by the presence of talent andadvanced technologies, but also byopen, tolerant social contexts (Florida,2002).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 80

Chapter 3Cultural openness towards differentpeople and ideas is a crucial element incultivating and sustaining creativeclimates: it is above all externalinfluences that drive existing contextsto compare with others and regeneratecontinually, thus impeding thefossilisation of rules and habits whicheventually become obsolete and stiflecreativity. As Peter Hall pointed out inhis study on past examples, at theheight of their creativity andsplendour, all the great creative citieswere cosmopolitan and attractedtalents from every corner of the world.They were places where differentworlds and forms of knowledgecrossed over and blended.3.6 Risks and dilemmas forcreative citiesThe rise and development ofincreasingly creative cities attractinggrowing numbers of highly skilledpeople is not without dangers andnegative effects which can often leavecities facing major dilemmas on thestrategies to be pursued.Both academic research and practicalbusiness experience teach us thaturban renewal, high attractiveness andthe presence of a flourishing marketfor cultural and recreational activitiesmay end up producing undesiredeffects.1) Firstly, the presence of amenitiesand a high attractiveness inevitablytend to push up house prices (a linkagebetween the presence of a creativeclass, talents, high immigration andhigh house prices has beendemonstrated both in the UnitedStates and in some Europeancountries). This phenomena may pushout of the city some key players in theurban creative processes, such asyoung people, artists or universitystudents, thus undermining thecapacity to nourish creativity throughnew ideas and crossovers.2) The renewal process and risingprices tend to encourage the processesof “gentrification”, which oftenstandardises the social fabric (and attime also the aesthetic andarchitectural feel) of many quarters,thus diminishing their authenticity andinnovative thrust.3) Lastly, the gradually splitting of thecreative élites – i.e. those who manageto find mechanisms for social andeconomic recognition – from thegroups who remain excluded from thecreative economy, not onlyundermines the very foundations ofdevelopment and long-term creativeprocesses, but may generate dangeroussocial tensions and exacerbate regionalproblems and difficulties in managingthe relationship between the creativecentre and the increasingly excludedperipheries.Some of these aspects of have alreadybeen observed and analysed by thetheoreticians of the creative economy(Florida, 2002, 2005) and other expertswho have highlighted the limits ofone-dimensional developmentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 81

Chapter 3strategies focused exclusively onattracting “external” resources andtalents (Sacco, Tavano Blessi andNuccio, 2008).The latter approach highlights how theharmonious growth of a city oftenrequires multidimensional strategieswhich begin from or move on from itsattractiveness, followed oraccompanied, however, by othermeasures to encourage processes ofsocial inclusion and capability building(along the lines of the approachelaborated and made famous by Nobelprize-winner Amartya Sen). Indeedmany of the creative cities in theUnited States became success storiesthanks to their capacity for combiningdiverse strategies.Among the examples cited, we findAustin, the capital of Texas “which isgaining a growing status as an‘enlightened city’ founded on anexemplary trajectory in which the firststage of attracting talent and resourceseffectively played a pre-eminent role.The second stage was then based onsocial inclusion and capability buildingintroduced to avoid the creativegentrification of the city ending uptransforming it into a ghetto for therich. Other cities like Linz, in Austria,or Vancouver in Canada, successfullycompletely rethought their industrialpast, giving life to container systemsfor creative industry in which culturalinnovation and technologicalinnovation gave rise to increasinglyradical and unpredictable synergies.Other cities, like Denver in Colorado,or Gateshead (Newcastle) in the UK,gambled on training and motivatingresidents as a strategy for building alocal base of profitable demand for theopportunities of cultural andeducational services. In the space of adecade they became models of newknowledge societies, capable ofreconciling economic growth with thequality of life” (Sacco, Tavano Blessiand Nuccio, 2008).The challenge of creative cities,therefore, is to find a balance which,on one hand, supports developmentand the acknowledgement of creativeforms, the value of culture and itsexploitation, but on the otherguarantees the conditions for thecontinuous regeneration of the“creative” urban ecosystem made upof diversity and crossovers.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 82

Chapter 33.7 Concluding remarks :Italian cities as a model ofcreativityIf the cities are once more playing aleading role in the new economicsystem thanks to their ability not onlyto attract talents but to be great livelyworkshops in general, bringingtogether history, beauty, culture andideas, then Italian cities could reallyrepresent a model of creativity and bean example for the world. But justhow far is this really the case?The Italian cities definitely have somemajor features which make them animportant asset for the whole countryand a model for others. We can pointto three of their most obviousstrengths.1) The existence of a host of historiccentres and strong urban identities,which can be traced back to themediaeval social structure of theItalian communes. Cities in othercountries, such as the United States,struggle to reconstruct this system andcultural atmosphere in their attemptsto renew urban centres which wereemptied of inhabitants and stripped ofidentity in the 1960s and 1970s.2) Italian cities’ enormous artisticand architectural heritage enables themto rely on a very strong elements of“attraction” and thus in a certain sensethey have a head start.3) Very tightly bound socialcontexts, as celebrated by many Italianand foreign sociologists, provide theopportunity to develop successfulsystems of small businesses andcultural districts.However, alongside these assets, thereare also difficulties and problemsreflecting a general situation in whichmany of our companies lag behind inestablishing themselves on theinternational competitive scene. Thesedifficulties require thought and action.As analysed in greater detail below, theenormous heritage of Italy’s cities andtowns have given rise tofragmentation, parochialism andconflicts of power rather than translateinto attractiveness and trigger offeconomic innovation. Consequently,what has emerged is a system ofseparate “islands”, each with its ownresources and important heritage butalso with limits which alone theycannot overcome. The two mostalarming consequences of this systemare of an economic–functional typeand a social-cultural type (Tinagli,2008).From the economic and functionalpoint of view, the need for today’scities to deliver a certain quantity –and quality – of services andopportunities for consumption,recreation and cultural activitiesinevitably requires a certain criticalmass, which the small to mediumsizedtowns (i.e. most Italian urbansettlements) struggle to achieve. Thisproblem makes the capacity to coordinateactivities with neighbouringWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 83

Chapter 3towns critical and points to the needto start thinking of planning no longerin terms of thousands of isolated smallcentres but as regions and areasoperating in a synchronised andfunctional fashion (Florida, 2006; xiiiTinagli, 2008).From the socio-cultural point of view,problems arise from the socialstructure of the myriad of small townscharacterising the Italian countryside.On one hand, they have theadvantages of compact, tightly boundcommunities but, on the other, oftenend up becoming worlds closed off tooutside influences. This closureprevents the renewal of ideas, andgenerational and interculturalexchanges. The younger and moredynamic inhabitants feel trapped andare driven to seek their fortuneelsewhere.Moreover, the limited size of the socialand economic context makes itdifficult for creative young people tocome into contact with markets andthe demand for talent and creativity,which would provide them with theopportunity to develop personally andprofessionally.The multiple aspects involved ingenerating and cultivating “creativemilieus” (many are specifically linkedto the local territory) make designingand implementing effective made-tomeasurepolicies on a “national” scaleparticularly complicated.In general, we should seek the greatestpossible co-ordination betweennational and local policies, and optimalsynergies between different kinds ofaction which will affect fields rangingfrom town planning to social cohesionand cultural, industrial and businesspolicies.Lastly, given the specific features ofthe Italian context and its cities andthe creative industries in general, thefollowing possible actions andmeasures have been proposed (theywill be dealt with again at greaterlength in the Final Recommendations):1) set up Local Agencies for Creativityto co-ordinate the efforts andinvestments of public and privatestakeholders in socio-economicinitiatives2) create public and private funds topromote creative activities in the fieldof culture3) create an interactive informationsystem at national level to encouragecollaboration and exchange ofexperiences between businesses,entrepreneurs, and creative workers4) develop cultural goods and thepotential of historic centres and createa special programme aimed not only atenhancing the decor and attractivenessof cities but also their liveability,functionality and connectedness withthe surrounding territory so as toencourage the gradual developmentnot only of individual cities but also ofwhole well co-ordinated functionalareas.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 84

Part II

Part IIContemporary material culture:towards a theory of goodsGoods in the cultural and creative industries are systematically personalised because oftheir ascriptive features. This make them anomalous for markets with perfectcompetition but ideal as goods for non-competitive markets with continuously growingprofits.The transition from manufacturing and mass processing of raw materials to theintangible procedure of producing ideas, designs and information has generatedenormous potential for attracting consumers. The symbolic content of goods offer thepossibility to create segments and niche markets enabling producers to consolidate“brand loyalty” and thus make most of their profit from the end consumer. Producerswho lead the way in global competition will very likely stay ahead because of theabsence of falling yields in their production sectors.The market leaders’ distinctiveness and dominant position are the main feature of thecultural and creative industries, whose products are laden with specific identities, whichdivert consumers and producers from making rational choices based on cost and price.As we will see, what makes the success of a product can be a symbolic detail, a mimeticpossibility or an interpersonal relation and other more market-specific characteristics.The category of contemporary material culture goods is vast and of anthropologicalderivation. It embraces all goods which man has created and produced to make hisnatural habitat less hostile and more comfortable: from the first wooden ladle andobsidian arrow tips to the Ferrari Testarossa and the latest Armani suit.Let us take fashion as an initial example. Fashion companies are increasingly turning toconsumers not only to satisfy their needs. In fact, by soliciting consumer taste, theyreplace needs with desires and appeal to sensations, the features of taste and semioticaspects acquire a much greater significance compared to the standard characteristics ofeconomic goods. Even a fairly superficial look at the fashion market highlightsphenomena not found to such a great extent for other goods: e.g. information cascades,herd behaviour, the importance of opinion leaders, the role of experts, the lack of logicbetween manufacturing costs and prices, the importance of images, communicationsand references to the cultural heritage.The following list is not exhaustive, but sufficiently detailed to justify the premise thatwe are truly dealing with very special goods.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 86

Part IISymbolic goodsThere is no rationality (ratio, calculation) without knowledge (cognitio). We have emotion,myths, plagiarism, generosity, symbolic belonging, chance and risk. Without knowledge,there can be no economic calculation of the costs and benefits of an action. Butproducing and using knowledge has its own costs.A symbol is created when a vehicle of communication, the object, is not what appears,but the sign of something else. A symbol or sign, according to Peirce’s definition, is“something that stands for something else to someone else” and is recognised not bygathering information about it (the signifier) or about something else replacing it (thesignified), but by the impression left on the onlooker. The symbol is something withwhich we identify. The process of identification transcends the costs of informationabout the attributes of the goods.Symbols influence behaviour because social actors react to the symbols they attribute toobjects. In this sense, symbols guide actions. Symbols reinforce shared beliefs andcommon feelings of members of a community and therefore by extension, alsoinfluence all sorts of consumption behaviour, when consumption becomes ritual.The symbolic component comes through in various fields. The meaning of identifyingsymbolically with a celebrity or a narrative, a ritual object, or an artistic, musical,figurative and audiovisual movement is clear. But the meaning of identifying with aconsumer good is less direct. Identifying with means belonging to. And acknowledginga designer object as a sign of belonging to a culture, a lifestyle or a way of producingexistential meaning is a comprehensible process. The identifying symbol is a kind ofperfectly-fitting shell around the object, invisible or transparent, but capable ofreflecting self images in a loved and desired world.As for the good itself, what counts is its capacity to transmit a sign containingimportant information but with no information costs for the recipients. Consumers arepersuaded to make the decision to purchase because a symbolic good has seducedthem. There is no need to gauge the quality or quantitative content. What Umberto Ecosays, elaborating Huizinga on the Mediaeval mindset, can also be applied to modernconsumers seduced by identity-giving symbolic goods:“Interestingly, the symbolist mentality was part of the Mediaeval way of thinking. It usually proceededaccording to a genetic interpretation of real processes, according to a chain of cause and effect. There wastalk of a short-circuit of the spirit, of thought, which does not seek the relation between two thingsfollowing the spirals of their causal connections, but by making a brusque leap, as a relationship ofsignified and aim” (Eco, 1984).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 87

Part IIThe symbolic dimension and its capacity to capture and seduce the consumer’s spirit byidentifying the spirit with the message it represents, distances fashion goods from theparadigm of the rational consumer. The presence of a symbol modifies the classic termsof trade. Not only trade based on the rationality of the mechanism of prices andoptimisation of profits, but trade presupposing an emotional and identity-giving choice,made independently of the calculation of the costs and benefits of an action.Time-specific and space-specific goodsThe economic behaviour of the market is, as we said, basically founded on non-specifictimeless and spaceless goods. The market thus becomes an imperfect institution, as forexample, when it has to regulate goods based on creativity, such as fashion, design andart goods. The more a good is time- and space-specific, the less the market worksefficiently in regulating production and consumption. The more the good is time-andspace-specific, the less the system of prices is able to offer relevant information and theless likely competition can achieve the expected results.The reference to space/time inevitably takes us to the successive generations of artistsand talents in given cities and areas. In fact many of the modern material culture goodsare generational goods. The creativity of a generation of stylists is expressed in the timeand space defined by a period or place or city. This anchoring to the generations andtheir evolution prefigures, as we will see, the problem of generational changeover asone of the great issues in the world of fashion and design.Goods with semiotic characteristics: signs from matterMaterial culture goods increasingly have semiotic features. In addition to their directutility linked to the substantial features of a good, they also have an indirect utility assemiophoric goods, i.e. carriers of meaning.The demand from clothing is primarily linked to the features of clothes as comfortable,light, resistant or aesthetic. We can immediately point out, however, that these criteria,especially if aesthetic, change in time. Moreover, alongside aesthetic features, or inrelation to them, are features expressing meanings. Nike shoes are not only useful asfootwear but signify that I am young, trendy, informal and informed and they havebeen designed to communicate these meanings. The demand for fashion is a demandfor symbol and meaning, more than simply for practical clothing. Moreover, in oursocieties, the need for meaning may be more important than that for function –especially in the case of food or clothing – without this being a reason for considering itas a perverse or artificial demand.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 88

Part IIMaterial culture goods as mimetic goodsThe elimination of information costs because of shared conventions is a phenomenonfound in imitative behaviour. The new cathedrals of consumption attract families as ifin a modern rite, repeated without calculation or questioning. The large shoppingcentres and theme parks are chosen and “consumed” primarily for their symbolic value,then if they have discriminating features, for the upmarket effect; if they havecompetitive prices, for economic reasons; and if they become fashionable, for thebandwagon effect.Mimetism, or “doing what others do”, is not only a way of reducing the costs ofseeking information about the quality of products, it is a means of choosing to enter asocial group of people, who, for example, light up their houses according to the latestdictates of Milan design, or drink renowned wines, or dress according to the latestfashion.Goods jointly produced by producer and consumerThe skills of many people are involved in making in material culture products: stylists,designers, chefs and winemaking experts who construct the symbolic values, thedesigners who research new materials and technologies, experts in marketingexperiences, makers of media images and consumers.The participation of the consumer in production is particularly obvious in the fashionsector. The consumer takes part in production, both for the initial input and the endconsumption, in many ways, such as by assembling typical streetwise clothes andthrough innovation and functionality and original reuses of varied pieces of clothing.Relational goods: from the individual to the groupMaterial cultural goods are also relational goods. The latest trend in fashion, design andcuisine is not decreed by an isolated individual. Trends are social phenomena. Thedemand for fashion or designer objects is a demand for a social symbol, which cannotbe affirmed a priori, but will only be sanctioned at the end of a specific process. A goodwill be in demand not because it is considered a fashion good, but because the contextwe live in and in which the good will be used considers it to be a fashion good.Fashion goods are relational goods, as are distinction goods. Individual judgements oftaste are part of the social classifications of goods. Luxury goods or Veblen goods arebought by the customer because they are expensive or rather demand for them riseswith increases in price. They are a case of conspicuous consumption mainly found inthe category of elite luxury goods, such as dream cars and jewellery.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 89

Part IIMaterial culture goods as goods of belonging: from generality to identityIn societies of individuals, tastes not only express the socialisation of individuals, butalso their individualisation and therefore their specific identity, which distinguishesthem from all other members of society. In addition to the demand for socialdistinction and social identity there is also a demand for individual distinction andindividual identity (Barrère and Santagata, 2005). This endows the individual-goodrelationship with an idiosyncratic character.Material culture and experience goodsExperience is our emotive and cognitive relation with the world and it takes place in aspecific context. Places act both as the settings for experience and the contexts giving itsignificance. And places may naturally either be physical or virtual.The economic importance of experience arises from the simple realisation that thevalue added of a product today is increasingly less linked to the functional dimensionand more to the capacity to evoke unique and memorable experiences. A positiveexperience thus justifies the extra price paid by the consumer, strengthens brand loyalty(the consumer wishes to relive a memorable experience) and above all it encouragesword-of-mouth, a fundamental form of viral marketing.Moreover, experience places consumers at the centre, giving them a “name” and “role”.Lastly, in a world with information overload, the only effective information will be thatpromising interesting and pleasant experiences. Since today the only truly limitedresource is attention, we tend only to grasp those information items which promisepositive experiences.Each product or service must therefore convey to the consumer a memorable retellableexperience. Often the reason we wish to experience something is to be able torecount it to friends, share it with others, possibly even eliciting a little envy.Designing a (positive) experience means creating its functional aspects (services andcontent) to meet specific practical needs (which can be made explicit) or a deep desirethat has not yet emerged but can be identified through specific techniques (e.g. socalledethnographic observation). But it also means creating symbolic emotionalactivators able to spread usability and conjure up profound – almost archetypal –images creating an exciting, all-embracing and memorable experience.Conventions of quality and material culture goodsFor contemporary material culture goods, the appreciation of quality evolves in timebecause it refers to values, interpretative codes and the appreciation of exogenousWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 90

Part IIobjects. In short, quality depends on conventions dictated by a few leading players onthe market in question.For fashion goods, quality is not independent of the good–valuer relationship and isbuilt on the goods–individual–community relationship. It is not exhausted in thediscovery of pre-existing quality, precisely fixed a priori, but depends on a judgement madeby consumers or users and this takes us into an economy of non-objective quality, withidiosyncratic features.For industrial design goods, conventions of quality are defined by a system assessed byinternationally recognised awards, such as the Compasso d’oro or specialised reviews, suchas Domus Academy, Abitare or Habitat and a system of implicit hierarchies defined by theclose circle of designers occupying the centre of the cultural space of design. Obviously,conventions of quality select promising young designers.The “Parkerization” of wine is a good example of the evolution of a dominant socialtaste. Parker’s modern American taste calls into question the aristocratic English tasteunderlying the 1855 classification of wine. By giving points, Parker drives sales up andcreates standardised tastes based on his own, which in turn are in line with those of thenew American consumers.There are very few sectors in which the “Italia” brand continues to be a universallyrecognised leader, apart from some cuisine and wine productions and to some extentfarm and food productions. In the international collective imagination, Italian food andItalian wine are often depicted as a kind of gift of nature, rather than the result of a longproduction process with very precise geographical roots, but also a great capacity tocombine these roots with innovation in a system dominated by the creative component.Goods based on taste“Taste goods” are those in which the aesthetic and sensorial quality dominate, theclassic example being food and wine.The taste industries, i.e. those industries supplying goods whose characteristics arefundamentally based on individual aesthetic and sensorial preferences or taste in thewidest sense, such as fashion, gastronomy, or the farm and food industry (wineproducts, cheese, etc.), are now undergoing structural transformations. The widening ofthe market has enabled suppliers of taste goods to increase production up to mass scale,changing the costs, the number of retail distributors and so on. You can buy a highqualitybottle of wine or a dish prepared by a top-notch chef, like Gualtiero Marchesi, ina supermarket in any corner of the world.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 91

Part IIGoods based on taste belong to the category of cultural goods, even though the socialand therefore cultural dimension of taste is usually – as ethnologists, historians andsociologists have demonstrated – concealed by a process of the “naturalisation” oftaste.The taste of food – deemed to be closest to nature and instinct – is the easiest todescribe as an objective fact (taste), which perception would merely seem to register,more or less according to how refined the taste is (just as a deaf people do not perceivesounds, because they hear badly or partially). Taste certainly has objective dimensions (adish is either salted or not salted) and there are innate perceptions (a baby will refusesalted, acid or bitter food). But overall perception is developed partly through learningand partly through heritage, culture and conventions. It appeals to sensations andemotions but also to reason: it is social and cultural.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 92

Chapter 4Michelangelo Pistoletto “Love Difference, Mar Mediterraneo” 2003-2005Mirror and wood, 738 x 320 cmIn the exhibition Voltjeti Razlike/Amare le differenze, Zagreb 2007Photograph: D. Fabijanic

Chapter 4Chapter 4Design and material culture: an Italian blend4.1 Towards a definition ofdesignSetting limits to the area of enquirywhen discussing design is rathercomplex, partly because designactivities easily overlap into othersectors such as art, fashion, advertisingor communications. We must firstattempt to understand what we intendto study under the word “design”,given that there are many, varieddefinitions of this term (KEA, 2006,UK, 2007). We must also explain whywe wish to associate design productionin Italy with material culture, thusbringing together design productionand those craft-type productionswhich draw on the tangible andintangible cultural heritagecharacterising our local areas, andwhich, as we will try to show, is aspecifically Italian feature.Design and its underlying creativecomponent are certainly a key asset inthe production of post-industrialeconomies, since quality and theunique nature of the productconstitute the variables which providea yardstick of competitiveness oninternational markets, along withtechnology and price. We can think ofdesign simply as an aesthetic-typeintervention aimed at differentiating amass product by identifying thosefeatures which do not affect thefunction of a good, but only the waythe consumer uses it, i.e. the symbolicvalues and the suggestion of anemotional message that the designconveys. In this case design works as ameans of horizontal differentiation ofmass production. In contexts in whichprice competition is a unsuccessfullong-term corporate strategy,differentiation contributes toidentifying specific market segmentsand enables firms to increase theirprofit margins by taking part ofconsumers’ surplus.This kind of design and innovationdoes not necessarily concern theproduct itself but can emerge in thecommunications campaign built uparound the product and/or serviceactivities, seen both as kinds ofaccessory services and as selecteddistribution channels giving a productextra value on the market. Forexample, Flou, a leading Italianmanufacturer of beds and bedroomWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 94

Chapter 4accessories has built up the image ofthe product by launching it at themedium to high segment of themarket by selecting authorised dealers,integrating downstream and openingsingle-brand showrooms. Flou thussupplies not a simple product but aproduct-system, in this case the mainproduct and a line of matchingbedroom accessories.But conceiving of design only as theshaping of the image and relatedservices of a product (i.e. theintangible aspects) – although certainlyreflecting more closely current trends,especially given the great changes inthe design disciplines, driven also bytechnological changes – betrays theoriginal meaning of design: theconception of an idea that is to beimplemented by an action. Inindustrial design this means making anobject, a product which lends itself tomass production. The activity ofindustrial design may be the onlydesign action for a product, or theinitial action which is then associatedwith the design of communicationsand related services. In the case, forexample, of the many companiesoperating in the household furnishingssector (furniture, lighting, bathroomfittings) such as Artemide, Flos orFlou, the communications and servicesdesign are associated with work onnew product catalogues, developedthanks to the collaboration of externaldesigners commissioned to createindividual works which will belaunched on the market with twodistinctive signs: the company brandand the individual “signature” of thedesigner, who is usually already wellestablished.We can distinguish three categories ofdesign contributing to the elaborationof a product system:• Product design, which includesthe conception of the product,whether industrial or craft in nature; inthe fashion sector it is carried out byfashion designers, stylists, orcouturiers, who create their line of topfashion and make special productionlines on request from the big chainstores.• Communications design, whichincludes the graphic artists working onthe product’s graphic look and relateddocuments, including multimedia, webdesign, and designers involved inpublishing the product in specialisedreviews or popular press.• Services design, which includesconsulting on interior design,environmental design, the organisationof events and exhibitions which arethe crucial end point in thisproduction system; in the case, forexample, of interior design, thedesigner brings together all the endconsumer’s requirements, thusoptimising the use of householdfurnishing products (furniture,lighting, tiles, etc.).All of these categories are involved inthe designer’s more general role as anintegrator of skills. According to theoverall definition made by the ItalianIndustrial Design Association –Associazione per il DisegnoIndustriale (ADI) founded in 1956 –“[industrial] design is a system whichWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 95

Chapter 4brings together production and usersby engaging in research, innovationand engineering, to endow goods andservices distributed on the market withfunctionality, social value and culturalmeaning.”The specialised designers mentionedabove are involved in reaching thisobjective, even though they requiredifferent skills, which can hardly befound in a single professional figurewho must have the know-how tocombine the requirements of the endconsumer with products already on themarket (interior design) or to interpretand summarise in graphics themessage a company and its productswish to convey (communicationsdesigner), or even how to anticipateconsumer requirements and, thanks toa baggage of interdisciplinaryknowledge, deliver goods or serviceswhich are innovative in their externalaspect but also in terms of functionscreated. They achieve this, if necessary,by resorting to new materials and newbuilding techniques (product designer).This know-how must inevitably beacquired in suitable training paths. Butit is often also the outcome ofinteractions between designersworking at different stages of theproduct system and interactionsbetween designers and other playersinvolved in the production processwho, purposefully or unwittingly, playa part in innovation, which is theninterpreted by the industrial designerand product designer.We wish to dwell on the productdesigner in this chapter, leaving asidethe fashion designer, partly becausethis kind of design highlights moreclearly the relationship with thematerial culture of a local area. In acontext of district-type industrialdevelopment as found in Italy, inwhich the innovative process iswidespread and draws on very deeproots and the identity of places, somevery significant problems of analysisarise. In particular it is difficult todefine the size of the design sector inItaly: in fact we can opt only to includein this category design studios, i.e. allthose individual or collectivebusinesses whose main activity isdesign, (this was the criterion used bythe UK Department for Culture, Sportand Media in its Report of 2007), butthis will not represent the full extent ofthe situation, or we can extend thecategory to include the overalleconomic data for businesses insectors which we might describe asbeing highly creative and which in Italywill coincide with most of the socalled“Made in Italy” or export-drivensectors. The economic figure willcertainly be too high, but as far as theItalian situation is concerned, we willtry to demonstrate that this secondsolution is preferable.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 96

Chapter 44.2 The roots of ItaliandesignA large number of varied players areinvolved in the success of Italiandesign. Most people agree that productdesign in particular includesprofessionals who come into theofficial category of designers on thegrounds of their training and work inspecialised studios. But product designalso involves a whole series ofoperators who do not simplyimplement design concepts but activelytake part in shaping prototypes. We canthus argue that there are twooperational segments in the sector:outright design and effective design(Maffei and Simonelli, 2002).These two market segments includeplayers with various degrees ofawareness of their role and localised indifferent ways in the country. The firstcategory, the designers – the“professionals” – are mainly localisedin a few very large urban areas. Thesecond category, craftsmen andtechnicians, are the tangible expressionof the wealth of the Italian district-typeareas and therefore work inneighbouring small to medium-sizedcities, typical of the Italian districts.The complementarity of these twocategories constitutes the idiosyncraticaspect of Italian design. Design did notactually come into being in Italy but inthe northern European countries,which had been industrialised earlier. Itspread to Italy in the early decades ofthe 20th century paradoxically thanksto the fact that our industrialisationprocess was not very far advanced.What might have seemed a limit in thematrix of Italian design, “an objectwithout an industry” (Brusatin, 2007)became one of its strengths, becausedesign developed and was implementedthanks to the fundamental contributionof highly skilled craftsmen deeplyrooted in the local territory, eventhough lacking high standards ofeducation. Their intenseindustriousness led them to make notonly prototypes but very often also toexperiment with innovative solutions interms of material and morphology. Allof this was done either in agreementwith the project creator orindependently for purely emulative andcompetitive purposes.Last, we might argue schematically thatthere are two categories of players (ortwo places) in which design productionis organised: design of communicationsand services (in metropolitan culturaldistricts) and product design (mainlyconducted in some industrial districtareas) with specific problems for whichdifferent solutions must be found.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 97

Chapter 44.3 Design in themetropolitan culturaldistrictsIndividual or associated design studios(increasingly more frequent because ofthe need to use an ever broader rangeof special skills) are highly concentratedin the big cities. In Italy the designsystem is still mainly identified withMilan for a number of reasons:• Greater national andinternational visibility. A major city isa showcase not only for products butalso for the people who invent them.This aspect is particularly important inthe current stage of the globalisationnot only of goods but also of services.We can define the supply labourmarket as an international market withthe typical characteristics of art labourmarkets: a surplus of labour supplywith particularly rewarding prospectsespecially in terms of remuneration andgratification, but only achieved by alimited number of big names orsuperstars. Just as in the fashion sector,design studios need to be localised inplaces where they can acquire therelational capital required to make aname for themselves and beappreciated.• Variety or scope economies. Ingeneral they are a feature of large cities.The greater ease with which differentideas spread, are exchanged and, inturn, inspire innovative concepts,drives “creatives” to set up business inthe cities, paradoxically just at a timewhen the latest technology enablesthem to draw on knowledge fromanywhere (Lorenzen and Frederiksen,2007). Only in the city and greatmetropolises, only if you live in somespecific urban quarters, can you enjoythose positive externalities whichderive not only from chance meetings,but also cultural experiences expressedin various art languages. This activeparticipation in cultural consumption isone of the key inputs for theelaboration of new ideas and projectsin the design sector.• The presence of institutionssuch as a National Design Council.The Italian version (ConsiglioNazionale del Design) was set up in2007 by the Ministry of the Heritageand Cultural Activities and the Ministryfor Economic Development. Thepresence of other institutions is alsoimportant – archives and museums,whose purpose is to gather the materialheritage of the past, can be the sourceof inspiration for new ideas – and thegreater concentration of educationfacilities, universities and researchcentres. In the creative cities (Cookeand Lazzaretti, 2007), it is possible tobenefit from the fundamentalproduction inputs with minortransaction costs and greater guaranteesfor the quality of human resources ifthey have been trained in schools witha consolidated national andinternational reputation.• The advantages in terms ofpicking up early on new trends, orthe new cultural values which thedesigners must interpret and introduceinto their projects.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 98

Chapter 4All of these factors would be a goodreason for locating activities not only incities but in those few large urbancentres in the world which give thiscompetitive edge (London, New York,Milan, etc.). But at the same time weimmediately realise there are potentialcosts and risks of access to this kind ofmarket: high entrance barriers for theyoung, who encounter difficulty inbeing successful individually (with theirown signature or brand, if an associatedstudio), international competitionwhich requires a certain amount ofcapital availability to kick-start abusiness and to underwrite thoseperiods spent abroad, which become anessential part of training and success onthe market as a source of greatervisibility and inspiration.While these types of designers aim topursue competitive projects oninternational markets of which theyattempt to grasp the evolution in tasteand trends, the designers who take upthe profession in Italy (both Italiansand a growing number of foreigndesigners) do so because they want towork with the deep-rooted crafttradition and the industrial systemmade up of small businessesconcentrated in district areas able toexpress the essence of Italian style andflair in their productions.4.4 Design in the industrialdistrictsMany successful Italian products,however, are not created from thecontribution of design professionalsbut from the collaboration of variousprofessional figures operating in thesame company or in the verticallyintegrated production chainscharacterising the industrial districts.Innovation may thus be due to variousfactors:• An entrepreneur’s own idea.Thanks to the collaboration in thedesign phase of highly specialisedtechnicians and workers, who share thesame language and value system, theentrepreneur launches an innovativeproduct.• Learning by doing within thefirm. This applies to professionalfigures directly involved in theproduction process (productionmanagers, skilled technicians, workers),who through the processes of learningby doing can contribute to introduceinto the production not onlyinnovation for increasing productivitybut also product innovation.• Collective local learningtransmitted through the formal andinformal network of knowledge linkingup the social, economic andinstitutional stakeholders in the area,but also involving the primaryrecipients, i.e. the increasinglydemanding and qualified end consumerwho can provide ideas for furtherimprovements (learning by interacting).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 99

Chapter 4This layered system of knowledgediffused in a local territory, whoseforms are handed down – more in tacitthan in coded form – from generationto generation, is embodied in thefigures of craftsmen, specialisedtechnicians and workers who aredepositaries, often unwitting, of thematerial culture heritage of an area. Butthe possibility of drawing on thissystem is at the same time a strengthand a weakness. It is a strength becausethe system expresses the idiosyncraticnature of Italian design; and it is aweakness because the transmission ofthe heritage of knowledge, constitutinga local public good, raises problems oflong-term sustainability as regards theconservation and development ofheritage itself.Historically, Italian design – in theautomobile sector emblematicexamples of brilliant designers arePininfarina and Giugiaro – benefitedfrom intense relations with local craftskills in the surrounding territory. Inthe specific case of the automobileindustry, the relations were with thehighly skilled local carpenters who builtits models, and highly skilled localmetal workers who made bodywork.At this point we will identify the factorswhich might undermine the currentproduction system of Italian designproducts:Relocating some production stages,which occurs in the districts due torequirements to cut production costsand can have a negative effect on theexchanges between the variousspecialised figures involved in theinnovation process and thus interruptthe collective design production, typicalof district areas and particularly thosespecialised in export-driven (“Made inItaly”) productions. Only in theindustrial estates round Milan do wefind the inverse phenomenon: manyinternational designers studios areopening their offices in Milan andmany foreign designers are attracted tothe city not only because of thenetwork of professional relations in thesector offered by the city but alsobecause they can come into contactand interact with skilled craftsmen asthey work on their projects. In Milan,according to the view of a youngdesigner, you meet “business people,architects but also craftsmen. I havepresented the weirdest projects and attimes have been looked at very weirdly,but no one has ever said ‘I’m sorry wejust can’t do this’. You won’t find thekind of mental flexibility of thoseworking in the Italian design districtanywhere else in the world” (Urquiola,2008).A lack of awareness – not so much atindividual level as at systemic level – ofthe importance of this widespread craftcomponent as the distinguishingelement of the quality of Italian designmay affect the future prospects andpossibility of transmitting localknowledge to future generations.Higher opportunity costs – i.e. thegreater attraction exercised by otherprofessions in terms of better wageprospects – could discourage theyounger generations from investingtime in acquiring local know-how andengaging in the same line of business(when not actually the same familyWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 100

Chapter 4business) as most residents in theirhome area. This can give rise to theproblem of the generationaltransmission of knowledge expressedin the material culture of an area, whichgiven the high tacit component cannotbe compensated by the entry of newlabour resources from outside the areaunder consideration. To ensuregenerational transmission, the variouslocal private and public stakeholdersmust make efforts at systemic level toencode tacit knowledge expressed inthe local area and therefore make iteasier to conserve and develop theheritage of such knowledge. To thisend, it may be useful to intensify therecourse to specialised schools andtraining schemes as well as qualitycertification tools for local products,such as collective property rights(Cuccia and Santagata, 2004).Crossover elements, which also derivefrom working on international marketsand the growing interaction withforeign designers, must act as a furtherstimulus to reinterpreting theconventions of international design (attimes it also seems to be yielding to aprocess of standardisation), on thebasis of the local heritage of materialculture. The adoption of instrumentssuch as collective property rights,aimed at conserving the commonheritage of knowledge associated with alocal area, which does not preclude thepossibility of making use of distinctiveindividual labels such as the signature,can be of help in this case too. Thepublic and private institutions involvedin assigning these distinctive labels tolocal businesses can protect localidentity and also anchor externalstimuli for innovation to what aredeemed to be the essential featuresshaping the specific nature of localproduction. Moreover, the institutionscan play a more effective role inpreventing any attempts at productmisappropriation (e.g. counterfeits andfakes) when intangible local culturalcapital is implemented in theproduction of material goods whichcan be differentiated on the market.4.5 Collaboration betweendesigners and businessesIt is useful to analyse the relations – i.e.what kind of interaction and degree ofcollaboration – between the officialfigures of designers and the productioncontext in which they operate.On one hand, designers on the marketwish to maintain their independenceand pursue individual success, realisingtheir projects by collaborating with thebusiness world, while on the other,entrepreneurs seeking the collaborationof designers are willing to give thempublic acknowledgement by promotingthe product made together with bothdistinctive labels (the company brandand the designer’s signature), but onlywhen the designer is already wellestablished.Otherwise, entrepreneursmay resort to in-house designers withwhom they establish a morecontinuous working relationship, butprefer to keep their contributionanonymous. Thus, for example, in thecatalogue of many businesses operatingin the lighting sector, such asWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 101

Chapter 4FontanaArte, the objects made by wellknownItalian and foreign designers arelisted separately from those made bythe FontanaArte Studio.More generally, companies acquiredesigns in ways which vary accordingto the structural features of theproduction sector in which thedesigner will work (textiles, furniture,lighting, automobile, etc) and how therelations between these two playershave evolved over time (Benghozi,2005).An initial model of producer-designersums up the kind of relationshipbetween designer and enterprise thathas characterised many of thesignificant experiences in variousItalian sectors: i.e. the same personsimultaneously acts as entrepreneur andindustrial designer.To realise his own projects, this figure,who operates in niche markets, eventakes on entrepreneurial risks (see, forexample, Cappellini in the furnituresector, or Gismondi in the Artemidecompany, in the lighting sector). In thiscase a brand’s success coincides withindividual career success. This modelmay have contributed to the rise ofdesigner products not only in Italyabout also elsewhere (one historicexample is surely August Thonet’schair). But in terms of policy makingthis model is not suitable for drivingthe development of the design industrybecause of the increasingly multifacetednature of designers’ interests, and alsobecause of the inevitable barriers foryoung people starting out, especially interms of availability of venture capital.A second model, which we can call thecreator-designer, involves thetemporary collaboration of anentrepreneur and a designer on one orseveral specific projects. Thiscollaboration is made explicit since theproject completed by the entrepreneurcarries not only the producers’ brandname but also the signature of thedesigner or studio commissioned towork on the project. Famous examplesare the designs by Philippe Starck invery varied sectors (lighting, householdutensils, bathroom fittings, etc).Obviously only successful designersand superstars in the sector can enjoythe kind of contractual power based onthe fact that their signature confersadded value to the products made bythe firm.These first two models may coexist anddevelop into a third, single model,which we might define as themanufacturer-designer, although thisonly involves a small segment of highlyrenowned, strongly independentdesigners. In fact the designer may signa contract with a manufacturer torealise a project, which will be labelledby both the company brand and thedesigner’s signature. At the same time,however the designer may producecommercial goods and services in someways complementary to the jointproject, but only bearing his or her ownsignature or logo. As an example wecan cite the case of some very famousItalian designers like Bertone, Giugiaroand Pininfarina in the car industry.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 102

Chapter 4They may collaborate simultaneouslywith several car manufacturers,supplying them with integrated servicesbut at the same time operate asindependententrepreneurs,strengthening their own individualbrands and making products in thesame sector (special car models,components, bodywork) or in verydistant sectors from their specialisationbut in some ways complementary tothe original (accessories, clothing,eyewear, etc.). It is up to the designersto choose the distribution channel forthe commercialisation of theseproducts with their own brands. Thisstrategy generates mutual benefits forthe manufacturer-designers and themanufacturing companies with whichthey collaborate because their brandsare reciprocally reinforced.There is another kind of relationshipbetween entrepreneurs and designers –the model of the anonymous creators– in which the contribution ofdesigners remains “unsigned”. Theywork on the basis of temporary orcontinuous contracts withmanufacturing and/or marketingcompanies which, however, are theonly ones to label their brand on theend product. The low visibility of thedesigner’s original contribution makesthis figure weaker contractually andeasily replaceable. This has negativerepercussions both in terms ofremuneration and job security.Depending on the sector, the extent ofthe production chain, and the scale ofproduction of items with a high designcomponent, we can also identifyanother model in which the designactivity is stimulated and driven by theproduct marketing company ratherthan the manufacturers. This modelmay be described as distributiondrivendesign and can be divided intotwo different cases.In the first case the distributor simplyselect a designers’ and/ormanufacturing company’s creation inorder to market it in their own networkof showrooms. The products selectedwill have the distributor’s brand andpossibly that of the designer (this iswhat, for example, the internationalfurniture chain store Habitat does).In the second case, the distributors playa more active role in designing theproduct by proposing an idea to bedeveloped by designers, who may beoutsourced or hired temporarily by thecompany. In this case, the designers areless independent because they will haveto develop an idea initially suggested bythe distributors, who, because theywork in closer contact with the public,believe they can anticipate consumertrends better than people involved inthe production process. Once theproject has been developed with thedesigners, the distributors turn to themanufacturers and ask them to includethe product in their production plans,usually on a large scale. Examples ofthis phenomenon are the furniture andhome furnishings for companies likeIkea, Carrefour and Emmelunga. Inthis case we are talking aboutindustrial-scale design. This kind ofrelationship can give young designers aWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 103

Chapter 4professional break and, mostimportantly allows them to “sign”projects.The relations between designers andcompanies described so far concernexternal forms of collaboration mainlyin the field of industrial design.Some designers, however, do morethan simply design the product. Theymay extend their activities to productsystemconsulting, and controlling andparticipating in the process from thedevelopment of the idea to itsimplementation and marketcommunications, as well as during itswhole life cycle. In such cases thecompany-designer relationshipbecomes more intense and continuous,and the entrepreneur may find it moreeconomical – in terms of transactioncosts – to hire the designer. Designersmay thus have very varied roles withinthe company organisation. They maywork in close collaboration with theR&D department, promoting, forexample, research on new materials tobe used in developing projects or ontesting new applications for theoutcome of previous research.Designers may also work alongside thecommercial services or acquireinformation on product sales trendsfrom which to establish consumerpreferences and predict consumer tastefor the purposes of future productdevelopment.Lastly, they may work in a selfcontainedcompany research centre,which interfaces with all other areas ofthe company (R&D, production anddistribution). In this case the designer’sactivity becomes internal consulting onthe product system. Depending on thesize of the company, this activity maybe carried out by internal staff or byexternal consultants who will alsoinclude professional designers andtechnicians or crafts people, but alsooperators in commercial areas, gearedto design and able to share the samephilosophy and corporate language.4.6 An emblematic case:Milan and the designeractors in the furniture sectorCurrently, there is only one area in Italyin which the various above-mentionedforms of collaboration betweendesigners and companies can all befound: the so-called “metadistrict”district of Lombard design, which hasdeveloped in six provinces – Como,Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua andLecco – with a total of 46,054employees and 11 research centres(Club dei distretti, www.distretti.org). Theestimated annual turnover of themetadistrict amounts to around 250million euros and around 40% ofproduction goes for export.The term metadistrict refers to thespecific nature of this vast areaembracing the traditional furnituredistrict, involving many towns inBrianza (i.e. Northwest Lombardy)with Milan for a hub, especially asregards the supply of integratedservices which go from developingWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 104

Chapter 4ideas and research to the end product,as well as marketing. In the towns ofBrianza the main activities are not onlyin the furniture sector but also similarsectors, such as lighting and fabrics forfurnishing, which are part of thebroader category of “householdfurnishings”.A recent study (Bertola et al., 2002)reveals the presence of a strikingnumber of firms, institutions andfacilities in the Milanese metropolitanarea:• Over 80 of the 140 firms (almost60%) in the overall Italian designerfurniture sector; as market leaders(Cassina, B&Bitalia, Artemide, Flou,FontanaArte, to name but a few), theyaccount for almost 80% of overall salesvolume.• More than 60% of designstudios registered with the ADI(around 1,000) mainly involved indesigning furniture, household objects,accessories and textiles, and in productcommunications (advertising andgraphics).• The Consiglio Nazionale delDesign (“National Design Council”).• The main publishing housesproducing specialist reviews onfurniture and interior design (Domus,Casabella, Abitare, Interni, Ottagono, etc.).• Celebrated Italian andinternational schools, universities andresearch centres (Domus and theCentro Studi Domus, Istituto Europeodi Design and the IED ResearchCentre, the Nuova Accademia di BellaArti and since 1993, the Faculty ofIndustrial Design at the MilanPolitecnico, etc.) – we will explore theirprogrammes in greater depth in thesection on education.• The ADI, the Associazione deiprogettisti in Architettura d'Interni(AIPI – Association of Interior DesignArchitects) and the Associazione deiProgettisti di Comunicazione Visiva(AIAP – Association of VisualCommunications Designers), whichgroups together all operators in thesector of communications, traditionalgraphics and multimedia.Milan is also the largest Italian tradefair centre and the fact the city is due tohost the 2015 Expo will surelyconsolidate this role. Milan has a hugenumber of exhibition spaces (16 ofvarying size and importance) whichaccommodate a great variety ofproduction sectors (from fashion totourism). As far as events in thefurniture and design sector areconcerned, the biggest event is theSalone Internazionale del Mobile(International Furniture Show) held notonly in the traditional trade fair centrebut also in exhibition spaces in the city(company showrooms in the historiccentre, cultural institutions and evenprofessional studios). The Salone isaccompanied by a host ofcomplementary cultural eventshighlighting its communicationalpower.Lastly, in the Milanese design system,renowned for furniture, advertisinggraphics and fashion, there is no lackof those institutions required to meetthe needs of the historic memory andto act as a source of new ideas: privateand public archives and museums, suchWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 105

Chapter 4as the Trienniale permanent designcollection.Designers collaborate with companiesin various forms, along the lines of themodels described above (Politi, 2007):• In the “household furnishing”sector, companies more often havetheir own design activities, carried outby an in-house designer and with somespecific projects outsourced toindependent designers. Recent surveyson a sample of professional studios inMilan and its province (Politi, 2007)show that these design activities mainlyconcern the following sectors:furniture, advertising, graphics,lightning, exhibit installations, trade-fairstands, etc.• In the advertising and graphicssector, design activities are usuallypursued by independent professionalsand concern all economic sectors, notonly fashion and householdfurnishings. The design studios’customers are mainly Italian as far ascommunications are concerned, whilewith product design their customers aremore varied: just over 40% operate inMilan and its province and theremaining just under 60% breaks downinto almost equal parts of Italian andforeign customers (Politi, 2007).A detailed description of therelationship between companies in thefurniture sector and designers isprovided by a study of a sample ofalmost 20,000 products from around380 out of the 500 Italianmanufacturers in the sector, accountingfor at least 70% of the value of thefurniture supply (Politi, 2007).The study distinguishes between designcompanies (38%) which have acatalogue almost exclusively made upof products “signed” by designers;non-design companies with designersignedproducts (29%) which haveboth designer-signed products andunsigned products in their catalogues;and lastly non-design companies whohave no signed products in theircatalogues but which, significantly,benefit on foreign markets from thepositive spin-off generated by Italiandesigner products for all otherproducts in the sector. A very largenumber of foreign designers are invitedto collaborate, especially in designcompanies (around 45% of designersinvolved are foreign) (see Table 4.1).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 106

Chapter 4Table 4.1 – Companies in the design segment and designers involved (withduplications)CompaniesProductsSignedProductsDesign Companies 143 6,817 6,639Non-designcompanies withsigned productsNon-designcompanies withunsigned products111 5,123 3,256126 6,060 0Total(Foreign)Designers1,141(519)313(62)0Total 380 18,000 9,8951454(581)4.7 Italian industrial designin figuresIt is difficult to assess economically thecontribution of industrial design interms of value added and jobs alongthe whole chain of value creation. Thefirst problem we encounter is the verydefinition of design: a cross-sectoractivity of key importance instimulating product innovation andprocess innovation in manymanufacturing sectors, especially theso-called “Made in Italy”, export-drivensectors.A second problem concerns the way inwhich members of the professionalcategory of designers are recorded instatistical sources. We can talk about“design and styling for textiles,clothing, footwear, jewellery, furnitureand other personal and householditems” (ATECO 74875), but thismakes no distinction between stylists inthe fashion sector and industrialdesigners. The resultant figures are thusinevitably an overestimation.Hopefully the professional associationsand the Consiglio Superiore del Design(the Italian Design Council) will setthemselves the objective of drafting anannual report on trends in the sector,as happens in other countries, like theUnited Kingdom with its two bodies(British Design Innovation and theDesign Council). The reports of theprofessional associations, however,only monitor their own members’activities, i.e. those who explicitlypractice the profession and thereforeare part of the “outright design”category. But other people working ondesign activities within companies atvarious stages in the value chain (core,manufacturing, distribution) are left outof these reports. In this case thecontribution of design in terms ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 107

Chapter 4value added and jobs is practicallyimpossible to measure.But in Italy this kind of widespreaddesign activity characterises themanufacturing system in the exportdrivenindustrial districts. Indeed theirhigh performances can presumably beindirectly attributed to theindispensable contribution supplied bydesigners. This may be in explicit form,through the use of specific professionalfigures but also in tacit form, throughthe involvement of all the playersengaged in the manufacturing process.Aware of the risks, we believe it isuseful, however, to cite some referencefigures albeit to be considered with duecaution on account of the abovementioneddrawbacks.The designers’ greatest contribution isclearly in the creation and productionstage.According to the estimates of theeconomic activities linked to theconservation and development of thecultural heritage (presented in Chapter1), in 2004, the stages of creation andproduction in the “design and materialculture” category generated a valueadded of around 19,659.7 millioneuros, the equivalent of 1.57% of theGDP. This category encompasses 28economic activities, including that ofdesigner, and many other productionactivities basically chosen on thegrounds of their origins, normallyrooted in the local material culture.Overall, in the conception andproduction stages of “design andmaterial culture” 45,000 people areemployed, or 1.1% of all jobs in Italy.On one hand, these figures may be toolow since they do not include allproduction activities with a high designcomponent, especially if located indistricts; on the other hand, they couldbe too high since they assume that notonly those working as designers but allthe employees in the 28 productionactivities in the “design and materialculture” category are engaged in acreative activity, independently of thespecific tasks they are assigned.If we dwell on those who declared theywere part of the “designer and stylist”category, government censuses revealthere has been a rise in jobs. Bycomparing the census data of 1991with that of 2001 (AASTER, 2007), wefind that designer and stylist jobs inItaly have risen by 41.7%, i.e. from6,862 to 9,721 jobs. The same study(see Table 4.2) breaks down the figurefor “designer and stylists” according toregions and related to the number ofbusinesses working in the exportsectors (food and beverage, personaland leisure items, householdfurnishings and instrument mechanics)in which the contribution of designersand stylists is presumed to beparticularly significant. At national levelthe incidence of design jobs in exportcompanies has risen (from 1.8 to 2.7jobs for every 100 export companies)by 0.97%. While the greatestconcentration of designers is found inLombardy, there is a significantincrease in the share of designers onthe national total in Piedmont, theMarches and Lazio. There are alsosignificant variations in the Veneto,Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany; in 1991there was already a high percentage ofthe overall jobs nationwide in theseregions.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 108

Chapter 4From an initial interpretation of thesefigures, it would seem that on aregional scale, despite the leadership ofLombardy in the design sector, wellinformedcompanies increasingly resortto professional designers, especially inregions where the model of industrialdevelopment is along district lines.We can thus infer that in these regionsthere is a need to integrate diffuseforms of design, typical of industrialdistricts, within a broader design actionelaborated by specialised professionalfigures able to interact with and involveindividual businesses in the district.The growing role of designers in theregions with a district-type productioncan also be explained by changes inindustrial districts from 1991 to 2001.An ISTAT survey (2005) of industrialdistricts reveals that their number inItaly had fallen overall by 156 in 2001.The causes of this reduction may beexplained either by the growing size ofthe manufacturing facilities which havetransformed districts into local workingsystems of medium to large companiesor a shift in the production structurestowards services for businesses whichalso include designer services.The specialisation of the industrialdistricts is confirmed as being thattypical of the export-driven sectors,which we can group in the followingcategories used by the ICE to highlighttheir competitiveness on internationalmarkets: food and beverage, personaland leisure items (which also includesfashion), household furnishings andmusical instrument mechanics (ICE,2006).Table 4.2 - Industrial district production specialisation and share of Italian exportsDistrict (2001) Export share (%)no. % 2001 2005Food and beverage 7 4.5 21.4 22.0Personal and leisure items 71 45.5 51.6 47.6House furnishings 32 20.5 38.6 38.6Instrument mechanics 46 29.5 28.2 27.8Total districts 156 100.0 38.1 35.6Source: our elaboration of ISTAT-ICE dataWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 109

Chapter 4Designers’ services may be used in allItalian export sectors (even the foodsector as regards packaging andadvertising/communications) but theyare certainly more widely employed forproducts in the categories of “personaland leisure items” and “housefurnishings”. Table 2 shows that in asituation in which total exports,although large, have fallen slightly(from 38.1 to 35.6 %), the products ofthe districts producing “personal andleisure items” and “house furnishings”are still leaders with 47.6% and 38.6%of production going for export,respectively, in 2005 . Especially as faras “house furnishings” are concerned,the districts’ exports remainedunchanged despite an internationalcontext characterised by a currencytrend that should have penalised Italianexports. Although obviously not easyto demonstrate, we can argue that thegrowing role of designers may have hada positive impact on export-drivendistrict productions.Lastly, it is worth mentioning that thedistricts specialised in personal andleisure items also include the sixdistricts working in the jewellery andmusical instrument sectors, whichmore than any other kind ofproduction have a craft character. Overthe centuries these districts haveachieved high-quality standards andhigh output levels, reconciling“mechanical and manual production,combining mechanical perfection withmanual imperfection” (Friel andSantagata, 2007). This model may bedescribed as “soft industrial design”and is competitive on internationalmarkets. It is estimated that over 70%of Italian jewellery exports areproduced in the districts of Alexandria(Valenza Po), Vicenza and Arezzo-Cortona, while musical instrumentsfrom the Recanati district (Marches)account for 21.4% of exports in thesector. The competitiveness of theseproducts may be a valid example andprovide a development model that canbe proposed in Italian and internationalproduction contexts beset by economicbackwardness.4.8 Training designers andsafeguarding the professionThe rather vague and extremelyvariable profile of the professionaldesigner, a recent creation but fastdeveloping, has inevitably led to ademand for suitable educationprogrammes.When designers only used to be askedto design a single project rather than aproduct system, they could acquire thenecessary technical expertise byattending programmes in specialisedhigh schools and technical instituteswith specific programmes linked tospecialised local industries. Today’sdesigners, however, are alsoincreasingly required to elaboratebusiness strategies based on design, andthe necessary expertise involvesacquiring not only technical and artisticskills but also managerial knowledgewhich can only be achieved byattending university degree andpostgraduate courses.In any case, the increasinglyinterdisciplinary nature of theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 110

Chapter 4profession, which combines knowledgeabout material aspects and intangiblevalues -now the basic elements inproduct innovation processesinevitablyrequires a high level ofuniversity education.The possibility of benefiting from thistype of programme is only a recentachievement: in Milan the first courseof industrial design was created in1993. In 2000, after a university reform,the degree course was transformed intoa Faculty of Design. Until then,university-trained designers were onlyever engineers and architects who hadspecialised in design during theiruniversity career and obtained mastersor post-grad degrees. In Italy mostschools offering specialised courses areprivate and concentrated in a few bigcities: primarily Milan (ScuolaPolitecnica del Design, IstitutoEuropeo del Design or IED, and theDomus Academy).This situation made access to theprofession difficult for all those whohad completed a high school educationin one of the many specialised art highschools or technical collegesthroughout the country and wished togo on to university. For a long timeprofessional designer was considered acareer which could only be entered byan elite of people had had theopportunity (and at times also theeconomic resources) to attend coursesorganised by the few private schools inItaly (Milan and a few other large cities,such as Rome and Turin for the IED),which would enable them to go on topursue a career as an independententrepreneur. As a consequence of the2000 university reform, the number ofdegree courses and design facultieshave risen, as has their spreadthroughout the country. Currently,according to a study by Aldo Bonomi(2007), the greatest concentration ofdesign graduates (from highereducation institutes or university) from1991 to 2005 was recorded inLombardy and Piedmont: out of a totalof 24,932 graduates, 15,545, or 62.77%,graduated or obtained their diploma inLombardy, and 2,433, or 9.75%, inPiedmont. They are followed byuniversity/high school graduates inRome: 2,321, i.e. 9.30%. Dividing upthe university/high school graduatesaccording to various specialised fields(product or industrial design, visualcommunication, interiors and fashion),in 2005, over 40% of graduates werespecialised in industrial design, 28% invisual communications, 17% ininteriors and 12 % in fashion (Bonomi,2007).As far as access to the labour market isconcerned, university graduates indesign, whose number is growingdespite a limited number of places,seem to have no problems finding job.The real problem is the quality and therelevance of education programmes totheir work requirements. As in allsectors in which the creative andartistic component is crucial, findingwork is based on acquired relationalcapital, i.e. the individuals’ ability tomake themselves known and tonetwork, which can createopportunities for work on jointprojects. This is even truer fordesigners, who unlike architects andengineers, have no professional registerWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 111

Chapter 4certifying the minimal qualifications forthose wishing to pursue the profession.To prevent malpractice, work is nowproceeding on establishing a code ofpractice, a project register and a DesignJury, whose arbitration in case ofcontroversy takes on the value of anindependent opinion in the civil lawcourts. The ADI also promotes theItalian design system through the“Observatory on Project and ProductInnovation”. Each year theObservatory selects products fromvarious sectors deemed to beinnovative and worthy of publication inthe annual ADI Design Index, whileevery three years one of the productsselected for the Index is awarded thePremio Compasso d’oro, aninternational prize.4.9 ConclusionsThe picture emerging from adescription of the industrial designsector in Italy enables us to identify anumber of key objectives and actionstrategies. Design is a distinctiveelement of Italian exports and as suchits reputation at international levelshould be strengthened even further.Young Italian designers should also beencouraged, especially now that theyhave to compete on global markets.For this purpose, there is a need tosupply adequate support and incentivesto give them the opportunity to gaininternational experience andindependent entry to the market. Butwe should not overlook the greatstrength of Italian design: the fact it isrooted in a local area and especiallythose districts where most Italianexports are made and which are theexpression of our material culture. Wemust thus strengthen relations betweendesigners, who mainly tend to work inbig cities (especially Milan) andentrepreneurs, who work in thedistricts and could benefit fromcollaboration with designers at allstages of the production process, fromconception to communications. It isalso to be hoped that in other urbanareas, located nearer the district-typeindustries, businesses can make use oftypical designer services. The search fornew product innovation mustcontribute to enhancing andinterpreting in a different way thoseelements in the material culture whichcharacterise Italian design andproduction. At the same time, throughthe joint action of public and privateinstitutions (museums, historicalarchives, specialised schools andtechnical institutes, committees andlocal agencies) and the adoption ofinstruments, such as collective propertyrights, we must ensure that the localcultural heritage is not lost – it is ofcrucial importance, not only from thepoint of our identity, but also ineconomic terms – and continues to behanded on to future generations.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 112

Chapter 5Michelangelo Pistoletto “Venus of the rags” 1967rags, cement and mica, 150 x 100 x 120 cmexhibition at the Museo Pignatelli d'Aragona, Naples, 1977Photograph: P. Pellion

Chapter 5Chapter 5Fashion True excellence and great international visibilityItalian fashion is a remarkably successful sector which has attracted a huge variety ofstakeholders – stylists, creators, dressmakers, couturiers, entrepreneurs, the businessworld, journalists, image makers, advertisers, semiologists, sociologists of dress andbehaviour, economists of culture and industry – and consumers in search of dreams,quality and distinction. The explanation for all this interest lies in the complexity offashion goods and their all-pervasive social presence. We have just outlined a theory ofmaterial culture goods and we can argue that all the models mentioned in that case canalso be applied to the world of fashion and its products. We only have to look at dailylife to grasp how much social anchoring there is in the phenomenon of fashion.Fashion is developing so fast and internationally that it no longer goes on a linearsequence in which one trend follows another, but many styles simultaneously crowdonto a very lively scene. Illustrating the main features of this world in a relatively shortchapter is an impossible undertaking. We will thus mention the most significant aspectsfor the purposes of this <strong>White</strong> Paper5.1 Fashion as a system ofsystemsFashion is a phenomenon whichoccurs at the crossroads of twosystems: a system of material needs,consumption and production (Barrèreand Santagata, 2005) and a symbolicintangible system of creativity, signs(Barthes, 1967) and identity.The fashion system must relate toboth the production system and thecreative symbolic system present in agiven local region and consequentlyhas a twofold mission:• Supply a service to industry interms of style, the creation ofcollective images and internationalreputation, archive assistance,experimentation with lowentrepreneurial risks and training ofspecialised professional figures.Fashion is a symbolic image of thetextile industry, clothes making andaccessories. Fashion shapes the marketof supply and demand and drives theproduct renewal.• Offer an input of creativity andcollective identity to a local area witheconomic spin-offs in terms ofpromotion and cultural developmentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 114

Chapter 5but also in generating income, jobs,and tourist attractions through thecreation of international events(exhibitions and fashion shows) andthe creation of specialised sales points(shops, industrial outlets, single-brandstores).From this point of view, the wholechain of value production for afashion good is of vital importanceand in some ways may be seen as asingle, closely interlocking system. Astylist’s studio business cannot beseparated from the manufacturingstage, because most of its style-makingis incorporated and integrated in thefashion house and manufacturingcompany. Textile manufacturingcannot be considered in isolation,because its designs are powerfulinnovative inputs for creators of hautecouture or prêt-à-porter. The stylist’sjob, in turn, cannot be separated fromdistribution which, being in touch withconsumer tastes, variations andpreferences, becomes a strategicprompter for the whole chain.The following analysis of fashiongoods thus takes in account the wholefield, even though we will try – whenstatistically possible – to distinguishthe various stages in the productionchain.5.2 Fashion and theproduction systemItaly has long-standing solid traditionsof excellence in the field of fashion,clothing manufacturing and textileproduction, which in the recent pasthas made it a world fashion centre. Allthe stages in the chain of valuecontribute to the success of the sector:the creativity of conception andfashion design, the creativity ofmanufacturing models, such as theindustrial districts, and the evolution ofthe distribution stage. The industrialdistricts of Biella, Milan, Alba, Prato,Florence, Carpi and those in Campaniaand the Marches are internationalcentres for the creation andmanufacture of textile fashion, men’sfashion, women’s fashion andaccessories.Internationally renowned brandscontinue the Italian tradition in thevarious sectors: textiles and woolproduction (Ermenegildo Zegna, LoroPiana, Piacenza, Lanificio Colomboand many more), haute couture andpret-à-porter (Armani, Dolce &Gabbana, Versace, Valentino, Gucci,Trussardi, Prada, Fendi and Missoni),lingerie and hosiery (Golden Lady,Sanpellegrino, Filodoro and Levante),sportswear (Robe di Kappa, Invicta,Asics, Fila, Lotto and Diadora),footwear, accessories, jewellery (in theValenza and Arezzo areas) and eyewear(in the Agordo district, Belluno). Thislist of examples is obviouslyincomplete but gives an idea of theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 115

Chapter 5diffuse industrial presence throughoutmuch of Italy.5.3 Fashion and the worldof creativityHanding on creativity from onegeneration to another is a key objectivein fashion industrial policy. Thedevelopment of creativity is in fact theprogrammatic premise for any initiativeattempting to produce and maintain ahigh social level of creativity and todescribe, or even reinforce, thecollective identity of a community, nomatter how vast.Examples of excellent creativephenomena tend to come in wavescorresponding to generations of stylistswho work in well-defined places andperiods: Paris in the 1950s and 60s,Milan in the 1970s and 80s, LosAngeles, New York in the 1990s and2000s. Generations come and go butthere is no guarantee of maintainingthe same level of local creativity, if notthrough suitable policies distinguishedby at least one great idea in the field ofeconomic organisation. It we look atthe history of fashion and the creativewaves over time we notice that inFrance the wave of the 1950s and 60sled to the combination of hautecouture with prêt-à-porter, while theItalian wave led to forms of flexibleorganisation and agglomerations ofindustrial districts and the Americanwaves saw the rise of marketing andlogistics.But the creative waves ebb and flownaturally in the course of time due tolevels of creativity falling off in thesystem or in individual players.At present we are experiencing a newFrench wave of fashion, which almostcoincided with the death of some greatItalian stylists (Versace, Moschino andGucci), giving France a newcompetitive edge. In fact there is athoroughgoing renewal underway inthe traditional fashion houses whichhave sought and are seekinginternational talents (Tarlazzi for GuyLaroche, Montana for Lanvin,Lagerfeld for Chanel, and alsoGalliano, Tom Ford, Lacroix) often topenetrate new foreign markets anddirect efforts towards the new marketfor luxury prêt-à-porter. LVMH (agroup whose members include LouisVuitton with Marc Jacobs, Dior HauteCouture with John Galliano, Diormode masculine with Hedi Slimane,Givenchy with Alexander McQueen,Yves Saint Laurent with Tom Ford andChristian Lacroix) is the leader in thissector in which Italy is well representedby Gucci, Armani, Dolce & Gabbanaand other designer labels.While the most effective and traditionalItalian method of transmitting andproducing creativity is learning bydoing, professional training andacademic education are also veryimportant. In this field, Italian expertisecan rely on the evolution of universitiesand polytechnics (the Politecnico inTurin offers, for example, courses totrain engineers specialised in textileproduction) and the fine art schools,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 116

Chapter 5private institutions, such as the IstitutoEuropeo di Design Institute (IED) inTurin and Milan, Polimoda in Florence,the Domus Academy and IstitutoMarangoni Institute in Milan.5.4 The quantitative picture:structures and trendsFashion is the most important Italiancultural industry and accounts foraround 2.6% of the gross domesticproduct and 4.6% of total jobs.The chain of value production in thefield of fashion is dominated in termsof value added by the manufacturingsector with 16 .5 billion euros, of whichfootwear accounts for 28.1%, i.e. 4.6billion euros. Distribution is the secondmost important activity with 13.2billion euros. This figure confirms therise of distribution as a key sector inbuilding the image and brands offashion.In the fashion world, the supportprovided to production is particularimportant, both in terms of valueadded (8.2 billion euros) and of theintegration between the stages of purecreativity, production and distribution.Textiles, for example are a key inputfor stylists but also a model forintegrated design.Table 5.1 Fashion Value Added and jobs, 2004Value added(millions of euros)Jobs(thousands)Core (Style, creativity) 219.6 5.8Production (clothing and eaccessories) 16578.7 544.5Support to Production (textileswool, silk, cotton, linen, leatherfixing, etc.)8224.3 218.6Distribution 13,221.2 349.5Total 3,8024.2 1,112.6Source: our elaboration of Istituto G. Tagliacarne dataWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 117

Chapter 5According to the Federazione ImpreseTessili e Moda Italiane, Italian textilesand clothing manufacturing outputconsists of clothing (37%), knitwear(19%), woollen fabrics (12%), cotton(10%), other fabrics (9%) and otheritems (silk, hosiery, finishing). Textilesand clothing account for 7.5% ofoutput (2004), 11.9% of jobs and 9.1%of exports in the overall manufacturingindustry.At world level (Table 5.2) Italy’sFashion sector occupies a leadingposition.Table 5.2 – Italian Fashion in the worldSectorItalian percentage of worldexportsItalian world ranking2004 (%) 2000-2004 (+/-) 2000 2004Wool sector 31.7 -0.2 1 1Cotton sector 9.3 1.7 4 3Silk sector 17.2 -1.2 2 3Linen sector 3.5 0.2 6 5Clothing 8.2 1.1 3 3Knitwear 6.1 -0.5 3 3Hosiery 25.6 -0.7 1 1Source: SMI-ATI (Federazione Imprese Tessili e Moda Italiane)Because of the nature of the sector andfast-changing consumers’ preferences,the economic situation is unstable andnot always a good guide todevelopment prospects for Italianfashion. From Cofindustria’s “Reporton the Trend of the ManufacturingSector for 2006”, we learn that thelinen and cotton sector have beennegatively influenced in recent years bya downturn in final consumption onthe main export markets and thegrowing pressure of imports, especiallyfinished products, from emergingcountries. In fact there has been areduction of 6% in turnover and aneven heavier impact on the sub-sectorof spinning. The linen sector has alsoexperienced a similar fall, especiallywoven.In the woollen industry, whichcontributes 10.2% of the overall salesin the textiles and clothing sector(2004), exports account for almost 62%of the sales and is the main exportmarket for the whole fashion sector. Atpresent the liberalisation of importsfrom China has not increased importsof woollen and textiles products fromthat country, which is the 11th supplierto Italy, with a share of around 3%.The clothing industry has just come outof a five-year period of crisis (see Table5.3) due, on one hand, to stagnation inconsumption and an increase ofimports and, on the other, a shrinkingWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 118

Chapter 5of exports to the main markets, such asGermany, the United States and Japan.Today the Chinese market still seemsto be an opportunity only for a veryfew high-quality businesses, but almostimpenetrable for the majority of smalland medium-sized firms which,however, did record an increase in salesof 11% in the sector in 2006.Table 5.3 – Value of exports (in millions of euro)Textiles Clothing Leather footwear Fashion system2001 15865 11872 14565 433022005 14036 12125 12696 388572006 14275 12908 13472 40656Source: Filtea-CGIL studyRecovery, 2006-2007The textiles and clothing sectorexperienced a five-year crisis but since2006 the situation has changed. Thecrisis certainly led to an majordownturn in some sectors (forexample, spinning), whereas othersectors continued to be a driving forceand generated profits (the woollensector). Firms had to manage majorrestructuring and this meant asignificant selection process, but if welook at the figures for 2007 we findencouraging signs of growth, i.e. a riseof 6.2% in the economic value from2000 to 2007 (ISTAT figures on theforeign trade warehouse), an averagerise of 12% in companies’ salesvolumes in 2007. Other figureshighlight an overall rise in wool andtextile sales in Italy of 2.4% comparedto 2005, thus exceeding the ceiling of 6billion euro (Camera di Commercio diBiella, July 2007). The most recenteconomic statistics suggest a picture ofslow but substantial recovery:production investments in research andstyle are important measures to setbeside recovery strategies, as evidencedby the history of the Italian industrialdistricts.Fashion and local territoryOver 88% of Italian textile firms arelocated in five regions: Lombardy,Piedmont, the Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany (SMI-ATI,2006). According to the most recentcensus (Censimento dell’Industri e deiServizi 2001), the region with mosttextile companies is Lombardy,followed by Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.Most of Italian textile and fashionmanufacturing takes place within theindustrial districts. The majority of thedistricts are involved in clothing andhosiery manufacture, although some ofthe stronger areas are specialised inWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 119

Chapter 5textile production (such as the woollendistricts of Biella and Prato).Piedmont, Lombardy, the Veneto andTuscany are the most active regions inmanufacturing both textiles andclothing (Tuscany and the Veneto havehigh-quality hosiery productions) andthey are the regions with the greatestexport capacity. The 45 Italian districtsinvolved in the world of fashion arespread in almost all the Italian regions.The main districts in the textiles andclothing sector, in terms of output,sales volume and jobs are listed inTable 5.4.Table 5.4 - Districts in the textiles and clothing sectorDistrict Region Sector Firms JobsTurnover(m of euro)%Exp/ProdNotesBiella Piedmont Textiles 1500 25,000 4,000 50CastelGoffredoLombardy Hosiery 280 6,600 1,150 50Gallaratese Lombardy Clothing 2,900 1,150 50VeronaPronto ModaSistemaModaCarpiVeneto Clothing 185 2,800 18Veneto(Treviso)Emilia-RomagnaClothing 2,000Knitwear 1,800 8,100 1,000 40Prato Tuscany Textiles 9,000 50,000 6,900 70SanGiuseppe Campania Textiles 3,000 10,000 10,000 30VesuvianoSource: Federazione distretti italiani, Guida ai distretti industriali 2005-2006, www.distretti.orgThe districtaccounts for 30% ofEuropeanproductionEnterprise ServiceCentres for exports,technologicaltransfer, innovationand professionaldevelopment.Benetton, Stefanel,Lotto and Diadora,Marzotto and DieseBlumarine, Avirex,Liu-Jo, Robe diKappa, MarcheseCoccapaniTo complete the map of the Italianfashion system, we must also add thedistricts producing luxury goods. Themost important include the jewellerydistricts of Valenza, Vicenza andArezzo, those producing footwear andleather accessories (the Sportssystemdistrict of Montebelluna in the Veneto,a world leader in sports footwear, andthe districts of Valdarno and SantaWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 120

Chapter 5Croce in Tuscany) and those producingaccessories (like the Belluno eyeweardistrict).5.5 The fashion designsector, from conception todistributionThe fashion manufacturing chain hasbeen reconfigured over time and haslost its linear character as it hasincreasingly assumed the form of acluster. Now it is based on a sharedflexible combination of productioninputs, mainly based on intangible andintellectual elements. This new form oforganisation reflects the fragmentationof demand.In this situation the strategic activitiesare product conception anddistribution: intangible elements, likeimages, the symbolic dimension andidentification, showrooms and spacesdedicated to sales, acquire growingimportance. For fashion goods, in fact,creativity is the core of the chain ofvalue production. The convention oforiginality – i.e. the requirement fornovelty which characterises the trend inthe sector – implies the forging of asense of belonging: people like aparticular garment if it is original andallows them to distinguish themselvesand at the same time also develop asense of belonging to a social group.Product conception and distributioncontribute, therefore, to strengtheningthe distinction/belonging coupling.At present the distribution of fashionproducts in particular is beingtransformed due to the emergence ofnew communications technology andthe transformation of sales spaces.After a tentative start, many stylists andfashion houses have realised that theInternet can be an important means ofextending their market. Thus in 2007Giorgio Armani was the first tobroadcast live a Paris fashion showfeaturing his haute couture collection,and others soon followed suit. Sole 24Ore opened a site dedicated to fashion,and Luxury 24.it has broadcast theCavalli and Gucci shows live.Moreover, online sales are becomingone of the most profitable segmentsfor fashion, with a rise in turnover ofaround 30% in Italy and the UnitedStates. Fashion and accessories havebecome some of the most importantonline acquisitions and can bepurchased in dedicated portals (e.g.Net-a-porter, a major e-commerce sitefor clothing and accessories), whilesome blogs focus on urban livingstyles. Many companies are alsoinvesting in online sales – Gucci, forexample – and the Internet has becomea top performing business area (+67%in 2007), with sales second only to theChinese market.The other transformation which hasbeen affecting distribution for the lastthree years is the close association ofarchitecture with some forms ofpatronage. The leading haute coutureshowrooms have been designed bymajor world architects: Rem Kohlaasfor Prada in New York, Frank GehryWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 121

Chapter 5for Issey Miyake in New York, TadaoAndo for the Teatro Giorgio Armani inMilan, and Massimiliano and DorianaFuksas for the Armani emporia inHong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.Showrooms have abandoned thestrictly commercial spirit to becomeplaces for exchanges, culture, and artswhich boost the brand image.Chain stores, low prices, excellentdesign, low quality: the ItalianweaknessThe most successful segment in thedistribution sector is that for youngpeople, who are offered well-designedmedium to low quality products at lowprices. Examples of brands in this caseare the Spanish Zara and Mango, theSwedish H&M, the French Promod,and the American Gap. However, theyhave met with relatively little success inthe Italian distribution sector which,moreover, produced a leader likeBenetton.Exploiting a highly successful formulacombining production and distribution,these large companies are able to veryeffectively monitor changes in youngconsumers’ tastes and to supplyperipheral sales outlets fast enough tocapture and satisfy all nascent demand.The Zara business model has a numberof specific innovative features. Theyinclude very fast lead times in thedesign of new products (around threeweeks), continuous updating onproposed lines informed by the salesstatistics and the almost total absenceof any advertising campaigns.Employing over 200 designers, Zara isable to design, produce and distribute acollection to any shop worldwide twicea week. Sales are made in over 3,000propriety shops in 64 countries,strategically situated in significanturban commercial areas, whose staffdeal at most with the window dressingand the internal display areas. Zara hasalmost 70,000 employees. Retail brandslike Zara and H&M could not existwithout their distribution channels;today H&M has over 1,900 sales pointsin 22 countries and over 50,000employees.If we look at the European scene, wefind no Italian company among thefirst ten in terms of brand value.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 122

Chapter 5Table 5.5Brand Country SectorBrand Value MillioneurosH&M Sweden Clothing 10.3Carrefour France Large supermarkets 6.6IKEA Sweden House furnishings 6.5Tesco UK Large supermarkets 5.6M&S UK Large supermarkets 5.1Zara Spain Clothing 4.1Source: InterbrandBenetton is a leading Italian globalbrand operating in 120 countries. Thecompany produces over 110 millionarticles per year and its activities aredivided in two separately managedareas:• Casual clothing and sportswearplus accessories and shoes• Sales of raw and semimanufacturedmaterials, industrial andadvertising services.The group owes its worldwide fame toa model of franchising, which was veryinnovative at the time, and itsadvertising campaigns by OlivieroToscani.Milan: a global fashion cityMilan is a world fashion brand. It hasinvented unforgettable symbols and is aplace where strategies, ideas,information, projects, values, economicresources, investments in brands andhigh doses of creativity change hands ata very high rate.The Milan area boasts some of themost prestigious fashion houses withtop-quality, highly attractive brands:Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro,Missoni, Prada, Romeo Gigli, Trussardiand Versace. Moreover, some of themajor Italian design studios are alsolocated in Milan: Boffi, B&B Italia,Cassina, Cappellini and Kartell. It isestimated that in the Milan area thecreative sector has 200,000 jobs, 12,000enterprises, 800 showrooms, 6,000shops, 6,000 interior design companies,and 17 design research institutes(Reinach, 2006; Power and Jansson,2008).• Promotional eventsOne of the most important means ofcommunicating with large buyers andconsumers are the fashion shows, tradefairs and international fashion weeks.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 123

Chapter 5These events, once the prerogative ofFlorence, give a good idea of howMilanese creativity works, how thefashion houses plan their productioncycles according to the presence ofbuyers and how they attract highlyqualifiedflows of stakeholders to theworld of fashion. Special events likeMilanovendemoda and Milano Moda Donnaor the shows organised by the CameraNazionale della Moda Italiana (“ItalianNational Fashion Chamber”) areamong the leading world fashionevents. For example, the 2006 editionof Milano Moda Donna, attended by22,000 fashion business people, and2,000 accredited journalists, featured230 collections in 100 shows (Powerand Jansson, 2008). These recordfigures are only also achieved by NewYork and Paris. Like the blockbusterexhibitions in the world ofcontemporary art, these events are away of attracting an internationalclientele back to Milan and keepingmedia attention on Italian fashionproduction high.Glamorous testimonialsThe fashion system made up of stars,stylists, buyers, models, acclaimeddesigners and celebrities is animportant component in constructingthe image and reputation of the city.Creative geniuses like Versace, Armani,Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and manyothers have associated their name andbrand with the city. The relationbetween the fashion leaders and thecity does not only concern the creationof the image of a global fashion city,but also the extraordinary volume ofprivate investments in centres,buildings, urban renewal schemes andinitiatives which have made the greatnames of fashion also great patrons.ShowroomsThe latest consumer trend – involvingthe essential role of the “fashionexperience” in the relation betweenbuyer and producer – is based onfashion shops being a very effectivemeans of communication. The newforms of fashion shops encourageconsumers to enter an environmentwhere they are emotionally involved.This emotional involvement may takethe form of an improvised fashionshow or seeing a stylist at work with amodel or a party attended by leadingpersonalities from the fashion designworld, the media and culture. Ofcourse people may also just drop in toexplore the whole brand productionrange (design objects, food,publications, fashion accessories, andpersonal spa and coiffure services). InMilan, these experience-places – bothsingle-brand venues and general stores– are the object of big investments: theArmani theatre and offices, the Guccishop, Prada’s redevelopment of aformer industrial area and Dolce &Gabbana’s refurbished former cinemas.AdvertisingFashion appears in daily city life in theat times rather intrusive forms ofadvertising. Giant billboards, postersand advertising totems redesign thecity’s face. This form of directmarketing constantly attracts attention– in stations, airports, streets andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 124

Chapter 5squares – to the equation Milan equalsfashion. Milan is also the Italianadvertising capital with an elaboratesystem of players. Creatives,photographers, image-makers,consumer-trend gurus and fashionmedia directors throng the placespromoting or launching the advertisingfor products and brands.Industrial outlets, megastores andsmall creative emporiaFrom the geographical point of view,the Milan area is a large district ofbuying opportunities. This not onlyapplies to the luxury shops in Via dellaSpiga and Via Monte Napoleone, butalso the industrial outlets, shoppingmalls and small hip emporia in theTicinese, Navigli, and Brera areas(Bovone et al., 2005) and majorprojects like the controversial Città dellaModa (“Fashion City”).5.6 The fast-changingfashion marketEthic fashionEthic fashion, i.e. fashion based on theselection and certification of materialused to make clothes and investmentsin sustainable production systems, hasbeen growing for the last 15 years, asdemonstrated by an International TradeCenter study presented at the ethicalfashion workshop during the Romefashion shows. In the UnitedKingdom, for example, the ethicalfashion market, grew by 30% from2004 to 2005 and is worth 43 millionpounds, 2.1% of the overall fashionmarket.According to the Italian Ethical andEnvironmental Certification Institute,Italy is ranked last in Europe as aconsumer and producer of organicclothes (leading producers includeThink Pink, with its Nature Labcollection, and Lifegate jeans). The useof organic textiles, transparent labellingsystems and a more sustainableproduction chain can increasepurchasers on a potential market ofaround 12 million euros. In the wake ofthis trend, over the past few yearsluxury ethical fashion is also growing:cosmetic products but also hautecouture clothes (see for exampleGattinoni’s wedding dresses) madewith material from renewableresources.Fashion and technologyTechnology and fashion are now aninextricable combination. On onehand, technology has entered textileand clothing manufacturing and, on theother, fashion has began to “dress”technology.Let us look at both trends.The production of textiles with a hightechnological component mainly cameinto being in the world of sport, inwhich tracksuits, but also bathingcostumes and clothes in generalguaranteed maximum comfort andoptimal performances. From the worldof sport, high-tech clothes spread toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 125

Chapter 5leisure wear and other fields. Someexamples are jackets and T-shirtsdesigned to contain iPods andheadphones, clothes which release anelectric shock if the wearer is attacked,clothes that can be lengthened at will,jackets complete with Bluetoothdevices, clothes whose decorativeelements move thanks to solar energy,and T-shirts that can charge up mobilephones and MP3 players by exploitingbody energy. Although mostlyprototypes, some of these items havebecome mass phenomena or promiseto do so in the near future.But fashion not only incorporatestechnology. It also dresses technology.In fact a very wide range of electronicaccessories (mobile phones, MP3players, televisions) have been designedby the best-known stylists. Mobilephones and MP3 players in particularare very much designer label objectswith the obvious effect of increasingvisibility for the brand, but also makingproducts which are increasingly,especially for younger consumers,experienced as elements of distinctionand identification.5.7 The fashion houses andgenerational changeThe issue of generational changeoverconcerns all sectors in which creativityis an input for the production ofcultural goods and services.Everywhere we have generations ofsuccessful creators who disappear andsubsequent generations who are not upto the standard of their predecessors.Solving the problem of how toguarantee at least a constant level ofcreativity is an objective found in everychapter of this book.We can imagine the fashion world as afield of force in which new generationstry to open up the way by opposing thedominant players. Consequently, thepace of change in the field fashionworld is set by the success of newgenerations of creators. One strategicissue, therefore, in fostering vitality andproductivity in the sector is to maintainthe same high standards from onegeneration to another. Maintaining thesame standards will safeguard a majorbrand’s reputation, market share andleadership.A creative milieu is a crucial factor inenabling creative talents to emerge anddevelop. A milieu capable ofaccommodating new talents, alsoforeigners, can then draw on theseresources to obtain the necessary sapfor renewal, as we will see below in thecase of the French fashion and luxuryindustry, which was arguably the firstto tackle the problem of thegenerational changeover in hautecouture.Another important factor is the abilityto maintain a reputation and highquality as an initial capital forsubsequent investments, whichreinforce and consolidate brandsthrough, for example, the marketlaunch of accessories – perfumes,eyewear, handbags – and prêt-à-porterproduction.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 126

Chapter 5A last vitally important element forsustaining creativity over time is thesuccession of stylists at the helm of theownership structure of the company.The French fashion houses havealready made steps in this direction.The ownership of the large fashionhouses is characterised by decline inthe control by founders and theirfamily. The fragmentation of theownership through quotation on thestock exchange has meant thatsuccession is a more routine operation.There is no longer a very powerfulidentification between the founderstylistand ownership. This avoids theshock effect at the retirement or deathof the stylist and even makes thesuccession of various stylists at thehead of a maison a time of strength,innovation and development.Succession is more problematic,however, when the company is familyrun and strictly identified with thefounder – the commonest situation onthe Italian scene.5.8 The luxury industryAs it developed, the European fashionindustry crossed paths with the luxuryindustry and has taken it over.Paradoxically we are talking aboutmodern luxury available for everyone.This industry has such a highintellectual value added as to subvertthe usual hierarchy of the productionof value. Luxury and creativity go handin hand and together are a naturaloutlet for the whole sector. One classicexample: a maison like Chanel makes90% of its turnover from perfumesales, while the rest comes fromaccessories and haute couture, whichwere the origin of the brand’sinternational reputation.Luxury goods are those products whichare perceived as such on the groundsof an image of distinction, quality andtheir special nature compared tonormal goods for which they are avehicle. But there is no unanimousagreement about the boundaries of theluxury industry. Items of particularlysophisticated manufacture produced ina limited series can be considered asluxury goods (handmade suits are anexample) as can mass-produced goods,such as the 3 million bags made peryear by Louis Vuitton, which satisfycriteria of top-class prices, difficultaccess, predominance of intangiblecomponents and symbolic, aestheticand cultural values. After a historicalperiod in which consumption of luxurygoods was dominated by thearistocratic classes (luxury goods wereconsumed by an elite and beyondordinary people’s reach) today whatdominates is an industrial model withmass-produced luxury goods to beconsumed, at least once in a lifetime,by everyone.In this situation the luxury industrydepends on the creativity of hautecouture. The growth of the luxurymarket has led to the need for aconstant input of creativity to avoidproducts becoming obsolete and tocontrast the volatility of demand. Inthis sense haute couture can become asimple “exercise” in creativity,showcasing luxury prêt-à-porter, i.e. theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 127

Chapter 5cutting edge of fashion innovation thattransfers creativity to the rest of theproduction chain. Alternatively, hautecouture can merge with luxury prêt-àporterto create a more profitableindustry.The entry of international financialgroups (LVMH, PPR, Richmond,Versace, Armani) into the luxurysegment has led, on one hand, to abetter use of our heritage of fashionhouses, brands, and reputations whichwas previously underestimated, and onthe other, to investments in researchand marketing in order to contrast thevolatility of demand and share out theentrepreneurial risk. The internationalspread of single-brand shops is mainlybased on the offering of luxuryaccessory goods.In Italy, the Fiera del Lusso, a fair ofluxury goods held in Vicenza, attracts250 exhibitors and over 60,000 visitors.It can thus justifiably claim to be theItalian shop window for luxury goods.5.9 Intellectual property andcounterfeitingFashion and luxury goods are, by theirvery nature, exposed to thephenomenon of counterfeiting andcommercial piracy. The market forfakes and counterfeits is growing.According to OECD figures, the worldturnover in fakes in all sectors, frommusic to luxury goods is around 200billion dollars a year, i.e. from around7-9% of total world trade. According toSOS Impresa, in Italy counterfeits havea turnover of at least 7 billion euros, ofwhich over 50% in the clothing andfashion sector.Combating illegal markets is anessential strategy in sustaining thedevelopment of markets for design,luxury and fashion products.Counterfeits and fakes can generatelosses, especially for producers, whoare damaged so badly economically thatthey are discouraged from investing inresearch, creativity and innovation.This is especially true when what iscopied is not only the design, but alsothe original brands. The consumer, onthe other hand, is in some ways is lessaffected by counterfeiting. Indeed howcan consumers complain when they areoffered lower-quality goods, if theycost much less than the originals orclaim they have been deceived?Moreover, this also seems to be the lineof thought of the Italian SupremeCourt.5.10 Fashion, museums andexhibitionsEvery new season fashion shows are akey moment for presenting andcommercialising the work of creatorsand stylists. The accompanying worksessions, social events and the presenceof journalists and celebrities constitutean intangible value for fashion intransforming potential into business.But stylists’ creations are alsocelebrated in temporary exhibitions andmuseum collections.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 128

Chapter 5Worldwide there are around 90museums dedicated to fashion, textilesand accessories, also taking intoaccount the many national museums ofdecorative arts which have one or morethematic sections. Most of the fashionmuseums are located in the countrieswhich have historically producedtextiles and fashion (Italy, France, butalso the United Kingdom and theUSA). These museums were originallyfounded at the behest of collectors orsovereigns (this is the case with thecostume gallery in the Palazzo Pitti,Florence, the Ratti Foundation inComo, but also the Victoria and AlbertMuseum, London) and/or due to thepresence of local highly specialisedmanufacturing industries related to thesector (as in the case of most Italianmuseums) or fashion design schools, asin many US institutions). Museumsmay also be the result of a decisionmade in recent years to relaunch andsustain the local fashion industry andstylists (as in the case, for example,with some Spanish, Belgian, Dutchmuseums and the Marseilles Museum).In Italy most museum collections areassociated with specialised localproductions: textiles (silk and cotton),accessories (i.e. eyewear, hats,footwear), luxury items (jewellery andperfumes) and craft objects (lace andcarpets). There are very few generalistcollections or collections dedicated toindividual stylists, which are morefrequent in France.In Italy there are no traces, at least notin their names, of museums explicitlydedicated to fashion. The main featureof most Italian museums is that ofbeing associated with the world ofmanufacturing: they document theheritage of knowledge, techniques andcreations of a local area, or a specificindustry or specific designer. Specialistor corporate museums are the largestcategory of Italian design museums,which highlights the importance thecountry’s economy of the textilessector, clothing manufacturing andaccessories.The most important collections fromthe historical point of view and interms of cultural policies are:• Museo del Tessuto Italiano, Prato.• Fondazione Antonio Ratti -Museo Tessile, Como;• Civiche Raccolte d'Arte Applicata,in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan;• Galleria del Costume di PalazzoPitti, Florence;• Museo Ferragamo in the PalazzoFeroni, Via de' Tornabuoni, Florence.None of the museums, however,except for the Galleria del Costume diPalazzo Pitti in Florence, which alsohas strong links with the annualFashion Fair and events held in thecity, is a fashion museum in thestrictest sense of the term. There are nocollections explicitly dedicated tofashion, creators and innovations, butrather collections documenting thehistorical evolution of dress. What wewould expect of a fashion museum infact is that it would change over timeby often renewing its content, gaspingtrends and innovations, suggestingpaths for creativity and acting as aWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 129

Chapter 5support facility for young people,artists, creators and designers.The so-called “Fashion Cities” seem toexperience difficulty in taking off forfinancial reasons and because ofcontrasts between local stylists.5.11 Fashion andprofessional trainingInstitutes offering training courses for acareer in the world of fashion arefound in abundance in France, theUnited Kingdom, the United States,Japan and Italy. We have consideredsome of them in order to understandthe kind of programmes they offer,how they are organised and theirpotential students.Italy boasts a rather long list of schoolsdedicated to the world of fashion,located in the main production zones.They include the Domus Academy,IED, and Istituto Marangoni in Milan,and Polimoda in Florence.International and Italian design schoolshave a number of common features:• collaboration with the businessworld• interest in the international scene• the inclusion in the trainingcourses of notionsz of marketing,communications and businessmanagement• combination of consultingactivities with teaching• in some cases a focus on thepractical realisation of stylisticcreations in workshops.5.12 ConclusionsThe picture we have outlined gives agood idea of the complexity of thefashion world. Our analysis hastouched on some of the deep problemsin the sector. Proposals for policies tostrengthen it and contribute to itsgrowth are included in the final chapteron recommendations.Here we would like to stress that thefashion sector is vital for the economyof Italian creativity and also, in thestricter sense of the word, linked to thelife of the creatives who have made it asuccess. The challenge over the nextfew years will be to ensure generationalcontinuity through smooth positivechangeovers and to make the newgenerations aware that they are animportant part of contemporary Italianculture. Only by increasing awarenessamong stakeholders in the sector, onlyby offering support and incentives fororganising and training talent and skillsin the whole chain will it be possible toreach these objectives. Similarly, theeconomic challenges of globalisationrequire new marketing andcommercialisation strategies to ensurethat products made in Italy continue tobe competitive on the internationalscene.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 130

Chapter 6Michelangelo Pistoletto “Wollen– the stitched-up apple ” 2007Polystyrene, wool, steel, 360 x Ø 300 cmCasa Zegna CollectionPhotograph: M. Piazza

Chapter 6Chapter 6The Taste Industry6.1 Taste, food and cuisine :Italian excellence ingastronomyOne of the most interesting examplesof the successful distribution of “tastegoods” is Eataly. The first large Eatalyshopping centre was opened in Turinin the former factory of Carpano, the18th-cenury inventor of Vermouth.Around 300,000 people visited in thefirst few weeks. The successfulcommercial formula of Eataly involvesdirect sales of farm and food productsbut also restaurant facilities inside theshopping centre. Inspired by the SlowFood philosophy, the products havequality and provenance certificationand are moderately priced, except onspecial gala evenings wheninternationally famous chefs performfor the lucky few. Eataly also plans toopen centres in other Italian cities andin New York.According to the Accademia Italianadella Cucina, Italian restaurants are themost commonly found restaurantsworldwide, followed by Chineserestaurants. The country with mostItalian restaurants is Australia. As forthe cities, Melbourne has 1,000ristoranti, while Sydney, Montreal, NewYork have around 500, Paris – 400,Frankfurt – 200, London – 150 and,lastly, Miami and San Francisco – over100. Although Italian cuisine has notyet made the UNESCO WorldHeritage list, it undoubtedly has animmense cultural value.After years of experience in judging topworld wines, the longest-standingclassic wine review, the Wine Spectator,titled issue number 30 of November2003: “Perfection in Piedmont. The2000 Barolos and Barbarescos earn ourfirst 100 points Vintage Rating.” NoItalian or French wine had everpreviously received full marks in themagazine’s rating. On a very fiercecompetitive scene, the Italian wineindustry has made giant steps, tobecome a leader in terms of quality andaura.This straightforward informationhighlights the economic importance ofthe sector but also its value in terms ofidentity and as a flagship for otherItalian products in the world. The winesector features among top nationalpriority sectors to be protected,promoted and developed, partlybecause of its overall impact on thediffusion of Italian culture in the world.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 132

Chapter 6The taste industry or rather tastesystem is only a recently acknowledgedcultural field, which combines identity,tradition, local territory, history andlandscape, but also creativity, researchand technological innovation. Thesector is growing and, even more thanothers, is characterised by its strongintegration with local communities andcultures.There are very few sectors in which the“Italia” brand continues to be auniversally recognised leader, apartfrom some cuisine and wineproductions and to some extent farmand food productions. In theinternational collective imagination,Italian food and Italian wine are oftendepicted as a kind of gift of nature,rather than the result of a longproduction process with very precisegeographical roots, but also a greatcapacity to combine these roots withinnovation in a system dominated bythe creative component.What we wish to a highlight in thischapter is the significant component ofcreativity pervading the Italian tastesystem, from the production of food toits preparation and consumption.The evolution of Italian food andwine: tradition and innovationIn 2007 the Accademia Italiana dellaCucina collected a “century of Italianmenus”. The reason why menus beganto appear in official lunches anddinners, according to the Accademia,was a change in 1810 from French-styleservice (all the dishes were brought tothe table at the same time), to Russianstyleservice (the various dishes wereserved in sequence). The lists of dishes,either separate or in menus, arefascinating documents illustrating theevolution of gastronomic culture. Onreading the Italian menus from the late19th century to the 1920s we detect astrong French influence in “high” and“official” Italian cuisine, evidenced notonly by the names but also theabundant use of tartar sauce andfrequent mention of dishes alla Périgord,after the Aquitaine area famed for itsblack truffles. Aliguste (lobster) and wildgame were the favourites dishes atofficial dinners but were later replacedby the more straightforward roast beef.Dishes gradually became lighter asboiled fish and steamed vegetablesreplaced fatty gravies and greasy sauces.In the 1930s, the minuta (menu) wasenhanced by dishes more closelyassociated with the Italian regionaltradition, such as cappelletti or tortellini(stuffed pasta) in consomme soup andeven saltimbocca alla romana (sautedrolled sliced veal). Among desserts, icecreamtriumphed, while millefoglie (millefeuille)and spuma (mousse, preferablymocha) also began to put in anappearance.Italian eating habits changed radicallyfrom the post-Second World Warperiod on. In addition to theundeniable trend to globalisation andthe arrival of exogenous elements,there has been a great return to rootsand tradition in the name of highquality. A comparison between variousEuropean countries ranks Italy last in aclassification of willingness to changeeating habits (only 22% of intervieweeswere willing to change compared, forexample, to 31% in Sweden). xiv Somechanges are undoubtedly taking place,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 133

Chapter 6as for example, the reduction in pastaconsumption, documented by ISTAT.Italians’ growing concern with personaland health care has stimulatedinnovation and boosted demand forhigher quality. In the last three years,over 4,000 products have beenreformulated to reduce cholesterol,saturated fat or salt content. Accordingto a Censis survey, 66% of overall foodindustry sales consists of classictraditional Italian food,10% of typicaland organic products and 24% ofinnovative products, especially ready toeat foods. In 2005, Unilever had aturnover of 760 million euros or 39%of the Italian frozen food market. Afterfish (34%) and vegetables (32%), 20%of its sales were for ready to eat dishes,i.e. the sector which has moreobviously assimilated local or regionalgastronomic influences. A significantfigure as regards innovative trends infood concerns functional foods, a termcoined in Japan for those foods which,independently of their nutritional valueand pleasure, have beneficialproperties. In Italy there are variousexamples in this direction. Accordingto a Censis study, among the criteriaused by Italians for choosing foodproducts and wine, quality is thepredominant factor for 39% of theinterviewees, accessible price for 32%,and the impression of freshness for10%.Moreover, an emerging innovativephenomenon is food design, i.e. thediscipline concerning the aesthetic andfunctional design of food, which is alsotaught at some Italian universities.Food and beverage are conceived asworks of art involving culinaryperformances which can even takeplace in some rather unusual places,such as contemporary art exhibitions.A creamy espresso to be eaten with ateaspoon, called Espesso, created byFerran Adrià for Lavazza, was decreedby Time as one the best inventions of2006.The so-called Slow Food experiencedeserves a separate chapter because ofits influence on the development of theItalian gastronomic heritage and itscreative approach to innovation. TheSlow Food philosophy spreadinternationally as a new etiquette andeducation about food in the name ofquality, loyalty to tradition andauthenticity.Originally called Arcigola, Slow Foodwas founded by Carlo Petrini at Bra(Piedmont) in 1986. Today theassociation has 35,000 members and410 local sections called condotte in Italy.In 1989 Slow Food became aninternational association with its ownnational offices in Germany,Switzerland, the United States, France,Japan, and the United Kingdom. In 122countries worldwide, Slow Food has40,000 members and 800 convivia(chapters). Each branch, co-ordinatedby a convivium leader, organises courses,food and wine tastings, dinners andtrips as well as promoting localcampaigns launched by the associationaimed at implementing projects such asschool vegetable gardens orparticipating in larger events organisedby Slow Food at international level.The association’s mission is to educatepeople to better taste, safeguardbiodiversity and traditional foodproduction, promote a new food modelbased on respect for the environment,traditions and cultural identity with theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 134

Chapter 6aim of creating a virtuous network ofinternational relations and sharedknowledge. So far projects financed tosafeguard biodiversity include the “Arkof Taste”, the “presidia” and the SlowFood Award for the protection ofbiodiversity. The Ark of Tasteresearches, catalogues, describes andinforms about almost forgotten tastesin danger of extinction worldwide, butwhich have real production andcommercial potential. The presidia –around 200 in Italy and 90 in the restof world – support excellent small farmproductions in danger of disappearing.By directly involving producers, theyoffer assistance to improve the qualityof products and return to traditionaltechniques. In 2003, in collaborationwith the regions of Emilia-Romagnaand Piedmont, Slow Food set up thefirst University of GastronomicSciences, based at Bra and Colorno.6.2 The geography of tasteTo understand the economic and socialimportance of the taste sector in Italy,we can begin by considering the factthat the farm and food sector ischaracterised by a remarkable diversityof biological varieties and typicalrecipes. In fact almost 4,400 traditionalfarm and food products xv weresurveyed by the Ministry forAgricultural Food and Forest Policies(MiPAAF) according to thegeographical distribution shown inFigure 6.1.Figure 6.1. – Regional distribution of traditional farm and food products(2007)TuscanyPiedmontVenetoLazioCampaniaCalabriaLiguriaSicilyTrentinoLombardyEmilia RomagnaMoliseSardiniaMarchesApuliaFriuli Venezia GiuliaAbruzzoUmbriaBasilicataValle d'Aosta1431437042292392001992181591701481902732873363293693734550 100 200 300 400 500Source: our elaboration of MiPAAF data, 2007.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 135

Chapter 6For the purposes of mapping outquality taste products from this vastdiversity of traditional products, thecriterion used was that of protectionand the existence of protectedcollective rights xvi .This is a subgroup, then, of a largesystem of invention, production anddistribution as well as transmissionand accumulation of knowledge. Inthis system excellence has drivenproduction and continually guidedconsumption towards higher quality,also generating an integration almostunrivalled in other sectors of theItalian economy characterised bycreativity.From this point of view the tasteindustry is characterised by:- EU-certification with productsfalling into three categories: ProtectedDesignation of Origin (PDO),abbreviated as DOP in Italian (e.g.caciocavallo silano); ProtectedGeographical Indication (PGI),abbreviated as IGP in Italian (e.g.mortadella Bologna); and GuaranteedTraditional Speciality (GTS),abbreviated as STG in Italian (there isonly one case – mozzarella)- Italian certification; in the winesector there are three categories ofcertification: DOCG (GuaranteedControlled Designation of Origin),DOC (Controlled Designation ofOrigin) and IGT (TypicalGeographical Indication).MiPAAF nationwide data for 2008lists 694 products protected by thevarious categories – DOC, DOCG,IGT, DOP and IGP.Italian wine certification breaks downas follows: 36 wines with DOCG, 324with DOC, and 124 with IGT. Thereare 40 DOP and IGP oils, 56 DOPcheeses, and 59 fresh or cured meats.In protected areas alone, 475 typicalproducts are made.Figure 6.2 shows the percentagedistribution of certified protectedproducts by type.Figure 6.2 – Protected productsMeat& cured meat9%Cheeses8%Olive Oil6%Veg, fruit &cereals 8%Source: our elaboration of MiPAAF data (2008)WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 136

Chapter 6The taste industry has visible effectson the geography of Italy, which nowboasts 560 “Wine Towns”, 300 “OilTowns”, 70 “Flavour CommunalAreas”, 127 “Prettiest Villages ofItaly”, 137 routes of wine, oil orflavours, 933 specialised wine outlets.Further, the food culture system has787 typical dishes, 99 schools, 80professions and trades with their owntraining courses, 123 museums, 40magazines and an essentialbibliography of over 500 books.A more detailed look at thedistribution of the system from thegeographic point of view reveals somesignificant differences between regionsand between macro-regions.Considering the number of products,there is sharp disproportion in favourof Northern regions.Figure 6.3 shows the number ofcertified products (all categories)according to the different regions. Theregion with most certified products isPiedmont, with 68 labels, followed byTuscany with 66. The regions with thefewest certified products are the Valled’Aosta (5), Basilicata and Molise (9).These figures are clearly influenced bytwo factors: the size of the region andthe incidence of wine. In relation tosize, the region with most certifiedproducts per square kilometre is theVeneto (1 every 307 km2), followedby Campania (1 every 316 km2).Figure 6.3 - Regional distribution of protected products (including wines)0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80PiedmontTuscanyVenetoLombardyEmilia-RomagnaSicilyCampaniaLazioApuliaSardiniaCalabriaMarchesUmbriaTrentinoAbruzzoFriuli VeneziaLiguriaBasilicataMoliseValle d'Aosta5991326252220183444434342405453606668Source: MIPAAF 2008If wines are subtracted from the figurefor the regional distribution ofprotected products, the regions areranked differently: Emilia-Romagna(22) and the Veneto (22), followed byLombardy (21), have the largestnumber of protected products, whilein the last positions are Molise, ValleWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 137

Chapter 6d’Aosta and Liguria, with 4, 4 and 2products, respectively.If we consider the figure for eachregion in terms of DOP-IGP as a ratioof each region’s share of nationalagricultural sales, the leading regionsare Valle d’Aosta, Molise and Tuscany,respectively. xvii Thus according tothese results, the small regions, likeValle d’Aosta, l’Umbria, and Molise,benefit most from having protectedproducts.Separate mention must be made of theprotected areas. xviii They account for9% of the national territory and areideal places for small high-qualityproductions with a strong localidentity.475 out of the over 4,000 typicalregional products are produced in theparks and therefore account for 11%of the national total. Moreover, asmany as 332 products come fromprotected areas and account foraround 21.3% of the national total; xix71 of these products have EUprotected status.A comparison of certified productsand traditional food products in Italianregions reveals that although Calabria,Campania and Sicily have a lowpercentage of certified products, theyhave very high shares of traditionalproducts.6.3 The taste productionchainThe taste production chain in Italymay be defined as the set oforganisations (or businesses) and theirflows of materials which contribute tothe creation, distribution,commercialisation and supply of farmand food products and wine. Theindustry is still relatively little studied,partly because the data on the subjectis wholly inadequate and excessivelyaggregated. We will thus try tohighlight the role of excellentsolutions in terms of creativity andinnovation in the overall dynamics ofthe sector.The industry of DOP, IGP and STGproducts has around 6,000 jobs xx inthe stages of production andprocessing (this figure does notinclude creatives or jobs indistribution and communications).The figure accounts for 9% of jobs inthe whole farm and food industry inthe sectors considered.The average farm-food business isfairly small, employs less than 10people, and is usually family-run.ProductsThe products we are referring to haveimportant quality features,acknowledged through thecertification of their protected status.From the economic point of view,they are becoming increasinglyimportant. Today the sales volume ofDOP and IGP products is in excess of4% of the overall figure for the foodindustry.In 2004, 741 tonnes of certifiedproducts were produced, a rise of26.1% on the previous year. xxiThe main share of the sector ischeeses, which account for 56% ofcertified production, followed bymeat-based products (24%) and fruitWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 138

Chapter 6and vegetables (18%). On looking atthe annual production for allcategories of products (Table 6.1), wenote that the fruit and vegetable boomis due to the certification of moreproducts. In fact, the increase in salescoincided with a rise in the number ofprotected products.Table 6.1 - Quantities of DOP and IGP certified products per food category (tonnes)Category 2004 2003 % Variation 04/03Cheese 415,709 395,302 5Fats and oils 5,005 4,299 17Fruit & Veg 134,427 12,146 1,007Meat-based products 180,848 172,161 5Fresh meat 5,417 4,264 27Total 741,405 588,171 26Source: Ismea elaboration of Control Bodies and ISTAT data (2006)As far as quality wine products areconcerned, 483 wines are DOC,DOCG or IGT certified. The 324DOC wines account for 67% of thetotal, followed by 123 IGT wines(25%) and 36 DOCG wines (8%). Thegeographical distribution shows aprevalence of quality wines in theNorth (28%), followed by the Centre(19%), the South (14%) and lastly theIslands (9%). The North has 40% ofDOC wines, 53% of DOCG and 36%of IGT. In terms of regionaldistribution, the leading region isPiedmont, with 54 protected wines,followed by Tuscany, with 49 and theVeneto with 38. Sardinia has 35certified wines: 19 DOC, 15 IGT and 1DOCG.According to ISTAT figures for 2004,quality wine production totalled around15 million hectolitres, the equivalent of57% of total Italian wine output, thusconfirming the trend of the last decade.From a comparison with the figures for1995, we see that quality wineproduction has risen on average by4.4% annually. DOC wines account for31% of the total, with an output ofaround 16.5 million hectolitres. Despitehaving considerably fewer individuallabels, IGT wines account for 26% ofquality wine production. Domesticconsumption of certified wines, around53% of total wine consumed, isgrowing at the annual rate of 3%. Thisis a particularly significant figureconsidering that overall domestic wineconsumption (including “Table Wine”)fell by 22% from 1995 to 2005. Peoplethus drink less but better.Businesses and jobsFrom 2004 to 2005, the number ofbusinesses involved in processing DOPand IGP certified products overallrecorded only a very slight rise (0.5%)with heavy losses in the oil category –probably due to greater vulnerability ofcrops to bad weather conditions – andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 139

Chapter 6a massive rise in cereals and fruit and vegetable production (Table 6.2)Table 6.2 – Variations (2004-2005) in the number of businesses and jobs inprocessing certified productsNumber of businesses2004 2005 % VariationMeat and meat-basedproducts7,044 7,739 9.9Cheese 18,025 17,546 -2.7Fruit & veg and cereals 7,912 11,561 46.1Extra-virgin olive oil 20,941 17,354 -17.1TOTAL 53,922 54,200 0.5Land (hectares)Meat and meat-basedproducts- - -Cheese - - -Fruit & veg and cereals 23,590 25,100 6.4Extra-virgin olive oil 86,873 78,072 -10.1TOTAL 110,462 103,173 -6.6Number of rearingMeat and meat-basedproducts 8,049 8,550 6.2Cheese 20,487 20,690 1.0Fruit & veg and cereals - - -Extra-virgin olive oil - - -TOTAL 28,536 29,240 2.5Jobs in processingMeat and meat-basedproducts 1,228 1,373 11.8Cheese 1,883 1,920 2.0Fruit & veg and cereals 584 620 6.2Extra-virgin olive oil 1,850 1,575 -14.9TOTAL 5,545 5,488 -1.0Source: our elaboration of ISTAT data (2004)The production of goods andservicesThe rediscovery of typical regionalproducts has also encouraged the riseof a new kind of tourist, or a“gastronaut”, xxii who travels in searchof good food and fine wines.Wine and food tourism isquantitatively a niche marketWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 140

Chapter 6compared to traditional, now decliningsegments, such as seaside tourism, buthas great growth potential. Theappearance of this kind of tourism inthe mid-1990s xxiii was basically due tothe initiative of a number of pioneers,mainly associated with the largeregional systems, such as the SlowFood condotte and presidia or the Cittàdel Vino circuit. Subsequently, thanksto a greater involvement of the massmedia and the exponential growth infood consumed outside the home,demand took off and the firstattempts were made to regulate thesector. In the early years of the 2000s,through a process of imitation of bestpractices, well-developed districts andnew businesses emerged on the Italianscene.Food and wine tourism has beenstrongly supported by the media.There are currently 51 radio andtelevision programmes on the subject.Food and wine tourism in Italyaccounted for 2.5% of privatespending on travel and tourism, with asales volume of in excess of 2 billioneuros. The average daily spending ofwine tourists, which in 2005 wasaround 25 euros and in 2006 around28 euros, shows an mean increase ofthree euros with peaks of seven eurosspent on local wines (Censis data).The kind of accommodation whichbest meets the requirements of wineand food tourists is the “agritourism”(farm accommodation). Initiallycreated to supplement farm incomes,this kind of activity offering food andaccommodation has also become away of caring for the countryside andreinforcing local rural identity.According to ISTAT, in 2006 therewere 16,765 agritourism businessesoperating in Italy (13,854 offeredaccommodation, 7,898 food and wine,while 2,664 had other activities). Thenumber of agritourisms increased by9.4% on the previous year and weredistributed as follows: 45.7% in theNorth, 35.1% in the Centre and 19.2%in the South. Businesses with arestaurant licence grew uniformlythroughout Italy (+9.7%) and accountfor 47.1% of all restaurants.This trend is confirmed, on one hand,by the growing demand for food andwine tourism and, on the other, by agreater request for high-qualitygenuine products, such as those whichcan be found directly on farms.The increased number of agritourismshas raised the question of establishingcriteria for their service to provideguarantees to both consumers andbusinesses. The situation iscomplicated, however, by the fact thatcompetence in this field lies with theRegions. In 2000, the Tuscany Regionwas the first to indicate the facilitiesand services on which to build theclassification. On the basis of thesefeatures, the Region elaborated asystem assigning a number of symbols(“corn ears”), from one to five,according to the quality of theaccommodation. The same kind ofsystem with similar criteria was alsoadopted by the Umbria Region. A fewyears later, in 2004, Tuscany revisedthe number of corn ears in the systemand reduce them to three. Abruzzoalso adopted the new three-corn earsystem. A lack of uniformity in thesesystems might bewilder tourists whenchoosing facilities and there is clearly aWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 141

Chapter 6need for guidelines to be shared atnational level in order to produce auniform classification.A similar problem arises concerningthe communication of the quality offood and services in the restaurantsector. Restaurants are anindispensable driver for the diffusionof excellent products as theingredients in recipes and specialdishes. We would stress that in therestaurant sector interestingmechanisms of cascade diffusion havemeant that typical products fromluxury restaurants are being adopted inmore popular economical restaurants,thus bringing widespread success forproducts, such as farro (emmer andspelt), the pomodoro di Pachino (thePachino tomato) and lardo di Colonnata(Colonnata lard), to cite three of thebest-known examples.The Pachino tomato and farro: twosuccess storiesIn the 1970s some vegetabledistributors in the Pachino area ofSicily came up with the idea ofhighlighting the name Pachino onboxes containing local cherrytomatoes. Consumers thus began toassociate the characteristics of thatparticular tomato with the name. Theconsortium protecting the Pachinotomato, now made up of 500businesses, have identified some ofthe features which have made thisproduct successful:• taste• consistency of the pulp• shiny skin• long shelf-life• high content of vitamins (Vit. C)and antioxidants (lycopene).Long shelf-life is one of the strengthsof the tomato which is sold in sealedpackages, in line with the productrules and regulations. This is obviouslya great advantage when exporting theproduct.The rise to international fame led toan inevitable proliferation of similarproducts, making it necessary toprotect the Pachino tomato, initiallythrough IGP certification. Today 500tonnes of IGP cherry tomatoes areproduced, while a further 700 tonneshave no certification. Considerablecompetition comes from Hollandwhere protected crops yield 5000 g/hacompared to the 1000 g/ha in theoriginal Pachino zone. The responseto these “attacks” has been to raise thequality standards certified by the EUand to elaborate strategies aimed atpromoting the product with the endcustomer. One company has evencreated a tracking system withinformation sent to mobile phones.To reassure customers who wantinformation about the provenance oftheir purchases, the company siteenables them to follow the variousstages in the production chain bysimply keying in a lot number.Pachino tomatoes are used in a vastarray of recipes: over 19,000 can beconsulted online in Italian andEnglish.The second example of a successfulIGP food is the hulled wheat speciescollectively called farro in Italy(Einkorn –Triticum monococcum;Emmer– T. dicoccum; and Spelt – T.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 142

Chapter 6Spelta). Farro is considered to be atraditional species and thereforeendowed with a significant ecologicalvalue, especially for organic farms(there are over 2000 ha of emmer, T.dicoccum, and almost 500 ha of spelt, T.Spelta). Emmer, for example, wasknown to be used in ancient times,when it was part of the staple diet ofAssyrians and Egyptians. Moreover, inancient Rome, emmer was one of thefew forms of sustenance for slavesand soldiers, who used to eat puls (akind of porridge made of stonegroundemmer cooked with water).These kinds of wheats were used asthe main ingredient for various otherrecipes consumed by higher-rankingclasses. The best-known was certainlyconfarratio – a forerunner of themodern pastiera (wheat and ricottacake) – prepared for marriageceremonies. Since being recognised asa basic ingredient in traditional cuisine,these ancient wheat species weregradually replaced by common anddurum wheat and eventually only usedas forage. Today the rediscovery offarro has almost made it a luxuryproduct, used in recipes in some ofthe most highly rated restaurants inCentral Italy. The recovery of theimage of farro began in the early 1990swhen some farms began to invest toincrease their crops of the cereal. Theywere then supported by theacknowledgement of IGP status forGarfagnana farro in 1996. At the sametime there was a revival of old recipesusing farro in the local gastronomictradition.The image of farro is also associatedwith simple genuine country life,partly because it is attributed withhaving beneficial properties whichkeep cholesterol levels down in theblood. This niche product was thenadopted by the big supermarketchains, which launched it on themarket in several different kinds ofready-made dishes. The increasedproduction and massive investment incommunications has transformed farrofrom a staple ingredient for so-calledhumble dishes into a luxury delicacy.In Italy there are around 81,000restaurants employing approximately344,000 people (ASIA). xxiv The highestpercentage (14.4%) is in Lombardy;Lazio, the Veneto, Tuscany,Campania, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna have around 8% each, whilethe other regions have minor shares –Apulia, Sicily and Liguria (6-4%); thesmallest have from just over 3% downto 0.6%.The ISTAT figures only concern thenumber of restaurant businesses inItaly without giving any informationabout quality. Unlike hotels, but likeagritourisms, restaurants have nonational regulations dictating thecriteria for quality indications. Somespecialist guides, however, do indicatethe quality of restaurants by usingvarious symbols.The 2008 Michelin Guide to Italymentions 2,580 restaurants, 3.2% ofthe national total. The region withlargest number of restaurantsmentioned is Lombardy, with 435restaurants (17%). By comparing thenumber of restaurants in the guide tothe ISTAT regional totals, we find thatthe best represented regions areTrentino with 14.1% of its overallrestaurants mentioned by the MichelinWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 143

Chapter 6Guide, the Veneto (13.6%) andSardinia (8.3%). The guide ratesrestaurants by assigning from one to amaximum of five “knives and forks”.In Italy 862 restaurants were given one“knife and fork”, 1,379 two, 309 three,28 four, while only two restaurantswere assigned the greatly sought afterfive knives and forks – one in Lazioand the other in Tuscany. Byconsidering only the high to topquality restaurants (i.e. those with arating of 3-5 “knives and forks”), theregion offering what is deemed to bethe best quality is Piedmont, whichhas 19% of high to top qualityrestaurants. It is followed by Valled’Aosta (18%), Lombardy (16%) andthe Veneto (15%).Italian cuisine in the worldA Doxa survey conducted from 2004 to 2006 shows that out of 2,400 foreignersinterviewed 10.4% associated Italy with food and wine. Data for 2007 on theperception of Italian cuisine in the world gathered by the Accademia Italiana dellaCucina through its 73 delegations in 40 countries, put Italian cuisine as first amongthose most represented in the restaurants in the country considered, with apercentage of 68%, as opposed to 40% for Chinese restaurants. Over half of theinterviewees described Italian cuisine as being excellent because of the deliciousflavours. The country with most Italian restaurants is Australia. The restaurantsmainly employ Italian chefs who prepare traditional cuisine in 78% of cases. In32% of the restaurants attempts at fusion were found, while innovative cuisine onlyfeatures in 10% of cases. Thus Italian cuisine abroad mainly remains traditional.Respecting the original recipe and the use of high-quality ingredients are the criticalpoints encountered most frequently. Pizza, tiramisu, lasagne, ravioli, and saltimboccaalla romana are the most frequently prepared dishes but at the same time are thosewhich resemble less closely the original recipes and tend to be modified to meetlocal taste. The New York delegation summed up the situation by dividing thegastronomic offering into three categories of restaurants: 1) restaurants run byItalians who used Italian products and offer high-quality Italian cuisine closely inline with the tradition; 2) restaurants run by Italo-Americans, who prepare ratheroutmoded, often modified traditional dishes; 3) restaurants which sound Italian asregards the menu, but are not even run by Italians. The widespread presence ofItalian cuisine in the world is also due to the greater ease of finding some products,used both in restaurants and at home. The same study revealed that in many housesin the world people cook Italian style and this is confirmed by the proliferation ofItalian or even Italian regional cookbooks. There are a vast number of Internet sitesdedicated to typical Italian regional cooking. Some contain a great deal of accurateinformation and enable readers to acquire a better understanding of traditionalproducts and the areas they come from.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 144

Chapter 6The Italian guidebook, Gambero Rosso,also selects the best restaurants, theequivalent of 2.2% of the nationaltotal. The guide has a three-symbol(forks) system for indicating quality. Inabsolute terms Lombardy is rankedfirst with 213 restaurants mentioned,followed by Lazio with 180 andTuscany with 174. The calculation ofthe percentage of restaurants withGambero Rosso forks out of the totalrestaurants in the ISTAT survey givessimilar results to the percentage withMichelin “knives and forks”: Trentinocomes first (10.5%), followed bySardinia (9.4%) and the Veneto(6.9%). The regions with the largestnumber of restaurants with forks are:Trentino (97% of restaurantsmentioned in the guide have forks),Friuli Venezia Giulia (94%) andLiguria (89%). At the bottom of theclassification, just under half therestaurants (approx. 48%) in Lazio,Calabria and Basilicata included in theguide are given a quality rating.In the category of large internationalhotels, 50% offer Italian cuisine(Accademia Italiana della Cucina,2007). In Italy itself the qualitysituation is much different. Very fewluxury hotels can boast a high-qualityrestaurant recognised by the specialistguides. In Italy the only five-star hotelawarded the Michelin five “knives andforks” is La Pergola in the HotelRome Cavalieri Hilton in Rome. Eightluxury hotels have been given fourMichelin “knives and forks”: one inAlta Badia, one in Milan, three inRome, two in Capri and one atRavello.Lastly, it is worth mentioning that thetaste system can rely on an extensivenetwork of associations (360 ofvarious sizes on a national or localscale with diverse aims and interests,ranging from supporting producers toorganising “academies” or cookeryschools).Distribution, communications andpromotionDistribution - Given the size of farmand food businesses (the average jobsper enterprise is 6.5), xxv most typicalregional products are sold directly atthe place of production.The distribution system is basicallyorganised in three channels:• Direct sales• Local shops, local eatingfacilities, agritourisms• Speciality shops (outside theproduction area).Almost all typical products are sent toregions outside the local and regionalmarket. xxvi This means that themedium-size distribution channels arethe most used. At times distributionappears to be somewhat inadequatesince in many cases, contrary toexpectations, quality products can notbe found in local shops.There are 56 publicly-run large winecellars in Italy, mainly concentrated inthe central and northern regions, thelargest number being in Piedmont,while there are very few in theMarches, Umbria and Lazio.In recent years, the development ofthe Internet has offered smallproducers more opportunities forselling their products (e-commerce). AWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 145

Chapter 6large number of sites offer sales oftypical products online. An initialsurvey came up with 379 sites (April2008). The potential of the Internet isenormous, especially considering thatwith a very small investmentproducers can reach a truly hugemarket.One example in this direction isEsperya (www.esperya.com), amongthe longest-standing best-stockedItalian portals on the Internet. Theproject to open an online shop was setup in 1998. Today Esperya has 4,000visitors a day and 25,000 regularcustomers, who can choose from acatalogue of around 800 items. Theproducts are selected according to thequality of the raw materials, the use ofspecial packaging techniques,geographical location and suitability ofthe scale of production.But looking at longer distributionchannels, we find some interestingexamples in the field of the largesupermarket chains which areadopting typical products anddistributing them on a national scale.This is the case with the brand Terred’Italia (part of the Iper group), whichhas placed as many as 208 regionalproducts on supermarket shelves,including many with DOP and IGPstatus. Figure 6.4 shows thedistribution channels for productswith European certification.Figure 6.4 – Channels of DPO and IGP sales on the Italian Market (% volumes in2004)TotalDOP&PGPCheesesFats and oilsFruit&vegMeat basedproductsVinegarsGDO Wholesale Trad. Retail Spec. RetailDirectProducerHoReCaOtherFresh meatSource: Ismea elaboration of Control Bodies and ISTAT dataThe wine sector, which more thanothers looks to foreign markets, xxvii hasdifferent distribution channelscompared to the rest of the food andwine industry. Resorting to importexportcompanies is almost obligatoryWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 146

Chapter 6and the channels of the largesupermarket chains are also greatlyused. Many producers sell direct, eventrading abroad. Online sales are notconsidered suitable for large-scaletrading (Figure 6.5).vFigure 6.5 – Foreign sales channels for leading wine producersSales through import/export brokersSales to large supermarket buyersSales through own structuresParticipation at fairs, shows, workshops28.642.971.4100Sales through agreements withnational and foreign firms28.60 20 40 60 80 100Source: Unioncamere - Rapporto Vitivinicolo 2007In wine distribution an otherimportant supporting role is played bythe so-called “wine routes” system(sign-posted and publicised routes,characterised by natural and culturalattractions, vineyards, visitable winecellars, etc.).Communications - Among the mosteffective communications tools usedto support small entrepreneurs arecollective brands. With the aim ofguaranteeing high quality standards,they bring together companiesproducing the same productsaccording to the same rules andregulations. Effective communicationof the brands can bring benefits notonly to a member company but also tothe local area in which it operates.An ANCI study, entitled Il valore delletipicità locali, (“The value of typicallocal products”) conducted in August2006, focuses on the communicationaleffectiveness of typical productbrands. The most interesting resultsconcern the effects of goodcommunications. For example, therewas a rise in the real estate values of30% due to typical products. Thestudy also registered a 5% increase inemployment. Positive effects were alsofelt in the trading sector with a rise incommerce of 19%. Overall theinterviewees reported an increase indevelopment of 13%.An important role in the diffusion andpromotion of food and wine productsis certainly played by the trade fairsdedicated to the taste industry in all itsforms. For example, the Salone delGusto in Turin, organised every twoyears by Slow Food, meets withWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 147

Chapter 6considerable success: there were asmany as 180.000 visitors in 2008. Theidea of creating a fair for qualityproducts is a model that has also beenexported to France. In closecollaboration with Slow Food, theSalon du Gout is now held inMarseilles every two years.Another event bringing togetherproducers and consumers is Vinitaly,organised by Veronafiere in Verona.First held in 1967, today this wine fairattracts 4200 exhibitors in an area of80.000 square metres.These events have the twofoldpurpose of publicising qualityproducts and selling them directly tothe public. The massive participationat the event by business operatorssignals the need for greater visibilityfelt by small producers and at thesame time a desire to meet andexchange ideas and good practices inorder to make the production chainmore efficient. Another interestingproject is Italia del Gusto, run by anetwork of journalists, who througharea delegations express local needsand search for ways of satisfying them.The association organises meetingsand ideas for itineraries featuringquality products with a greater focuson the lesser known specialities.Business operators and trainingIn Italy there are 441 officiallyregistered wine and culinary “schools”.This category includes traditional-typeHotel-management institutions,courses open to the general public,and university and masters course.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 148

Chapter 6Table 6.3 shows the regionaldistribution of courses, also specifyingthe number of university and masterscourses.Table 6.3Total coursesDegreecoursesMastersLombardy 61 3 1Tuscany 60 2 4Lazio 46 2 1Veneto 43 2 3Emilia-Romagna 42 3 1Piedmont 42 3 0Campania 26 0 0Trentino 22 0 0Friuli Venezia Giulia 16 1 0Sicily 16 1 0Apulia 14 1 0Umbria 12 1 0Marches 11 1 0Calabria 7 0 0Liguria 7 0 0Sardegna 7 1 0Basilicata 5 0 0Abruzzo 4 0 0Molise 0 0 0Valle d'Aosta 0 0 0Source: BAICR, 2008Total 441 21 10Production, dissemination andtransmission of knowledgeThanks to the admirable work ofgathering and organising knowledgeconducted by the BAICR SistemaCultura consortium and its sitededicated to Italian gastronomicculture, we can access online databasescontaining information on the historyof food and wine (104 historicalarchives and archive sections; 232museums on the wine and foodheritage; 72 libraries or specialisedlibrary sections).As regards publications, according todata available in March 2008, there are259 specialised magazines in Italy: theyrange from publications popularisingwinemaking culture to the diffusion ofrecipes, the promotion of individualWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 149

Chapter 6products and surveys of specialisedproduction techniques.Food and wine culture has featured onradio and television for some timenow. At present there are 51programmes on food and wine andtheir local production areas. As a pieceof interesting fun, the BAICRdatabase also includes a hundred titlesof Italian films “in which food andgastronomic culture appears in stillsand dialogues”.Although there is no official data onthe subject, we can report around 40national and international eventsaimed at promoting wine, but alsoother quality food products, such asoil, bread and fresh pasta.There are just over 1,000 sitespromoting knowledge about theItalian taste industry with variousthematic approaches, ranging from afocus on individual products (e.g.malloreddus and fregola sarda,www.puntodifuga.it/cts/mallo_def.html) to much more general sites, suchas Italian Cuisine (www.italcuisine.it).There are also many sites promotingknowledge about Italian cuisine inother countries, which often includesrecipes for regional cooking. This kindof information actually encourages theupdating of recipes considered to betraditional, such as spaghetti alla bologneseand, most importantly, can ensure amore rigorous interpretation ofindividual dishes.6.4 Counterfeit food:adulteration and violationsof certification regulationsOn foreign markets, more than one“Italian” food product out of four is afake. This claim is made by the Italianfarmer’s union Coldiretti, which alsopoints out that “international foodpiracy involves making improper useof words, colours, localities, images,denominations and recipes alluding toItaly in the commerce of counterfeitedproducts, which have nothing to dowith Italy.” In 2006 Italian foodexports were worth 16.7 billion euros,which is only a third of the worldmarket for counterfeit Italian foodproducts, worth over 50 billion euros.In February 2008, the Europeancommission ruled that “parmesan”sold in Germany violated theProtected Designation of Origin ofthe Italian parmigiano reggiano andtherefore could not be sold under thatname. At present, there are manyongoing investigations aimed atuncovering counterfeiting andviolations of the regulationsconcerning the most famous Italianfood products.The fact of displaying a DOP label –certifying compliance with Europeanregulations based on rigorous controls– strengthens consumers’ trust inproducts. The wine industry is thesector with the largest number ofprotected products. Historically, awatershed for Italian wine productioncame in March 1986, when someconsumers in Lombardy, Piedmontand Liguria were poisoned by wineWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 150

Chapter 6adulterated with methanol, an alcoholused to raise the gradation of very lowquality wine. The industry as a wholeresponded by reinventing its ownproduction system, cutting back onquantity and focusing on quality. Manyvineyards and businesses underwent athorough overhaul to meet the criteriaof the European regulations for theDOC and DOCG certification. From1990 to 2000, in Piedmont aloneproducers of DOC and DOCG winesrose by 12.6%. An analysis of thetimeline of the attribution ofcertification reveals that in Piedmont alarge number of areas were awardedprotected status from 1990 to 1998.The same data highlights whichregions have only recently began toproduce quality wine. Whereas mostregions obtained initial certification inthe late 1960s and early 1970s, the firstcertificates in Campania and Moliseonly came in 1977 and 1983. Sicily isthe region with the largest number ofrecently protected wines because ofcertification issued in the 1990s. Thecontinual monitoring conducted bythe Guardia di Finanza (“Customs andExcise”) in collaboration with theIspettorato per il Controllo della qualità deiprodotti agroalimentari (“Inspectorate forthe quality control of farm and foodproducts”) has revealed that eventoday some wines adulterated withchemical substances are on themarket. A control operation entitledVendemmia sicura (“Safe Harvest”) inApril 2008 uncovered adulteration inaround 20 large wine producers; manyhad also been involved in themethanol scandal 20 years earlier.Although this discovery shook themarket, it did testify to theeffectiveness of the work of thecontrol bodies. Adulterating wine withharmful substances, however, onlyconcerns the Table Wine segment andtherefore the EU certified productionsare not investigated. One excellentwine on the Italian market that hasbeen investigated (2003), however, isBrunello di Montalcino, which isproduced by a number major Tuscanvineyards. They were accused of“cutting” the wine made fromSangiovese grapes (according to theDOCG regulations, Brunello shouldbe 100% Sangiovese), with 10-20%wine from grapes of French origin,such as Merlot or CabernetSauvignon. The introduction of theFrench-origin grapes was justified bythe fact it had become impossible tomeet the growing market demand andas an attempt to create a productreflecting tastes on the NorthAmerican market.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 151

Chapter 66.5 ConclusionsA key feature of the Italian tasteindustry is the extraordinary numberof products and their rootedness inthe distinctive identity fabric of a localterritory. Food and wine is a verycomplex sector combining economicweight with intangible features of thecultural heritage. The small and verysmall size of businesses is anotherdistinctive feature, which has bothelements of strength and points ofweaknesses and vulnerability.Although the sector is not labourintensive, human capital plays astrategic role at the stage ofconception and creativity in thestrictest sense, but also in theproductive processes and in buildingstrong links with the local community.The close bond with the local territorymakes quality food production asustainable activity and, according tothe figures, economically worthwhile.The transmission of knowledge fromone generation to another, mainlybased on non-formal components,seems to have been successfullycombined with the introduction ofprocedural, technological andorganisational innovations. This hasencouraged the creation of newcompetent specialised professionalfigures and ad hoc training courses.Despite obvious differences from oneregion to another (mainly due to a lackof protection in the South andarguably too much protection in theCentre and North), the taste industrytends to appear as a system potentiallywell-integrated throughout theproduction chain. Moreover, the foodand wine industry has considerablecapacities for synergies withneighbouring production sectors, suchas tourism, and especially culturaltourism. In fact certified productsconvey a positive image whichenhance the whole local area. Byencouraging more integration betweensectors, the conditions can be createdfor the development of externaleconomies. The acquisition andtransmission of innovations – whetherthey are new recipes, new foodmaterials or new methods ofpreservation, packaging, distributionand consumption – happens veryquickly and is a constant phenomenonrunning through the system (often in atwo-way or circular fashion) from thehighest luxury segment to the morepopular local segment. Unlike fashionproducts, food and wine products donot show exorbitant differencesbetween high and low price brackets,and quality products are welldifferentiated from non-qualityproducts. This means it is veryimportant to ensure that producershave a solid support system, especiallyin order to make communications topotential customers more effective.Moreover, the culture of quality foodand wine should be linked andintegrated systematically with policiesdeveloping other local cultural goods,such as those part of the historical,artistic and landscape heritage.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 152

Part III

Part IIIThe content and information industries:towards a theory of goodsThe content and information industries encompass the sectors of Cinema, Publishing,Radio and TV, Software and Advertising.These sectors produce goods that share some specific features which, in turn, determinethe production and organisational structure of the content and information industries.“Nobody knows anything”Content and information industry goods are primarily all experience goods. In thecultural content market, consumers’ tastes and preferences cannot be known a priori. Onthe contrary, they are only formed through the experience of consuming the good.Whether a film, book, advertising campaign, videogame or television programme, noone knows if a cultural product will be chosen by consumers, and therefore what its realvalue is, before it is launched on the market and distributed to the public. This is thefundamental principle of uncertainty of success for cultural and creative content which,for example, led the American author and screenwriter William Goldman to claim onthe subject of the film industry: “Nobody knows anything.”The demands for these goods tend in fact only to be revealed after the product isdistributed and used by consumers. Only at this point can the supply and price bematched with demand.The success or failure of a product is mainly determined by the dynamics characterisingthe way the demand for the experience evolves in time. In this field cascade effects andviral advertising phenomena, such as word-of-mouth, are crucial in determining thesuccess or failure of a product.Consequently, the content industries must adapt to these dynamics to try and optimisethe success of a product through launch strategies and advertising. The risk is that a filmor book will disappear from distribution channels before the word-of-mouthinformation spreads among consumers, thus rendering vain the initial investments andcreative effort. Not even a huge financial commitment involving the best technicians,screenwriters, directors, authors and creative advertisers can guarantee the commercialsuccess of a work.For example, independent films have achieved international success even on a very smallbudget. While, on the contrary, celebrated directors have at times failed to achieve theexpected success, even when working with top collaborators. In the USA, the attempt tospread the entrepreneurial risk led to the development of the American film industrygiants, whereas the European response to the high risk involved in film productions hasbeen subsidies, which means some of the costs of the content industry are borne bysociety.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 154

Part IIIThe superstar phenomenonWhy do even slight differences in talent of artists or in the quality of creative contentproducts generate such a very strong demand for only a handful of artists, who becomesuperstars? Is this only a question of consumer preferences?The phenomenon of the superstar is mainly due to the limits of the consumer’s time andpartly explains the success of the content industries, strongly dependent on the successof the superstar component.Consumers of content goods are not able to enjoy several products simultaneously, i.e.in the time required to consume a book, a film or a play. As a consequence, even thoughthe global demand for these goods is growing due to rising incomes, the consumptiontime is still a scarce resource, inducing individuals to use it in the most efficient waypossible, especially by demanding higher quality products. If there is not any greatdifference in price between a CD of an opera starring Pavarotti and the CD of an operafeaturing a less talented tenor, consumer demand will tend to focus on purchasing theformer, thus consolidating the superstar.“Winner takes all”A direct consequence of this phenomenon is that given the continuous production ofnew content and information, only a small part will be successful and bring a return oninvestment.Consumer preferences are focused in the short term on a small number of goods. This isparticularly true of cinema, where blockbusters take most of the proceeds from theticket office or DVD sales. But the phenomenon is also found in publishing, where thedistribution of books – in terms of copies sold – is dominated by a small group of bestsellers.This situation suggests that the economic success of new goods in the contentindustry is like a lottery in which a few successful products win the jackpot of consumerdemand.Success, however, evaporates rapidly since the demand for content and informationgoods tends to be volatile. After being launched, many goods in the content industriesare used only once by consumers. Only very rarely is a ticket or a DVD sold twice to thesame consumer, and likewise for books. Even in the case of an advertising campaign ortelevision programmes, the initial impact is often what counts in determining thepopularity and success of the content. That is why the period in which successfulproducts manage to generate profits can be very short.Consequently, it is inefficient and costly for producers of content to maintain long-termdistribution of products, since after the initial wide diffusion, there will only be ademand for them from a very small number of consumers. Content goods will thencirculate in secondary distribution channels, such as libraries and museums, also for thepurposes of conservation.This trend, which has characterised goods in the content industry for several decades,has become even more important with the digitisation of content and the advent of theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 155

Part IIIInternet. Digitisation enables a company to keep copies of a product at very low costs.At the same time distribution on the Internet allows the diffusion of content in digitalformats at low costs and with no problems of access over time. Today, if it is difficult tofind a film released only a few years ago in the cinema or video libraries, there will be avery good chance of finding it and being able to purchase it on the Internet.Vertical disintegration and production flexibilityContent and information industry goods are normally complex creative productsrequiring various inputs, professional skills and economic transactions for theirproduction. Large-budget films or television programmes are made through variousstages of pre-production, production and post-production. All the stages arecharacterised by the creation of ad hoc work teams with specialised skills, employed forspecific tasks, and a dense network of economic and contractual relations involved inmaking the final product.For this reason, the content and information industry now tends to be disintegratedvertically. On one hand, we find large groups with considerable financial resourcesmanaging and co-ordinating the stages in producing creative content. On the other hand,there is a very dense undergrowth of businesses and professionals involved in theprojects to make the product.This configuration of the industry, characterised by flexibility and vertical disintegration,also explains the trend to geographical concentration, with agglomerations andclusterings of the more or less major players working in the industry.Thus in New York or London we have clusters of international advertising agents, whilethe Hollywood film district contains not only the major film companies but also a largenumber of medium to small businesses working in special effects, animation andmanagement of film services.The high costs of creationThe uncertainty of economic success determines a strong risk for the industry producingand distributing content and information. This risk grows larger if the goods have highproduction costs, but low reproduction costs. Before the invention of printing, forexample, the cost and effort of copying a literary work may be considered almost thesame as creating a new work. Today, on the contrary, the new technologies drasticallycut costs for the reproduction of content by making copies of similar or identical qualityto the original.The economic implications of this phenomenon are twofold.Firstly, content and information goods tend to have features like public goods: they donot exclude or rival each other in consumption. Given the ease of reproducing andspreading content, everyone can use it without limiting its use by others. This feature isperhaps less obvious in films shown in cinemas where there is a danger of overcrowding,or in literary works, whose <strong>paper</strong> medium – the book – can only be used by one personat a time. But, if we consider television, film or book content on digital supports, then itWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 156

Part IIIis easy to see that such content can be rapidly spread and simultaneously used by manyconsumers.Secondly, the high costs of content creation and low costs of their reproductionaugment the risk of economic losses for the producers.Investing in the creation of a new film or the launch of a new book is the largest cost forthe content industries. But this investment cost is written off independently of thesuccess of the work, since the investment is made before the market value of theproduct is known.Therefore the many failures on the content and information market always mean lossesfor producers. And losses can only be recovered through greater profits due to thelaunch of a few successful products. In this sense, a key strategy for the contentindustries is to offer a vast and highly differentiated product portfolio.Intellectual propertyThe goods in the content and information industries have a high creative content andare part of the sphere of intellectual property, especially as concerns copyright andrelated rights.The easy reproduction and distribution of copies of works not only influences businessmodels in the content industries but raises the question of how to protect the intellectualproperty rights of these goods.Given that the investment in the production of new content is per se an irrecoverablecost which can only be covered by profits from successful sales, then the greatest dangerfor the content industry is digital piracy.Precisely because reproduction and distribution costs of copies are minimal, the originalproducers could sell their goods at very low prices. But to ensure the creator has a returnon the initial investment, the price of goods must be kept high.The illegal distribution of copies of content can erode the possibility of making profitsfor the producers, thus reducing the incentives to invest in the creation of new works.That is why the protection of intellectual property becomes crucial for the productionand distribution of content goods.We must not be led to believe, however, that greater intellectual protection always meansgreater incentives to produce content and therefore greater social well-being. The causeeffectnexus between the protection of intellectual property and the creation anddissemination of content is very complex and depends on various factors. Since thediffusion of content and information goods generates positive externalities in thesubsequent consumption and underlies the production of new content, excessiveprotection of intellectual property may have positive effects on the illegal distribution ofcopies, but may also limit the positive externalities.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 157

Chapter 7Michelangelo Pistoletto “Who are you?” 1976Videotape, b&w, running time 22 minutes,Photograph: D. Garella

Chapter 7Chapter 7Film7.1 Italian cinema: apromising resurgenceThe starting point of this chapter is thecurrent state of the Italian filmindustry. Having marked a return togrowth at the turn of the 21st century,Italian cinema has enjoyed aparticularly brilliant period in the lasttwo years. This resurgence has evensuggested a full-blown renaissance maybe underway and many causal elementsshow that the growth is not simply anunexpected positive trend. What iskeeping the Italian flag flying high isnot only commercial films or films foryoung audiences. Middle-brow and artfilms (such as La cena per farli conoscere,Lezioni di volo, Uno su due, Centochiodi,Mio fratello è figlio unico, Saturno contro,Giorni e nuvole, La ragazza del lago,Milano-Palermo –il ritorno) have alsocontributed to the overall success,which in some weeks saw Italian filmstake a share of over 40% of nationalbox office sales.In 2007, there were 120 million cinemaadmissions, a return to the kind offigures for 1986, and Italian films droveadmissions up by 12% on 2006. In thefirst two months of 2008, the marketshare of Italian films was 36.3%, whichis much higher than the figure ofaround 32% for the whole of 2007.But how can we explain the success ofItalian films over the past few years?And why have filmgoers shown greaterinterest in the seventh art, usuallyleaving cinemas well-satisfied with whatthey have seen? Here we will try tosupply some answers to these questionsby presenting the principal factors inthe growth.1. The emergence of a newgeneration of producers. After theprevious generation’s long period of“subsidised” survival and shaky, halfheartedentrepreneurship, producersare showing a greater sensibilitytowards the complex challenge ofreconciling artistic products with themarket.2. The generational turnover of thecommunity of artists (film directorsand screenwriters) has led to a newfocus on narrative: less intellectual,more open-ended stories, inspired bygenres favoured by Italian audiencesand anything but self-referential, areattracting much wider sections of thepublic.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 159

Chapter 73. Changes in public taste due tothe enormous response by televisionaudiences to the continuous offering ofTV fiction. In the last three yearstelevision fiction has taken over therole of middle-brow films shown incinemas. TV fiction is aimed at anundifferentiated target (whereas filmson the big screen are increasingly aimedat smaller specific audiences) andresorts to many genres (police stories,sentimental films and melodramaticseries) with storylines and characterswith which people can identify.Imposed in a massive way by televisionnetworks, these fiction programmeshave ended up shaping the taste offilmgoers who, wittingly or unwittingly,have turned to narrative in whichimages no longer have an independentlogic or transcend the narrative, but arethe means for telling the story.4. More refined communicationsand marketing. This factor is already inthe DNA of film projects. We are notonly talking about the technicalities ofproduct placement (which have still notyet made the kind of progress expecteda few years ago and in future couldbring in a considerable slice of revenuefor producers striving to push downthe break-even point for productions)but a series of hints in the film storieswhich, by playing on the “nostalgia”factor, manage to attract variousgenerations of audiences. Similarly, aseries of allusions highlighting typicalbehaviours of some sections of thepopulation manages to emotionallyinvolve specific targets. Some newtypes of promotion and advertising canbe particularly effective (e.g. films foryoung audiences promoted by word-ofmouth,showing films in high schoolsin various towns, or presentations anddebates with directors and authors). Ingeneral modern marketing strategy nowoffers audiences a range of diversifiedproducts which – unlike in the past –not only consists of comedies to beconsumed during national holidays, butalso art films.5. Lastly, the restoration of the starsystem. According to many what waslacking in Italy compared toHollywood was a star system. In thepast few years home-grown “stars”have proliferated, obviously also thanksto the television effect of the variousfamiliar detectives, doctors, nurses andpolice officers. Many actors havebecome part of the collectiveimagination thanks to television, whichhas given them almost overnight fame,rather like what happened at the timeof the so-called “pink neorealism” ofphotostory magazines. In the stochasticlottery of the film economy, whoseoutcomes are always difficult topredict, hiring a celebrated actor, wellknownto the wider audiences is one ofthe few elements which enablesproducers to lower the entrepreneurialrisk. Picking the right name from theItalian star system may bring in enoughproceeds in only few weeks to coverthe production, guaranteeingreasonable box office sales andimportant secondary rights. If a filmthen manages to bring together actorsin the format of a self-supportingfamiliar team (this was the case withPlacido’s Romanzo criminale or Rose neldeserto by Monicelli), the “choral effect”pays off and is a further point ofstrength.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 160

Chapter 7In the last few years Italian cinema hasmade a last-ditch recovery which wasunexpected even by the mostoptimistic forecasts. At times (forexample February 2007) Italianfilmgoers saw more Italian films(49.9%) than US films (41.7%) and thisis particularly significant because it hadalready occurred twice in 2006 (inMarch and December) and once inOctober 2005; the previous time onlybeing January 1997. But this is not onlya feature of the Italian scene, since inneighbouring France, domestic films’share in the first four months of 2007was 55% thus beating the UScompetition (in 2006 the overall sharefor French films was 50%). Thisphenomenon may also be due,however, to less attractive Americanproducts in recent months.7.2 A change in businessmodelThe trend in the last two years suggeststhat something different is happening,that some strong ideas are beingconsolidated and a solid base isgrowing. But it is also a warning for theprofessions involved that the time hascome for new projects. If Italiancinema is to return to the creative roleit played in the 1960s and 70s, there is aneed for greater discussion on whatcultural form it will take in three or fiveyears’ time, in a much different worldfrom that of today. To do so, we mustbear in mind three elements, which wecan add to the factors mentionedabove.1. Firstly, a return to the policy ofsubsidised Italian films is no longerconceivable. The age of the state “cashdispenser” has definitely ended and thecriteria for ministerial incentives havenow been greatly reformed. The Italianfilm industry must stand on its ownfeet and accept a healthy managerialand entrepreneurial logic.2. The film business has, however,become much more complexcompared even to the late 1990s.Traditional cinemas have seen thenumber of competitors rise in the formof pay-TV, Internet downloads andnow also mobile telephones. On theother hand, contemporary filmconsumption is increasingly focused ona few films attracting mass audiencesand generating large proceeds, whilethe vast majority of films is practicallyignored by the public. On this scene,the traditional quality Italian film iscrushed by distributors increasinglyforced to bow to the practice ofdistributing hundreds of printssimultaneously for the openingweekend. At the same time qualityItalian films have been neglected bytelevision and therefore pushed to thesidelines of the country’s cultural life.3. Given the increasinglyfragmented nature of consumption, onone hand, but a growing trend toconcentrate on a few products, on theother, there is only one possibleanswer: identify the ingredients forsuccess, but correlate them to thedifferent possible consumer formatsand therefore attempt to vary as muchas possible the portfolio of productsoffered in cinemas and post-cinema(and in some cases also parallel toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 161

Chapter 7cinema). In this context, the questionarises of how much we can or mustcontribute to the formation ofaudiences’ aesthetic taste byaccentuating the Italianness of films,especially those shown in cinemas. Thepolicy of creating “Made in Italy”products cannot only be left up to thefashion and design sectors. Moreover,reinforcing domestic cinema mayproduce a “commensal effect” capableof re-launching the whole sector. Infact the history of the box officereveals that when there is a rise intickets sold for Italian films, then homevideo sales/rentals also rise fordomestic movies and more are alsoincluded in the schedules of generalistand pay-TV channels. Indeed thesuccess of Italian films over the pastfew years may even drive overallcinema film consumption (ofEuropean, American and Asian films)towards new market peaks.7.3 Clearer audienceexpectationsWhat has become clearer in ourunderstanding of audiences’ recentgrowing preference for Italian films isthe awareness that filmgoers have theirown tastes and expectations in terms ofcreativity.Until a few years ago, a ratheroutmoded vision of film consumptionsuggested that filmgoers dependeddirectly on what was offered. They notonly adapted to the tastes of producersand cinema-owners but ultimatelyallowed their choices and tastes to beuniformly shaped by currentproduction, basically becoming whatthe industry wanted them to be. Butthe fact is that the processes of filmconsumption in Italy today arebecoming increasingly refined.Audiences are more variegated (we areno longer dealing with one audience,but several audiences). People’sattitudes to viewing films areproliferating (also because of theincreasingly wide range of distributionchannels: cinema, TV, home video,computer, etc); consumption behaviourpatterns are also diversifying (peoplemay go out to the cinema or stay athome to watch a DVD, etc.). Onebackground element seems to begrowing more significant: going to thecinema is increasingly considered as anexperience and, therefore, what isdemanded of the “cinema experience”is that it is a more intense, memorablemoment in life.And it is from the perspective of thecinema experience that we can graspsome new trends.Firstly, there is the issue of how Italianaudiences experience Italian films.Surveys reveal that there is a requestfor greater “proximity” to real life.American cinema is distant from dailylife, offering big stories which do noteffectively make contact with thefilmgoer’s personal experience or onlyat an imaginary level. But whataudiences want from Italian films arestories which they can identify with astheir own, as possible or evenexperienced. The demand for greaterproximity not only concerns thestoryline, but also the setting, languageand actors. This has twofoldconsequences. A director only pursuinghis or her own expressive ends or whoWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 162

Chapter 7withdraws to a personal point of viewis in danger of working in a vacuum.The refusal to dialogue with thesurrounding world – both the director’sown and that of the audience – willmake him or her appear pretentious. Inshort, when there is “proximity”, thereis greater involvement. Americancinema enchants; Italian cinema isshared. And audiences for these filmsperceive their own cinema-going as akind of active contribution inconstructing a “true” image of Italianlife.The need for proximity also has a fewnegative effects. For example, it tendsto be associated with excessivelyconservative consumption patterns.Italian films appear to audiences as aproduct to be viewed in the “dear oldold-fashioned” cinema. Not in amodern multiscreen facility, where theywould seem out of place and not onnew digital supports, where they wouldseem mummified. This reduces thescope for the circulation of Italianfilms. It is not surprising that inproduction chains such as DVD retailor pay and on-demand forms ofviewing, Italian products strugglecompare to the success enjoyed byAmerican products. This has primarilyhindered the development of morecreative modes of consumption. Italianfilmgoers, although very good atparticipating in the field of building avision of citizenship, lag behind when itcomes to developing new viewingrituals.In short, Italian films struggle tosurvive outside the traditional cinematheatre distribution and consumers givelittle encouragement in this direction.Moreover, Italian filmgoers continue toconsider a film as an “event-based”product. Consumers, however, canwatch films at any time and wheneverthey like, thanks to the offering of Skywith its cinema bouquet (but also theofferings of other content distributors,such as Fastweb, Alice or Tiscali).Going to the cinema, however, formost people, although not anexceptional event, is always a littlespecial. It is an experience slightly outof the routine and in this sense filmand television fiction are still kept wellapart in the consumer’s mind(paradoxically, in production processesthey are much closer than is normallyadmitted…).But what does being an “event” meantoday for the film industry? It meansthat its value is still linked not so muchto simply being “entertainment” as tothe possibility of being a “happening”(in the original sense of the word). Theextent to which a film shown in acinema challenges filmgoers andengages them will determine thepleasure of re-viewing and makes it“worthwhile”.Given this background, the strength ofsome of the more recently proposedsolutions becomes very clear: I amthinking, for example, of the shift inthe film festivals and events from beingpurely cultural occasions to “festive”occasions. This also makes the wayforward easier to see. For example,there will be a greater balance betweenevent-based moments and routinemoments (film-going is after all stilloften a habit). And most importantly,good use may be made of the filmheritage built up over the years, whichstill acts both at home and abroad as asign of national identity and, as a trueWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 163

Chapter 7“symbolic capital”, is just waiting to beexploited. Perhaps it will be preciselythis return to the festive dimension thatwill bring the heritage back into play.7.4 The film marketWhen discussing the film market wemust first establish which market weare talking about, because unlike whathappens in many other industries, thesame film can be launched on variousmarkets. The film sector is divided intoa series of segments which coincidewith the various distribution channelsfor films. In the past two years we havewitnessed a proliferation in distributionchannels: in addition to the traditionalcinema-theatre, we have television,home video, pay-TV, video-on-demandand Internet viewing and othermultimedia formats. The increase inconsumer platforms has, on one hand,provided strong opportunities forbusinesses, which have discovered thevalue of the perpetual rights of theirlibraries. But, on the other, the sectorhas been further complicated by neworganisational and strategic challengesfor the effective management of thehuge quantity of film rights. Whatbecomes increasingly critical is theability to exploit the opportunitiesoffered by the new distributionchannels through the effectiveintegration of all the various skills inthe production chain. To do so, threekey elements for a film project must beestablished: the type of product, thetarget audience and the distributionchannel. In other words, it becomesincreasingly important to think in themedium to long term, attempting tounderstand what kind of film to make,the audience it is intended for, andwhat consumer platforms to use.Before suggesting some actionguidelines for successful filmproduction in an increasinglycompetitive and complex context, it isworthwhile analysing the key featuresof the Italian film industry and howthey have developed in recent years.Films at the cinema: trendsThe market for movies shown incinemas is the first, most critical filmmarket. On one hand, box office salesare still the largest part of overallproceeds for an individual film. A goodshowing in cinemas, moreover,produces an important springboardeffect as it will significantly influencethe film’s potential for success in otherdistribution channels. The cinematheatremarket is characterised by ahigh degree of uncertainty and risk,since there is no entrepreneurialformula for predicting whether a filmwill or will not top the box office orsimply meet with good reviews. Indeed,the film industry is studded with hugeflops and unexpected successes. Thishigh degree of uncertainty is due tovarious factors, including the difficultyof predicting filmgoers’ tastes. Inrecent years, moreover, the offering offilms at the cinema has grown further,and in Italy every year around 400 newfilms are distributed (on average morethan one a day). Therefore it isincreasingly difficult to capture publicinterest, which is continuallybombarded with new titles.The combined effect of these elementscontributes to creating a very complexWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 164

Chapter 7market for films in cinemas, ashighlighted by the difficultiesexperienced by operators in the sectorin attracting public attention andcompeting effectively. Understandingwhat kind of critical factors may existto compete successfully thus becomesvital. It is equally important tounderstand the specific features of theItalian situation and if what happens inItaly is much different from whathappens in the rest of Europe (or atleast on its principal markets). Theseare some aspects we wish to explore inthe following paragraphs, in which wewill attempt to interpret and assess thefuture of Italian cinema in particular.A look at the European sceneBefore making a detailed analysis of theItalian market, it may be useful to takea brief look at the situation of theEuropean film industry xxviii to try andunderstand how far Italy departs fromthe main European trends. As areference time period we haveconsidered 1995-2005.In this period Europe recorded positivegrowth rates both in the numbers ofcinema admissions and box officereceipts. Proceeds rose from 3,138million euros in 1995 to 5,026 millioneuros in 2005, an overall averageincrease of around 60%. This constantgrowth only dipped twice: in 2003there was a fall of 6% and in 2005, areduction of 10%. The number ofcinema admissions shows a similartrend, rising from 682 to 860 million,an overall average increase of around25%. As in the case of the box office,there were only very few downturns:1999 (-1%), 2003 (-5%) and 2005 (-11%).But if we compare the situations inEurope and the USA (see Figure 7.1),we note that despite a significantEuropean growth in recent years, theUS film market has a much greatereconomic weight than the Europeanmarkets. For example, as regards thebox office figures, while in Europetotal proceeds were just over 5 billioneuros in 2005, in the USA, 2005 wasthe fourth year in a row with overallproceeds of almost 9 billion dollars. Tobe precise, 2005 actually showed aslight dip compared to the previousthree years, when proceeds were alwaysover 9 billion dollars. The number ofadmissions also dropped in 2005(around -9%), and the overall figurewas 1.4 billion. In this case, however,the decrease was not exceptional, sincethe number of tickets sold in UScinemas had had a negative trend since2002 (in the last three-year period therewas an overall downturn of around5%).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 165

Chapter 7Figure 7.1 - Cinema admissions* in Europe and the USA (1995-2005)presenze UEpresenze USA* In millions of tickets soldSource: our elaboration of MEDIA Salles dataFrom the point of view percentagegrowth, in the period considered, boxoffice proceeds showed a similar trend(+60% in Europe, +63% in the USA),while admissions rose more in Europe(+25% as opposed to +11%). Yetalthough admissions grew at a greaterrate in Europe, in absolute terms theyare much lower than those recordedfor the US market. The large gapbetween the two markets is due not tosignificant differences in average ticketprices, which indeed have risen more inthe United States, xxix but the strongerdemand for cinema typical of theUnited States. Admissions perinhabitant in the United States, in fact,are double those on the Old Continent.In 2005, for example, Americanfilmgoers went to the cinema anaverage 4.7 times as opposed to 2.15times in Europe. In this case, too,however, in percentage terms theannual per capita admissions grewmore in Europe, rising from 1.77 to2.15 (+21%). In the USA on the otherhand, after steady growth from 1995 to2002 (when there was a peak at 5.7),the annual admissions per inhabitantsteadily fell to the figure for 2005,which is almost identical to that fromten years earlier.Given this high domestic demand, theUS film industry operators haveorganised a very broad offering, ashighlighted by the large number ofcinemas spread throughout thecountry. In this case, too, as we can seein the attached tables, there is a largegap between the United States andEurope: in the USA there are 38.852,screens, while in Europe the figure isjust under 30.000 (in 2005 the exactfigure was 27.942). Lastly, as far asfilms produced are concerned, the 19European countries as a whole produceWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 166

Chapter 7more films than the USA (in 2001, forexample, 699 films were produced inthe USA, while 1.017 were produced inEurope). This higher figure in Europe,however, must not allow us overlookthe fact that the US production overallis much greater than any individualEuropean country, which in the case ofcountries with the strongest filmindustries (France, UK, Germany,Spain and Italy) is around 100 films ayear.Figure 7.2 – Average cinema admissions* in Western European markets(1995-2005)180.000160.000140.000120.000100.00080.00060.00040.00020.0000FR DE UK SP IT BE NL PT SV CH AU IRL NOR GR DK FIN ISL LUX* in thousandsSource: our elaboration of MEDIA Salles dataAs regards the situation of individualEuropean markets, we note (see Figure7.2) that France, Germany, the UnitedKingdom, Spain and Italy are the mostimportant markets from the point ofview both of admissions and proceeds.The gap between these markets and therest of Europe is enormous. Forexample, Italy (the last of the five asregards number of admissions) has anaverage number of tickets sold almost 5times that of the first of the remainingEuropean countries, i.e. Belgium (thedifference is 100 million as opposed to22 million). There is a similar gapbetween the box office proceeds,where Spain (in this case the last of thefive main markets) has average boxoffice receipts almost 4 times higherthat of the sixth European market,Switzerland (around 500 million euroscompared to 141 million).If we analyse the five main markets ingreater detail, we note that the countrywith most filmgoers is France, whichtogether with Germany and the UK,has more admissions than the averagefigure for the group of five. Italy is wellbelow the average figure, even thoughWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 167

Chapter 7in the last ten years overall admissionshave risen by 30.5%.Figure 7.3 – Cinema admissions* on the five main European markets (1995-2005)Germania Germany Spain Spagna Francia France Italia Italy United Regno Kingdom UnitoAs in some other economic sectors, inwhich Spain has been forging ahead ofItaly, in cinema, too, Spain overtookItaly in 1999 as regards number oftickets sold. From the point of view ofthe average box office proceeds, Italy isstill the fourth European market,slightly ahead of Spain. But we maysurmise that this advantage will notlast, because since 2000 Spain hasrecorded higher overall box officereceipts than Italy (since 2001 the totalSpanish box office receipts have alwaysbeen over the 600 million euro mark).The Italian decline is mainly due to thefact that our country has one of thelowest annual per capita admissionrates in Europe. For example, in 2005the figure for annual per capitaadmissions in Italy was only higherthan those of Greece, Denmark,Finland, Liechtenstein, Portugal andSweden. As can be seen in Figure 7.4,Italy’s figure for annual admissions perinhabitant is much lower than those ofthe other main European markets, andalmost half that of Spain. These figuresseem to confirm that Italian cinematheatres are going though a crisis andhave difficulty in attracting audiences.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 168

Chapter 7Figure 7.4 – Average admission per inhabitant (1995-2005)3,503,002,503,112,792,472,001,82 1,751,501,000,500,00Spagna Spain Francia France United Regno Kingdom Unito Germany Germania Italy ItaliaSource: our elaboration of MEDIA Salles dataFrom the point of view of filmproduction, Italy’s annual film output isthird only to France and the UnitedKingdom. xxx As shown in Figure 7.5,from 1995 to 2005 Italy produced anaverage of 105 films per year (with apeak of 138 in 2004), the UK 108 (witha peak of 143 in 2003) and Spain 96(with a peak of 137 in 2002). Franceproduced the largest number of films(an annual average of 179 films with apeak of 213 in 2003), whereas thesmallest producer was Germany (anannual average of 72 films and a peakof 87 in 2004). As regards Italy,moreover, 2005 saw a sharp fallcompared to previous years both inwholly Italian productions (-27,8%)and joint productions (-31,7%).Figure 7.5 - Films produced (including co-productions): average figures for1995-2005200180160140120100806040200179108 105France Francia United Regno Kingdom Unito Italy Italia Spagna Spain GermanyGermania9672WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 169

Chapter 7Moving on to a more detailed analysisof the individual European markets, wenote that US films still have the largestshare of overall proceeds with anaverage figure of around 75%. Eventhe situation in the principal non-English-speaking countries (Italy,France, Spain and Germany) xxxi is inline with the rest of Europe. US filmshave the highest market share inGermany (the average annual share in1995-2005 was around 80%) and Spain(71%), while in Italy and, especially, inFrance the US share is lower, with 60%and 54%, respectively. As we see infigure 7.6, the only films able tochallenge the US supremacy at the boxoffice are always domestic films of thecountries considered. In France theyobtain an average of 35% of proceeds,in Italy 22% and in Spain and Germanyaround 13%. That domestic films arethe only competitors for US films isalso demonstrated by the fact marketshares of domestic films are inverselyproportional to the share of Americanfilms. These trends highlight howsuccesses of the national film industrydirectly cut into the box office receiptsof American films. In other words,domestic films, when successful, donot seem to take audiences away fromother European films, but from USfilms.Figure 7.6 – Market shares of films (box office) in Italy xxxiidomesticieuropeiamericanialtri filmMoreover, this analysis confirms thedifficulties encountered by theEuropean film industry in distributingand winning recognition for their ownfilms beyond national borders. Onaverage, European films rarely achievea share of over 10% on non-domesticmarkets (the only occasional exceptionsare Spanish and Italian films). Oftensignificant increases in successes for acountry’s film industry are due to thedriving force of isolated cases of bighits, such as All about My Mother or TheOthers for Spain, Life is Beautiful forItaly, and Run Lola Run forGermany. xxxiii The only real exceptionWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 170

Chapter 7in this situation is France: it is the non-English speaking country whichcontinuously achieves the best resultson non-domestic European markets.The situation in ItalyAfter surveying the European situation,we now wish to focus on the Italianfilm market (see Table 7.1.Table 7.1 – The Italian situation (2000-2005)Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005Admissions(in thousands)97,819 105,538 103,768 98,037 112,903 102,464Box office receipts(thousands of 515,708 561,948 583,278 549,063 645,787 515,708euros)Averageadmissions 1.70 1.85 1.82 1.71 1.95 1.75per inhabitantNumber ofscreens xxxiv 2,948 3,112 3,353 3,566 3,610 3,794Average ticket price(euros)Source: our Elaboration of MEDIA Salles data5.27 5.92 5.62 5.60 5.72 5.75Summarising, we can say that thesituation of Italian cinemas ischaracterised by growth in terms ofboth box office receipts andadmissions. Growth is less, however,than that recorded for the otherprincipal European markets (especiallyFrance) and means that Spain hasovertaken Italy in terms of film-going.In greater detail, we see that overalltickets sold rose by around 5%,although there were also some cases ofslight dips in 2002 (-1.7%), 2003 (-5.5%) and 2005 (-9.5%). Box officeproceeds increased in percentage terms(+14%) more than admissions, but thiswas mainly due to an increase in theaverage price of tickets (around + 10%)and not the average admission perinhabitant (only about +3%). Lastly,the number of cinema screens rose byaround 28%.The second topic we wish to deal withis the seasonal nature of film-going. Wehave tried to check if this is a realphenomenon or only a kind of selffulfillingprophecy. An initial analysiswould seem to confirm the existence ofa seasonal effect, since films released inthe time window of the high season(see Tables 7.2 and 7.3) attract biggeraudiences, on average statistically largerthan those for films distributed duringthe rest of the year.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 171

Chapter 7Table 7.2 – Admissions to Italian films as a function of period of releaseSeason Films released Average admissionsLow season(June-August)101 81,935.38Rest of the year 309 244,019.38High season147(November-February)Source: our elaboration of CINETEL and Giornale dello Spettacolo data352,982.98Table 7.3 – Admissions to foreign films as a function of period of releaseSeason Films released Average admissionsLow season(June-August)526 81,935.38Rest of the year 623 244,019.38High season(November-February)390Source: our elaboration of CINETEL and Giornale dello Spettacolo data352,982.98A more detailed analysis, however,seems to support the theory that theseasonal nature of film-going is actuallya self-fulfilling prophecy. Films releasedin high season have a far higher averageinitial investment (in terms of numberof prints released in the openingweekend) than films distributed atother times of the year. For example, ifwe consider all Italian films released:during the high season almost 1 out of5 is shown in more than 200 cinemas atthe opening weekend, in other periodsof the year the number of films with asimilar investment from its owndistributors drops off considerably. Inother words, distributors do not seemto believe in the success of filmsreleased outside the high season andtherefore tend to minimise investmentsto reduce risks. In this way, however,the possibilities of success are alsoreduced since, as we will see below, theinitial investment by the distributorgreatly affects the economic result of afilm.We are not saying that the period ofrelease for a film is of little importance,since a film distributed at Christmaswill certainly have a greater probabilityof success than a film released inAugust. But what we wish to highlightis the fact that box office hits are notnecessarily released in the high season.If we consider, in fact the best 20 filmsin terms of tickets sold for each yearconsidered (the so-called Top 20) wesee that in 40% of cases the films werereleased in high season and 55% in theMarch-May period. xxxv Even if weconsider the Top 20 films according toperformance at the opening weekend,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 172

Chapter 7i.e. films with the best results in termsof admissions only for the weekendwhen the film was released, we see thatin most cases (55%) these films werereleased in the March–May period.Seasonal film-going, therefore, seemsto be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Filmsgiven little credence are distributed inthe low season and receive littleinvestment for promotion. The finalupshot is that in the summer months(June-August), box office figures arevery low, around 10% of the overallyearly proceeds. We must stress,however, that this is an exclusivelyItalian phenomenon. In fact as shownin Figure 7.7, in France, Spain andGermany the share of summeradmissions is almost double the figurefor Italy.Figure 7.7 – Admissions per month (in percentages of the whole year) for 2000-200516%14%12%10%8%6%4%2%0%Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sept Oct Nov DecITA FRA GERM SPASource: our elaboration of MEDIA Salles dataItaly thus differs from other Europeanmarkets because of its more highlyconcentrated film season, sinceadmissions are much greater in a fewmonths of the year, especially thewinter months (November–January).This phenomenon of seasonal filmgoingis a specifically Italian feature,since in other European countries thedifference between low and highseason is much less marked.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 173

Chapter 7The importance of distributionBeing able to count on an effectivedistribution company is definitely acritical factor of success for a film.Distribution is a real bottleneck in thesector, since the principal distributorscontrol large market shares in terms ofthe number of films distributed, boxoffice receipts and cinema admissions.Moreover, in recent years, the numberof film distribution companiesoperating on the market has steadilydwindled, which has furtherconcentrated power in the hands of afew companies. Consequently, not allfilms produced reach the cinemas,while those released in a few peripheralcinemas, or in the low season and witha limited investment in the number ofprints are destined from the outset toobtain very modest results. Thus for afilm to succeed, it is very important tobe strongly backed by a distributor interms of promotional investments,number of prints, and effectivemarketing and communicationsmethods.As far as number of prints released isconcerned, recent studies suggest thatthe market is increasingly fast movingand very quickly “burns up” films,which thus have a drastically reducedtime to establish themselves. If weconsider the performance of the Top150 films in 2007 (the data refers tofigures published by the review BoxOffice for the period 1 January-22October 2007), on average, on the firstday of release a film brought in 6.36%of the total proceeds, on the openingweekend it reached 35.61% and in thefirst week over 50% of the total.Another interesting figure is that theTop 10 films were distributed in 684cinemas, a very high number certainlyaffecting the speed with which thefilms were consumed.Unfortunately, it is very difficult to findfigures on investments made bydistribution companies to promotefilms. Therefore we will use as a proxyfor their marketing commitment thenumber of prints of the film distributedat the opening weekend. An analysis ofthese figures reveals that the openingweekend is of key strategic importancefor a film at the box office. Filmswhich make it into the Top 20 in thefirst weekend of release also tend to bein the Top 20 for the whole season. In2000-2005 this did not happen in only13% of cases, which confirms thewidely held opinion that the filmindustry is a sector characterised bylogic of “all at once or nothing”, thusmaking the box office on the openingweekend a key indicator in assessingthe overall performance of a film. Thelife-cycle of a film is characterised by agradual decrease in admissions fromthe first week on. After peaking at theopening weekend, demand graduallytends to dwindle.The promotional investments andcommunications techniques adopted bydistributors to launch films is thus veryimportant. A distributor’s strength isnot only measured in terms ofinvestments in numbers of prints, butalso the capacity to establish profitablepartnerships with cinemas, by goingbeyond the traditional concept ofrelations basically based on bargainingwhich is not very productive in thelong term. In other words, the successof a film seems to be stronglyWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 174

Chapter 7correlated to the capacity of thedistributor to adopt sophisticatedmodern marketing techniques, interms, for example, of adequateinvestments, new communicationsmethods and the capacity tocollaborate with cinemas in buildingconsumer loyalty and staging ad hocpromotional events.However, the sector still seems to becharacterised by certain degree ofbackwardness, as revealed by the lowinitial investments in Italian films: onaverage only 57 prints are released onthe opening weekend. From this pointof view, there is a substantial differencebetween Italian and US distributors. Aswe can see in the following charts,when the US majors distribute Italianfilms, on average, they can guaranteethat more prints of the film will bereleased in more cities than the Italiandistributors can. Of course, we mustadd that the number of Italian filmsdistributed by US majors is much lowerthan those released by domesticdistributors (40 as opposed to 517 in2000-2005). xxxviFigure 7.8 – Average number of cities with Italian films distributed at theopening weekend300250284Main Italian Distributors p p200177 175150110 102 99 921005081 706544280FilmauroMedusa01 DistributionCecchi GoriNexoRai CinemaB.I.M.MikadoI.I.FEagle PicturesLucky RedIstituto LuceSource: our elaboration of CINETEL and Giornale dello Spettacolo dataBut, even taking into account thesedifferences, the US majors’ localsubsidiaries seem to have more resources(and arguably skills) for promotionalinvestments. In fact although the mainItalian distributors can guarantee arelease with over 200 prints to a largerpercentage of its film portfolio than theUS majors (14% as opposed to 10%);the latter make an average investment(from 70 to 200 prints) for 41% of theirown films, while the main Italiandistributors only do so for 20%. Thesefigures confirm that the US majors’ localWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 175

Chapter 7subsidiaries can guarantee an adequaterelease and better coverage nationwidenot only for US films but also for Italianfilms. Here the Italian distributors, onthe other hand, seem to lag behind andthis may be an important factor in theoverall explanation of the gap inperformances between domestic and USfilms.Beyond the box officeAs we said at the beginning of thischapter, one of the main changes in thefilm industry in recent years has been thelengthening of the economic life cycle offilms and the proliferation ofdistribution channels. The rise inconsumer platforms, on one hand, hasbrought opportunities for businesses inthe sector, but on the other, has raisednew organisational and strategicchallenges for the effective managementof film rights. In the followingparagraphs we wish to analyse the Italiansituation as regards distribution channelsparallel to cinemas, in order tounderstand how our country ispositioned compared to Europe and theUnited States, what results have beenachieved by Italian films, and what seemto be the main opportunities and risks.Films on televisionOne feature peculiar to Italy is the factthat television, in addition to being animportant consumer platform, is alsoone of the principal financiers of movies.The small screen is a major source ofincome through so-called “aerial rights”,often paid to producers before the filmis even released in cinemas. But theItalian networks also often intervenedirectly or through associate companiesin the joint production of films. TheItalian film market is mainly B2B, sincefor film producers, the main customer isanother company (television) and notthe audience. The situation is verydifferent, for example, in the UnitedStates, where the proceeds which comedirectly from the end consumer (movietheatres, home video, video-on-demand,the Internet, etc.) account for the highestpercentage of a film’s revenue.While, on one hand, Italian television’srole guarantees greater economic andfinancial security for film producers, onthe other, it raises a number ofproblems. For example, through directintervention in joint productions,television can condition and influence –according to a logic not always in linewith the traditional film market – thechoice of stories, genres and casts in filmprojects. This raises a twofold risk.Firstly, producers may not be driven toseek all possible distributionopportunities for films in their ownportfolios (e.g. in cinemas), since theycan almost wholly rely on the proceedsguaranteed by television for their returnon investment. Secondly, there may be agrowing gap between film-makers andfilmgoers. This makes it difficult togauge any changes in audiences’ taste,thus increasing the probability of makingfilms diverging considerably fromconsumer preferences. This way ofmaking and conceiving the portfolio ofrights can also lead to major economicand financial problems, if the demandfor films from the broker (television)should fall off, as effectively hashappened in Italy over the last five years.As we hinted earlier, the first figures thatemerge from studies of film on ItalianWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 176

Chapter 7television in 2000-2005 reveal asystematic downturn in the number offilms broadcast by generalist television.In this period there was an overall fall infilms broadcast of around -18%, and ifwe consider only Italian films, the dropwas even greater (around -35%). Bothpublic and private television networksseem to prefer other formats, such asfiction and reality shows which, asmeasured by audience data, more closelyreflect viewers’ tastes. Moreover, thepressure from advertisers leads televisionprogrammers to give precedence toother programmes rather than to films,in order to have a steady flow of incomefrom advertising (on the grounds ofmore predictable audience sizes) and tobe able to interrupt programmes withcommercials organised in a packagedmodular way.Figure 7.9 – Number of films broadcast by generalist television (2000-2005)Film itaFilm totSource: our elaboration of Osservatorio dell’Audiovisivo and Auditel dataAs regards the nationality of filmsbroadcast on television, yet again thatUS films show greater marketpenetration: on average Italian filmsaccount for 35% of the total filmsbroadcast, whereas US films accountfor 40%. The share of Italian films,moreover, has recorded a sharp drop inthe period considered, falling fromaround 39% in 2000 to 30% in 2005.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 177

Chapter 7Figure 7.10 – Nationality of films broadcast by generalist television (average figures2000-2005)Uk5%Germania Germany1%France Francia5%Spain Spagna1%Other Altro5%Usa48%Italy Italia35%Source: our elaboration of Osservatorio dell’Audiovisivo and Auditel dataThe secondary role of Italian films iseven more pronounced if we considershowing times: Italian films are mainlybroadcast at night and late night (after2 am), while only 7% are shown duringprime time. In more detail we see that:the channels RAI 1, Rete 4 and Italia 1mainly broadcast Italian films at night(48%, 53%, and 62%, respectively);RAI 2 in the early night slot (10.30 pm-2 am); and Canale 5 from early nighton (54%). Other broadcasters alsoschedule Italian films at less populartimes: RAI 3 broadcasts 41% of itsItalian films in the morning (7 am-2pm) and La7 in the morning andafternoon (2 pm-8.30 pm). Canale 5 isthe only generalist channel whichbroadcasts a significant percentage ofItalian films (24%) during prime time.Figure 7.11 – Showing times of Italian films on TV (average figures 2000-2005)16%44%7%12%MATTIN APOMERIGGIOPRIME TIMESECONDA SERATANOTTE21%Source: our elaboration of Osservatorio Audiovisivo and Auditel dataWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 178

Chapter 7The difficult relationship betweenItalian cinema and television is alsoconfirmed by analysing the year ofproduction of films broadcast bynational networks. As we see in Figure21, generalist television devotes a gooddeal of room to what we may define asclassic films, i.e. films produced up tothe 1970s, which account for over 60%of total Italian films broadcast. Classicfilms receive a large number ofshowings on television, proof thattelevision audiences seem to be keenon the more traditional image of Italiancinema.Even if we consider more recentproductions (2000-2005), the situationdoes not seem to improve much. Onone hand, in recent years the numberof television premieres of films on thegeneralist networks has fallen and, onthe other, the vast majority of films(66%) are scheduled at secondary timeslots, such as night, late night orafternoon.The television network that showsmost Italian films is RAI 3, but hasrelatively small audiences, whereas thebest audience figures are obtained byCanale 5. This difference in resultsdepends on the type of film broadcastand the time of showing. While RAI 3shows films with a greater culturalcontent mainly after 11 pm, Canale 5(like RAI 1, although to a lesser degree)shows more Italian films during primetime, especially those which wepreviously defined as domesticblockbusters. This kind of product, infact, seems to guarantee televisionstations fairly predictable audiences,since they rely on a cast of well-knownactors (who often also work fortelevision), excellent results at the boxoffice and the capacity to attract a largeaudience uniformly distributedthroughout the country.As far as pay-TV is concerned,considering only 2005, Italian filmshave a small average share (around19%) of the total films broadcast bypay-TV networks. The percentage ofItalian films shown, however, variesgreatly with the type of channelconsidered. On the contrary, more thanhalf of the Sky Cinema Classicsschedule is devoted to Italian films; thischannel is followed by others, whichseem to place greater trust in domesticproducts, such as Happy Channel, SkyAutore and RaiSat Cinema World;Italian films shown on these channelshave a share ranging from 20 to 30%of total films.Like generalist television, pay-TVsoffer more space to classic Italian films,i.e. those produced before 1999. Classicfilms are a very high percentage of thetotal films shown especially onchannels – such as Sky CinemaClassics, Happy Channel and RaiSatCinema World – which broadcast thelargest number of Italian films. Theonly exception is Sky Autore, which in2005 was the second channel in termsof the number of Italian filmsbroadcast, of which 83% consisted offilms produced since 2000. Inpercentage terms, Sky Cinema 1 (likeSky Cinema 2, which shows the sameprogrammes an hour later) is thechannel with the largest share ofrecently made Italian films (99%). Thisfigure is hardly surprising since thestrategic mission of the channel inquestion is to give films their televisionWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 179

Chapter 7premiere and therefore most have onlyrecently left the cinemas. Interestingly,Happy Channel broadcasts the mostall-Italian productions, usuallyconsisting of comedies, starring actorswith strong television backgrounds.Lastly, as regards pay-for-view, in 2005,Italian films only accounted for 12.5%of the overall offering of Sky, with apeak of 20% in the months ofSeptember and October and the lowestfigure of 3.4% in the month of August.Albeit with due caution because of alack of complete data, we can arguethat the role of Italian films in pay-TVchannels is fairly marginal, at least innumerical terms. In fact, although wecannot express judgements on theresults obtained by domestic films interms of audiences, showing times, orincome from selling rights, the datashown in the tables here enable us todeduce that the share of Italian filmsshown on pay-TVs is very small andeven less than on generalist television.Home video filmsAnother important distribution channelfor films is home video, which includesboth sell-through and rental. In thefollowing paragraphs we again focus onthe Italian situation in an attempt todescribe the situation of the domestichome video market compared to theEuropean and US markets, the kind ofresults Italian films have obtained inthis sector, and the nature of the criticalfactors of success.Before beginning our analysis, it isworthwhile tackling a rather tricky andoften misunderstood issue. Therelation between spending on homevideo and spending at the box office.In fact as shown in Figure 26, since2002, Italians have spent more onhome video than at the cinema, but thisdoes not mean we can say home videois more economically important thancinemas for the production of films.On the contrary, for an individual film,the return on investment generated bythe box office is higher than that fromhome video. In fact home video doesnot include films recently distributed incinemas among their products and, inaddition to a large catalogue of classicfilms, they also feature many differentproducts, such as concerts andtelevision series. As we can see inFigure 27, although the main productof Italian home videos is still films, in2005 the percentage share enjoyed byother audiovisual products (especiallytelevision series) rose sharply. Thus thesales volume of cinemas are onlypartially comparable to the overallvalue generated by the home videosegment, since it has a much broaderproduct portfolio.As far as the Italian home videosituation is concerned, summing up, wecan say that from 2000 to 2005 therewas a significant increase in overallsales volume, mainly thanks to thesharp rise in sell-through. As shown inthe following table, the driving force inthe market was the sale of DVDs atnews<strong>paper</strong>s stands.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 180

Chapter 7Figure 7.12 – Italians’ spending on home video products and at the box office (inmillions of euro)Source: Rapporto Univideo 2006Figure 7.13 – Distribution of sales volume between the various home videoproducts100%90%80%13,60%1,30% 2,70%3,40% 2,30%19,40%70%60%Altro50%40%81,70%75,60%MusicaProdotto TVFilm30%20%10%0%2004 2005Source: our elaboration of Univideo dataWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 181

Chapter 7The first figure which emerges from ananalysis of the sales of Italian filmsboth on the sell-through and rentalmarkets is the clear supremacy (evengreater than in other market channels)of US films. In this case, Italian filmshave a tiny market share. If we look atsell-through, the Italian classification ofthe 130 most sold films is dominatedby animation and fantasy films.Obviously this is because the US filmindustry is specialised in such genresand has little competition from Italianproducts. Moreover, the fact thatalmost half the films sold are of thiskind suggests that the sell-throughmarket is clearly influenced by thebehaviour of parents, who buy films towatch at home with their children.Figure 7.14 – Nationality of films in the Italian Top 130 sell-through home videos1 0 0 %9 0 %N az i o n alitˆ FilmTop130Italia3 2 % 4%7%8 0 %7 0 %60 %50 %40 %9 4 %89%AltroI t aUsa3 0 %2 0 %1 0 %0 %Source: our elaboration of Univideo data2 0 0 4 2005If we look in more detail at the Italianfilms in the list of the top-sellingproducts, we note that they occupy avery marginal position, since most donot even sell 30,000 copies a year (thesales threshold for entering the Top130). In fact only four films in 2004and eight in 2005 made it into the Top130.The situation improves, albeit onlyslightly, if we looked at the rentalmarket, on which US films have aleading but not quite so totallydominant role. Again Italian films havea marginal share. If we analyse theperiod 2002–2006, the classification ofthe 100 most-rented movies onlyincludes 8 Italian films. In this case,too, most domestic films do not evenreach 30,000 rentals. Unlike the sellthroughsegment, classic films aremuch less in demand than moviesrecently distributed in cinemas. Italianfilms in the Top 100 are mainlyWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 182

Chapter 7comedies which were box-office hitsand were handled by the large Italiandistribution companies. But, in thiscase too, the marginal role of Italianmovies highlights the Italian operators’shortcomings in effectively managingthe distribution of their own productsin channels outside cinemas.7.5 Television fictionproductions and spin-offsfor location areasThe television fiction industry has onlydeveloped relatively recently in Italy. In1996, just over ten years ago, a total ofonly 221 hours of television fiction wasproduced in Italy. From 1990 to 1995there was an up-and-down growthtrend in fiction production (in the1990-1991 season, 227 hours wereproduced), but since the mid-1990sgrowth has been very fast: new Italianfiction shown by RAI and Mediasetamounted to 627 hours in 2000,whereas in 2007 the correspondingfigure was over 800 hours. xxxviiTwo regions have been particularlyactive in promoting film production:Lazio and Piedmont. According to theSecretary General of the Lazio Region,the production of audiovisual productsis the second industry in the region.This claim clearly reveals the policyincreasingly pursued and defended bythe Region and other institutions. Thusthe creation of the Rome TelevisionFiction Festival in 2000 and the RomeFilm Festival in 2006 must be seen asaimed at constantly boosting anindustry which attracts so muchattention to the capital and the wholeregion.The second region which has beenparticular active in the promotion ofthe audiovisual industry, and especiallyin the production of television fiction,is Piedmont. In recent years its filmcommission has been a model in termsof initiative and enterprise. At a timewhen a deep crisis threatens TurinbasedFiat, regional politicians of allparties are looking to the servicessector, culture (the Turin Book Fair,the Winter Olympics, etc.) and thepromotion of audiovisual activities inthe region.Piedmont is a very interesting case, alsobecause the first series of an historicalsoap opera – Elisa di Rivombrosa – wasfilmed in the region. The project was abold but rather risky attempt toreintroduce a genre (the serialisedhistorical romance) which had not beentackled by Italian television for a longtime. Initially, it was decided to adoptas a model the classical narrative ofRichardson’s Pamela, an 18th-centurywork, in some ways the precursor ofthe modern novel and therefore also ofserialised narratives. Since the novel isEnglish, filming was to begin inIreland, but on the grounds of cost andthanks to the collaboration with thePiedmont Film Commission, theproduction decided to relocate to theItalian region and an imaginary towncalled Rivombrosa, actually Aglié in theCanavese area, and its ducal castle,whose facade became a kind ofemblem for the series. The enormoussuccess of a Elisa not only revitalisedthe image of the Piedmont countrysidebut, as happens with all narrativeswhose characters win the hearts ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 183

Chapter 7viewers (see at world level the examplesof Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and themore recent High School Musical),generating fandom and public interestto go and see the locations first-handor take away a souvenir, talisman, etc.Interestingly, the forecasts before thelaunch of the series were notfavourable. The filmed episodes hadalready been in the storerooms forseveral months before Canale 5 finallydecided to put on the series during theChristmas period (the first episode wasbroadcast on 17 December 2003) i.e. a“quiet” time, chosen not to overcrowdthe “guaranteed period” (the period forwhich the network has agreements to“guarantee” advertising investors acertain number of viewers) and soavoid competition from major RAIproductions. The reluctance was due tothe opinions of some focus groups onanother product – another historicalromance – which a few months earlier(February 2002) had been a unexpectedterrible flop. This was the costly Italo-French joint production, YoungCasanova, starring Stefano Accorsi, whohad recently enjoyed considerablesuccess in the film L’ultimo bacio. Thenetwork had had great expectations forthis series, but it only managed a 15%audience share. The conclusions of thefocus groups were, at least according toMediaset marketing, that “people aren’tinterested in the 18th century”.Another important example of a localregion revitalised by television fiction isthat of Southeast Sicily, which featuredin the highly popular episodes of thedetective series Montalbano. This, too,was an intelligent production choice.After the first episode (Il ladro dimerendine) set in a squalid, decayedquarter of Palermo, xxxviii the producersmoved to some beautiful locations,mainly in the areas of Agrigento andRagusa, which added considerablevisual charm to the stories about theSicilian detective. In very little time,tourism to the area rose, especiallyfrom Sweden, a joint producer of theseries and one of the first countries tobroadcast these stories created bySicilian writer Andrea Camilleri. Thereis a now full-blown Montalbano touristcircuit and the protagonist’s house is akind of cult place, rented out atexorbitant prices.In a way less linked to locations andmore to production-related economicactivities, there are at least another twoimportant cases concerning Italiantelevision series: a production facility inNaples and a new Sicilian productioncentre at Termini Imerese. Both werecreated by the RAI and were theoutcome of a choice that was partlysocio-economic. In the case of Naples,programming director Giovanni Minolichose to revitalise the then peripheralproduction facility by creating a longrunningsoap opera entitled Un posto alsole (“A place in the sun”). After a yearof fairly low audiences in 1996, theserial managed to build up a stableaudience, and has recently clocked upits 2000th episode. In addition to thesoap opera, a few years ago the Naplesfacility produced a long-running policeseries, La squadra (“The squad”),televised on RAI 3 prime time for eightseasons (from 2000 to 2007).Almost ten years on from the creationof Un posto al sole, the Campania Regionhas decided to develop film productionfurther by building new studios atWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 184

Chapter 7Bagnoli, near Naples, which should becompleted in 2009.In the second example a new industrialredevelopment process, financed by theItalian government and Sicily Region,has been launched to create jobs in anarea hit by an industrial crisis: TerminiImerese, to the east of Palermo, site ofthe former Fiat factories in Sicily. Atthe end of 2007, work began onshooting a so-called docu-soap (a soapopera with more overtly “social”features, in the wake of Un posto al sole)entitled Agrodolce, broadcasted on RAI3 since 2008.7.6 Italian FilmCommissionsThere are no thoroughgoing historicalstudies reconstructing the origins anddevelopment of film commissions.Organisations of these kind aregenerally thought to have appeared forthe first time in California and theWestern United States around the1940s. They were probably a responseto the growing phenomenon ofshooting Westerns on locationincreasingly far away from Los Angeles.Local communities (business operators,city councils, chambers of commerce,etc.) began to realise there could beeconomic benefits from the presenceof film productions in the local areaand this gave rise to the first filmcommissions.In Italy the earliest film commissiondates from the 1990s and was officiallycreated by the Emilia-Romagnaregional authorities (1997). At present18 film commissions are registered withthe Coordinamento Film CommissionItaliane (“Italian Film CommissionLiaison Office”), and there is also anunspecified number (perhaps 10 to 12)of non-members.The film commissions traditionally playfour main roles:1. Promotion. This is the mainactivity in terms of marketing the localarea and, as usually pursued by thebetter organised commissions, involves“selling” the region, packaged as aproduct ready for use by theproduction companies. The featuresare rather like those of a classicalmarketing mix for traditional productsand services (products, packaging,pricing and advertising). Theseactivities are carried out with the samekind of tools now used worldwide byall film commissions: participation inthe main film festivals/markets, andtelevision and advertisingfestivals/markets, at home and abroad;direct marketing; and “fam trips” forpotential users of the region(producers, organisers, locationmanagers, etc.). Naturally much of theadvertising is done using new mediaand through tools such as websites,which have played a key role not onlyin terms of communications, but alsoin providing assistance and developinglocal professional skills.2. Assistance. This is the mostspecific activity carried out by thecommissions and consists to variousdegrees in optimising all aspects of theuse of the region by productions whichdecide to locate films in the area. Theactivities range from assistance at thefirst stage of scouting to the choice ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 185

Chapter 7location, the creation of a specificoffice for obtaining permits, and all theliasing with the various localinstitutions during the pre-productionand production stages. In some casesassistance also includes organisingspecial agreements for the supply ofservices on behalf of the producers.This brings us to a critical pointintrinsic in the relations betweenprivate professional resources (locationscouts, location managers and services)who operate in the field and theactivity, by definition, non-profit,carried out by most of the filmcommissions. Several solutions havebeen adopted to this issue in Italy: thefilm commissions “withdraw” from thefield (but they lose leverage in thecompetition), or they make the privateprofessionals “public” by hiring orgiving appointments to private businessoperators.3. Training. Film commissionsincreasingly operate in various way inthe field of education or professionaltraining for the audiovisual sector.Training is considered crucial in termsof making a region competitive and inattracting exogenous investments tothe sector. The training activities takethe form of professional courses,seminars and workshops, organisedboth as preparation for the variousprofessions and trades in the filmindustry and for specialisation courses.4. Making the most of localprofessional skills. This is another ofthe principal activities pursued by filmcommissions. The logic is naturally todevelop groups of professionals andservice companies at local level in orderto be more competitive (reducing theneed for productions to bring theirown technicians or use otherproduction centres) and so limit the socalledleakage of funds whichproductions could spend on the localregion instead of involving externalproduction factors. Highlighting localskills is usually done through the meansof a Production Guide, a kind ofdirectory created by film commissionsfor the benefit of outside productioncompanies.From the point of view of futuredevelopments, film commissions couldplay new more interesting roles andadopt further action strategies. Here wewill simply list a few of them:• create local development agents,formed by fostering and creatingenterprises;• implement regional and localproduct placement• develop film tourism, i.e. a morecomplete and appropriateexploitation of tourist flowspotentially generated by films andtelevision series• provide funding.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 186

Chapter 77.7 ConclusionsThe Italian film industry is goingthrough a phase of transition in whichnew public and private strategies mustbe implemented to support the positivesigns of a revival seen in recent years.New consumer preferences and habitsand new outlets for film productsrequire a fresh strategic vision of theentire chain of the conception,production and distribution of films.Firstly, to support the success of Italianfilms, right from the storyboards,producers should aim at “proximity”(geographical and cultural), enablingaudiences to be familiar and identifywith what is being narrated. In somecases this could mean drawing on arepertory of archetypal narratives andborrowing from other media (literarybestsellers, television series, etc.) if notfrom the history of cinema itself.Secondly, distribution must exploit newpromotional strategies to launch filmsin line with contemporarycommunications tools. There must be agreater use of the Internet(construction of sites for specific films,viral advertising through the digitaldialogue between potential audiencesusing email, etc.) and the creation ofevents, which boost the “openingweekend” effect.Thirdly, for Italian films the homevideo market has not been the kind ofEldorado enjoyed and still enjoyed bythe US blockbusters. In this segmentmore aggressive marketing techniquesare required to help augment thespectacular nature of Italian films(especially in rentals), while new coversand promotional interfaces can beproposed to reflect more closely tastesin the publishing market.Lastly, television networks can pursue aseries of actions to support Italiancinema. Generalist television cannotand must not assume the burden of thecomplex problems of the film industryof today and of the future. Butsomething could be done by thosenetworks which are not hostage toaudience data in order to scheduleprogrammes which adequately andconstantly promote Italian cinema andits culture.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 187

APPENDIX:The international repute of Italian cinemaTo form an initial idea of the prestige and reputation achieved by the Italian filmindustry, we provide a list of the most important awards won at majorinternational competitions over the last 80 years (1928-2008): Academy Awards(Oscars), Cannes International Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival,and the Berlin International Film Festival.YearCompetitionAwardFilm / Actor1934 Venice Mussolini Cup Teresa Confalonieri by Guido Brignone1935 Venice Mussolini Cup Casta Diva by Carmine Gallone1936 Venice Mussolini Cup Squadrone bianco by Augusto Gemina1937 Venice Mussolini Cup Scipione l’africano by Carmine Gallone1938 Venice Mussolini Cup Luciano Serra pilota by Goffredo Alessandrini1939 Venice Mussolini Cup Abuna Messia by Goffredo Alessandrini1940 Venice Mussolini Cup L’assedio dell’Alcazar by Augusto Gemina1941 Venice Mussolini Cup La corona by ferro by Alessandro Blasetti1942 Venice Mussolini Cup Bengasi by Augusto Gemina1946 Venice Anica Cup Paisà by Roberto Rossellini1947 Oscar Best foreign film Sciuscià by Vittorio de SicaVenice Best actress Anna Magnani for L’onorevole Angelina1948 Venice Best Italian film Sotto il sole di Roma by Renato Castellani1949 Oscar Best foreign film Ladri di biciclette by Vittorio de SicaCannes Best actress Isa Mirando for Le Mura by MalapagaVenice Best Italian film Cielo sulla palude by Augusto Gemina1950 Venice Best Italian film Domani è troppo tardi by Leonide Maguy1951 Cannes Jury Prize Miracolo a Milano by Vittorio de SicaVenice Best Italian film La città si difende by Pietro GermiBerlin Silver Bear Il cammino della speranza by Pietro Germi1952 Cannes Jury Prize Due soldi di speranza by Renato CastellaniVenice International Prize Europa ’51 by Roberto Rossellini1953 Venice Silver Lion I vitelloni by Federico FelliniBerlin Silver Bear Magia verde by Gian Gaspare Napolitano1954 Venice Golden Lion Giulietta e Romeo by Renato CastellaniVenice Silver Lion La strada by Federico FelliniBerlin Silver Bear Pane, amore e fantasia by Luigi Comencini1955 Cannes Special Prize Continente perduto by L. BonziVenice Silver Lion Le amiche by Michelangelo Antonioni1956 Oscar Best foreign film La strada by Federico FelliniBerlin Best actress Elsa Martinelli for Donatella1957 Oscar Best foreign film Le notti di Cabiria by Federico FelliniCannes Best actress Giulietta Masina for Le notti di CabiriaVenice Silver Lion Le notti bianche by Luchino ViscontiBerlin Golden Bear Padri e figli by Mario Monicelli1958 Venice Jury Prize La sfida by Francesco RosiBerlin Best actress Anna Magnani for Selvaggio è il vento1959 Venice Golden Lion Il generale della Rovere by Roberto RosselliniLa grande guerra by Mario Monicelli

Chapter 71960 Cannes Golden Palm La dolce vita by Federico FelliniJury Prize L’avventura by Michelangelo AntonioniVenice Special Prize Rocco e i suoi fratelli by Luchino Visconti1961 Cannes Best actress Sophia Loren for La ciociaraBerlin Golden Bear La notte by Michelangelo Antonioni1962 Cannes Jury Prize L’eclisse by Michelangelo AntonioniBerlin Golden Bear Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi1963 Oscar Best foreign film 8 ½ by Federico FelliniVenice Golden Lion Le mani sulla città by Francesco RosiBerlin Golden Bear Il diavolo by Gian Luigi Polidoro1964 Oscar Best foreign film Ieri, oggi, domani by Vittorio de SicaVenice Jury Prize Il Vangelo secondo Matteo by Pier Paolo Pisolini1965 Venice Golden Lion Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa by Luchino Visconti1966 Cannes Golden Palm Signore e signori by Pietro GermiVenice Golden Lion La battaglia di Algeri by Gillo Pontecorvo1967 Cannes Golden Palm Blow up by Michelangelo AntoioniVenice Jury Prize La Cina è vicina by Marco Bellocchio1968 Venice Jury Prize Nostra Signora dei Turchi by Carmelo BeneBest actress Laura Betti for Teorema1970 Oscar Best foreign film Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra by ogni sospetto by Elio PetriCannes Best actor Marcello Mastroianni for Dramma della gelosiaBest actress Ottavia Piccolo for Metello1971 Oscar Best foreign film Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Vittorio de SicaCannes Best actor Riccardo Cucciola for Sacco e Vanzetti1972 Cannes Jury Prize La classe operaia va in Paradiso by Elio PetriIl caso Mattei by Francesco RosiBerlin Golden Bear I racconti di Canterbury by P.P. PasoliniBest actor Alberto Sordi for Detenuto in attesa di giudizio1974 Oscar Best foreign film Amarcord by Federico FelliniCannes Jury Prize Il fiore delle mille e una notte by P.P.Pasolini1975 Cannes Best actor Vittorio Gassman for Profumo di donna1976 Berlin Silver Bear Caro Michele by Mario Monicelli1977 Cannes Golden Palm Padre padrone by Vittorio e Paolo Taviani1978 Cannes Jury Prize Ciao maschio by Marco Ferreri1979 Berlin Best actor Michele Placido for Ernesto1981 Cannes Best actor Ugo Tognazzi for La tragedia di un uomo ridicoloVenice Jury Prize Sogni d’oro by Nanni Moretti1982 Cannes Jury Prize La notte di San Lorenzo by Paolo e Vittorio TavianiBerlin Golden Bear Il marchese del Grillo by Mario Monicelli1984 Berlin Silver Bear Ballando ballando by Ettore Scola1986 Venice Jury Prize Storia d’amore by Francesco MaselliBest actor Carlo delle Piane for Regalo di NataleBest actress Valeria Golino for Storia d’amore1987 Cannes Best actor Marcello Mastroianni for Oci CiornieBerlin Best actor Gian Maria Volonté for Il caso Moro1989 Oscar Best foreign film Nuovo Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe TornatoreCannes Jury Prize Nuovo Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe TornatoreVenice Best actor Marcello Mastroianni and Massimo Troisi for Che ora é1991 Oscar Best foreign film Mediterraneo by Gabriele SalvatoresBerlin Golden Bear La casa del sorriso by Marco FerreriBerlin Best director Ultrà by Ricky Tognazzi1992 Cannes Jury Prize Il ladro di bambini by Gianni Amelio1993 Venice Best actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio for Un’anima divisa in dueWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 189

Chapter 71994 Cannes Best director Caro diario by Nanni MorettiBest actress Virna Lisi for La regina MargotVenice Best director Gianni Amelio for LamericaSilver Lion Il toro by Carlo Mazzacurati1995 Venice Jury Prize L’uomo delle stelle by Giuseppe Tornatore1997 Venice Jury Prize Ovosodo by Paolo Virzì1998 Oscar Best foreign film La vita è bella by Roberto BenigniCannes Jury Prize La vita è bella by Roberto BenigniVenice Golden Lion Così ridevano by Gianni Amelio2001 Cannes Golden Palm La stanza del figlio by Nanni MorettiVenice Best actor Luigi Lo Cascio in Luce dei miei occhiVenice Best actress Sandra Ceccarelli in Luce dei miei occhi2002 Venice Best actor Stefano Accorsi in Un viaggio chiamato amore2005 Venice Best actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno in La bestia nel cuoreWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 190

Chapter 8Michelangelo Pistoletto “The talking mirror” 2004Mirror, 230 x 125 cm : Action at the Azione-comunic-azione exhibition, 2005, GalleriaOredaria, in collaboration with RAM-radioartemobile, Rome.Photograph: C. Abate

Chapter 8Chapter 8Television, Radio and Publishing8.1 General RemarksSince the 1940s, book publishing, radioand television have been considered themain sectors of the “cultural industry”along with cinema, music (records) andnews<strong>paper</strong>s and periodicals even thoughthe concept itself of “cultural industry”has a strong critical bias. Products inthese sectors are the outcome of theelaboration and/or diffusion of contentfrom the fields of literature, music, essaywriting, performing arts andinformation. The content is managedmainly according to market criteria,despite the presence of powerful publicplayers (radio and television weremanaged by a monopoly until the 1970s,today state-run networks compete withprivate enterprise) and a non-profitsector which, again in the field of radioand television, is subject to its ownspecific regulations. All of these sectorshave a strategic function in the overallproduction of culture in the country.Publishing books is the oldest sector ofthe cultural industry. Historically it hadthe task of promoting and disseminatingtexts on literature, science, education orof a practical nature (from tourist guidesto handbooks for a great variety ofprofessional or amateur activities). Thehealth of the book publishing sectorand its trends are thus one of the mostrevealing symptoms of the state ofnational cultural life in the widest sense.Radio and television (the former sincethe inter-war period and the latter sincethe 1950s) have been the primary meansfor disseminating culture in general, ifonly because, of all the media they arethe first and second in terms of timespent using them in Italy (but alsoelsewhere). According to Censis/Ucsifigures (2005), 95.4% of Italians declarethey are habitual users of the television(another 1.8% are occasional users),while 59% are habitual radio users(11.1% occasional users). Books lag farbehind these figures: only 31.5%habitual readers plus 15.1% occasionalreaders (we will return to these figuresbelow). Moreover, television inparticular is the main vehicle for filmsand an extraordinary promoter of allkinds of cultural products, includingbooks.The fact remains, that despite the cleardifferences in terms of size anddistinctive features between the varioussectors, they have some common traitsworth dwelling on and which are onlypartly typical of the whole Italiancultural industry.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 192

Chapter 88.1 Company sizeBoth in publishing and radio andtelevision (and in the radio andtelevision segment, both in thebroadcasting industry and in thedifferent although overlappingproduction industry) there are verystrong imbalances. On one hand, thereare a large number of small, very smallor even virtual enterprises (publisherswho do not produce books,“broadcasting” companies who only dothe minimum necessary to continueoccupying frequencies) and, on theother, a handful of large groups withhuge market shares. Thus theMondadori Group (ISTAT 2006) aloneaccounts for 28% of sales volume in thepublishing sector. Another seven groupshave 55% and the rest is theoreticallydivided between over 8,000 businesses,of which only 2,300 are actually active,i.e. they publish at least one book a year.In the field of television, and specificallyin the broadcasting segment, there is ahuge gap between the sales volumes ofthe RAI-Mediaset duopoly and that ofother national terrestrial or satellitebroadcasters and the hundreds of localstations. Moreover, the two big leaderscondition not only their own specificsector but, given their influence on theentire advertising market, also the mediasystem in general. Even if we limit ouranalysis to the data from five years ago– arguably less controversial than morerecent figures – in 2001-2003 RAI andMediaset controlled around 75% of thetotal resources of the television system,while the remainder was shared outbetween satellite networks, the minornational networks (such as La7 andMTV) and around 600 local televisionstations. Less known but equallysignificant are the imbalances in thefield of television production.According to data from a recent studyconducted by the Istituto di Economiadei Media (2006), of the 505 companiesinvolved in independent production(the concept of “independence”, as weshall see, requires further clarification),6.5% accounted for 65% of overall salesvolume.There are also considerable imbalancesin the radio sector. As in the field oftelevision, some “national” broadcasters(a very generic definition, since itincludes both stations which broadcastthe same programme simultaneouslythroughout the country and “circuits”which only share part of their schedules)rake in a sales volumes equal to the sumof all the local radio stations in entireregions (the number of these localstations cannot be calculated preciselybut according to most estimatesnationwide there are over 1500).Considering only the data foradvertising revenue in a study promotedin 2007 by the Federazione RadioTelevisione in collaboration with SLC-Cgil, FISTel-Cisl, UILCOM-Uil (Studioeconomico del settore radiotelevisivoitaliano), we see that in 2007 of the 571companies considered only 15 exceeded3 million euros, and around 90% hadturnovers of under 1 million euros; ofthese, 269 had a turnover of less than100,000 euros.Up to this point we have restricted ourdescription to the revenues, the mostimmediately readable and the most“objective” of data, but the imbalanceswhich they highlight are furtherWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 193

Chapter 8confirmed if we refer to some otheraspects: from jobs to the power derivingfrom so-called “synergies” with othermedia. We only need mention the factthat the principal publishing group ispart of the same financial-industrialholding company which controls thelargest private television network (and isunder the personal control of the PrimeMinister); and that various big (in termsof audience and sales volume) nationalradio stations are part of the Espressogroup, a leading company in the sectorof national news<strong>paper</strong>s and periodicals.8.2. Characters ofenterprises.Another feature typical of the sectorswe are dealing with, which echoes andexasperates trends typical of so-called“Italian capitalism”, is the relative lackof market-oriented corporations in theclassic sense of the term. In fact, inaddition to the still considerable weightof the state-run RAI, we find:• personal and family-runcompanies• companies greatly dependent ona very small number of customers, oreven a single customer• companies, even multi-customercompanies, which are extremelyprecarious.Only a handful of publishing andbroadcasting companies are quoted onthe stock exchange: the largest of thepublishing groups – Mondadori, RCS,and De Agostini (much more than apublishing house), plus the EditorialeEspresso group (also an importantpresence in the radio sector); none ofthe independent producers fortelevision, except for a European-widecompany in the field of animation –Mondo TV; and one of the twodominant television networks –Mediaset. But until recently even manyof these companies were run on apersonal or family basis. This is certainlytrue of Mediaset and the De Agostinigroup, since the Boroli family not onlyheld large shares in the company butalso occupied various top managementposts. The cases of Mondadori andRizzoli are interesting because theirstory and the influx of new owners intothe companies would be impossible tounderstand without taking into accounttheir “family sagas”, that is thedevelopments after the death of thefounders and the consequent tensionsover the division of their legacies.If we move down from large groups tosmaller companies, this aspect isaccentuated in the publishing field andeven more in radio and television,where we find the key factor is controlover the frequencies by those, or theheirs of those, who occupied themduring the so-called “wild airwaves”days.These remarks not do not necessarilyimply a value judgement which, anyway,would be beyond the limits assigned tothis <strong>paper</strong>. We should remember,however, that although the foundingfigures of these companies had, at leastin most cases, that peculiar resourceusually described, for want of a betterword, as “flair”, their successors in theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 194

Chapter 8dynastic line have not always had thesame quality and at times have failed tochoose competent managers. Moreover,family-run management, especially fromthe second generation onwards, seemsprincipally to aim at making moneythrough rent, at times exploiting an oldor recent tradition. In any case they areloath to risk innovation or a shrewdrather than miserly management ofinvestments.Many smaller businesses, especially inthe sector of so-called “independent”television production, have anotherproblem, which often compounds thekind of ownership set-up describedabove: i.e. the lack of a true market onwhich products can be put up for sale tovarious competing players. In fact theseproducers are only independent inname, since they are stronglyconditioned by the wishes or evenwhims of executives and managers (andby the changes in the broadcastingnomenklatura), which in the case of thepublic broadcasting network is, in turn,conditioned by political events. This,too, deeply affects the possibility ofmaking investments, not only becauseof the endemic disease of undercapitalisationbut also because of thedifficulty in making serious mediumtermassessments, albeit in uncertainmarkets.One particular enterprise model hasdeveloped greatly in the last 20 yearsand plays an important role not onlyand not so much in the directproduction of “content”, as in theproduction of services and intermediarygoods in the increasingly elaboratesupply chains in publishing and theaudiovisual field. Examples of thismodel are companies offering editing oriconographic research services forpublishers, or firms specialised insearching for footage and obtaining therights for their reproduction. Thesesmall and very small enterprises havebeen created by young, often highlyqualified people as a response to thescarce supply of jobs and also the widelyfelt need for economic and personalindependence. Although created notonly under the pressure of necessity, butalso partly by choice, these firms areextremely fragile financially, volatile interms of life span, generally weak also instrictly legal terms. The real extent ofthis phenomenon is very difficult toassess with any precision due to a lackof any in-depth studies. Which is a pity,because they could be an importantpatrimony of professional skills andexperiences.8.3. Market sizeFor both the television and radiosectors, we mentioned local or groupbroadcasters, working in circuits ornationwide. An imaginary alien whovisited our country in 1976 and thencame back today would certainly beamazed, since the legislation in 1976setting up the so-called “liberalisation”of broadcasting denied any broadcasterexcept state television – i.e. the RAI –the right to broadcast nationwide. Butin fact already in the 1980s,conspicuously in the field of television,and more subtly but no less tenaciouslyin the field of radio, the national marketcompletely overreached local markets interms of advertising revenue and also inscheduling and promotion strategies.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 195

Chapter 8Local broadcasters, moreover, like localpublishers, with a few exceptions, seemto have been left only marginal markets.None of the larger groups in thesesectors, apart from Sky, which is theItalian subsidiary of the Murdoch group,operates as a cross-border businesscompeting on a larger – not to sayglobal or even European – market(except for one Spanish network in theMediaset group). This may look a wisedecision given the fate in the last 20years of the various European mediagroups who have attempted to competedirectly with the US giants (with thepartial exception of the BertelsmannGroup). As far as the major Italiantelevision and publishing group (againMediaset) is concerned, the decision waslinked to a choice dating around 15years ago and outside the scope of this<strong>paper</strong>: the owner’ decision to go intopolitics, which – according to his critics– may have favoured his fortunes in thecountry, but certainly made his groupdifferent from other companiesoperating on this very delicate marketand, as demonstrated by the events afterbankruptcy of the German Kirschgroup, may have made acceptance of hispotential investments problematic formany foreign governments.What applies to Mediaset in particularcan be extended to the sectors ofpublishing, television and radio ingeneral: operations are almost whollyfocused on the domestic market andthere is great difficulty in going beyondits horizon as regards strategicinitiatives. This is also due to an obviousbut often overlooked fact. Bookpublishing, television broadcasting andthat part of radio broadcasting whichdoes not only feature music (and whenit does, it is usually imported music) aredependent on the national language,Italian, which is, of course, differentfrom the languages in neighbouringcountries. This essential factor ofidentity for our citizens impliesdifferences and problems of mutualcomprehension with others. Theproblem does not affect only ourcountry. We can consider it one of themajor limits (both objective andotherwise) for any European culturalpolicy. In fact the diversity of languagesand the rejection of any attempts tostandardise – proudly andunderstandably protected – traditionsand identities is a major insuperabledifficulty with the USA, but also withthe emerging superpower, China(characterised by the clear-cutdominance of a relatively uniformmajority ethnic group over all theothers).The problem, however, is particularlyserious for Italy. Italian is spoken by lessthan 1% of the world population,entirely concentrated in Italy and oneSwiss canton. This is a much lowerfigure than for the languages of all theother European powers of similar sizein terms of population and economicimportance. This is the case with Franceor Spain or even Portugal, which hadlong-standing colonial empires and cancount on much larger linguisticallyuniform populations. This is the casewith Germany, since German is spoken,beside the great numers of Germancitizens, also by by most of thepopulation in Austria, nearly all theSwiss Cantons and an Italianautonomous province.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 196

Chapter 8It may be no exaggeration to say thatthe Italian language, despite itsremarkable traditions, is now one of themain problems for our country’scultural life. This problem can certainlynot be solved by the recurrentconsolatory news<strong>paper</strong> reports on therise of the number of people studyingItalian as a second language in theworld. Italian seems to be too importanta language to allow the national culture(as has happened in countries with farfrom secondary traditions, like Hollandand Sweden) to basically acceptbilingualism, especially in the academicworld; too marginal to favor its culturalexports in these sectors.When discussing linguistic factorsconditioning the export of culturalproducts, we are obviously primarilyreferring to the direct export of books,periodicals, radio and televisionprogrammes, and films. On this subjectit is worthwhile distinguishing betweenthree separate cases:• countries like the UnitedKingdom, France, Spain or Portugalwhich still have cultural links with theirformer colonies (even remote ones likeQuebec for France, and the LatinAmerican states for Iberian countries);in these cases we may talk of forms of“captive markets”• cross-border linguistic areas, likethe above-mentioned German-speakingworld in Central Europe or the Frenchspeakingworld, which includes Belgiumand part of the Valle d'Aosta; in thiscase products can be distributed inseveral countries by a single publisher,not necessarily located in the “home”country• lastly, the de facto acceptance ofsome languages as linguae francae in thecurrent historical phase (the greatadvantage gained by English in thesecond half of the 20th century andtoday partly also by Spanish and Arabicin other parts of the world).Countries excluded from these threesituations, like Italy, have extremelylimited markets for direct exports. And,moreover, they are conditioned in anindirect way: before a cultural operatordecides to acquire and translate aproduct from a different language itmust have someone who canunderstand it in some way or there mustbe producers willing to take on the costsand risks of having it translated andpromoted.Although the Italian cultural industryexports little, it does import andtranslate a great deal, even fromlanguages which in many Europeancountries are relatively commonlyunderstood. One of the little-knownand paradoxical consequence of thisphenomenon is the huge dimensions ofa secondary market for foreignproducts, mainly from the UnitedStates: not simply for translations butalso adaptations, including revisingtexts, dubbing, etc . It is very difficult toprovide precise figures on this subject,but if we add up the quantity ofpublishing work for translated books tothat of the work in the audiovisualsector for adapted and dubbed films orseries, we come up with a largish subsectorabsorbing considerable energies,and at times great skills. These activities,although only partly different ,in termsof basic features, from what can strictlybe described as “creative” sectors areWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 197

Chapter 8anyway treated, in economic and legalterms, as derivative activities. In recentyears, as we shall see below, theseprocesses have intensified in thetelevision sector with the rise of aspecific market for “formats”, whichinvolves setting up production chainsvery similar to the those of independentproductions but denying the authors theessential acknowledgement oforiginality.8.4. The geography ofproductionThe mainly domestic character of themarket does not make the geographicaldistribution of production companiesmore easily legible. The sectors we aredealing with here are not concentratedin one city (as opposed, for instance, towhat happens with the cinema industry),and they have not generated what wemay call industrial districts proper.The geographical mould of Italianpublishing is mainly due to theimportant, rich traditions of a countrywhich for the greatest part of itsmodern history has been characterizedby the presence of many “capitals”. Infact, many major publishing groups arebased in various cities – e.g. Giunti(Florence), Sellerio (Palermo), Mulino(Bologna), Laterza (Bari and Rome), andEinaudi and Utet (Turin) – , but theonly real “publishing district” is Milan;without an in-depth study, however, westill cannot precisely asses the influenceof book publishing or magazinepublishing on the creation of servicecompanies. As far as radio is concerned,there is also a wide geographical spread:while public radio is centered in Romeand many private networks have theirmain centre in Milan, some majorgroups are also based in Naples,Bologna, etc. As regards television,while the large networks areconcentrated in Rome and Milan, the“independent” producers seem free tolocate elsewhere and there are largefacilities providing specialised servicesin other areas: e.g. Telecity in the Turin-Canvese area is one of the mostimportant centres, certainly the largestoutside Rome and Milan, for dubbingand adapting foreign television series.In itself this geographical spread is not aweakness. Indeed it could be animportant element in revitalising thecultural fabric and attracting energiesthroughout the country. But it raisestwo problem.Firstly, it accentuates the existingfragmentation due to the nature of thecompanies.Secondly, it has led to a proliferation ofrash investments by local politicians, forexample, in large audiovisual centresand other facilities, in the misguidedbelief that relatively small towns canafford umpteen mini-Hollywoods, bookfairs or literary festivals.In short, there would seem to be thepotential for a policy of decentralisedproduction with co-ordinated planning.But the current impression, on thecontrary, is that of a policy with no coordinatedplanning, thus multiplyingrival initiatives all aspiring to basicallysimilar markets.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 198

Chapter 88.5 The individual sectorsAt this point we shall offer a(necessarily brief) description of themain features and requirements of thethree sectors.Publishing: market weaknesses. Asfar as the customer base is concerned,we should remember that the Italianbook market is not only notoriouslypenalised by the above-mentioned limitsto the Italian-speaking world. Italy isalso a country with few readers, andwith a distribution system that is lessefficient and dynamic than in othercountries.In fact, the figures on Italian readershave recently been carefully studied byan expert on the media economy, MarcoGambaro , in an essay (Tirature 08, ilSaggiatore, Milan 2008) that enables usto debunk a number of clichés. Forexample, Italian publishing’s sales perinhabitant is 73 euros, less than the 79euros in Germany but not so very muchless as one might have expected. Thepercentage of those who read books forpleasure (42% of those who read a bookat least once a year) is not very differentfrom that of France and Germany(40%). So how can we explain the factthat the number of books bought perinhabitant in Italy is much lower than inthese other countries? Here come twofurther significant figures. Firstly, Italyhas a greater number of people who donot read even one book a year (aconsequence of lower levels ofeducation): basically there is a largerpercentage not only and not so much of“weak” readers as non-readers.Secondly, compared to other countries,Italy has a much lower percentage ofpeople who buy handbooks and workson practical subjects rather than worksfor entertainment or school. This is asector in which Italian publishing isgreatly handicapped.These remarks, which naturally are opento discussion, show on one hand howeasy it is to fall into clichés and, on theother, the potential for achieving a morebalanced situation, in a sector howeverweak, by for example boosting thehandbook sector. On the other hand,one should not forget that manuals andhandbooks require bigger investmentsthan ordinary books, since the readersof these kinds of books generallydemand well-edited and complete series,and they typically are long-sellers, whichyield fruit over several years.The distribution of books has alsochanged in recent years through abroadening of the customer base. In the1990s the traditional bookshop, whichwas a great resource for habitual readersbut often intimidated those not sofamiliar with books, has been flanked bychains of multimedia stores, both Italian(Feltrinelli-Ricordi, Coop) and foreign(Fnac). Moreover, an important newdistribution channel for books has beentheir sale as news<strong>paper</strong> supplements, amass phenomenon now in decline.There has also been a constant growthof sales in supermarkets and other salespoints (a rise of over 30% in the lasttwo years) and on the Internet. Thesedistribution channels encourage the saleof consolidated products rather thannew works. As a manager in theperiodical sector commented: “Thebooks which we sell with news<strong>paper</strong>sare ‘re-run’ products, already wellproven and basically guaranteeing saferesults.” The supermarkets, on the otherWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 199

Chapter 8hand, have indeed increaseddistribution, but almost always only ofbestsellers. And, we should add, almostonly bestsellers promoted by the bigmedia companies, especially television.A view of the publishing industryfocused only on the numericalassessment of sales and the genericpromotion of reading presumed to be avalue in itself is liable to underestimatethe problem by seeing, for example, thesudden rise in sales in 2003-2004 inoveroptimistic terms. If we wish toassess the sector as a creative industry,we must take into account this aspect,i.e. the risk that the strategies for rapidgrowth in sales and revenue actuallyonly really favour less innovativeproducts.There is another figure which shouldgive food for thought. In the last 30years of the 20th century an importantsector of national publishing life wasencyclopaedic-style serialised “largeworks”, which, among other things,made it possible to set up importantresearch work in the field of humansciences and also in some sectors ofnatural sciences, and the popularising ofnew knowledge, often for nonspecialisedreaders. The competitionfrom the Internet, but also thecannibalisation of the “large works” bynews<strong>paper</strong> stands has led in the lastdecade to less willingness to invest inthe sector by the publishing housespreviously most involved in it. Althoughreaching a larger public, the “re-run”products sold at news<strong>paper</strong> stands couldhave long-term negative effects on trulyinnovative productions..Publishing: the production chain.The production of books has changedeven more rapidly than readership anddistribution channels in recent years.Indeed, we can now argue that while thephysical form of the final product(despite many predictions to thecontrary) is basically still the same, thewhole process of making it has changed.This is true at technological level, sincedigitisation has brought a previouslyinconceivable streamlining to all stagesin the production processes: booksbegin as computer files and are usuallysent to the publishers by email to beedited using the same programmes.They are then laid out, at times withillustrations, by using other softwareand then sent directly to the printers.The technological streamlining,combined with intense efforts made bymanagement (whose professional rootsare often in industries other thanpublishing) to cut costs, has encouragedthe widespread phenomena ofoutsourcing. Many activities previouslycarried out within publishing houses,from editing to proofreading, have beentransferred to small firms, often highlyskilled but economically fragile.Moreover, working on books may onlybe one of their businesses: others mayinclude designing websites or servicesfor magazines and quite often alsocorporate communications services. Inhousepublishing staff now mainly onlydeal with the task of selecting andliasing with authors, managing rightsand promoting the brand name. Todaymost Italian publishers have from twoto nine employees; only 254 companieshave over ten.The average quality of books in terms ofcontent has not deteriorated, but thereWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 200

Chapter 8are many complaints that editingstandards have declined, mainly due tothe speeding up of processes and alsothe disappearance of the figure of thein-house editor, who followed the bookthrough all the stages: in short, there aremore “printing” mistakes, less accuracyin translations, etc.Broadcasting: some general features.Radio and television have a number offeatures which set them apart from thelonger-standing sectors in the culturalindustry, such as publishing, the oldestof them all. While the book is a physicalproduct embodying a cultural value,radio and television distribute aural oraudiovisuale flows of sounds– intowhich may absorb various kinds ofmaterials, including advertising (a sourceof income) – and cultural products forwhich rights must be paid.Broadcasting thus inevitably involves acomplex, multilayered set of activities.Normally each broadcaster deals withproduction (at least of part of itsprogrammes), scheduling, i.e. decidingthe temporal order in which the variousprogrammes, commercials, and linkingflows of talk are structured, andtransmission – the sending ofprogrammes to receivers in homes orvehicles, workplaces, public places, etc.Transmitting programmes has aneminently technical character andscheduling has strong socio-culturalimplications, although not comparableto elaborating content, whereasproduction is certainly the mostimportant activity from the culturalpoint of view. On the other hand, radioand television companies alwaystransmit, and usually handle scheduling,which, however, in recent years hasincreasingly been carried out, wholly orpartially, by special software. As far asproduction is concerned, broadcastersdirectly prepare only a part of their ownprogrammes: this percentage, dependingon the various formats and styles of thebroadcaster, can in theory range fromlittle more than zero to 100%. In termsof cultural activities, this means that thesame definition (“radio or televisionbroadcaster”) covers players whoproduce only minimal content andothers producing thousands of hours ofcontent a year.Who does the producing outside thenetworks? Again, we find here a veryvaried scene. In the field of radio wecannot really speak of independentproducers, nor of a market forprogrammes: radio stations notaffiliated to groups thus have toalternate music, obviously consisting ofpre-recorded songs, possibly introducedby a presenter, to internally producedmaterial (which in many cases simplymeans producing information, often thepure re-drafting of press agencyreleases, possible with the aid of theagencies specialised in radio news) .Some affiliated radio stations may adoptan intermediate model – although theformulas vary – based on thedistribution of programmes (usuallywith pre-inserted advertising) from thehead broadcasting station, or from thecentral offices of the network, to otherstations.In the field of television the situation ismuch more complex since internalproduction in the strictest sense of theword is very limited, again mainly toinformation and, for many localtelevision stations, to the telemarketingsector, while production outsourcedWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 201

Chapter 8from “independent” companies (asdescribed above) is much larger as is theacquisition of foreign programmes to beadapted and films. As this brief picturereveals, however, original productionsare a disproportionately small part ofthe total hours broadcast. Thisdisproportion is further accentuated, ifwe exclude routine informationproduction and commercial services,such as telemarketing, home shopping,etc.The situation has been stronglyconditioned by the peculiar beginningsof the private Italian radio andtelevision sector and the specificfeatures of the state-owned RAI. As faras the latter is concerned, we can brieflysay that the company is not only literallyoccupied by the party political systemand its related patronage. The very useof the term “company” is paradoxical,since the original project madeprovisions for an internal competitivesystem (between its own channels) inaddition to – and even greater than –with players operating on the samemarket. This is further underscored bythe fact there are no overallmanagement figures who truly havemore powers than the independent(theoretically subordinate) individualchannel directors. There is also anotherparadox: the RAI receives revenue fromlicence fees for providing a publicservice, which should also actuallyinclude experimentation with innovativeprogrammes and a special attention toso-called “quality” programmes (a verydebatable concept because of theextremely subjective nature of valuejudgements on moral, aesthetic andtechnological aspects). In any case, thereis a strong pressure from the press andpublic opinion calling for RAI toachieve the same audience share as theprincipal private companies, accordingto a logic that “if it doesn’t interestanyone, why should we pay thelicence?” (although we could equallyreverse the logic: “since it can makemoney in the normal way fromadvertising, why should it receivelicence money?”). The fact remains thatthe Italian radio and television “publicservice” is much less of a specific welldefinedpublic service than most of itscounterparts in other Europeancountries. Moreover, if RAI operates asa creative industry, and it is certainlyone of the largest if not the largest inthe country, this takes place in a politicaland legal framework which does little tofacilitate its task, indeed, makes it moredifficult.As far as the private sector is concerned,after the end of the ultimatelyunsustainable public monopoly, theoccupation of frequencies by individualsand groups (the frequencies thenbecame their property thanks to belatedlegislation, which left many importantaspects totally unsolved) gave rise to asituation characterised by:• widespread problems oftransparency as regards ownership andthe relations between networks;• a widespread trend for localtelevision stations to make money byrenting the frequencies, or using themas a possible asset to eventually beplaced on the market.The frequencies market, however, isshrouded in uncertainty due to thetransition to digital technology. On onehand, it has led to the entry of newplayers into the sector and, on the other,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 202

Chapter 8it has forced smaller companies tochoose between further investments orclosing down. This situation partlyjustifies the wait-and-see attitude bymost operators in the sector, reluctantto make long-term investments, andalso tempted by the possibility ofbroadening their portfolio and winningnew audiences. This situation, in itselffar from clear, has been compoundedby the lack of clarity in the rulesconcerning aggregations of stations:terms such as network, group, syndicate,circuit or more recently consortium andeven franchising are often used as ifthey were interchangeabole. Althoughthe existing laws have tried to makesome distinctions and to regulate eachtype of aggregation in a differentiatedway, in practice they continue tooverlap.Any reflections on radio and televisionas creative enterprises must take thispicture into account.Radio. The fact that radio is the secondmedium in terms of audience in thecountry is now almost self-evident, agenerally recognized trugh. But this hasonly been the case for a relatively shorttime, or rather since some conferencesand news<strong>paper</strong> reports in the early2000s re-focused attention on a mediumfor long neglected by politicians, themedia system in general and alsoadvertisers. One of the mainconsequences, as far as we areconcerned here, has been the growingpressure from advertisers onbroadcasters to cut back audiences andbroadcasting times deemed to be lessappetising (the elderly and especiallyadolescents, a category which until the1990s was a key component of mostradio music audiences) and toconcentrate more on the so-called“young adults”, 20 to 35 year-olds,believed to be more attractive in termsof cash availability and inclination toconsume. This has led to a greater focuson some music formats (such as the socalled“adult contemporary” format)and especially mixed formats combiningmusic and news or even non-music talkshows and news, and to a comeback ofstations based on the popularity of DJsand on spoken entertainment. Ingeneral the language of radio has beenwidening, partly because of thedevelopment of some types ofcommunity broadcasting (e.g. theactivism of catholic radio stations asillustrated by the In blue circuit and theunexpected development of universityradios), although the hopes of a returnto new experimentation of genres of akind now long disappeared, such asradio plays and documentaries, stillappear a little premature.In technological terms radio has alsoreorganised. Not only, and for themeantime not so much, because of theintroduction of digital radio to replaceanalogue radio (digital audiobroadcasting – DAB, or its successors)as because of the spread of mixedforms: radio transmitted via the Internetor web-radios, downloadableprogrammes to be listened to onportable devices (podcasting), and/orcombined with video programmes onthe Internet or on traditional televisionchannels.We are witnessing a kind of growinggap in radio production: on one hand,we have a “top” bracket of broadcasters(no more than ten public, private andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 203

Chapter 8community players – and not necessarilythe most profitable) which are definitelythe most dynamic in combining radioand other media businesses and haveseen a rise in investments anddiversification of languages; on theother hand, a “low” bracket ofbroadcasters (not necessarily thepoorest financially) which are veryconservative in their choices and tend tokeep regular professional jobs to aminimum and spread costs over variousstations usually differentiated only, oralmost only, by musical style. Mainlybased on volunteer work, communityradio acts as a stimulus for the wholesystem, but this effect is limited becauseof widespread under-financing.Television. For several years now therehas been a widely shared piece ofconventional wisdom that terrestrialanalogue generalist television is due togo into terminal decline because of therise of more specialised or thematic pay-TVs. In fact, first through satellite TVand then the development of some payterrestrial channels based on the use ofviewing cards, digital pay-TV hasconsolidated its offering of sport, filmand some kinds of documentaries. But itis still not the prevalent televisionmodel. Moreover, pay-TVs in Italy (forvarious reasons including the fact thatthe monopoly satellite network isowned by an international group) offervery little innovation in the field ofdomestic production, apart from theoccasional interesting experiment. Socalledgeneralist television can offer anextremely wide range of programmetypes, quality of product and costs.According to some estimates, one hourof programming on a national networkcan cost from around 10,000 euros (e.g.for the repeat of well-known series) upto 1 million euros. It is very difficult,therefore, to formulate an overallassessment of the sector, and moreadvisable to reflect on some examplesand cases.As regards regional television stations,we have already noted how in generalthey have relatively few resources toface the large investments requiredtoday, not only for televisionproduction in general but also to adjustto the complete changeover fromanalogue to digital terrestrial TV,introduced by the so-called “GasparriLaw” (the application of the lawcontinues to be postponed but will notbe delayed beyond 2012). A study oflocal television stations in Piedmont,neither the poorest nor the leastenterprising region in the country (seeOsservatorio Culturale Piemonte 2007 –the chapter on radio and television isedited by Mediasfera), highlights thevery limited extent and extremeprudence of investments in originalproductions. What these stations meanby “focusing on their local roots”, is infact focusing on home shopping,telemarketing, talk shows with localsportsmen and politicians, sportsreports, and in some more adventurouscases local ballroom dancing, and so on.An additional type of programmeoffered by community television isdocumentation, at times even of fairlygood quality, about the world ofassociations and volunteer work. Butultimately local television programmingconsists more than anything else ofmaterial bought on the market, andtherefore almost entirely imported.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 204

Chapter 8The two large national networks, RAIand Mediaset, are in many ways at theopposite end of the spectrum fromregional televisions, both in terms ofturnover and commitment toproduction. They are arguably thelargest Italian companies in the field ofcultural production, even though theirso-called production of content is partlyoutsourced and most of their resourcesare dedicated to technical andadministrative functions. Even thoughrecent changes in their production andprogramming logic appear strategic, buthave come in a relatively static overallsituation, which in some ways is evendeteriorating.Without going into all the main types ofprogrammes, we will consider one ofthe most relevant areas of productions:television fiction. This category includesmore or less long series but alsominiseries (from two to six episodes), ofwhat in the USA are called “made-for-TV-movies”. The main features oftelevision fiction production were oncevery different from film, but are nowbecoming much more similar, and theirare even cases of relativelyinterchangeable forms. In general,fiction production tends to be in theupper bracket of costs, although forsome time now there have been formsof production reconciling low costs withattempts to preserve good quality usingpermanent sets with professional butrelatively unknown actors, and teams ofscreenwriters well-trained to turn out arelatively standard serial production.Italian television fiction production inthe 21st century has grown considerablythanks to the decision made by bothleading networks – without, however,giving up the enormous imports offoreign series – to invest in the originalproduction of so-called “biopic” seriesfeaturing police officers, detectives,doctors, etc. But it must be said, despitethe fact that there is no lack of highstandardscreenwriters, audiovisualtechnicians and actors, recent Italianfiction has not been winning muchrecognition on the international market.This is mainly due to the Italiancompanies’ rather facile approach to thelogic of series (or other kinds ofprogrammes) based on formats, whichare purchased abroad and then appliedwith a few adaptations. In recent years,Italy has almost exclusively been animporter of formats in all fields (firstlyfrom Holland and then a great variety ofother countries, such as Quebec, Spainand the English-speaking nations), whilethe number of formats exported fromItaly can be counted on one hand.Format series are usually the lowest-costsegment of television fiction. But similarproblems are also found in higherquality productions due to the oftenirrational division of labour between thecommissioning companies and theproducers. The latter will only beginproduction if the big networksguarantee they will buy their productsand therefore there is little room for theelaboration of independent ideas, not tomention assuming the entrepreneurialrisks for the production of even onlypartial products. In turn, the bignetworks will only commission productswhen they have the reasonable securityof an adequate advertising investment,i.e. on the basis of pre-selling at least theidea, if not the product.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 205

Chapter 88.6 ConclusionsAn analysis of the Italian publishing andradio and television industries revealssome specific distinctive features inthese sectors which will be taken intoaccount in the final Recommendations.The first is the relatively little attentiongiven until recently to specialisedprofessional training. While in the filmindustry, Italy has had one of the mosthighly qualified schools in the world foraround 70 years, and the training ofjournalists is, albeit very gradually,moving from the long-standinginstitution of the apprenticeship tomore sophisticated professional schools(in parallel to the training of televisionjournalists, it too relatively outmoded),the development of schools forpublishing professionals has been muchless well organised: there have been afew university masters degrees createdin the last ten years, some initiatives bythe Associazione Italiana Editori (ItalianPublishers Association), and numerousprivately run courses. In any case, asemerges from more recent studies, themost common model is still on the jobtraining in the form of workingalongside an expert. This obviouslytakes into account the still mainlyartisanal nature of the sector but is indanger of encouraging a mindset of “wehave always done this way”, which ispotentially detrimental at a time of greatinnovations like the present. As far asprofessions in radio and television areconcerned, this aspect is even morestriking, especially for all those skillsthat cannot be associated withconsolidated models, such as theproduction of fiction (when borderingon film) or journalism.The possibility of graduating withdegrees in Art, Music and PerformingArts and Communications Sciences haspartly encouraged a change in mindseton the subject. This has made careers incommunications acceptable as a paralleltraining path to other consolidatedmodels. These courses have proliferatedin such an uncontrolled rapid way,however, that they have also generated agood deal of misunderstandings and,most importantly, seem not to haveprovided sufficiently solid training inthe fields we are dealing with here. Ifthey have done so, it has only happenedin a small minority of cases.The second anomalous factor in theItalian market in these sectors is thedirect and indirect influence of politics.The state directly establishesregulations, especially in the field ofradio and television. But there has beena wavering between state intervention,often conditioned by specific interestsor the desire to combat them, and a farfrom neutral “abstentionism”. There arealso forms of direct promotion. The socalled“pre-acquisition” of institutionaltypepublications constitutes a veryimportant segment in publishingactivities in many areas of the country.The production of art and photographybooks in this segment, for example, alsobecause they highlight aspects of thenational heritage, is an important factorin giving Italian books greater visibilityabroad. Politics condition the sector intwo ways. Firstly, especially at locallevel, politics has given rise to fullblownpolitical(-journalistic)-culturalcomplexes which often inhibitinnovation. Secondly, democraticWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 206

Chapter 8changes in political power become afactor of uncertainty, at times alsostrictly economic uncertainty. This isparticularly evident in the field of radioand television, where an imminentchange at the head of the state-runcompany can create situations ofparalysis in decision-making whichoften drag on for months or even years,as has happened in Italy between 2006and 2009.Thirdly, given the financial fragility ofthese particular sectors in the cultureindustry (with the partial exception oflarger companies) another criticalcharacteristic feature is a lack ofinstitutions specialised in the field andcapable of assessing risks andinvestments which might be anomalousin other economic spheres.Lastly, can an industry in which no onetakes the risk of conceiving ideas beforeassessing their sales potential berightfully called “creative”? Contrary towhat is generally thought, for example,US television fiction gives a good dealof room to these kinds of processes,whereas, because of structuralweaknesses and inveterate habits, theItalian model does not.This is arguably an example whosesignificance goes well beyond thespecific case of television fiction andhelps us understand many of theprocesses described in this <strong>White</strong> Paper.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 207

Chapter 9Michelangelo Pistoletto “A cubicmetre of infinity in a cubic mirror room” 1966-2007Mirrors, neons, plasterboard500 x 500 x 500 cmCourtesy: Continua Gallery/Beijing

Chapter 9Chapter 9Software, Computer and ICTThe Italian model and a possible way to the knowledgeeconomy: handcrafting software9.1 IntroductionThe last few decades have seen the riseof a new economic paradigm that hassuperseded the Fordist-typeorganisation which had characterisedmost advanced western economies inthe 20th century. This new model iscommonly described as the knowledgeeconomy (Antonelli, 2008).The rise of this model is based on twofundamental elements. On one hand,there has been an obvious process ofstructural change bringing a gradualloss in employment and value added inthe manufacturing sector in favour ofthe tertiary sectors, i.e. the servicesectors. On the other hand, thepowerful impact in terms ofproductivity could not have beenpossible without the widespreadadoption of the new information andcommunications technology (ICT)(Antonelli et al., 2007).For both supply and demand sides, thenew paradigm is thus based on theproduction of services with a highknowledge content rather than materialgoods. In this context, the capacity tocreate and use new knowledge isconsidered the main form ofcompetitive advantage for businesses(Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).Moreover, traditional economic theoryalso acknowledged the importance ofknowledge in the process of economicgrowth, by incorporating it in itsanalytical processes in the form ofplanned formal creative activities, suchas research and development, andinformal activities such as learning thatgenerates dynamic economies of scale(Romer, 1986; 1990). At that time therewas talk of “useful knowledge”, as thewhole set of those forms of knowledgewhich are part of the productionprocess and increase its efficiency andmay contribute to improving lifestyles(Mokyr, 2002).New knowledge is produced by meansof knowledge in a cumulative pointprocess that can be summed up in thecelebrated comment attributed toNewton: “If I have seen farther, it is bystanding on the shoulder of giants”.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 209

Chapter 9New knowledge is the outcome of thecreative efforts by economic playerswho are able to recombine external andinternal inputs of both tacit and codedknowledge (Antonelli, 2001; Foray,2004).Creativity is the main driver in theprocess of accumulating newknowledge. Obviously, there arevarious types of creativitycharacterising human action, but only afew directly affect economic growth.The forms of creativity which producewealth through knowledge may begrouped together under the label ofproductive creativity. This in turn maybe divided into distributive creativityand epistemic creativity. Only the latteris that capacity to create newknowledge or to combine forms ofexisting knowledge in previouslyuntried ways (Mokyr, 2006).In the new economic paradigm,therefore, epistemic creativity becomesan exceptionally important strategicfactor, since it is the basis of thegeneration of new knowledge whichenters the production processincreasing its efficiency, both directlyand indirectly, incorporated inintermediary goods and services. Thefeatures of the institutional andeconomic environment, with specialreference to markets for productivefactors, produce restraints which shapecreative activity, channelling it intowell-defined paths.The crucial role of technological andorganisational knowledge as the centralfactor of production and also the mainproduct of the economic system inadvanced countries raises newtheoretical issues. Economic theorymust tackle the central role of a good,or more precisely an economic activity,which is both an input and an outputof the production process. Thistwofold nature is also found inidentifying the sources of knowledge.On one hand, the generation andapplication of technological knowledgeappears to be the outcome of deliberateaction pursued by individualstakeholders. But on the other, thefeatures of the economic andinstitutional system in which the actiontakes place assume a key role.Knowledge thus increasingly takes onthe features of a collective activity.The generation of new knowledge byindividual players cannot forgo thepossibility of accessing and usingavailable knowledge at all times andtherefore assumes all the characters ofexternal knowledge, whose availabilityis determined by the institutional andorganisational features of the system.At the same time, the generation ofknowledge requires an individual effortfrom single players to develop theirown specific internal skills through thedevelopment, again explicit andintentional, of internal learningprocesses within their organisationalstructures. The generation ofknowledge, therefore, is a constantactivity of recombining external andinternal forms of knowledge. It isincreasingly clear that an individualenterprise’s capacity to generate newtechnological knowledge will dependWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 210

Chapter 9on its capacity to be a systemintegrator.Companies can only produce newknowledge if there are efficientinteraction mechanisms betweencompanies (competitive orcomplementary) in the supply chainscreated between users and producers,within businesses, and betweenbusinesses and institutional structuresorganised to provide regulation,education, training and a publicresearch system. Industrial relations areof crucial importance in defining thecapacity for individual companies todevelop internal learning by doing andon the job learning processes.The case of information andcommunications technology in thiscontext may be considered emblematic,since the production of applicationsoftware has a twofold importance. Onone hand, it can be considered as anintermediary good incorporating a highknowledge content and, on the other, itis clearly an output. Software providesa good example of how ICT is a keyfactor in the transition towards anknowledge-based economy. The rest ofthis chapter is organised as follows: thesecond paragraph illustrates the originsof the process, outlining the keyfeatures; the third will analyse thespecific Italian case, situating it in theinternational framework and exploringthe restraints and opportunities due toits specific features: and lastly, thefourth suggests conclusions andimplications for economic policy.9.2 The origins ofinformation technologyFrom an historical point of view, thecreation and evolution of ICT can bedescribed as a process of “creativereaction”. This came when the USsystem responded to the gradual lossof its economic and technologicalleadership, which had characterised itseconomy since the 1960s. The gradualinternational spread of massproduction methods, the increasinglyintensive use of more efficientproduction technologies and thelearning effects associated with the useof the applied innovations enablednew rival countries to be morecompetitive internationally (Baumol,Blackman and Wolff, 1989; Nelsonand Wright, 1992). But thetechnological opportunities associatedwith the introduction of innovationsand continuous improvements, mainlyin the chemical, pharmaceutical andmachinery sectors, which had drivenUS growth until then, were graduallybeing exhausted (Mowery and Nelson,1999). The combined effect of thesetwo parallel trends was the slowdecline of the United States’comparative advantage at internationallevel (Abramovitz and David, 1996).Towards the end of the 1970s, theUnited States began to feel the deepeffects as European countries and,most importantly Japan, graduallycaught up. On top of this came shockwaves on the supply side, such as therise in petrol prices in 1973-1974 andthe consequent under-utilisation of theproduction capacity.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 211

Chapter 9The deep crisis in competitiveness andefficiency triggered off a process ofparticularly far-reaching, intensecreative reaction involving a largenumber of companies which explorednew technologies in particularlyflexible institutional contexts. Thanksto the effects of significanttechnological convergence andcomplementarity, this led to theintroduction of a cluster of radicaltechnological and organisationalinnovations based on the intrinsicfeatures of the system.The premises for the technologicalbreakthrough were the strongendowment of scientific andtechnological resources in the USpublic research system, combined witha tradition of considerable interactionbetween public and private research,and the systematic inclusion ofresearch activities in the organisationof large US companies. The fastgrowth in the supply of skilled labourwith a high content of universityeducatedhuman capital, whichpreviously had depressed white-collarsalaries, facilitating a reduction of thevariance in the distribution of income,became a crucial factor guiding thedirection of technological change. Thegradual slow introduction of a newtechnological system based on digitaltechnologies favoured a greater use ofa skilled labour force with a highcontent of academically-educatedhuman capital. The new digital-basedtechnological system, in turn, led toadvanced forms of remote controlover production processes and, mostimportantly, specialisation in theproduction of knowledge as goods(Antonelli et al., 2007).The great creative reaction of the USeconomy was rewarded withoverwhelming success. In the 1990s,the US economy experiencedunexpectedly high growth rates,previously inconceivable even for themost advanced economies, at leastaccording to the convergence model.But most importantly, the USeconomy developed a new benchmarkmodel based on the knowledgeeconomy. The economies of the UKand a number of Northern Europeancountries, especially Scandinavia,quickly followed suit by creating theconditions for the constituent factorsof the new model. Firstly, they rapidlyabandoned manufacturing, which wasgradually relocated to industrialisingcountries through the ableorchestration of multinationalcompanies already present in thesystem. Moreover, they achievedgreater levels of specialisation in theproduction of services with a highknowledge content which could beexported directly outside the domesticmarkets of the large globalisedcompanies.But the real driving force of the greatgrowth in output and overallproductivity in the US economy in1995-2005 may mostly, if notexclusively, be attributed to the veryfast pace at which the new informationand communication technologyspread, especially in the services sectorand, particularly, in commercialdistribution, logistics and finance.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 212

Chapter 9Some people even talked of a “Wal-Mart effect”, as being the origin ofmost growth (over 80%) in the overallproductivity of factors. On the otherhand, the industrial sectors generatingthe new information andcommunications technology – i.e.those which introduced productinnovations, which, in turn, becameprocess innovations in thedownstream sectors – partly onaccount of their small size, onlycontributed in a very small way to thecountry’s overall growth, at least interms of direct economicallymeasurable effects.In short, in response to RobertSolow’s celebrated quip (1987) whichnonplussed leading US economists forover a decade: “You can see thecomputer age everywhere but in theproductivity statistics”, Jorgenson(2001) demonstrated that computerswere seen in the statistics but in thosereferring to users rather thanproducers. Moreover, as far as drivinggrowth is concerned, the Italian casehad always been a clear example ofhow the capacity to adopt and diffusenew technologies in the cultural fabricof user companies is much moreimportant than the capacity to createthem ex novo. From at least the 1950suntil the early 1990s, the Italianeconomy showed a remarkablecapacity for growth in output andoverall productivity of factors, basedon the capacity to adopt newtechnologies incorporated inintermediate and capital goods, oftenimported and in any case introducedby small-size sectors.Closer study of the so-called “Wal-Mart effect” allows us to put forwardsome interpretative theories. In thiscase one of the largest contemporarycompanies adopted original softwareapplications for its tens of thousandsof outlets in an immense logisticsnetwork linking up production centresfor durable and other consumer goodsworldwide to its distribution networkserving the main metropolitan areas inNorth America.In this case the high costs required todesign specific dedicated applicationsoftware for Wal-Mart were spreadover such a huge company that theunit costs were very low and theeconomic benefits were enormous andhighly significant.The Wal-Mart case thus represents theumpteenth proof of the importance ofeconomies of density which in the caseof information and communicationstechnology become very important.The conception, design, elaborationand implementation of applicationsoftware has a particularly high cost.These expenses are paid in advance bythe customer company and are spreadout over activities of variabledimensions. Basically, there is atenuous relationship between theexpenses paid in advance and theeffective dimension of the activities towhich they are applied. More precisely,the advance payments do not vary as afunction of the volume of activities,but rather as a function of theirvariety. The outlay for the initialintroduction of an applicationWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 213

Chapter 9software can be considered a veryspecial form of fixed costs which donot vary with changes in quantity. Butaverage costs, obviously, varysignificantly with increases inthroughput quantities handled by thesame application software. This thusgives us the characteristic form ofdecreasing average unit costs with theequilateral hyperbola trend typical offixed average costs.In general, the case of newinformation and communicationstechnology puts the issue ofeconomies of density back on theagenda. Economies of density are aspecial form of rising returns due togrowth in output with a constantinput. Economies of density must notthus be confused with economies ofscale. In the latter case the rise inreturns comes from a more thanproportional growth in outputcompared to growth in input.Economies of density arise fromforms of capital indivisibility. But inthis case they actually come directlyfrom the specific nature of theknowledge economy. Knowledge is avery special economic good which isnot consumed when used and whosereproduction and application costs arepractically zero compared to itsgeneration costs.In this sense, from the point of viewof economic analysis, applicationsoftware has features like an economicgood, which suggests it should beincluded in the category of quasipublic goods such as knowledge.Economic systems characterised bylarge and very large-size usercompanies enjoy the benefits ofeconomies of densities arising fromthe basic similarity of software to thenotion of knowledge as an economicgood. The generation costs of anapplication software are very high, butits application to businesses with highthroughput volumes leads to low andeven very low average costs. Withinlarge companies, control and coordinationprocedures are intrinsicallyuniform so that the repetition ofprotocols on a growing or enormousnumber of operations does not requirechanges to the software.This explains the success of both thelarge users of software and, of course,also the big software companies whichwere capable of acquiring large userbusinesses as customers.In countries with large-scale softwareusers and consequently large-sizedcompanies producing software, thebenefits of adopting the newinformation and communicationstechnology have been great and havefacilitated their rapid diffusion.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 214

Chapter 99.3 The Italian caseA profound ongoing process ofstructural change and the rapidtransition towards the knowledgeeconomy along the lines of the USmodel have come at a time when theItalian system is experiencing aparticular weak phase. In the secondhalf of the 20th century Italy can bedescribed as paradigmatic case of pathdependentgrowth, albeit at timesoriginal and interesting. For a longtime Italy made remarkable progress indeveloping its manufacturing base bycombining elements of extensivegrowth, also in geographical terms,and extraordinary intensive growth,clearly based on the model of creativeadoption (Antonelli and Barbiellini,2007).Italian economic growth in the secondhalf of the 20th century was mainly theresult of the spread of processtechnologies developed thanks toparticularly virtuous user-producerinteractions which benefited bothusers and producers: the users hadtimely access to intermediate andcapital goods incorporating advancedtechnologies; and the producersenjoyed the benefits of rapidlyexpanding derived demand. This led toaccelerated processes of systemicspecialisation in the division of labour,de facto well co-ordinated, also thanksto trends of clustering, enabling manysectors and regions to encouragevirtuous processes in the supply chainby fuelling the growth of verytechnological-intense specialisation inall sectors from consumer good tocapital goods production, and tooccupy highly qualified niches in theluxury product markets.An intersectoral comparison of theoverall productivity of factors atregional level reveals that Italianeconomy is lagging behind on theinternational scene mainly because of acontinuing industrial and geographicaldivide: in the Northeast and Centrethe main contribution to productivitycomes from manufacturing, whereas inthe Northwest it comes from theservice sectors (Quatraro, 2007).Several factors undermine theefficiency of creative reactionprocesses in companies: the weaknessof the scientific and technologicalsystem; a lack of structured relationsbetween businesses and universities;the mainly tacit nature of availabletechnological knowledge; the lack ofsystematic procedures for exploitinglearning processes; the low level offormally educated human capitalavailable; and shortcomings in internalorganisational structures. Italiancompanies thus seem unable to tacklethe great inconsistencies in the uses ofthe new information technologysystems. Here, too, considerablegeographical and sectoral polarisationled to a very asymmetric developmentand diffusion of innovative capabilitiesby companies still basically associatedwith the manufacturing sectors(Quatraro, 2008).The Italian system thus appears to bestalled: it is still too closely bound toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 215

Chapter 9the post-war industrial model ofdevelopment, and penalised by themismatch between factor endowmentsand new-technology bias, which isparticularly serious because of thecombination of average to highabsolute wages and the “wrong”relative cost of more highly qualified“digital” type skills.To these remarks, we must add animportant note on the specialisationcharacterising the Italian productionfabric. If, as we said in the previousparagraph, the successful US model isbased mainly on the capacity to exploiteconomies of density in adopting ICTand application software, then the sizeof Italian companies is certainly anobstacle, and so considerablecommitment is required to introducenew specific trends of creativeadoption.In Italy in fact there is considerablefragmentation of both the productionand distribution systems. Theproduction and distribution of goodsand services in Italy is based on amyriad of small companies with theirown specific features, and thereforewith high levels of diversity, operatingon a variety of intermediate markets.The diffusion of new operatingsoftware, on which a large part of thegrowth of the economy is based,appears to have been dramaticallyslowed down by the basic similaritiesof knowledge to software. Conditionsare not right, then, for economies ofdensity to develop their powerfuleffect in Italy. The obvious result isthat the unit cost of applicationsoftware underlying the adoption ofdigital technologies is much higher inItaly than in countries characterised bycompanies of a greater operationalsize.Italian excellence – Etna Valley and ST MicroelectronicsWhen ST Microelectronics opened a new factory at Catania in 1997, no one could haveimagined what was to happen only three years later.In this case the factory did not become the umpteenth Italian “cathedral in the desert”,but an incredible driver for the whole industrial area, already baptised Etna Valley,because of the network of relations between high-tech enterprises, university researchcentres and training institutes, local authorities and the advanced services sector. Thissynergy between the stakeholders in economic development encouraged new businessesto locate in the area and since then around sixty companies have set up within a radiusof a few kilometres.Today some of those companies occupy important positions: in the field oftelecomunications, for example, Antech supplies broadcasting networks Telepiù, Streamand Rai; Teleservice S.p.A. is a system partner of Matra-Nortel, Nextel and Albacom;WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 216

Chapter 9Zetel; SeaSoft S.p.A is a software house, which collaborates with the CERN and theItalian National Nuclear Physics Laboratory; and SistemiData S.p.A. and S.T.S. s.r.l. areleaders in software for engineering and labour accounting.Etna Valley silicon provides employment for around 4,000 people and has generatedinduced consumption. The most striking example is the induced business created byStMicroelectronics: many local firms now supply the company with gas and equipmentfor making microchips, which had previously come from Milan or Germany. There areestimated to be over 1,000 micro-firms operating in this sector.The pioneer in the Catania industrial zone, STMicroelectronics N.V., is an Italo-Frenchcompany headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland), producing semiconductor electroniccomponents. It was created in 1987 from the merger of Società Generale diSemiconduttori (SGS), an IRI-owned microelectronic company, and the semiconductordivision of the French group Thomson.The company is currently the fifth world producer of semiconductor electroniccomponents, mainly used in consumer electronics, automobiles, computer peripherals,mobile telephones and the so-called “Industrial” area.The multinational, which recorded net profits of 10 billion dollars in 2007, has fivemain operations areas: Communications (37%), Consumer (17%), Computer (16%),Automotive (15%) and Industrial (15%).In the Nintendo Wii remote controller, for example, an accelerometer produced bySTMicroelectronics enables users to identify the position of the controller in threedimensionalspace. The transponder for the Italian electronic motorway toll collectionsystem (Telepass), positioned on vehicle dashboards is also produced by ST.72.4% of ST is quoted on the Milan, Paris and New York stock exchanges. Theremaining capital is controlled by: the French multinational Areva (10.9%), depositsavings and loans (10.1%) and Finmeccanica (6.6%).The group has around 50,000 employees,16 advanced research and developmentcentres, 39 design and application centres,15 principal manufacturing facilities and 78sales offices in 36 countries.The situation appears even moreparadoxical, considering that within thecultural and creative industries, thesoftware industry is the third sector interms of percentage of value addedover GDP and in terms of percentagejobs (both 1.17%) xxxix .The production system thus does seemto have a base on which to graft thecreation of a coherent and systematicsupply side, at present inadequatebecause of weak growth in demand.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 217

Chapter 9Italian excellence – Mobile Digital EntertainmentSince the early 1990s, the sales volume of the mobile digital entertainment sector hasgrown at an impressive rate, almost + 50% per annum from 2002 to 2006. In 2006,however, the growth in consumption slowed sharply: there was a rise from 253 millioneuros of sales in 2002 to 903 million in 2005, and 1,031 million euros in 2006. Thevarious types of content used on portable devices range from music (1.5%), video(11%), phone personalisation (30%), games (8%), SMS, MMS and other infotainment(41%).On the international scene, Italy is definitely one of the major consumers of mobilephone content – from ringtones to videos there is a huge market. Music is easier tomonitor – thanks to IFPI data under the entry: “Other content, mobile music (withrights)”, in the Bocconi Report on music for 2007 – and we find that sales totalled 95.1million euros.Table 9.1ONLINEMOBILE1 USA 67% 33%2 Japan 8% 91%3 UK 71% 29%4 South Korea 63% 37%5 Germany 69% 31%6 France 39% 61%7 Canada 58% 42%8 Australia 55% 42%9 China 27% 73%10 Italy 43% 56%Source IFPI, based on first half 2007 Industry revenues“The main international digital markets highlight a split between online music (musicfiles sold on the Internet) and mobile music (content for mobile phones; the IFPIfigures only refer to full track downloads and truetones). While the United States andJapan are the leaders, another top consumer is South Korea with a very advancedmarket from the technological point of view, while the new entry China, like Japan,shows a much stronger preference for using mobile rather than online channels. Italyalso makes a greater use of mobile channels for music consumption, as does France,albeit less markedly. The United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, however,continue to be the markets on which Internet distribution is relatively more important.”(“Economia della musica” in Italia Rapporto 2007, Centro ASK [Art, Science andKnowledge], Università Bocconi: Andrea Ordanini [Co-ordinator] and LorenzoMizzau).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 218

Chapter 9On this market, after its recent acquisition of iTouch, Buongiorno Vitaminic hasbecome world leader in the sector of multimedia content and digital entertainmentservices for mobile telephony and the Internet. Operating under the production brandB! in Europe (Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and Austria), LatinAmerica (Mexico) and the United States (Florida), the company distributes its owncontent to 70% of Internet and mobile users, through commercial partnerships withtelephone operators, mobile telephone retailers or local media groups.The company has a technological platform of 170 servers capable of distributing over300 million digital items every month to mobiles and on the Internet. At the hub of anetwork of media partners creating interactive mobile services, the company is also amajor wireless application provider, thanks to partnerships with all the leading fixed andmobile operators in Italy and Europe.As part of the services for end consumers, Buongiorno provides infotainment via SMS,MMS and WAP browsing, all kinds of ringtones and logos, and video files. Theyinclude, over 120 sms/MMS news services, entertainment and chat, more than 100WAP/Imode sites, over 2,000 video clips, 150 multimedia games and over 210,000pieces of music. In 2006 the Buongiorno group delivered almost 1.4 billion digitalobjects (ringtones, java games, wall<strong>paper</strong>s, etc.) to over 60 million end users (singlemobile phone numbers).According to its financial statement of 31 December 2006, the Buongiorno Group hadconsolidated sales of around 191.8 million euros and a consolidated net income ofaround 12.6 million euros.In the financial year 2006, the Buongiorno group employed an average of 659employees, including 173 in the group head company; it has 38 offices, agreements in53 countries with over 100 mobile telephone companies and provides access to over 2billion people.To offer a more accurate assessment ofthe potential base of business softwareusers, it is worth analysing in greaterdetail the main features of the adoptionof information technology by Italiancompanies, distinguishing betweencompany size, geographical area andthe use of IT. For this purpose, as anempirical aid will use the results of anISTAT study (Rilevazione sulle tecnologiedell'informazione e della comunicazione nelleimprese, 2005).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 219

Chapter 9Table 9.2 shows the figures for thediffusion of personal computers inItalian production companies. Thisfigure supplies a useful initialapproximation of the degree ofcomputer literacy in the Italianproduction system. We immediatelynote that almost all companies own acomputer, from 95.1% for small firms(up to 50 employees) to over 99% foraverage companies (50 to 250employees) and large companies (over250 employees). There are somedifferences, however, in the percentageof employees who use the PC. Thefigure for large companies (44.3%) ishigher than that for average companies(around 38%) and small companies(33.3%). In general, the trend is for thepercentage to increase with an increasein company size. But if we consider thepercentage of employees who use theInternet, the figure is ratherdiscouraging: only around 25% in allcompanies sizes considered. As regardsgeographical distribution, in Italy therewould seem to be a clear digital divide,especially as regards the percentage ofemployees who use the Internet. Thefigure for the South and Islands isaround half that for the Northwest andCentre. In general, figures for the Southfor all three items are much lower thanthe national average.Table 9.2 – Diffusion and use of ICT in companies with at least 10 employeesCompany Size(No. Employees)Companies withpersonalcomputersEmployees usingcomputersEmployees usingcomputersconnected to theInternet10-49 95.1 33.3 24.450-99 99.2 36.7 25.1100-249 99.6 39.4 25.4250 And Over 99.6 44.3 25.0GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 97.4 42.5 28.4Northeast 96.1 35.5 22.7Centre 94.0 42.7 27.6South & Islands 93.4 25.3 14.3Italy 95.6 38.4 24.8Table 9.3 shows the percentage figuresfor companies using ICT, according totypology of use. In this case thecompany’s size unequivocally influencesthe type of communicationchannels/connections adopted for theseWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 220

Chapter 9technologies: 92% of small companieshave email, 98% of the averagecompanies and 99% of large companies;95% of small firms have Internet access,as opposed to 98% of averagecompanies and 99% of large companies.However, possessing an email addressor Internet connection is not exactlywhat is meant by the diffusion of ICT incompanies. In other words, theseelements alone do not generateeconomic advantages or returns in termsof productivity. But what does isregistering a domain name for thecompany website which can certainlybring returns in terms of visibility,advertising and communicating thebrand image. In this case the differencebetween small and medium-largecompanies is fairly significant. Only53% of small firms have a website, whilethe equivalent figure for largecompanies is 88%. The gap is evengreater as regards companies with anintranet (27.4% of small companies) oran extranet (10% of small companies).These figures are particularly significantbecause they refer explicitly to toolsrequiring the engineering andimplementation of a dedicatedapplication software, designed to meetthe specific features of the company.Moreover, a quick comparison of thedata for average company size atnational level highlights the enormousproportion of small firms in theaggregate figure. This is particularly clearin the percentage of companies with awebsite, intranet or extranet. The figuresalso reveal a strong geographicalpolarisation: in the South the percentageof companies which use each of thesetools is systematically lower than theaverage national figure.Table 9.3 – Companies equipped with ICT with at least 10 employees by types ofactivities/networksEmail Internet Website Intranet ExtranetCompany Size(No. Employees)10-49 92.3 95.5 53.2 27.4 10.150-99 97.5 98.7 76.7 53.0 24.9100-249 98.1 98.9 82.5 68.2 35.4250 And Over 99.0 99.3 88.2 83.5 55.4GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 94.4 96.6 61.4 34.7 14.5Northeast 93.9 96.4 60.1 33.0 12.7Centre 92.3 95.2 54.8 32.1 13.8South & Islands 89.6 94.6 43.7 23.2 8.9Italy 92.9 95.9 56.4 31.6 12.8WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 221

Chapter 9Table 9.4 shows the percentage ofcompanies according to type ofInternet connection. In this case, too,company size plays an important role.The small firms mainly use slowerspeeddata transfer connections, suchas analogue modems or ISDN lines,while broadband and wirelessconnections are mainly found inaverage to large companies. There is asimilar trend to the previous table asregards geographical distribution:many more companies use slower-typeconnections in the South compared tothe North, where advanced-typeconnections such as wireless andbroadband are much morecommonplace.Table 9.4 – Computerised companies with at least 10 employees by Internetconnection typeWirelessconnectionAnaloguemodemISDNBroadband ConnectionTotal xDSLCompany Size(No. Employees)10-49 6.7 31.2 40.8 56.3 54.050-99 11.4 24.3 34.3 77.5 72.9100-249 18.6 24.1 35.0 84.1 75.5250 And Over 26.7 29.3 32.0 93.0 76.7GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 8.5 27.9 37.4 63.7 59.2Northeast 8.0 30.5 41.1 60.3 57.6Centre 6.9 31.7 39.1 58.4 56.8South & Islands 6.9 33.6 43.9 51.1 49.3Italy 7.8 30.4 40.0 59.3 56.4WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 222

Chapter 9Table 9.5 highlights the main uses ofICT. In general, the commonest usesare for access to financial or bankingdata and the acquisition ofinformation. Much less use is made fortraining staff, or the acquisition ofaftersales services. It must be stressedthat the latter activity is very closelylinked to the development of adedicated application software able toprovide the firms with ICT platformsto interact with players and welldefinedvirtual environments withregulated access. The sharp differencebetween small and medium firms, onone hand, and large companies, on theother, is not surprising, especially asregards the diffusion of the latter twotechnologies. In both cases the smallfirms are below the national average,albeit only just, whereas large andmedium to large companies havemuch higher figures. As regardsgeographical distribution, interestinglythe largest percentage of firms usingthe Internet to train its own staff is offirms located in the South, with onepercentage point higher than theNorth. The situation is inverted,however, as regards acquisition ofaftersales services, where theNorthwest is the area with the highestpercentage, closely followed by theNortheast and then the other areas.Table 9.5 – Companies with at least 10 employees and an Internet connection bypurpose of useAccess tobank/financialservicesEducationandtrainingstaffAcquisitionof info onmarkets(e.g. prices)Acquisitionof servicesand info indigitalformatAcquisitionof aftersalesservicesCompany Size(No. Employees)10-49 76.3 12.4 63.4 45.5 24.350-99 88.7 16.7 70.3 61.9 32.4100-249 89.2 22.5 78.4 67.3 35.3250 And Over 85.6 30.0 83.5 74.1 36.1GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 79.7 13.4 67.6 49.2 27.5Northeast 81.0 13.7 62.3 49.4 26.7Centre 77.0 12.1 63.2 46.1 24.4South & Islands 70.6 14.3 64.5 45.6 21.2Italy 77.9 13.4 64.7 48.0 25.5WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 223

Chapter 9Table 9.6 shows the use thatcompanies make of the Internet assuppliers. For all sizes of business theweb is widely used for advertising andmarketing own products and services.The percentages fall sharply with moreelaborate types of use. Only 50% ofthe large companies publish their ownprice list and product catalogue online.The percentage goes down to 9% forsmall companies. Only a very fewcompanies also supply aftersalesservices in real-time through theInternet or in digital format. In thiscase, too, there is a wide gap betweensmall-size companies and the mediumto large-size companies.Table 9.6 – Companies at least 10 employees using the Internet as suppliers byfeatures of websiteCompany Size(No. Employees)Advertising& marketingof ownproducts/servicesOnlinecatalogueand/orprice listSitepersonalisation forhabitualvisitorsTransmissionof services orinformation indigital formatAftersalesservicesSiteaccess forfixed ormobilephones10-49 95.2 41.0 23.1 20.4 10.6 2.850-99 96.3 44.2 25.8 27.9 16.4 3.0100-249 94.7 43.0 23.2 31.8 16.5 3.9250 And Over 95.4 50.0 29.4 44.2 23.1 7.7GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 95.7 42.1 22.4 23.7 12.6 3.1Northeast 96.2 43.3 25.5 23.3 12.2 3.0Centre 95.4 39.6 23.4 21.8 10.5 2.7South & Islands 92.6 39.6 22.8 17.5 10.4 3.3Italy 95.3 41.6 23.5 22.3 11.8 3.0WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 224

Chapter 9Table 9.7 highlights a very interestingsituation: i.e. the distribution of onlinesales according to markets and type ofcustomer. The figures reveal a ratherdifferent picture compared to what wehave seen so far. In fact, smallcompanies seem to be more inclinedto trade internationally on the Internet,whereas the large companies are morefocused on the domestic market. 15%of small companies’ sales value comesfrom exports to the European Unioncountries and 13.3% to the rest of theworld, whereas for the largecompanies the equivalent figuresamount to 9.1% and 2.2%,respectively. The geographicaldistribution is also different comparedto what we have seen so far.Companies in the Northwest are morefocused on the domestic market, onwhich they make 92.9% of theirInternet sales. The highest percentageof foreign Internet sales is in theNortheast (20.7% to the EuropeanUnion and 11.4% to the rest of theworld), followed by the South (13.4%to the European Union and 6.8% tothe rest of the world).Table 9.7 - Value of Internet sales for companies with at least 10 employees bymarket and type of customerCompany Size(no. employees)DomesticEuropeanUnionRest ofworldOthercompanies andpublicadministrationIndividuals andfamilies10-49 71.7 15.0 13.3 75.6 24.450-99 82.0 11.2 6.8 78.6 21.4100-249 93.5 4.5 2.0 89.5 10.5250 and over 88.8 9.1 2.2 94.3 5.7GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 92.9 5.9 1.2 94.3 5.7Northeast 68.0 20.7 11.4 86.1 13.9Centre 88.7 7.1 4.2 82.6 17.4South & Islands 79.8 13.4 6.8 50.8 49.2Italy 87.1 9.2 3.7 90.6 9.4WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 225

Chapter 9Lastly, Table 9.8 shows the percentageof companies using corporateinformation systems. The use ofplatforms for managing orders andintegrating various company functionsis mainly found in large companies.Moreover, the highest percentageinternet activity for small companies isfor orders, whereas the percentages fallsharply (thus widening the gap with theother sizes of companies), as regardsintegrating company functions.Table 9.8 – Companies with at least 10 employees using IT systems for managingsales/purchase orders and links to other company functionsCompaniesusing ITsystems tomanage salesand/orpurchaseordersPurchasing ofraw materialsorsemifinishedproductsInvoicingandpaymentsProduction,supply ofservicesandlogisticsManagement ofrelations withsuppliers (forgroup companies,only suppliersoutside the group)Managementof relations withcustomers(for groupcompanies,only customersoutside thegroup)Company Size(No.employees)10-49 52.8 30.1 43.4 23.5 26.2 27.550-99 74.9 54.6 66.0 48.7 41.3 42.9100-249 73.5 58.4 67.2 57.8 43.5 44.5250 And Over 84.1 67.4 77.1 66.0 51.0 51.5GeographicalDistributionNorthwest 60.3 37.1 51.8 30.5 30.0 31.7Northeast 60.2 37.6 50.1 30.6 30.4 32.5Centre 51.9 29.8 43.5 24.6 26.6 29.0South & Islands 43.9 24.0 33.6 18.6 23.3 21.9Italy 55.6 33.4 46.3 27.2 28.2 29.5The Italian case thus seems to presenta number of highly specific elements,distinguishing it from the structuralfeatures of countries which havesuccessfully managed the transitiontowards the knowledge economy. Thedistinctive situation in terms ofcompany size with a preponderance ofsmall to average-size companies andsectoral specialisation still dominatedby the manufacturing sector arefeatures requiring further reflection.This paragraph has highlighted a clearcutgap between small and largecompanies. Although the adoption ofbasic technology, such as computersor an Internet connection, is not adistinguishing feature, there areconsiderable differences in the usecompanies make of technology. TheWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 226

Chapter 9figures concerning small companies’strategic use of ICT reveal aninsufficient degree of computerisationof the productive system. Moreover,we must stress the phenomenon ofgeographical polarisation, reflectingthe well-known divide in the Italianproductive and economic structure.One positive note is the smallcompanies’ capacity to penetrateforeign markets by using the Internet,thus showing its potential as a usefulbase for new growth paths.9.4 ConclusionsThe transition towards the knowledgebasedeconomy began in the UnitedStates in the 1990s and subsequentlyslowly spread to Europe, firstly to theScandinavian countries and the UnitedKingdom, while other continentalcountries, and especially Italy, havelagged behind.This process has been characterised bya gradual de-industrialisation, agrowing specialisation of theproduction system in the servicessector and the mass diffusion ofinformation and communicationstechnology. There has thus been a risein productive systems specialised insupplying services with a high contentof knowledge to the detriment ofmaterial goods production.The production of knowledge isclosely connected to the creativecapacity of the players operating in theeconomic system. In particularepistemic creativity makes it possibleto produce new knowledge, generatinggrowth and well-being. The softwareindustry, a specific content industry, isa paradigmatic case. On one hand,software may be described as a goodincorporating a high content ofknowledge and, on the other, as aparticular requirement of ICT, whichhas contributed most to the success ofthe new model.The great increase in productivity inthe United States in the second half ofthe 1990s was mainly due tocompanies using ICT, rather thanthose which produced it. Adoptingcostly tools, such as applicationsoftware to integrate functions in largecompanies led to considerable benefitsin economies of density, whichtranslated into a reduction of unitcosts and increased productivity.The importance of the question ofcompany size raises serious problemsfor the potential of a transitiontowards the knowledge economy,unless this distinctive feature turns outto be a strength in shaping an originalmodel. Moreover, this would reflectthe excellent capacity which the systemhas already demonstrated in managingthe complex phenomena of creativeadoption.The average size of Italian companiesraises problems because it preventsexploiting economies of density and,therefore, does not allow companies toadopt a software with high costs forengineering, implementation andmanagement.Moreover,fragmentation on the demand side hasthe immediate and inevitableconsequence of fragmentation on thesupply side. The variety andheterogeneity of users requires andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 227

Chapter 9drives the variety and heterogeneity ofproducers.In Italy, the creation and growth of aninformation services industry able tocope with the widespreadheterogeneous fabric of potential usersis an indispensable condition forclosing the gap in the diffusion of newinformation and communicationstechnology between Italianproductivity and that of othercountries which have benefited fromdigital economies of density.The creation of platforms bringingtogether pieces of application softwareand, therefore, partial advantages interms of economies of density, at leastfor the central components andinterfaces of software programmescould encourage this process. In thiscase intellectual property rights arenaturally very important and notsurprisingly have been significantlystrengthened in recent years. Thespread of Open Source, seen as anorganisational method, offers access tothe source codes of applicationsoftware models to communities of“application craftspeople”, making itpossible to share incrementalsolutions. It could thus could play akey role in the diffusion of newinformation technology in the Italianeconomy.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 228

Chapter 10Cittadellarte - “Italy in Person-The cultural mission of the Italian product”Project presentation at the Fiera Internazionale del Libro,Turin, 2004 - Photograph: M. Scattaro

Chapter 10Chapter 10Communications, Advertising and Branding10.1 The background toItalian communications andadvertisingWhen considering Italian creativity inthe field of communications andadvertising, those who remembersharing a long season in Italy’s postwarRepublican history will smilefondly on hearing a phrase once usedin the upbringing of millions of Italiankids: “after Carosello, bedtime!” Thisphrase flags up the greatest factorbinding television, consumption andnew audiences in contemporary Italianhistory: a ten-minute televisionprogramme called Carosello.Carosello was broadcast every day on thefirst channel of the Rai from 8.50 pmto 9 am from 3 February 1957 to 31December 1976 – almost 20 years. Theprogramme had a great emotive holdon audiences and was only eversuspended twice: the day JohnKennedy was assassinated and theevening of the bomb attack in PiazzaFontana, Milan.Carosello was a show combining Italianstylefilm comedy, cartoons, aforerunner of what was to becometelevision fiction, together withnonsense, kids’ games, and a newlanguage (Matusa & Capelloni). Theadvertising message only came at theend of the sketch in the so-called codino(short coda). Carosello thus sent out twopowerful contradictory messages: onone hand, it captured large audiences;and on the other, it set limits to thepure use of television as a factor indriving consumption.This was in fact also the anomalousnature of the phenomenon. Italianpolitical culture was wary about thecentral role of enterprise in public life(indeed the word “enterprise” is noteven mentioned in the ItalianConstitution) and, most importantly,very wary about transforming a vehicleof education (or rather “pedagogy”),like monopoly television (with its fastgrowing power, it was already as robustas the school) into a machine with toomuch emphasis on the function ofexpanding markets. But as regards the“communication process”, Carosellobecame the workshop of a culturalindustry (advertising) providing theopportunity to experiment withlanguage, techniques and an “identitaryculture”, thanks to the extraordinaryprocessor of the concise, almost flashlikeformat of a short show. Theprogramme was supported byresources from outside television andtherefore the large investments for thetime were paid for by manufacturersWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 230

Chapter 10and ultimately also consumers. Theprogrammes involved countlesstalented actors from cinema, theatre,music, photography and animation,together with men of letters, poets,illustrators, choreographers and othercreatives who did not disdain this formof professional earnings. Unlike today,there were no celebrity testimonials.Most of the creatives remainedanonymous at a time when theintellectual world declared it wasagainst television without, however,relinquishing its handy financialsupplements.Carosello had been launched in Italy justafter the post-war reconstruction.period. At the time the massmotorization market was beginning togrow (even though automobiles werestill among the taboo products as far astelevision advertising was concerned).The programme ended – leavingadvertising to insert commercialsbetween programmes and then to“brand” and, ultimately, produceprogrammes – after the years of theenergy crisis and therefore at the heightof the structural re-organisation of theeconomy, which was becomingglobalised and was graduallyabandoning the domestic model ofproduction and consumption.An Italian profile of advertising and communicationsGianluigi FalabrinoGianluigi Falabrino is one of the best-known historians of advertising in Italy. In thisintroductory note he responds to the question: “What is the most recognised andrecognisable Italian profile characterising the creative aspect of advertising andcommunications through its story?”“I don’t think there is a single Italian profile in advertising, but there are (or were) three differentcurrents, not usually intercommunicating and at times even considered antithetical. The first is thegraphic approach to advertising, which goes from the ‘revolution’ of Campografico (1933), a journal ofaesthetics and graphic techniques, to Erberto Carboni, Castiglioni, Huber and others till the 1970s.This developed into the second current mainly found in three companies: the RAI, Olivetti and Pirelli.Olivetti and Pirelli, together with Italsider, also stood out for their cultural vision of industry: hence theirarts patronage (especially Olivetti), the high cultural quality of the three company magazines (very unlikethe usual ‘prestige’ trade magazines) and the contribution they all made to the idea of ‘industrial art’.The third, certainly most widespread communications current, involving the largest part of marketingadvertising, was modelled on the Carosello style, even after the programme had ended (1976).According to many experts and creatives, Carosello was a formula that not only revived Commediadell’Arte with the comic spirit of a sideshow, at times using cartoon characters to recreate fables (e.g.Calimero as the ‘ugly duckling’): it accustomed audiences to commercials with narratives or in series. Soin the past decade on Italian television we have seen many latter-day examples: a series featuring a girlrepeating ad nauseam on the phone ‘Do you love me? How much do you love me?’; a never-ending scene(thanks to a last phone call) with a Foreign Legion execution platoon (revived again recently but lesswittily); three girls, equipped with phones, sailing round Italy and eventually setting off in search ofNeverland, and a host of others along similar lines.”WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 231

Chapter 10Of course advertising did not comeinto being in Italy in the period afterthe Second World War. It took off(after origins limited by the modestmedia spaces in the 19th century) in thefirst post-war war period withoutstanding illustrators and creatives(including Leonetto Cappiello,Leopoldo Metlicovitz and MarcelloDudovich, who turned it into a genuineart form) and then grew quickly underthe Fascist management of the mediaand propaganda (a subject requiringfurther study). Forms of advertising canbe found, however, throughout Italianhistory and we can even reconstructalmost modern uses in the life of theancient Romans with the help of somearchaeological evidence from Pompeii.Parallel to the history of advertising,communicational cultures grew in therelations between entrepreneurialsystems and society. They includedvarious other means for promotingcorporate identity and especially thecompany’s role in the relationshipbetween local areas and their traditionalindustries, and later between the cultureof innovation and professionalprospects for skilled workers and theruling classes. In the period from the1950s to the 1970s, Olivetti (based inIvrea but with marketing andadvertising offices in Milan)constructed communication modelsinformed by a mix of art, culture,publishing and design. For thenationalised industries, Rome was thecentre for the experience of state-rungroups: in the field of communications,IRI stood out thanks to its magazineCiviltà delle macchine, edited by LeonardoSinisgalli, while ENI devised a verypowerful original logo of pictorialorigin and constructed a long-lastingvisual identity which whenimplemented internationally coincidedwith the national identity.Alitalia, part of the IRI group, createdone of the first and most significantexamples of co-ordinatedcommunications, a field in which theleading Italian companies used thecreative potential consolidated around aspecific experience in the advertisingworld. But graphics applied tocorporate processes, the media andpublishing – with schools and expertiseconcentrated in Milan – alsocharacterised ventures which are nowexhibits in museums of design. Thiswas a time of great masters unrivalledfor their intellectual filigree even inmore industrial contexts. Turin, theunchallenged capital of car designthanks to Fiat, was a powerful centre ofcommunications spurring on anessential product on the domesticmarket. The forms and mostimportantly the images and controlexercised by Cinefiat (Fiat’s own filmproduction company) was anunmatched advertising phenomenon.In the mid-1970s, state-run and leadingprivate companies took part in anexperiment called Firma Italia(“Signature Italy”). This was a touringexhibition of original creative work bygreat painters, sculptors, graphic artists,film directors and artists in general,totally focused on corporatecommunication. The exhibition visitedmuseums in countries interested inindustrial co-operation with Italy (fromIran to Brazil). This hands-on practicalcreative approach highlights an aspectof advertising processes which hadWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 232

Chapter 10been little explored by countries witheven more robust economies.In this short introduction we obviouslycannot tell a story requiring asystematic approach embracing all theapplication fields of thecommunications system. We will thussimply point out that, althoughuniversity degrees in communicationssciences were eventually introduced inItaly (decades late compared to theUSA but also France), and developedvery popular, still successfulprogrammes, the creative workshops inthe sector were already pursuingexperimental methods with importantcontacts in industry (banks were toarrive late and fairly insignificantly inthe sector) and professional contactswith architectural faculties, publishing,cinema and TV. This led to theconstruction of a set of models,semiotics and an economy that may beconsidered as having “specificallyItalian features”.In the mid-1980s, when the institutionsalso finally decided to begin their owncommunications history (from publicbranding of a strongly symbolic,historic kind, usually developed in thename of tradition, to servicecommunications, modernised forms ofsignage and full-blown socialadvertising campaigns), they drew onthe recent past decanting its ideas,people and formats.Today the entrepreneurial system,institutional system and system ofsocial players consist of around 100distinct professional profiles with anemployment base (direct andconsulting) of over 300,000 people.The resources are still growing at amoderate pace or at least evolving, dueto the combined effect of a widening ofthe disciplines involved in the marketand, most importantly, the influence ofthe technological evolution and thecontinual proliferation of newoperational areas.In 2003 the Istituto Civicom (Rolando,2003) estimated that the professionalcommunications markets (excluding thenews<strong>paper</strong> and publishing sector)employed a total of 260,000 peoplewith various kinds of contracts. Thefigure of 300,000 jobs is thus based onthe expected expansion throughout2007. Jobs were divided into thefollowing categories:• Media relations: 16,000 (6,000 inthe public sphere, 6,000 in companies,4,000 in the area of consulting)• Communications and advertising:92,000 (2,000 in the public sphere,40,000 in companies and 50,000 in thearea of consulting)• Web, networks and informationcounters (excluding call centres): 86,000(41,000 in the public sphere, 20,000 incompanies and 25,000 in the area ofconsulting)• PR and events (includingconference organisation): 38,000 (5,000in the public sphere, 18,000 incompanies and 15,000 in the area ofconsulting)• Other sectors (including internalcommunications): 28,000 (3,000 in thepublic sphere, 7,000 in companies and18,000 in the area of consulting).These estimates thus yield the followingtotal jobs per sector: 57,000 in thepublic sphere, 91,000 in companies,and 112,000 in consulting.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 233

Chapter 10This data provides a more elaboratepicture of employment than the figurein the official statistics for the sectorcontained in the table to which thisPaper refers only for the category of“Advertising” with 64,900 jobs.In the following paragraphs we willdescribe the current profile and trendsin the sector.The tradition mentioned here can stillbe found in some professional careers,schools, and reference models whichare still significant in the framework ofItalian creativity applied tocommunications profiles. The contextof production players has deeplychanged – as have the advertisingscene, consulting agencies and supports– into a more globalised framework,more characterised by the lesssignificant role played by the largecompanies. The consolidation of Web2.0 has revolutionised the advertisingand communications supply anddemand logic and online advertisinghas gone beyond all experimentation,establishing new paradigms ofadvertising creativity, now supportedby a changed profile of investments.Public, political and social stakeholdershave entered the field ofcommunications. Fast growing regionalmarketing has created communicationdevelopments in synergisticrelationships between local institutionsand associations and economic andprofessional consortia. Milan’ssuccessful bid for Expo 2015 on 31March 2008 demonstrated the strengthof Italian communications andrelational factors in the field ofinternational competition.Consumption has also undergone deepchanges in style, choices, and thepredominance of different productscompared to those of the past. Thesechanges mean that an analysis of thecurrent situation cannot be comparedwith what we have called the Caroselloyears.This report will thus the focus on thelast decade, albeit taking into accountthe recent past in which there was littletalk of the “economy of creativity”, buta good deal of the “creativity of theeconomy”.10.2 Creativity andcommunications in ItalytodayThe Carosello period came to a close 30years ago, and yet those working inadvertising and especially advertisingcreativity, continue to refer to thatparticular model.For most of them Carosello was aunique inimitable experience whichpaved the way to importing a consumermodel into a country which had onlyjust seen the advent of modernconsumer society. While in the USA,large companies were sponsoring soapoperas, in Italy Mira Lanza launched itsfamous competition involving thecollection of swap cards. While greatcreatives like Bernbach and Ogilvy(1983; 1985) were theorising theiractivity and writing about it, in Italy wehad the cartoon characters Caballeroand Carmencita. And the list could goon. A lot of water has flowed under thebridge since then and yet in 2005Lavazza, one of the major Italiancompanies and a leading investor inWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 234

Chapter 10advertising, re-launched one of theicons of Italian creativity in anoperation described as retro marketing.And so Carmencita was given anInternet site (www.carmencita.it), inwhich she dispenses heartfelt advice tovisitors. But Carmencita is also theheroine of a sitcom broadcast on Italia1in the early evening and a virtualreporter for the online version of thedaily news<strong>paper</strong> La Stampa, in whichshe has a letters column.Lavazza is not the only company tohave taken the path of retro marketing.Thus we have the return of Calimero asa testimonial for the washing powderAva (despite no longer being a productof the Italian company Mira Lanza,since the latter has become part of theBenckiser Group), after having beenthe star of so many episodes of Carosellotogether with the Olandesina (the “littleDutch girl”). How should we interpretthe reference to the Calindri’s Caroselloin a recent Cynar commercial featuringthe members of the cult band “Elio e leStorie tese” sitting round a tablesipping the drink in the middle of thetraffic in Milan? This ironic remake isundoubtedly tuned to a new targetaudience, but the citation isunmistakable.Of Course Frosties’ Tony the Tiger hasbeen around for some time as has theGreen Giant and Bibendum (theMichelin man). But they are “brandcharacters” representing corporatevisual identity and do not change overtime (or are only touched up when theyrequire a little restyling, as in the case ofthe slimmer-looking Michelin man). xlThis is not a return to the past, then,but reflects the need for consistency incorporate communications. So why,after all these years, re-use icons of thepast, and especially icons associatedwith Carosello? The answer may befound in the words of the peopleresponsible for creativity in advertisingagencies (I quaderni della comunicazione,2003). They complain about the Italianadvertising system’s difficulty in cuttingthe umbilical cord with the past, andespecially with Carosello, which isacknowledged as having been amoment of extraordinary Italiancreativity (significantly, in recent years anumber of exhibitions have beendedicated to the phenomenon, such asthe exhibition Carosello 1957-1977. Nonè vero che tutto fa brodo), xli but also ashaving stifled new forms ofexperimentation (Codeluppi, 2000).But why do Italian advertisers resortmore often to straightforward comedyrather than more sophisticated formsof irony? Carosello accustomedtelevision audiences to slightly crudecabaret sketches. Was it to made up foran overabundance of fine sentiments?Carosello celebrated the happy family ina saccharine version of reality. Andwhat can we say about the use ofcelebrities as advertising testimonials?Carosello was the first to offer its actorsthe chance of winning fame throughtelevision.There were certainly exceptions also inthe past, as is confirmed by the opinionof Mauro Ferraresi, even though he,too, begins with Carosello.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 235

Chapter 10Italian exceptions: Armando Testa, Emanuela Pirella and Gavino SannaMauro FerraresiThe last Carosello was broadcasted in January 1975 to an audience of around 19 millionItalians, including almost 9 million children. It marked the end of an epoch and also theend of the Italian way to advertising creativity. Carosello was ingenuous, bureaucratic, alittle stiff, but at the same time well-loved and it paved the way for new developments.The product advertised was only hinted at very remotely, since creativity was focused onthe short story meant to capture the attention. When the focus shifted to the product(the so-called codino only lasted a few seconds at the end of a short scene or sketchoften running to over a minute), the communication was a straightforward directstatement in anything but advertising style. It was pure and simple information.Abroad they smiled at us, saying that is not how you advertise. When we eventuallymatured in advertising terms, we had to admit that the Carosello method no longerworked but we still had no new methods. And, with a few exceptions, that is still thesituation today.One exception is Armando Testa, the leading advertising agent at the time of Carosello,and his spirit lives on today in the Turin agency of the same name run by his son, whohas taken up his legacy. Testa’s creative style was more artistic than graphic. He thoughtadvertising should almost take the form of a work of art (e.g. the Linus hippopotamus,the inhabitants of Papalla, and Caballero and Carmencita). It was vital for Testa totransform a creative idea into a character or artistic form. To give it body. The samething happens today in the agency of the same name, which has produced such creativecampaigns as the commercials for the supermarket chain Esselunga: vegetable, fruit andother Esselunga products are transformed into fantastic characters dreamed up by thegraphic imagination of the creatives – a loaf of bread becomes the face of Tutankamen,a radish the head of the artist Raphael, a piece of garlic (aglio) a Halloween (Aglioween)witch and so on.Another major exception is certainly Emanuele Pirella whose Bernbachian style is full ofunderstatement. He successfully combines a typical Anglo-Saxon approach within Italiancreative culture. Pirella is another advertising creative who does not disdain the artelement in advertising.Lastly, mention must also be made of Gavino Sanna, now happily retired in his nativeSardinia (although he did enter the advertising ring again in 2006 for the Federfarmaexhibition). During his time at Joung & Rubicam he forged a style also based on posterdesigning.In short, we can argue that the Italian way to advertising creativity is still that forged byTesta 30 years ago. Italian advertisers are not creatives who resort to a raw material ofconcepts or word plays; they make little use of humour and even less of sarcasm; they donot relish shocking or scandalising (with the exception of Benetton and their campaignsby photographer Oliviero Toscani). The raw material of Italian advertising creatives arethings and objects from which they construct new objects, forms and material usingartistic and graphic skills.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 236

Chapter 10Current creative practicesAfter this outline of the foundations onwhich current Italian creativity hasbeen built and shaped in the field ofcommunications, it is worthwhiletaking a look at the results of a studypromoted by the Italian Art DirectorsClub. By interviewing the managers ofleading companies investing inadvertising in Italy (ADCI, 2004), thestudy aimed to assess customersatisfaction with advertising creativity,especially given the dissatisfaction evenfound in the agencies themselves.One of the indicators alwaysmentioned as an example of “notcomplete adequacy” of Italian creativityis the lack of awards for Italiancampaigns in internationalcompetitions (e.g. the CannesAdvertising Festival). A few years agothe Fiat “Buonaseraaaaa” campaign wonthe Bronze Medal at Cannes, while in2002 the Gold Medal was awarded tothe Peugeot 206 “Sculptor” televisioncommercial (with advertising creativityby Marco Mignani) xlii . Both ads wereremarkable humorous. But they areexceptions to the rule of awardwinningcommercials, like those ofNike and Budweiser or, in 2007, thedownloadable Evolution commercialcreated for the web, which was part ofthe Real Beauty campaign promoted byDove, a Unilever brand (Lombardi,2007).The Art Directors Club study revealsthat, although the majority of managersappreciated the Italian creative style,39.2% acknowledged that Italiancreativity lags behind that of otheradvanced countries and the reasons forthis in order of importance are: areluctance to try out newmethods/languages; lack of openmindednessand a tendency toprovincialism; over-dependence on thecustomer’s requests; and a lack ofeducation and cultural sensibility.Their criticisms are understandable ifwe consider the recourse to the kind of“provincial cultural format” in some ofthe most frequently seen campaigns inrecent years: e.g. the Lavazza Paradisecommercial featuring the televisionpresenters/comedians Paolo Bonolisand Luca Laurenti and the Tim mobiletelephone campaign with comic filmactor Christian De Sica. They are bothserial campaigns divided into variousepisodes enabling audiences to instantlyrecognise the storyline. Both resort tothe kind of comic quips found inslapstick films rather than irony andallusion, which are more difficult tounderstand and require furtherthought. Both star celebrities fromItalian daily life in a form of comedy,which for simplicity’s sake we candescribe as being focused on “laughingat the misfortune of others”, modelledon films like the Fantozzi series (themisadventures of an accountancyclerk). So this is nothing new comparedto the model of Carosello.One of the key points that emergesfrom the study confirms the nowwidespread practice by Italian managersof using tenders to choose anadvertising agency (51.3% of theinterviewees declared they used them)but which fails to influence the degreeof satisfaction with the end result (only25% declared they were very satisfiedand the percentage did not rise withWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 237

Chapter 10those who resorted to tenders). Fortheir part, the creatives said they wereagainst the practice of tenders: it forcesthem to produce many projects butthey only ever implement a few ornone. Similarly the agencies have totake resources away from ongoingprojects to invest them in tenders andso in the long-run this practice is noteven positive for the agencies. Takingpart in a tender, in fact, requires timeand resources and even when theagency has been chosen, it mustautomatically begin work on othertenders to win new customers and socannot dedicate all its resources to therecently acquired customer.The theme of choosing an agency isalso linked to that of remuneration.Gone are the days of the famous 15%on return (i.e. the marketers pay theagency 15% of the overall cost ofmanaging the investment, a percentageapplied to the price, after quantity andpromotional discounts have beensubtracted), which currently onlyapplies to 9% of contracts (Makno,2005). Mario Abis – President ofMakno & Consulting and a lecturer ofSondaggi e ricerche sull’opinione pubblica –stresses that “payment is still anchoredto the specific features of the projectand the time spent on it and notnecessarily correlated to budget size”.This translates into graduallydiminishing payments for creativity,which for the biggest investors hasfallen from 6.9% of budgets in 2003 to5.6% in 2005 (Makno, 2005).But coming back to Art Director Clubdata, the picture that emerges is farfrom euphoric. There is widespreaddissatisfaction mainly due to themismatch between the real figure androle of the creative and the commonlyfound stereotype of an unruly inventiveperson in search of new solutions.According to the managersinterviewed, the skills attributed tocreatives are concentrated on functionsmore associated with generating ideasand not strategic, organisational orproductive situations.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 238

Chapter 10Communications and creativityAnna Maria TestaCommunications and creativity have a double bond: you cannot have one without theother.1. There can be no creativity without communication. Creativity has always beenexpressed in the action of an individual who interacts with a historical and social contextand within a community. Effective communication is a half-skill, a preliminaryrequirement for the success of any creative activity or innovative challenge in all fields:art, science, technology, etc2. A creative action also takes the form of an act of communication at the very momentwhen it is manifested – in a work of art, scientific theory, invention, or enterprise – andunderstood.3. The act of communicating also takes the form of a creative action: language is per secreative and generative (giving rise to infinite phrases and discourses which areexpressed in infinite contexts, starting from a very limited number of signs or sounds).Given this premise, it may appear paradoxical that managing communications creativelyrequires dedicated professional figures. But today it is less paradoxical, because managingthe complexity of the various target audiences (and the multiple nature of the activitiesrequired for communicating), the media and the languages specific to each medium,requires special technical skills if objectives are to be reached.Managing communication creativity professionally means knowing how to designprocesses and make communication products on behalf of the client, bearing in mindthe objectives, restraints, resources and target public. At times creatives may also have tohelp the client focus on these elements.4. Professional creativity: a professional may be described as creative when the processesand the products he or she makes effectively achieve the objective and show degrees ofinnovation in the form or in the process. The content belongs to the client.Professionals who allow their own vision to be replaced by that of their client may besuccessful in their own self-promotion but will not be doing their job well.5. Fields: construction and maintenance of brand identity and image (if the client is acompany), and of image (if the client is an individual); strategic planning; advertising;editorial support; press office; internal and external communications; promoting andsponsoring; packaging; marketing operations (viral and guerrilla advertising, etc.); and soon.6. Specialisation: out of necessity and traditionally professional communications skills, inturn, are segmented and specialised according to area of competence: thus a packaginggenius might feel uncomfortable with strategic planning, and vice versa.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 239

Chapter 107. Talents: each professional must have excellent linguistic skills, the knack of translatingdetailed analyses into brilliant summaries, a good all-round culture, the capacity to listen,interpret and negotiate, a fairly wide experience of the world, and a capacity to workhands-on. In addition to professional skills, a creative must know how to managecomplexity and reason according to objectives bearing in mind the target public andcontexts. Other things they must know how to do include: creatively integrate withoutmisinterpreting content in new and effective forms which are attractive, understandable,memorable and convincing; and design communications suitable for the mass media andnew media, taking into account the specific languages of each medium. All of this whilemeeting deadlines and being careful not to overshoot budget estimates. Piece of cake,isn’t it?The ideal creative must thus be aperson with a good education and withlittle time for the rather romantic ideaof innovative artistic spirit generatingnew ideas, which is the vision revealedin a 2004 survey conducted byEurisko xliii on Italians’ perception ofcreativity. According to universitystudents in the sample, creativity wasan individual aptitude and synonymouswith impulsiveness, emotionality andimaginativeness. Being creative thusmeans having a “wayward attitude” andbeing “unconventional”. The naturalhabitat for creativity is in art (literature,painting, theatre, film and music),because these are the only contexts inwhich innate creative capacities can beexpressed. Moreover, science cannot becreative because engaging in it requiresrules, discipline and hard work.The same study, however, revealed thatfor over half the population, Italy is thecountry of creativity, but only inapplied arts, such as fashion andcuisine, whereas Italy appears to beonly a little or not at all creative in keyareas for the development of thecountry (finance, economics,publishing, university, politics,teaching, marketing, technology,literature, industry and scientificresearch).Media and creativityYet if we look at the contemporaryadvertising scene we find numerousexamples of advertising that can beconsidered creative. Often we aretalking about forms of creativity whichare best expressed in the new mediarather than the traditional media: e.g.interactive ads with consumersproviding the ending, or Pirelli’s longfilms advertising tyres, only foundonline. Other examples are the onlineand offline integrated marketingcommunications pursued by Kinder forone of its leading products: the surpriseegg.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 240

Chapter 10Creativity and communications in the new mediaAlberto AbruzzeseToday the usual answer to the question of how creativity is changing after the advent ofthe new media is to emphasise the cross-media nature (multimedia and interactive) oftheir technological platforms but without going beyond the mindset of unidirectionalcommunications paradigms.This typical mindset – forward-looking but intent on continuity – is also the source formany statements on the new communicational potential said to arise from bottom-uprather than top-down or centre-down creativity, as are the calls for greaterpersonalisation, on one hand, and more collective solidarity, on the other. But all thesequalities are perfectly compatible – in the framework of a democratic Western tradition– with the transformations and also dialectic opposition contemplated by thedevelopment models of modern society, its powers, players and knowledge.But if instead of referring to improvements to traditional communication strategies andthe development of creativity practices incorporated in these strategies, we move on tocircumscribe mainly or only forms based on web communications (boosted by Web 2.0)within the area of the new media, then the development model of the historical media ofmass society seems to have reached an extreme limit or the threshold of disintegration.Creativity is thus experiencing a twofold possible regeneration, or rather two waysforward have opened up but to uncertain outcomes. The first lies on the consumer sideand is increasingly detached from forms of traditional media creativity, i.e. creativityinscribed in the modes of production, distribution and consumption. The second wayforward sees the collapse of paradigms based on the opposition between top andbottom, centre and periphery. Dichotomies associated with them are also graduallydisappearing: mind and body, knowledge and passions, individual and mass.The modern world has convinced us that creativity is founded on talent or genius,excellence or development. But the new horizons opened up by the new media havebrought forms of creativity which concern situations and processes, zones of instabilityrather than stability, overlapping fields instead of clear-cut borders, trends to decivilisationrather than civilisation, opaque rather than transparent zones, a sense of thetragic and comic instead of comedies and novels, hybridisation of the flesh rather thancontrol of the body, the corrosion of ethics, aesthetics and policies of belonging andidentity, the cult of inhabiting but not in geopolitical spaces, the cult of doing and havingbut not of being administrated.The new media may become creativity that is neither transmitted, taught orcommunicated but simply experienced. This means in some ways a creativity that isevent-based, fluctuating, situational, oral, experiential, psychosomatic.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 241

Chapter 10The new media have in some waysencouraged the advent of a more fluidform of creativity and have given nonspecialistsaccess to the world ofadvertising. A good example comes fromwhat happened during the 2007 editionof the Super Bowl, the final of theAmerican football championship whichhas the largest US television audiences ofthe year and the most costly advertisingtime. At the football final, Doritos, thesnacks manufacturer, broadcast acommercial entirely made by consumers(who had been invited by the companywebsite to take part in a competition):“Doritos demonstrated on the SuperBowl stage simplicity, anti-rhetoric, avideo with a spontaneous zero-costgarage technique in a parodying, absurd,minimalist language brazenly directed atthe product, typical of viral advertisingseen on YouTube” (Lombardi, 2007).From the perspective of Web 2.0 andconsumer empowerment (Mortara,2007) the boundary between creator anduser of advertising has practicallydissolved.Trends in corporate communicationsCorporate communications, i.e. the setof all communication flows towardsinternal and external stakeholders,cannot forego the concept ofintegration. In fact integratedcommunications (Collesei, Ravà, 2004)refer to the company’s capacity to coordinateall communication tools – fromadvertising to public relations, visualidentity (co-ordinated management oflogo, branding and lettering) Internetsites, sponsorships and promotions –which must be orchestrated (Fabris,2003) to achieve a unique distinctiveimage of the company to be impressedindelibly in the mind of the variousstakeholders and customers. The mostcommonly used tools today are stilladvertising and public relations. Thisapplies to all fields from corporatecommunications at the top of the systemof integrated communications tocorporate advertising, down to brandand product advertising mainly aimed atthe end consumer. As has often beenstressed, advertising is still the mosteffective way of “establishing in themind of the consumer a distinctive andmemorable identity for a product or acompany” (Collesei, Ravà, 2003, p. 104),while public relations in recent yearshave evolved considerably and, from thepoint of view of the integratedmanagement of corporatecommunications, they have taken on akey co-ordination and controlling role.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 242

Chapter 10Public relations and corporate communicationsAdriana Mavellia, President of the Services Group for Corporate Communication, AssolombardaCorporate communications and public relations make a twofold contribution to theeconomy of creativity: they are used in corporate advertising and in marketing, but havealso given rise to the communications consulting industry in addition to specificcompany departments.The communications industry supplies professional consulting and services throughagencies, integrated communications groups, professional studios, and individualconsultants who work through professional figures and employees with strongly inclinedto creativity either because of their educational background, ad hoc training or personalattitudes and skills.From this we can easily understand how the educational chain entails acquiring skills inschools and universities (specialist degrees, master’s degrees, professional courses, etc.).The second element of creativity acting within the communications groups and smallerentrepreneurial structures lies in the design of corporate strategies: creative projectsdevised to solve the problems of external and internal communications of clientcompanies. Here induced activities are generated by the supply chain of creativityspecialists who often act by checking the feasibility of the projects. On thecommunications users side (public and private enterprise), there can also be acontribution to the economy of creativity, albeit to a lesser degree, through someprofiles of company employees involved in communications management. Whenstrategies and projects are implemented by the companies it generates a long chain ofclassic creativity (design, <strong>paper</strong> products, video, installations, stage designs, objects) orinnovative forms of creativity (web, guerrilla advertising, etc.).Lastly, although more difficult to quantify, we should not underestimate the creativecontribution that corporate communicators make to company management, includingproducts and services as a company’s response to tuning into the requirements of societyand the market.Of course, including corporatecommunications in the framework ofcreativity applied to relational dynamicsin companies is well circumscribed bythe concept of “communicationalcompetence” which describes “the setof linguistic and extra-linguistic abilities(the latter of a social and semiotictype), and consolidates in them all thatis indispensable for efficient, effectivecommunication” (Morelli, 2003).Trends in public communicationsAdvertising it is not only concernedwith promoting the name of a brand.There is also a well structured sectorcalled public communications(Rolando, 2003), or communications ofpublic utility (Rolando, 2004) or alsonon-profit communications, including“the set of communications activitiesimplemented by a public or privateplayer to promote non-profit aims”WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 243

Chapter 10(Gadotti, 2001, p. 16). This fieldincludes public administrationstructures, government-controlledbodies, large institutions, politicalparties, associations, representativeorganisations and non-profitorganisations.These players are often flanked,however, by public or privatecompanies, which thus operate insidethe market on non-profit initiatives.Here, for example, we have supportactivities for social causes pursued bycompanies also through cause-relatedmarketing(Dash/Abio,Pomellato/WWF,andSvelto/Comunità Sant’Egidio andOpera San Francesco, to mention but afew), but also activities aimed at raisingpublic awareness on social issues (e.g.the Heineken campaign against drinkand driving).The objectives of socialcommunications – mainly aimed atannouncements of identity, increasingvisibility, or fundraising and focusingpublic opinion on social issues andthemes (values/rights) – are achievedby using tools typical of commercialadvertising, the same media, and oftenthe same advertising agencies.In the 1990s public serviceannouncements were given a legalframework (Law 241/1990 to Law150/2000) and offices for relationswith the public were created(Legislative Decree 29/1993). Tounderstand the specific features ofpublic communications we askedRoberto Grandi to describe the profilesof "creativity" in Italy in the sector ofsocial, political and institutionalcommunications.Profiles of creativityRoberto GrandiThe three sectors making up public communications are also diversified in terms of theirprofiles of “creativity”.As far as social communications are concerned, endowing the communication processwith a healthy dose of “creativity” is considered a powerful way of enhancingcommunications. In this sector the activity refers to the stages of conceiving, producingand conveying the various texts. “Social” customers make it impossible to innovate – attimes radically – the content, the means of expression and media used, and thereforemarketing advertising and public relations, with a special focus on the media and theconstruction of events.The communications of public institutions have very varied objectives – from serviceannouncements to information for citizens – and are used by very different institutions(in terms of size, mission, and structures). This leads to a rather patchy use of creativecommunications tools. The creative profiles are thus involved in constructingcampaigns, creating events and also organising participatory democracy throughinnovations in communications which lead to inclusive processes. Creativecommunication methods are used less in internal communications.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 244

Chapter 10In Italy political communications are to some extent hostage to the climate of thepermanent electoral campaign that has persisted already for several years. Politicalcommunications thus take the form of electoral campaigns which set various limits tocreative profiles: short-term objectives, concentration of work in short intense periodswith not settling down, and restraints imposed by specific laws on political campaigns.There is no basic difference, therefore,between those dealing with creativityfor the public sector and thoseinvolved in the private sector. Ifanything, the differences are found ininvestments.InvestmentsA recent Eurisko study (Vita, 2008)provides data about the investments ofItalian non-profit organisations: mostare financed by private players (63.5%);public sector campaigns rose by 17% in2007 on 2006; and, most importantly,there were 169 campaigns with anoverall investment of 89,436,000 euros(an increase of 23,293,000 euros on theprevious year). The rise in grossinvestments confirms the positive trendwhich began in 2005-2006 and shows apercentage increase of 11.1%. This datais confirmed by the Osservatorio sulmarketing sociale (Sodalitas incollaboration with Nielsen MediaResearch) measuring Italiancompanies’ investments in socialmarketing and documenting the CRMcampaigns implemented in Italy.The data gathered by the Osservatorioalso highlights (Table 10.1) a generalincrease in all the means used, andespecially the press (9% for periodicalsand 6% for daily news<strong>paper</strong>s).Table 10.1 - Media used for social communicationsJanuary-September 2006 January-September 2007Television 1.5% 1.7%News<strong>paper</strong>s 60% 66%Periodicals 28.7% 37.7%Radio 0.8% 3.1%Billboards and theInternet- 0.5%Source: our elaboration of Sodalitas- NMR data.By comparing these figures with the datain the Primo Rapporto Sociale in Italia(OCCS, 2005), we see that there hasbeen a steady increase in netinvestments in social advertising, whichin 2003 amounted to 327,040,000.00euros. Again in 2003, the largest share ofinvestments was for free socialcampaigns (especially on television,radio and in the press) which accountedfor almost 50% of total investments,whereas just over 40% went onWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 245

Chapter 10ministerial-type campaigns. Theremaining investments were forcampaigns produced by private players.We can form an idea of the differencesin investments between socialcommunication and business advertisingby comparing these figures with those inTable 10.2 for overall advertisinginvestments.Despite the differences, it is in socialcampaigns, especially in the recent past,that we find attempts at creativityoutside the Italian tradition, such asOliviero Toscani’s campaigns forBenetton (although not socialadvertising in the conventional sense),which were certainly non-traditional andnon-conformist, and also the earlyinformation campaigns by PubblicitàProgresso (a public institution modelledon the US Ad Council) in the secondhalf of the 1970s (with slogans like “Ifsomeone smokes, they’ll also poisonyou. Tell them to stop.” And “Moreblood is needed. Now you know.”).These communications used very strongdirect statements, which were very farfrom the saccharine vision of reality intelevision commercials at the time.Table 10.2 – Advertising investments in Italy (in millions of euros)2005 2006 2007Daily News<strong>paper</strong>s 1,625 1,662 1,770Periodicals And Magazines 1,226 1,280 1,313Trade Periodicals 170 170 300Total Press 3,021 3,112 3,383Television 4,916 4,999 5,081External 750 777 807Radio 555 567 601Film 75 68 68Total Classic Media 9,317 9,523 9,940Promotions 3,620 3,751 4,217Direct Response 2,271 2,314 2,372Public Relations 1,842 1,927 2,014Sponsorships 1,369 1,409 1,446Internet 131 194 550Total Enlarged Area 18,550 19,118 20,539Source: our elaboration of UPA dataTable 10.2 highlights the clear-cutpredominance of investments intelevision advertising, despite theimminent obsolescence predicted forthe classic media, which do not allowinteraction with the public and are lessflexible and unable to adapt their codesand models to the changingrequirements of the target audiences(UPA, 2007). A scenario of predictedtrends entitled Il Futuro della Publicità(“The Future of Advertising”) basedWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 246

Chapter 10on research conducted by UPA (anadvertising user’s association)highlights the difference between thegrowth rate of the economy and thegrowth of investments in classic mediaas proof of their growing inefficacy.On the other hand, we note theconsiderable increase of investments inthe Internet, evidence of theadvertising users’ awareness thataudiences wish to have an active rolealso in communications. The Internethas made it possible for people to takepart in the “production” ofinformation through the use of newinteractive media and participatoryformats (e.g. blogs and forums).The UPA data also allows us to assessthe percentage incidence ofinvestments on the GDP (see Tables10.3 and 10.4).Table 10.3 – Growth rates and macroeconomic indicators2005 2006 2007 2008Real Growth Rates % % %. %Classic media (IncludingProduction Costs)0.6 -0.1 1.5 -3.3Communication Initiatives 0.9 0.8 2.0 -0.9Internet 16.5* 44.8* 38.4 21.5Gdp 0.1 1.9 1.5 0.1Source: our elaboration of UPA data*: This data refer to the total investments in Interrnet without distinction between Advertising (ADV)and Non Advertising (Non ADV)The slight decrease of classic mediain recent years lends further support tothe theory of the disinvestment intelevision in favourof investments in other nonconventionalmeans and forms ofcommunication (which rose by 3.1%).Table 10. 4 – Advertising investments as a ratio of GDP2005 2006 20072008Total Classic Media/Gdp 0.68 0.66 0.66 0.66Total Overall/GDP 1.27 1.26 1.27 1.27Source: our elaboration of UPA dataWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 247

Chapter 10Data for 2008 confirm the recovery ofinvestments in the sectors in theenlarged area and non-conventionalforms of +3.2%. Investments on theweb are also expected to rise(+30,2%), partly boosted by the spreadof broadband and the increasedpossibilities offered by wirelessconnections which will also favourspecific marketing initiatives.Creativity and competitive identityThe area of communications mostconcerned with the theme ofidentity– its construction and maintenance –requires separate treatment.Investments in this kind ofcommunications are not easilymeasured, but nonetheless a growingnumber of companies, institutions andleading public and social players followmore closely the management oftheir visual identity as a preconditionfor any communication operations: i.e.which determines developmentstrategies of a relational preconditioncontained in corporatecommunications. Crossovers betweencommunications and marketing thusgenerate a vast application frameworkof techniques, products and services –both in the commercial and servicesareas – connected to the sphere ofpromotion.In the field of identity variousprofessional and disciplinary profilesare moving towards a synthesis. InItaly the field has a tradition and hasdeveloped fairly well, describing itselfas the creative value added in the need tobring together social and identityresearch, the historical culture oftradition (both of institutions and localrootedness), culture of designingintegrated communications, andreputation assessment (among usersand external interlocutors). Playerswho have set up this kind of visualidentity management (i.e. all largecompanies and now also some moderninstitutions, including the big citiesaware of the importance of publicbranding) create an organisation tomanage and control communicationsand advertising activities, constantlyfocused on highlighting (but alsoadjusting and re-orienting) acquiredsymbolic assetsCommunications and corporate identityDaniele ComboniAlthough the accounting system adopted in Italy does not allow a brand to becapitalised, unlike an Anglo-Saxon brand (a kind a “storeroom” where a good isdeposited and where the good is the expression of an intangible asset), in Italy, too, thethemes related to branding and identity are beginning to form a well-defined segment ofcommunications, with its own dignity, underlying professional system and recognisedtype of goods.Branding conceals a world of values, symbolic recognition, and sense of belonging andidentification which in fact is as old as the world (we only need a think of the value ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 248

Chapter 10flags in the past). But as a segment of communication, this world only began to beacknowledged relatively late on, especially by the public system. The tourist sector, forexample, with its “area brands” began to discover the value of branding (and recentlyoften to misuse it). Tourism arguably also triggered off the process of branding foratypical “products”. In this case the owner of the brand is not a private individual, oreven a public administration in the literal sense, but a community of stakeholders, whichhave their own public and/or private functions (from residents to companies, retailersand administrations).Behind a brand, a system can finally begin to take shape, consisting, on one hand, oftraining (through the definition of underlying professional and educational profiles) andthe construction of communications (through the inclusion of branding in all privateand public communication plans and assigning it human resources and making it anitem in budgets), and, on the other hand, of self-narration (again we can mention flagsand their symbolic but also historical transposition into identity brands of, for example,a local area). And, lastly, “competitive identity”, according to Simon Anholt’s neatdefinition making it the foundation of so-called “public diplomacy”, i.e. the publiccompetitive system between nations, regions and cities, in which the perceived value ofthe brand (and its dimension as dream, attracting visitors to go to a given country,region or city) is the keystone in the construction of the competitiveness of local areas.10.3 ConclusionsThe world of Italian communicationsand advertising is characterised by twodifferent kinds of experience: thehistorical experience of Carosello and thecontemporary experience focused oncreativity, the new media, corporatecommunications,publiccommunications, social advertising andcompetitive identity. Overall, accordingto official estimates, the sector accountsfor 0.1 9% of the GDP and employs atleast 64,900 people. It plays an importantrole in the content industries to which itis connected not only in intellectualterms but also practically because of itslinks with the film industry whoseadvertising sector offers essential tools,ideas and technology (special effects).In the chapter on Recommendations wewill deal with the policies and actionsrequired to support and revitalise thesector.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 249

Part IV

Part IVThe historical and artistic heritage: towards a theory ofgoodsThe historical and artistic heritage encompasses all those goods which make up the culturalcapital of a country. They may have a material form (art objects, museums, monumentsand landscapes) or an intangible form (contemporary arts, performing arts and folktraditions).Museums, monuments and landscapes are goods which belong to everyone not onlyhistorically or on the institutional grounds of collective ownership. In fact these specialgoods, so-called “public goods”, have no market for a number of substantial reasons. Theirconsumption, for example, does not reduce their supply capacity in quantitative terms or,in other words, an extra consumer modifies neither the cost of the production (or onlymarginally), nor the quantity supplied. This is the substantial requisite of non-rivalry inconsumption. When a tourist views the Gulf of Portofino, he or she does not reduce theconsumption for other possible tourists. Private goods, on the other hand, arecharacterised by rivalry in consumption. If I buy a fountain pen and use it, I have exclusiveownership, since it is a rival good.Within the limits of its production capacity and according to the institutional rulesconcerning the type of access, the consumption of a public good does not reduce thesupply or its non-excludability. Indeed, non-excludability of consumption is anotherproperty of public goods. Placing a Michelangelo sculpture in a public square does notexclude anyone from its visual consumption.This, however, is a non-substantial property, since exclusion in many cases is possible, thusgiving rise to a typology of mixed public goods, subject to congestion. Mixed public goodsinclude, for example, museums or historical monuments where exclusion is easily achievedby setting up an entrance and establishing the price for a visit. When accessibility to goodsis limited, the quality of consumption is modified because of the emergence of congestioncosts connected with managing the disproportionate number of consumers. In other cases,for example the landscape, exclusion is almost impossible, and we are dealing with a purepublic good.The main consequence of this class of goods is the absence of a market on which supplyand demand can meet, and the recourse to public supply. In fact, if we wish to offer apublic good privately, then free-rider behaviour – i.e. the behaviour of those who concealtheir preferences aware that in any case the production of a public good does not involveexcludability – would make the voluntary contribution of individuals less than what societyas a whole would effectively offer, generating situations of under-production of publicWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 251

Part IVgoods. Hence the need for state action in supplying public goods in quantities whichshould meet social requirements.Inverting the logic, we can see that ideas, the key element in a culture, are initially privategoods, but once they have been revealed, they are transformed into a pure public good.One of the consequences of the rise of the intellectual and intangible component of goodsis that the field of application of the concept of exclusive ownership has been modified.While we can exclude from further consumption everything that is material, simply byprotecting, caring for and using it, the same cannot be done for intellectual goods: theshape of a clock, the innovation of the quartz mechanism – in short everything that can bereduced to an idea is a non-excludable public good, which can be copied and appropriated.You cannot “physically” protect an idea, because once revealed, it can be copied and usedwithout the author’s permission. And since we live increasingly immersed in a universe ofideas applied to and incorporated in material things which are part of our daily life, there isan ever greater risk of intellectual piracy and counterfeiting.Another property of public goods is their capacity to produce externalities and positive andnegative external effects. These effects elude market valuation and generate distortions inthe efficient quantities produced and consumed. For example, the use of large museumsand their related cultural policies increases the average level of education of the people inthe city where they are situated. This positive effect is not usually taken into account as oneof the material economic benefits of the museum. The sum of the benefits is based ontickets and accessory services sold, and therefore refers to a hypothetical balancing ofsustainable costs and obtainable benefits. But this unduly limits the resources allocated tothe museum. So yet again we find a good reason for corrective public action.Cultural and art goods, moreover, have a use value and some non-use values, such asexistence value (i.e. how much a community is prepared to pay for the mere existence of acultural good), option values and the inter-generational value. These values eluderecognition by the market and enhance the notion of externality.The properties associated with the goods of the cultural heritage and art goods in generalinclude that of being considered as meritorious goods. Their self-evident merit is to enrichculture and diffuse a sense of beauty and aesthetic quality. Yet citizens often fail toacknowledge this aspect: by refusing the logic of an implicit contract, they do not agree tothe production of public goods. If we take, for example, a proposal to build a museum ofcontemporary art and ask a representative sample of citizens to express their opinion onwhere it should be funded, there will more against than in favour. The opportunity to havea museum is thus missed. But had the museum been built, in the future everyone willconsider it as an important collective value. The implicit contract is thus managed by thestate, counter to the preferences of citizens who are short-sighted or unable to grasp thefuture value of current choices. This line of reasoning can be applied to all goods in thehistorical and artistic heritage.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 252

Part IVLastly, the intangible goods of the historical and artistic heritage – such as those in theperforming arts – have strong connotations of meritorious public goods. Publicintervention or private donations thus seems to be one of the most appropriate strategiesfor the optimal production of these goods.Performing arts, for example, are victim to “Baumol’s cost disease”, i.e. rising wages forwork with stagnant productivity in response to wage rises in sectors with growingproductivity. When performing a concert of classical music, an orchestra has the sameproductivity today as in the 19th century. But over the years musicians have been awardedpay rises not on the grounds of productivity, but simply because in one overallintercommunicating labour market increases in productivity in one sector (e.g.manufacturing) spread to non-progressive sectors (e.g. music) by simple contact, becauseof the egalitarian union policies and the presumed effect of the mobility of workers. Thisphenomenon thus leads to continually rising costs in the sector of performing arts withstagnant productivity. That is why the production of many performing arts – such astheatre, opera or concerts of classical music – may not be very profitable or make losses. Infact, several of the performing arts are heavily subsidised by public authorities in almost allcountries. Without this aid, many forms of art would be greatly impoverished or wouldeven disappear.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 253

Chapter 11Michelangelo Pistoletto “The visitors” 1962-1968Painted tissue <strong>paper</strong> on polished reflecting stainless steel, 2 panels, 230 x 120 cm eachGalleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

Chapter 11Chapter 11The Cultural HeritageFrom creativity to the production of culture11.1 Creativity, the culturalheritage and the culturalindustryThe national heritage as a resourcefor creativityIn the chain of value production in thecultural industries, creativity acts as anintermediate good for technologicalinnovation and the development ofsocial quality, the two models analysedas the interpretative background tothis work.The cultural heritage, in turn, is aresource for creativity and itscontribution affects the whole chainupstream, fuelling economicinnovation, historical and artisticresearch, changes in taste, and thetechniques for maintaining, restoring,safeguarding, reconstructing andreproducing cultural goods. In otherwords, the historical and artisticheritage accumulated by all pastgenerations is an essential part of thatcultural contest which, capable ofgenerating positive stimuli, interactswith individuals’ capacity to learn. Bycommunicating with the individual’ssensorial reception system ofemotions, the cultural and socialenvironment is thus one of the keyfactors in producing creativity in theindividual sectors of the culturalindustries considered here.Italy’s cultural heritage is primarilyconsolidated in the national educationsystem, which brings together progressmade in the fields of the arts andscientific research and the Italianhumanistic school tradition. Thetraditional programmes of art collegesand music schools do not seem,however, able to foster creativity in theyoung generations, despite variousannounced reforms. For this purpose,explicit programmes are required toencourage the development of talent,skill and creative competence instudents and teachers right fromprimary school. Joint work and thestimulus of respective imaginative andcreative qualities has yielded goodresults in the British experience bothfor students and teachers (DCMS,2006).Nowadays young people are involvedin creative lessons which help them toexplore and recognise their capacitiesin environments outside the traditionalschool classroom. New techniques areWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 255

Chapter 11also used for creative expression. Inthis way individual aspirations and afresh attention to future opportunitiesare developed. Pedagogical uses ofmuseums, archaeological areas,churches and castles are an equallypowerful means for fosteringcreativity. While the Italian institutionstraditionally intended to provideartistic and creative education, such asart colleges, music schools,professional design schools, and arthigh schools are now the subject ofinevitable and hard-won reforms, whatis particularly interesting is themuseum context and the use ofinteractive multimedia learning. Oneexample is the learning opportunitiesoffered by interactive audio guidetools, capable of providing youngvisitors with an enjoyable andstimulating educational experience. Ina certain sense, this is the equivalent inmuseums and cultural events of theentrepreneurial phenomenon oflearning by doing. Learning on the jobis an excellent feature of the Italianentrepreneurial model and can alsoprovide extremely interesting solutionsfor the world of cultural creativity.Creativity and new technologiesNew technologies can also play role ina fresh creative approach to thecultural heritage. In fact while theheritage is a resource for developingcreativity, the inverse is also true, i.e.creativity is a very valuable tool inconstructing pieces of our heritage.Moreover, bearing in mind thatcreativity can be incorporated inobjects, technologies and economicorganisations, its use in developingtechnologies and new organisationalforms for cultural goods becomesparticularly significant.The creation, management,safeguarding and development of thecultural heritage is generating aflourishing market mainly involvingsmall and medium-sized companieswith high technological content. Newmaterials, innovative constructiontechniques, measurement anddiagnostic tools, 3-D modelling anddigital platforms are some practicalexamples. Our cultural heritage isbecoming a thoroughgoing creativeworkshop for developing veryinnovative technologies, materials andmethods. There are many examples:from “patina-eating” bacteria to whitecement containing nanomolecules oftitanium which does not dirty, neutronaccelerators able to radiograph statuesand reconstruct their interiors, therecent innovations in the digital sector(navigable satellite maps, portable georeferencedsystems, radio-frequencytags to track objects); from restorationto the design of Internet portals, butalso the renewed diagnostic toolbox,new materials and technologies for theconstruction of visionary buildings(future cultural goods), sensors scienceand new building installations systems.Naturally, we would also add the fastdeveloping variegated world of thecultural industry with the diffusion ofnew digital technologies and theadvent of new media.In Italy all this know-how is oftendispersed and fragmented. It thusWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 256

Chapter 11requires processes of co-ordinationand aggregation. That is why absolutepriority must be given to a new overalleconomic approach highlighting notonly the auxiliary museum services andtourist flows but the system ofenterprises engaged in the creation,management, safeguarding anddevelopment of the cultural heritage.One far from negligible aspect of thissector is its exportability. Italy has a verygood international reputation in thisfield but it has not developed exportsas in the classic export-driven sectors(fashion, design, food, etc.) andcertainly has a potential waiting to bedeveloped. Only a systemic vision,however, will enable us to exploit thisgreat opportunity.By making use of the newtechnologies, institutions involved inconserving, exhibiting and managingcultural goods can attract publicinterest in the heritage and increase itsvalue.We can basically identify six mostcritical technological areas involved inthe field of the cultural heritage:• materials (for protection,restoration and refurbishing)• diagnostic systems• sensors and technical installations(air conditioning, furnishings)• systems for the construction andstructural consolidation ofbuildings• safety and security systems• digital technology for enhancingexhibits and various uses.Through the scientific and creativemanagement of these areas, Italy canaspire to be an international leader inthe sector.11.2 The national heritageas a cultural industryIf we consider the Italian historical andartistic heritage from the point of viewof the cultural industries, the mainissues are its efficient management,growing demand, the exploitation ofeconomies of scope, especially in theproduction of cultural tourism, and thecapacity to increase the positive socioeconomicimpact on the system of thelocal economy and its development.In the following paragraphs, therefore,we will look at some aspects ofeconomic policy applied to the culturalheritage. We will not discuss thethemes of its development,management and protection, since theyare well-known and have recently beenreconsidered by the laws on thelandscape modifying the “Code ofCultural Goods”. After a briefintroduction on the current state of theItalian cultural heritage (size, public,exhibitions, festivals, landscapes, etc.),we will tackle three problems ofoutlook concerning:• cultural tourism and the art cities• the economic impact of culture• the growing visitor demand.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 257

Chapter 11The size of the Italian historical andartistic heritageThe size and quality of the Italianheritage is proverbial, even thoughthere are no complete official data.The only updated statistics on thesubject, provided by Sistan (MiBAC),only refer to state-run museums,monuments and archaeological areas:i.e. 402 museums, monuments andarchaeological areas which in 2006attracted around 34.6 million visitorsand generated gross revenues of justover 104 million euros.These figures, however, only refer to asmall part of the national historical andartistic heritage whose real size isreliably estimated in the followingtable.Table 11.1 – Cultural institutions in ItalySource-Year Type NumberA – 1999 Archives (historic, local bodies, company) 11,000B – 1994 Libraries (public and private) 9,900C – 2007 Museums 3.969D – 1991 Zoological, Botanical and Natural Gardens and aquariums 102E – 1995 Archaeological and monumental sites 2,100Church heritage: churches built before 1880 55,263F – 1999Church heritage: monasteries and convents 1,500Church heritage: sanctuaries, sacred mounts, bishop’spalaces, viae crucis3,000Church heritage: libraries 3,100Church heritage: historic archives 29,000G – 2004 Private historic stately homes 12,000H – 2005 Historic centres in cities and towns 22,000Legend of sources: A: Direzione Beni archivistici MIBAC 1999; B: AIE on ICCU data 1994 (excluding3,100 church libraries and 8,000 school libraries); C: ISTAT, Indagine sugli istituti di antichità e d’arte e iluoghi della cultura non statali. 2008; D: D. Primicerio, L’Italia dei Musei, Electa, 1991; E: D. Primicerio,Dossier Archeologia, no.3/4, 1995; F: G. Guerzoni and W. Santagata, “Economia della Cultura”,Enciclopedia Treccani, 1999; G: Associazione Dimore Storiche Italiane 2004; H: ICCD 2005.The cultural heritage not only includesmuseums and monuments, but alsolibraries – over 9,000 (including 46state-run) and archives. These arethoroughgoing cultural facilities at theservice of the resident community.In addition to this, we have theimmense assets and property of thestate land agency (Agenzia delDemanio: 20,000 managed buildings,10,000 landed properties, 2,500 goodswith considerable developmentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 258

Chapter 11potential in 153 communaladministrations), xliv the Church heritageand all the “temporary” part of supplyin the form of exhibitions.In Italy over 1,600 exhibitions of acultural nature are held annually(obviously excluding those incommercial galleries and spaces), towhich we should add trade fairs andshows (dedicated to books, cuisine,visual arts, antiquities, etc) festivals,courses, prizes, competitions andconferences.Even when we focus only on themuseum sector, we see there is a greatdispersion in terms of ownership andgeographical distribution, whereasquality and visitors are highlyconcentrated. This generates seriousproblems in co-ordinating policy forthe system (Fig. 11.1).Fig. 11.1 – Ownership of Italian museumsChurch12%Provinces3%Regions2%State13%Communal Admin.48%Private22%Source: Corte dei Conti, 2005WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 259

Chapter 11A second consideration – more relevantthan ever and partly connected to theproblem of quantifying the Italiancultural heritage – relates to the presentstate of the auxiliary services (audioguides, bookshops, gadget sales,cafeterias, booking, pre-sales, selfservicerestaurants and guided visits)and their capacity to generate income.Although the Italian institutions are alsoequipping themselves to meet thegrowing requirements of the public andever higher international standards, Italystill seems to lag behind other countriesin this field.In 2006, of the 402 state-run museums,monuments and archaeological areas,only 97 had bookshops and 137booking/ticket pre-sales services.More advanced services, like nurseriesor even simply online booking, wereoffered by very few museums and thesame is true of itineraries specificallydesigned for children or the disabled.The following question still remainsunanswered: if in the state-runmuseums, monuments andarchaeological areas auxiliary services,and primarily bookshops (around 22)bring in 40 million euros a year, whathappens in the other 3,000 museums?Exhibitions, art fairs and a greatabsentee: the landscapeVarious phenomena have characterisedthe evolution of the Italian andinternational cultural offering inaddition to changes in consumer trends.One of the most interesting isundoubtedly the phenomenon oftemporary exhibitions.In summer 2007, what has been labelledthe “Italian exhibition factory” turnedout at least 650 exhibitions. In 2006,temporary exhibitions were visited byover 7 million people. Despite this,there were only a few big successes,considering that the top 10 exhibitionsalone attracted a total of around 2.7million visitors.All of this has led to a change in thetraditional role of museums, since theyhave had to rethink and readapt theirstructure and organisation to aproliferation of new functions. At timesthere is a dialectical involvement with orrediscovery of permanent collections,but often museums simply function ascontainers for “other content”.The art fairs, a relatively new form ofcultural distribution, are also goingthrough a phase of great expansion,especially in the contemporary artssector. The major fairs are held atVerona, Turin, Bologna, and Milan.Each of these has its own specificfeatures and attracts around 30,000-40,000 visitors a year in only a few days.One very successful example was thefirst edition of the Rome fair entitledThe road to contemporary art. xlvWith a few exceptions, thisphenomenon yet again mainly concernsthe art cities and major urbanconurbations. Thus while the cities arefull of cultural events, in a vortex ofincreasingly fierce competition but oftennot associated with the logic of theintegrated promotion of places, thelandscape, one of the most typical andspecific elements in the Italian culturaloffering, is often neglected.The countryside and cultural landscape,which “testify to the creative genius,social development and imaginative andspiritual vitality of humanity”, xlvi is anenormous capital for Italy in terms ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 260

Chapter 11image and a primary source ofinspiration for artistic creation.The landscape is a changeable, evolvingelement and, precisely because of this,offers a host of cultural and educationalfunctions. This “territory expressingidentity”, on one hand, lends itself tohosting art works – see, for example,sculpture parks or land art – andtherefore to being a cultural context andactive container and, on the other, is theobject “contained” in cross-regional andtransnational cultural projects,becoming a unifying element through itsdiversity.This is the case with the “CulturalRoutes”, and numerous projects todevelop the vine and wine landscapes ortranshumance roads, to mention only afew examples.In 1992 the World Heritage Conventionbecame the first international legal toolfor protecting cultural landscapes,including those on the list of theUNESCO World Heritage sites, but inItaly the complex legal regulationswhereby local areas, environment andlandscape are governed by differentlaws and different bodies have allowedthe neglect of the landscape to continue.A positive signal, however, has comewith the approval of the LegislativeDecree no. 63 of 26 March 2008,integrating and correcting the “Code ofthe Cultural Heritage and theLandscape”. Thanks to this measure,the concept of the landscape has beengiven a new unified definition and thesystem of responsibility for itsprotection has been better balanced bygiving responsibility back to the state,albeit in co-operation with regionalauthorities.11.3 Cultural tourism and artcitiesTourism in art cities: foreign anddomestic marketsIt has now been widely recognised thatcultural resources – whether tangible orintangible – are an important input forthe tourist industry.Cultural tourism – a phenomenonwhich is not easily defined xlvii – is anincreasingly important form oftravelling and holidaying, especially inItaly whose image is strongly linked tothe concept of culture seen not only asthe artistic and historical heritage butalso as design, fashion, folk traditionsand typical food productions.According to a survey conducted byDoxa, Mercury and the Touring ClubItaliano on Italy’s attractiveness forforeign tourists, on a scale of 1 to 10,the category of “culture, art” has thehighest score (8.28) followed by“cuisine, wine” (8.11) and “countryside”(8.10), while of the best known Italianplaces internationally the large art citiesare cited first: Rome (64.3%), Venice(35.9%), Milan (27.5%) and Florence(23.4%). xlviiiTo mention only a few figures, in 2006,of the 308 million overnight stays intourist resorts in Italy, 92 million werein cities with historic and artistic interest(33 million arrivals) with an increase inthe period 2001– 2006 of +22.5%arrivals and +13.4% overnight stays.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 261

Chapter 11Cultural tourism versus creativetourism: what future developments?But how is cultural tourism evolvingand what linkage is there between thecultural heritage, tourism and thecreative industries? Summing up, we cansay that the linkage is on two levels: afirst level concerning thecreation/integration of destinations andthe second more closely associated withthe offering of services for touristpurposes.Cultural tourism continues to expandwith an increasingly diversified demand.Competition is growing and the supplyis also becoming more specialised,generating new sub-markets: from moretraditional tourist uses towardsinnovative forms of consumption ofcontemporary culture. Thus we haveliterary tourism, architectural tourism,which increasingly drives publicadministrators to hire so-called archistars(celebrity architects) to renew the imageof their city, or film-tourism, which isnot a recent phenomenon but hasbecome increasingly popular in recentyears thanks to collaboration with agrowing numbers of filmcommissions. xlixIn this way new destinations are createdin a process in which creativity and thecreative industries increasingly enableplaces apparently less well-endowedwith historic attractions to enter culturaltourism circuits, or destinations on thewane are redeveloped and their offerenhanced.Even museums, typical symbols oftraditional cultural tourism and elementscharacterising the cultural supply of agiven destination, are undergoing aprocess of change involving their classicfunctions, as demonstrated by the greatproliferation of “exhibition-events”, orthe creation of new museums such asthe Bologna Museum of Modern Art(Mambo), Bolzano Museum of Modernand Contemporary Art (Museion), theTriennale Design Museum, Milan, orthe many corporate museums.The museums sector is witnessing aprocess of specialisation and thematicdiversification of its offering, no longernecessarily linked to the traditionalartistic, archaeological and scientificcategories and featuring new themessuch as enterprise, gastronomy,contemporary history, etc.Cultural tourism is thus changing deeplyand moving towards what Richards calls“creative tourism”: more experientialforms of consumption, no longerfocused only on the past but also thepresent and the future, with interestsranging from highbrow culture topopular mass culture, fashion, designand architecture. lThe second level of relations betweenthe creative industries and tourisminvolves all those products and serviceswhich the creative industries supply tosupport the cultural tourist experience.They are even more important from theeconomic point of view, if we considerthe traditionally higher spending powerof the cultural tourist compared to othercategories of tourists (an average of 106euro per day compared to around 74euros in 2005).Publishing and multimedia are thesectors whose products are mostdirectly at the service of culturalconsumers – as we mentioned, museumbookshops proceeds totalled 22.6million euros in 2006 li –- but advertisingand communications are equallyWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 262

Chapter 11important for the success of adestination or a cultural touristattraction.Lastly, we must remember the two-wayrelationship between tourism andarchitecture. Over the centuries, manyarchitectural works have become touristattractions and since the late 19thcentury tourism has driven architecturalrenewal and development in technicaland aesthetic terms: examples are theeclectic style of the first grand hotels,the creation of bathing establishments(e.g. the Stabilimento Roma at Ostiadesigned by Giovan Battista Milani) andspa centres such as Montecatini.On this subject, it is worth mentioning arecent trend in the hotel sector, stronglylinked to the themes of creativity:designer hotels, full-blown art placeswhich have revitalised the design ofhotel facilities, changing customers’traditional perception of the function ofhotels as they become placescommunicating not only a style but alsoindividual brands.11.4 The economic impact ofinstitutions and culturaleventsCultural events: from a burden forthe collectivity to productiveresources and development driverInstitutions and cultural events make animportant contribution to the economicdevelopment of their local areas. Insome cases, the success of culturalevents, from high-standard exhibitionsto cultural festivals, radically change theperception of places, the sense of beingin and belonging to a community, andbring spin-offs in communications: howmany hundreds of thousands of youreuro would local authorities financingmajor successful events have had to payto buy the kind of space the media havededicated to their local areas in recentyears thanks to the events?From this point of view, impactanalyses are often used to assess culturalprojects ex-ante and ex-post. Theyprovide decision-makers, financiers andorganisers with tools for measuring,communicating and negotiating, and arecapable of persuading public and privatestakeholders who may understandablybe sceptical when faced with blithelypresented figures. Indeed there is ageneral situation, even outside Italy, inwhich the rhetoric of figures,increasingly given randomly, carries theday over any other form of sensiblereasoning. In fact the diffusion of the“festival” format or “exhibition” as acommercial product has degenerated topathological levels.Here we must seek to understand if the– actually rather few – successes arelinked to factors not usually found inother geographical contexts (this is thecurrent writer’s opinion) or if the sameformats can be used in other situations,acknowledging that cultural events arethoroughgoing “packaged products”.What is urgently required is productengineering to filter out from thenational scene the large quantity ofimitations which bombard and confusethe public, whose tastes should at leastbe better understood before beingcriticised.In Italy, in fact, the debate on culturalevents has taken on polemic tones dueWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 263

Chapter 11to ideological positions or rather poses.On one side are the apocalypticsupporters of Debordian prophesies,pop fanaticism and the triumph ofmidcult and, on the other, theenthusiastic fans of the apotheosis ofpopularising, of “anything is better thannothing” and the revenge of theexhibition and festival culture vultures –people who actually have rather elitistsocial profiles, from the point of viewof their education, although in Italy, asis well known, they are not alwayspositively correlated to income levelsFor some time now these problemshave gone beyond the critical threshold,since the phenomenon tends to take theform of an increasingly confusing“event mania”. The number ofinitiatives is incalculable, partly becauseof the high birth and death rates of whatare often local events. Any attempts tosurvey accurately the enormous numberof events in our country and tounderstand their effective extent arethwarted not only by the generic natureof the “festival” formula or the term“exhibition”, which makes comparisonsproblematic, but also the spin-offaspects of their success.Yet the time has come to attempt totackle these issues, especially since thereis an abundant high-standardinternational literature on the subject.The starting point for an understandingof the impact of institutions and culturalevents on local areas is twofold. On onehand, the institutions and culturalevents make an important contributionto economic development and jobs inthe areas in question. They are capableof attracting hundreds of thousands ofvisitors, diverting huge tourist flows,sustaining various economic sectors,slowing down intellectual emigrationand encouraging the development oflocal human capital, etc. But on theother hand, the same institutions andevents can create congestion to thedetriment of the cultural heritage,increase the costs sustained bycommunities and local authorities, upsetthe balances in the property market andin commercial activities, encouragesituations of living off rent, exercisenegative social impacts, etc..The key issue is in fact linked to anaccurate assessment of positive andnegative impacts, given that the finalfigures provide undeniably importantinformation and elements fornegotiation. It is no accident that in thelast 30 years a growing number ofcultural institutions have commissioneddetailed impact analyses: the TateModern (2005, with the London Schoolof Economics), the MOMA (2006), theGuggenheim (which pioneered the“Bilbao effect” assessed in 1999 byKPMG), and the New YorkMetropolitan (2007), not to mentionfestival organisers who for decades havecommissioned similar studies.To offset the partial nature of theseestimates, various public and privateresearch centres have conducted veryinteresting counter-analyses, thusopening up a clear debate on the prosand cons of a very useful tool of social,cultural, political and economic policy.What is measured?To quantify the size and positive ornegative nature of economic impact, wemust follow a very precise procedure,which in the initial stages involves aWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 264

Chapter 11meticulous process of gatheringqualitative and quantitative information,since cultural events generate variouskinds of impacts: cultural, social,economic, fiscal, occupational,environmental and property.Of these, the economic impact is one ofthe most important measurements sincecultural events are strongly connoted aspublic goods and are often guaranteedby the action of public bodies or thirdparties (for example former bankers’foundations) who are keen to knowwhat kind of results have been obtainedfrom the resources supplied.Although it is rare for cultural events toproduce a directly measurable economicreturn, recourse is often made to costbenefitanalyses, theories of meritoriousgoods, estimates of positiveexternalities, or models of economicevaluation in which the total economicvalue is obtained from the sum of directuse values, indirect use values and nonusevalues.These values can be estimated usingvarious measuring techniques in orderto justify the expenses sustained bypublic bodies and non-profit thirdparties, whether for projects concerningpermanent structures, such as museums,exhibition centres, theatres, libraries andarchives, or for temporary initiatives,such as exhibitions, concerts, festivals,etc.Although acknowledging that economiccriteria must not dominate thedefinition of policies in the culturalfield, it must be admitted that theirabsence makes it impossible to comparedecisions made. This allows resources tobe wasted and prevents the establishingof clear goals that can be monitored intime, such as an increase in jobs, theslowing down of intellectual emigration,the creation of private companiesworking at local level, the developmentof human capital, etc. Using aneconomic impact analysis, on the otherhand, we can calculate the effects on thesurrounding territory due to thepresence of cultural events with a goodlevel of approximation, which rises withdecreases in the duration of the projectmonitored, the size of the geographicalarea in question and the level ofcompetition with other events.This value should not only be seen interms of income. Economic value isalso generated by increases in jobs,rising house prices, greater local taxrevenue or the increase of incomes andretail sales in the area considered.The basic hypothesis is that it is possibleto start from the direct spending ofinstitutions/ organisers (theorganisation of even an average-sizefestival or exhibition involves spendingwhose spin-offs must also be partlyconsidered) and the number of visitors(in terms of admissions, other culturalconsumption, transport and parking,spending on hotels, restaurants, objectsand souvenirs, shopping, and theacquisition of other cultural services).Starting from this initial outlay ofeconomic resources, throughappropriate calculations we can alsoreckon the indirect effects. For example,we can calculate the amount of moneyspent by local economic players toacquire, often from wholesalers, agreater quantity of goods and services inorder to satisfy the increased demandfrom the institutions/organisers andparticipants at the events considered.But impact analyses also calculate athird level of effects: theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 265

Chapter 11implementation of a new permanent ortemporary cultural project and the risein correlated economic activitiesenabling residents, and those directly orindirectly involved, to make additionalincome, which they spend – oftenlavishly – as they wish in their local area.This additional income and theconsequent spending on consumergoods and services makes up the thirdlevel of induced activities which, whenadded to the previous two, gives theoverall value of the economic impact ofan event.But impact analyses can go even further,since they can estimate the rise in sales,added value, income and jobs, thusenabling us to understand how manynew enterprises have been created, howfar the intellectual emigration has beenhalted (keeping in the local area skilledresources otherwise missing or destinedto emigrate), the effect of activities onenterprises and their employees, andhow far wholesalers gather additionalresources which they may spend, thustriggering multiplicative mechanisms.The sum of the three impacts (direct,indirect and induced) corresponds tothe increases in sales, incomes, valueadded and jobs in the area due to anevent and can help us understand thebenefits for the local economy from aninvestment made by public, private ormixed stakeholders in order to stagethat event.The diffusion of studies on theeconomic impact of institutions andcultural eventsIn Italy, economic impact studies mainlyfocus on the tourist sector, even thoughthere is almost a complete lack of themin the cultural field. Initial attempts (P.Leon, Cless; P. Valentino, Civita) wereaimed not so much at assessing theimpact ex post of investments in thefield of culture as assessing theirprofitability ex ante in order to selectprojects. The focus was thus not somuch on the direct impact on localsociety, but rather the direct impact onthe possible ways of exploitingmuseums, parks, castles, etc.The lack of studies may be explained bymethodological backwardness, opaque,rudimentary accounting systems incultural institutions, the scarcity andinaccuracy of visitor surveys, and anunwillingness by public and privatestakeholders to finance feasibilitystudies for initiatives deemed to havefew economic benefits, combined with alack of available data and surveys onwhich to base research projects.Outside Italy, the situation changesdramatically: impact analysis is a keypart of any cultural project, which isthus endowed with a positive, powerfuland attractive tool capable ofconvincing public and privatestakeholders, often – understandably –sceptical when confronted with bolddeclarations basically unsubstantiatedbecause of disarmingly vague figures.According to the latest Americans forthe Arts survey (2004), in the UnitedStates the arts sector generated revenuesof 234 billion dollars: 80.8 billion werespent by visitors on relatedconsumption (restaurants, hotels,parking, transport, fuel, retail items,souvenirs, etc.); 53.2 billion wereinvested (e.g. in new buildings ortechnological equipment) and spent byWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 266

Chapter 11cultural institutes to acquire goods andservices of various kinds, to which mustbe added the figures for the acquisitionof works and collectable items.These figures are in line with theestimates for the New York districtmade by a leading consulting society,McKinsey and Company, which in 2002carried out an important research studyon behalf of the Alliance for the Arts.Similarly a study commissioned in 1998by the Bilbao Guggenheim fromanother consulting giant, KPMG,claimed that in its first three years of lifethe Spanish museum had pushed up theGDP of the area by 0.4 7% (with anabsolute value of 140 million euros,against 85 million invested in theproject) as well as creating 3,816 jobsand increasing tourist flows to theBasque Country by 54% (these figureswere cut by more than half in a Plazasurvey from 1999 to 2000). The Spanishinstitution radically changed the imageof the city and has greatly contributedto its tourist success, attracting over 1.3million visitors per year in the first threeyears to a city of 950,000 inhabitants.The position of Bilbao in an areaincluding San Sebastian, the Europeansurf Mecca, and Pamplona, famed forits fiesta, makes it very difficult, however,to separate out the effects due to thesole influence of the museum on thelocal economy.If we analyse the number of visitorsafter the opening of the Guggenheim,however, and compare it to the historicseries of tourist flows to the Bilbao area,we can determine the extra numbersascribable to the opening of themuseum and the seasonal nature ofvisits, which enabled the Spanishresearchers to calculate relativelyaccurately the impact on thesurrounding area.The success of this approach and itsresonance in the media have convincedother institutions to follow suit. Thus in2004 a London School of Economicsstudy presented at the British NationalMuseum Directors' Conference, whichhad commissioned it, revealed that “theoverall impact of the NMDC ‘sector’,including indirect and induced effects, isin the range £1.83 billion to £2.07billion”. Similarly the Tate Modern,again in collaboration with the LSE(2005), claimed to have created in fiveyears “between 2,000 and 4,000 newjobs, about half of which are located inthe Southwark area” (Travers andGlaister,2004). According to an impactanalysis survey conducted by theAudience Research and Analysis for theMOMA, in 2006, from 2005 to 2007,the museum generated an economicimpact on the city of New York ofaround 2 billion dollars.The Metropolitan did not stand bywatching, and in concomitance with theopening of the new “Greek and RomanGalleries” in spring 2007, begansystematic studies of the economicimpact of the museum and itsexhibitions (entrusting them to theMuseum's Visitor Services Departmentin collaboration with the Office ofMarket Research). The results show thatthe re-opened galleries generated animpact of around 270 million euros insix months, compared to 250 milliongenerated by two major exhibitions –Americans in Paris, 1860-1900 andCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard,Patron of the Avant-Garde – held the sameyear.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 267

Chapter 11Even relatively smaller sized institutionshave grasped the strategic value ofimpact analyses: the Locarno FilmFestival in 2004 was the subject of adetailed economic and social impactanalysis based on standard multipliersand 4,000 direct interviews whichshowed that the effect of the filmfestival is at best around 14.6 millioneuros against a budget of 6.29 million.Similarly, in 2006, the Salzburg Festival,the largest and most famous operafestival in the world, had a programmeof 36 days with 207 events in 14different venues attracting 244,269opera-goers from 65 different countries.Of these 75% come regularly and 61%have been at least 10 times. Averagedaily per capita spending outside thefestival is 283 euros (with the cost oftickets included, this figure rises to over513 euros). Not surprisingly, the overalleconomic impact of the event was inexcess of 225 million euros. The festivalcreated 190 full-time jobs and has 2,000seasonal employees, while tax revenuealone was worth three times the publicfunding received.But apparently niche events alsocommand very respectable figures.According to a survey conducted in2005 by the Moore School of Business,University of South Carolina, on theSpoleto Festival USA, which attracts ahighbrow audience to Charleston everyyear, 39,000 attendees had an overalleconomic impact of around 35 millioneuros and created 729 full-time jobs.Thus even the so-called minor festivalsgenerate significant impacts.11.5 Growing visitor demandFor at least 20 years in Italy fromseveral quarters there have been calls toprovide free admission to museums andto allocate more public resources toculture so they reach at least 1% of thenational budget (currently 0.26%). Butsuch requests have fallen on deaf ears.Some money has been found andenormous progress made but thenarrow “economistic” approachfocused on the practice of selling ticketshas persisted regardless. This deeprootednotion is part of a vision thatrefuses to contemplate anything otherthan money in economics, such asefficient rules and recognition of theeconomic and capital value of culture atleast for the above-mentioned indirectand induced effects.In praise of free admission liiMuseum ticket offices and cinema andtheatre box offices, wherever they exist,are barriers to access. Whoever paysenters and whoever does not want to orcannot pay stays out. If tickets wereabolished then an alternative source ofincome would have to be found. This isthe essence of the dilemma of freeadmission or paid tickets for museums.Museum managers are generally of theopinion people should pay, but forcitizens the museum is a fundamentalpart of a shared culture and we all havethe right to culture. It is one of ourpositive freedoms, a social right, and assuch is part of welfare policies. Theadvocates of free admission considerpublic education as one of the mainfunctions of museums. They see growthWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 268

Chapter 11in cultural consumption – also througha widening of the consumer base formuseums – as a positive value. In anycase they believe that making people payfor consumption of a collective goodwith almost zero marginal use costs –i.e. an extra visitor costs virtuallynothing – is a discriminatory and shortsightedpolicy.The issue of free access to museums isnothing new. It was first discussed inliberal British and American circles andhas been taken up again in various waysin recent years with positions in favourand against: see the Musei CiviciMilanesi, before the recent introductionof paid tickets or the study on “NapoliMusei Aperti” (Santagata andSignorello, 2000).In the USA, where the free admissionpolicy has a very longstanding tradition,the predominant idea is that thewidespread diffusion of culture isrequired to develop the democraticprocess and full social integration.Museums are considered on a par withlibraries, archives and schools.The arguments for and against freeadmission inevitably remain deeplyentrenched. What is lacking is a newoutlook which grasps the motivations –also psychological – of visitors andpotential financial contributors andembraces the idea that museums are keyelements for the mass communicationof culture, creativity and ideas.Naturally, this new outlook would notoverlook the role of museums as a placefor assembling a culture of excellence asan undeniable emblem of Italy’snational identity or international imageand commitment to multiculturalintegration.The argument against freeadmissionThe advocates of paid admissionconsider the main functions of amuseum to lie in the collections, thegathering of works, and theirconservation, management and study.There is a rather narrow-minded andslightly abused line of argument againstfree admission which may be summedup as “what is free does not count orhave any value”. This equivocalargument can be swept asideimmediately. Can it be said that enjoyinga marvellous walk has no value? Or thatthe world art in the British Museum inLondon and the experience of culturalenhancement from a visit to it has novalue because admission is free? Theanswer is clearly no. The economisticexperts will have to think again. Freeadmission, which does not imply theabsence of a voluntary contribution orother forms of funding, is a goodobjective for cultural policy. If anything,the problems concern the methods andtechniques for funding museums.It is claimed that our museums alreadyoffer many opportunities for freeadmission and that this is enough fortheir social function. But if we go intothis argument a little further, weimmediately see its weaknesses: peopleare free from commitments on Saturdayand Sunday, so offering free admissionon the first Tuesday afternoon everymonth is sheer hypocrisy.It is claimed that free admission wouldbenefit foreigners most and that Italiancitizens would have to pay for foreignvisitors. But foreign visitors are verywelcome if they bring wealth to ourtourist industry, which alone accountsWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 269

Chapter 11for 12% of the GDP. How manyItalians live off foreign tourism? And, aswe will see below, foreign culturaltourists can contribute through theintroduction of tax measures concerningthe hotel industry.Lastly, it is claimed that museumservices are mixed public goods andwhen there is congestion, tickets canration consumption. But it is equallytrue that the system of queues orbookings, as we will describe below, is awell-tried method of rationing whichprevents, without excluding visitors interms of spending power, overcrowdingat the Uffizi or the Colosseum.In 2006, revenues from tickets sold instate-run Italian museums was 104million euros. This figure is the salesvolume of an average to small company.The ministerial fund for the performingarts (Fondo Unico per lo spettacolo) isaround five times larger. Moreover, themoney from visitors per se is notenough to solve the financial problemsof museums. According to the openingtimes and type of museum, admissionscover from 5 to 15% of managementcosts. Is it worth using such apotentially discriminatory tool inexchange for little or nothing? In 2006there were 34.5 million visitors, ofwhich only 16.3 million were payingvisitors. The distribution of visitors isvery disproportionate geographically.This means that the proceeds fromticket sales de facto only really concernthree cities: 5.3 million visitors paid inNaples, 9.7 million in Rome, and 5.2million in Florence. In the rest of Italypaying visitors were less than a millionper city.Free access to permanentcollectionsIn Italy people pay to visit thepermanent collections and statemuseums, apart from some concessionsfor young people and pensioners.Temporary exhibitions are a culturalservice with paid admission, andtherefore do not come into thisdiscussion. Local administrations adoptvarious stances: Milan seems to regretthe choice made in favour of paidadmission a few years ago, whileBologna seems to be satisfied with itspolicy of free admission for city-runmuseums.In the national Cultural Week of 2007,when admission was free, there was a13% rise in visitors to Italian statemuseums.The few studies on the subject showthat on average Italians have asignificantly positive attitude towardsmaking voluntary contributions tomuseums.The most recent international examplewas the UK Labour government’sdecision to give free admission toeveryone. It was introduced in stages:April 1999 for children, April 2000 forthe over 60s, and December 2001 foreveryone. Entrance to specialexhibitions, however, are still charged.In the first five years, there were 29million extra visitors, a rise of around83%. In London visits rose by 86%: theVictoria & Albert + 138%; the NaturalHistory Museum + 112%; and theScience Museum +81%.The museums were admission hadalways been free, such as the BritishMuseum, the National Gallery and theTate saw a rise in visitors in the sameWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 270

Chapter 11period of 8%. Someone might arguethat the rise in visitors was fictitious andthe figures only meant a rise in thenumber of individual visits by regularmuseum-goers. But breaking down theBritish figures reveals that half of theextra visitors were new visitors.Where to find 100 million euros tooffset free admissions?The sum of 100 million euros, theequivalent of the total ticket moneyfrom Italian state museums, can berecovered using various tools. Similarcriteria can also be applied to local andregional museums.Voluntary contributions (“Pay whatyou like”)Current Italian legislation does notfacilitate forms of voluntarycontributions. Contributions fromprivate individuals are often called forbut no procedures are set up to makethem possible. Perhaps the time hascome for an information campaigninvolving the Ministry, localgovernment bodies and all Italians aspotential museum visitors. The methodof voluntary contribution, when itworks and given the quota ofguaranteed income it provides, is thefairest imaginable.Consideration paid by citizens to thestateThere is a good deal of media confusionabout taxes and fiscal pressure ingeneral, which in Italy is certainly toohigh. But in the name of reducing taxpressure, various differences areconcealed and the underlying fiscalphilosophy obfuscated. I will try tosimplify: types of taxes includededicated tax, i.e. the consideration paidas on any market in which the seller isthe public sector (state, localgovernment) and the buyer the recipientof a service. In this case the hotelindustry could pay dedicated tax on thegrounds that the cultural heritage is oneof the primary factors of attraction fortourism. In this way the hotel sectorwould contribute to sustaining one ofthe elements from which it benefits: theself-evident enhanced impact of culturaltourism on the local economy. Fromthis point of view, what would be theeffect on the world tourist system if itwere announced that Italian museums“are open free to everyone”?In other words, if the hotel culturalindustry, but also the audiovisual andexport-driven sectors (fashion, design,food, etc.) make money thanks to theuse of Italian culture as an productioninput and that culture is sustained bypublic spending, it only seems fair thatin exchange for the service they payconsideration.Increased sales of auxiliary servicesThis source of income is directly linkedto the expected rise in visitors followingthe introduction of free admission. Inother words, visitors entering for freewill presumably be encouraged in someways to spend on catalogues, books, ormeals at the museum restaurant.New forms of patronage andsponsorshipPeople often complain that privateindividuals are not very responsive tothe need to support arts and cultureeconomically. The reason for this maylie in the structure of tax incentives. TheWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 271

Chapter 11obvious example is the USA and thekind of tax incentive system developedin a country in which patronage,donations and volunteer work are keyelements in the institutional system. InItaly the situation is different. I believethat what is more significant is thepsychological incentive that ourmuseums seem unable to handle. Whathas a greater value, a bronze bust or aplaque in the museum or a 19%reduction in tax due or other deductionsof cultural contributions from income?Effects on museum managementAs some sceptics of free admission haverightly pointed out the positive effectsof increases in visitors tend to disappearafter a year or so. I believe this accurateobservation must be interpreted asfollows: visitors are initially attracted bythe free admission, but then they maynot return to the museum if theexperience of the visit has turned out tobe disappointing. In other words, theflow comes to a halt and settles at theusual historic figures, if the museumdoes not improve the quality of itsexhibits, services and exhibitions. If it isboring, why return?If funding is performance-related, thengood management and production oftemporary exhibitions, for whichadmission is justifiably charged, becomemore important. Tickets constitute aprimary source of income and pay forresources. But this no longer means justone or two scanty exhibitions a year, butfour or six thematic exhibitions ofvarying quality and size to capture newvisitors at all times. Performance-relatedfunding will thus encourage theproduction of more temporaryexhibitions.Congestion and compulsory bookingFor the major museums, free admissionand voluntary contributions could turnout to be a boomerang, especiallybecause of the costs of congestion. Achange in this direction couldexacerbate the dramatic visitor pressureon the usual exceptional places of artand culture.As the economists say, entrances mustin some way be “rationed”. There arenot many ways to do so: either the costof admission is increased, but here weare suggesting free admission, or wemust be reconciled to queues due todemand in excess of the supply capacity.There is another less invasive and lesscostly possibility for rationalising visitorflows: compulsory booking. This is akind of queue, but has the advantagethat it can be managed a good deal inadvance. Moreover, visitors-tourists canbe spread out over longer periods, thusfavouring smoother tourist take-up alsoin other sectors such as the hotelindustry. Lastly, when faced with alengthy wait, tourists could be induced –through a dedicated awareness andinformation campaign – to organisetheir itineraries by choosing to visit theso-called minor museums, which areoften only minor in name.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 272

Chapter 1111.6 ConclusionsAs we have seen, the Italian culturalheritage is enormous and certainlydisproportionate to the scarce resourcesmade available by the public sector.Moreover, the cultural heritage is aboveall a resource for the country, ratherthan a self-contained phenomenon.Empirical studies and feasibility checksexclude the possibility that themanagement of the heritage could turnout to be a source of direct profits. Butits impact on the quality of life, industry,the craft sector and tourism is verypowerful and should be exploited morefully.The Italian conservation policy for thecultural heritage has achieved standardsof skills and competence that are enviedworldwide. What is less certain is ourcapacity to produce new culture throughmuseums, monuments and thelandscape. The scale of the potentialdemand for the cultural heritage, i.e. thevisitors and users, appears to beunderestimated and deserves moreflexible and accommodating taxmeasures.But the overriding problem is the needfor a change in outlook by the Ministryand politicians in general. Excessiveimportance is attached to the use andexpenditure of Ministry personnel andbudgets for redistribution purposeswhich creates lack of clarity in theassessment of a fair approach on anational scale. The Ministry for theHeritage and Cultural Activities is notthe Ministry for Welfare. Moreover, theMinisterial outlook is too narrowlyfocused on safeguarding the nationalheritage and shows little interest in theissue of producing new culture andpromoting the cultural industries.Changing the name from the “Ministryfor Culture” to the “Ministry for theHeritage and Cultural Activities” will bea pointless nominal exercise, if it is notfollowed up by a reform consisting ofhands-on actions. Nonetheless, it maybe the signal for an interesting change inapproach.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 273

Chapter 12Michelangelo Pistoletto “House on a human scale (minusobjects)” 1965-1966Wood and enamel, 200 x 100 x 120 cmFrom the exhibition: Le porte di Palazzo Fabroni, 1995 PistoiaPhotograph: A. Guaitoli

Chapter 12Chapter 12Architecture12.1 The creative sphere“Architecture… means the moulding andaltering to human needs of the very face ofthe earth itself, except in the outermostdesert” liiiIn the collective imagination, architectsare creatives par excellence, together withartists and designers. The product of thearchitect’s intellectual work is all aroundus. Architects mould the space we livein, give form to houses, cities andlandscapes. They meet people’s needsand desires for places in which to live,withdraw in solitude, meet others, work,be entertained, trade, study, or pray. Byresponding to social requirements andthe conditions of context, architectsleave an historical document, reflectingtheir age, system of knowledge, habitsand customs.And when the echo of mathematicalknowledge is figured in the landscape orin architecture, as in the Pantheon orHagia Sofia, or the narrative of peacefulcoexistence of different peoples isexpressed, as in the Bridge of Mostar,architecture represents cultures, theidentity of places and people whoinhabit them, and is a testimony to besafeguarded as a collective heritage.Arguably more than in any othercountry, in Italy architecture pervadesthe national culture. The country has asmany as 43 sites in the UNESCO WorldHeritage list and has acknowledged thevalue of its own landscape by protecting46% of the whole national territory.Moreover, Italy has pursued anextensive policy for the restoration andredevelopment of its own architecturalheritage.Italian creativity in architecture is adistinctive feature on the internationalscene. This solid reputation has beenbuilt up through the centuries thanks tothe work of exceptional architects and awidespread high-quality architecturalheritage, which has been universallyacknowledged by the experts anddeserves to be highlighted anddeveloped further.In addition to this indisputablereputation focusing world attention onour initiatives, the country has theinvaluable potential of numerous youngarchitects (49% of architects registeredwith the obligatory social insurance andpension fund are under 40), who havestarted up practices, investing energy,talent and money. This gives us a goodidea why the sector deserves specialattention in terms of defining strategiesand actions for the growth andinternational positioning of Italy in theeconomy of creativity and the culturalindustries. After years of stagnancy, thenumber of ideas and designWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 275

Chapter 12competitions are finally growing,offering opportunities to begin work onthe market. For young architecturalfirms, however, experimentation andregularly participation in competitionsrequires huge investments. Measures arerequired to develop the creativepotential of young architects, to removethe obstacles forcing them to fall backon well-tried solutions, and to ensurethey continue on the path of research byencouraging them to experiment andinnovate.12.2 Creativity andarchitectural qualityWho wants to live in an architecturalfolly? As in other sectors discussed inthis <strong>White</strong> Paper, in architecture, too,creativity is a fundamental input for theproduction of culture, a way of pursuingsocially shared values, and not an end initself. Pure formal innovation, not on ahuman scale nor respectful of the needsof users’ lives, gives rise to unliveablearchitecture. Pursuing noveltyexclusively for market requirements iseven more harmful, a gilded patina atthe service of pure speculation,irrespective of the damage to a localarea, environment and landscape, whichdeteriorates our quality of life. We allknow the kind of impact the large-scaleconstruction industry has on thelandscape or the disastrous results ofunregulated urban sprawl. Every day wesee congested chaotic cities in whichservices are inadequate, movementsdifficult, and the environment neglectedto such an extent that it undermines thehealth of city-dwellers.But creativity can supply new solutionsfor the harmonious insertion of newbuildings in historical contexts,landscapes and environments. It canencourage the pursuit of objectives witharchitectural and social quality. Whatinterests us here is innovation thatexperiments with new materials andbuilding techniques with due care toaspects such as durability and recycling.The materials chosen must not beharmful to the environment or people.Energy savings and environmentalsustainability must be pursued withoutendangering the health of those whowork on construction sites or in theproduction of materials. Functions mustbe designed and distributed alwaystaking into account the quality of socialrelations. Good architecture is aware ofhaving come into being at the interfacebetween (invisible) society and(observable) built reality and thereforedoes not simply interpret their historicalrelationship, narrated in the socialhistory of architecture, but knows thatdecisions and innovations at design levelaffect the kind of society produced.This kind of architectural creativitycannot pursue a development modelbased on extreme competition andcontinuous growth in consumption butaims to raise the quality of life in acontext of social equality andenvironmental sustainability. A newarchitecture which seems always to haveaccompanied us and therefore we areperfectly at ease with it.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 276

Chapter 12Architectural quality and sustainabledevelopment: an “Italian” wayThe lens of sustainability enables us tofocus beyond the usual horizon and tolook at the burden that will be left tofuture generations because of ouractions today. Through this lens we arerevising many aspects of our behaviourin search of that balance betweenstimulating economic development(economics), social equity (equity),respect for the environment (ecology),and the specificity of actions (culturaldiversity) which underlies the currentdefinition of the concept ofsustainabilityliv.The building sector is traditionallyconsidered to be a sector that driveseconomic development because itgenerates jobs and wealth. According toa recent CRESME report on the Italianarchitectural design market, in the 27European Union member states in 2005there were an estimated 900,000 firmsof architecture, engineering and otherrelated technical activitieslv employingover 2.6 million people with an overallturnover of 245 billion euros.Heating, cooling and illuminatinghouses and supplying energy to fridges,boilers, irons and televisions accountsfor around 30% of energy consumed inItaly and generates 30 to 40% of COemissions. The pairing of developmentand sustainability in this sector thustruly seems incongruous.To solve the apparent contradiction wemust widen our outlook to include athird dimension: architectural and urbanquality. Although the objective ofeconomic growth is to improve thequality of life and the well-being of thepopulation, this greatly depends on thequality of the places in which we live,work, trade or relax in our leisure time.If we look at the figures for growth andjobs in the building sector we noticethat they are purely quantitative. Theyreveal a concept of development whichignores the quality of the architectureand urban spaces being built. Thisquality is not the outcome of a simplesum of buildings, but is based on theircareful composition, which will includea sufficient amount of green spaces andplaces for meeting, social relations andservices. But urban quality also dependson its cultural and social value, andtherefore on the presence of services,the proportioning of spaces on a humanscale, the harmonious inclusion of builtareas in the landscape, rigorouslyprofessional building methods inmaking stable and enduringconstructions, the use of safe materialsfor human health and the abatement ofharmful emissions in the atmosphere.These are qualitative factors ofdevelopment and well-being which arepart of the values of a country butwhich unfortunately are not traded orvalued by the market and thereforecannot be measured and expressed inmonetary terms. In our widespreadperception this phenomenon tends togenerate an undervaluation of the goodsin question. Indeed, we feel justified inhabitually pursuing behaviour that hasdestructive effects on the environmentand the landscape in the name ofdevelopment, without assessing thedamage such behaviour causes to ourlife and that of future generations.In tackling the relationship betweendevelopment and sustainablearchitecture, we cannot simply limit theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 277

Chapter 12architecture, we cannot simply limit theissue to measuring energy savings inbuilding practice or the use ofrenewable sources of energy, althoughthey do contribute considerably toreducing energy requirements andharmful emissions. We must also bearin mind that quality architecture canprovide value added to a local area,instead of subtracting it, and that thisvalue can be enhanced for futuregenerations.The combination of three concepts –development, sustainability and quality– has been espoused by the EuropeanUnion. In 2001 at Gothenburg, theenvironmental dimension was includedin the European Lisbon strategy forgrowth and jobs and, in 2006,architectural and urban quality wasacknowledged as being a strategic factorfor development:“A high quality urban environmentcontributes to the priority of therenewed Lisbon Strategy to makeEurope a more attractive place to work,live and invest.” lviPublic policies to promote Italiancreativity in fostering qualityarchitecture can generate economicspin-offs. Architectural and urbanquality makes a positive contribution tothe international image of a country,which is perceived as being forwardlooking,vital and open to change, andcapable of attracting investments,intellectual resources and advancedfunctions. They in turn affect the qualityof life and well-being of its inhabitants.Take, for example Dubai, one of thefastest-growing cities in the world. In itsstrategic development architecture is akey factor in attracting investments.The spin-offs are difficult to quantify:we would have to calculate theundeniable benefits for tourism, forexample, as in the highly successful caseof Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museumin Bilbao. We would have to assess howmuch the success of Italian designdrives the furnishing and componentssector. But, most importantly, we wouldhave to calculate how far actionspromoting quality architecture, likethose for art and culture, affect theimage of the country and its lifestyle andtherefore indirectly contribute to thepositioning of all Italian products.Italian architects have acquired specificexpertise in the field of safeguardingand redeveloping the architecturalheritage and the harmonious inclusionof buildings in the landscape. Theconstruction of new buildings accordingto criteria of sustainable development isone of the most effective responses tothe need to optimise the use of energysources and reduce the degradation ofnatural environments. But it is equallytrue that redeveloping and restoring, asopposed to constructing new buildings,can involve less waste of resources. lviiThe experience gained by Italiandesigners in their continuousrelationship with historic architecturemeans that they always have thebenchmark of solutions devised byarchitects who could not rely on any oftoday’s energy sources.This invaluable rich heritage of expertiseand knowledge should be promoted anddeveloped on the international scene sothat Italian architects, who have hadexperience in this training ground andhave been tackling these themes fordecades, can forge an Italian way toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 278

Chapter 12sustainability. In this caseenvironmental sensibility reflects anattention to the landscape in which thecultural, architectural and local heritage,like natural and energy resources, areconsidered primary essential resourcesto be protected.12.3 The Italian modelItaly is a country of architects. Nomatter how we approach the analysisand comparisons with internationaldata, this is the conclusion. Figures for2006 published on the website of theConsiglio Nazionale ArchitettiPianificatori Paesaggisti Conservatori lviiireveal that Italy has the largest numberof architects registered with theprofessional order (123,083, one every470 inhabitants, compared to theEuropean average of 1 every 1,148) andthe largest number of architecturestudents (76,041, one every 761inhabitants, 5% of the Italian universitypopulation) in 17 faculties.Table 12.1 – Architecture students in EuropeCOUNTRYArchitecturestudentsRegisteredarchitectsArchitects/populationArchitecturestudents/populationArchitecturestudents/overallstudentsItaly 76,041 123,083 470 761 5%Germany 45,000 103,000 797 1,824 2%Spain 21,275 32,628 1,214 1,861 6%Uk 7,948 30,600 1,925 7,413 1%France 19,000 27,000 2,228 3,166 1%Greece 2,007 14,500 731 5,282 1%Belgium 6,880 10,500 973 1,485 3%Portugal 8,213 8,586 1,181 1,235 2%Netherlands 5,100 7,650 2,039 3,059 1%Denmark 2,048 6,500 815 2,588 1%Switzerland 2,581 6,200 1,177 2,828 3%Sweden 1,300 5,376 1,656 6,846 0%Norway 1,000 3,600 1,222 4,400 1%Austria 10,166 2,342 3,459 797 5%Ireland 650 2,300 1,584 5,606 1%Finland 1,400 2,280 2,257 3,675 1%TOTAL 210,609 386,145 1,005 1,842 2%The architectural cultural debate is verylively in Italy and involvesinternationally renowned historians andcritics. The country hosts the mostimportant exhibition of worldarchitecture: the Venice Biennale. In2008 the eleventh edition dedicated tothe theme of Out There: ArchitectureBeyond Building, under the directionof Aaron Betsky, attracted over130,000 visitors for the duration of justover two months.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 279

Chapter 12According to ISTAT website, in 2005,1,098 works of architecture and urbanplanning were published in Italy,accounting for 1.8% of nationalpublishing. lix The “Avery Index toArchitectural Periodicals” in the libraryof Columbia University lists as many as18 Italian reviews on the subject. Avery high figure considering thenumber of similar publications in otherlanguages: 5 in French, 7 in German, 6in Japanese, 6 in Spanish, and 14 inEnglish. Similarly, the online indices ofthe Royal Institute of British Architects(RIBA), London, has as many as 14Italian reviews. lxThe site of the Consiglio Nazionaledegli Architetti Paesaggisti Pianificatorie Conservatori lxi lists 14 internationalItalian architecture awards, 3 Europeanawards, and 11 national awards, makinga total of 28. Again this is a very largenumber, considering that the countrieswith the largest number of total awardsin Europe are France and the UK with19 and 18, respectively. Italy is part of asmall group of nations whose architectshave been awarded major internationalprizes: Renzo Piano and Aldo Rossiwere awarded the Pritzker Prize lxii in1998 and 1990, respectively, and RenzoPiano and Giancarlo De Carlo theRIBA Gold Medal, lxiii in 1989 and 1994,respectively. In 2002 Renzo Piano alsoreceived the International Union ofArchitects (UIA) prize. lxivOf the countries with architectsawarded the Pritzker Prize, created in1979, Italy, together with Brazil andFrance is one of the few to have twoaward-wining architects. The onlynations with more than two are Japan(3), the UK (4) and the USA (8).Figure 12.1 Pritzker Prizes 1979-2008 by country US1 1 1 1 UKJapan81Brazil1France1Italy1Spain1Portugal14Netherlands2Norway223MexicoGermanyDenmarkA survey conducted in 2004 by theDepartment for Architecture andContemporary Art of the Ministry forthe Heritage and Cultural Activities onworks built abroad by Italian architectsfrom 1999-2003, listed around 200WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 280

Chapter 12works published in at least five of aselection of leading internationalreviews.Massimiliano Fuksas, Gae Aulenti andBenedetta Tagliabue are three examplesof Italian architects considered to be“archistars”, and who design buildingsworldwide. These designers have oftenbuilt up their reputations abroadbecause for a long time Italianarchitects had to seek their fortune inother countries, where they were giventhe opportunity to build.Given the great popularity ofarchitecture in Italy, the standard ofacademic debate, its acknowledgedquality and the number of architects, itis surprising to find that in 2008 noItalian firm figured among the “Top100 practices” worldwide in terms ofsize and turnover, a classification(World Architecture 2008) publishedyearly by Building Design web site. lxvThe first ten positions are occupied byBritish (5), US (4) and Japanese (1)firms.Figure 12.2 Top 100 architectural practices11 1 1 1 11 1111223403445620Sw edenKuw aitNetherlandsFranceSw itzerlandMexicoIndiaVietnamAustriaSpainUAEIrelandBelgiumChinaDenmarkJapanGermanyCanadaAustraliaUKUSASource: World Architecture 2008To understand why no Italian firmcurrently competes with the likes ofFoster & Partners (ranked 5th) andSkidmore Owings and Merril (ranked6th), which achieve such highinternational standards, we only needWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 281

Chapter 12consider the data for the dominantmodel of architectural firm in Italy. Wehave the largest number of registeredarchitects in Europe – 128,083(CNA) lxvi – and of technical firms –253,377 (Eurostat 2007), i.e. one forevery 228 inhabitants. But there areonly 27 large firms, i.e. with more than250 employees (CRESME 2008); 135medium to large firms (50-249employees); 343 average firms (20-49employees), and 1,074 with 10-19employees. There is a large number ofsmall firms (29,866 with 2-9employees) but the vast majority aresole practitioners (221,932 accountingfor 87.58% of the total), which lowersthe national average of the employeesper company to 1.4 – not much morethan 1.This widespread model means thatarchitectural and engineering firms aremainly of a small size. Most architectsaspire to having their own individualpractice. Multidisciplinary firms ofarchitecture and engineering are rareand at most there are firms ofassociated architects.For a brief comparison we can look atthe models in other Europeancountries. France, which has a similarpopulation size to Italy, has 27,000registered architects, less than a quarterof Italian architects. There are 130firms with more than 250 employeesand 526 medium-large firms (50-249employees), which is four times theequivalent number in Italy, and theaverage employees per firm is 5.6.In the United Kingdom there are30,600 registered architects, 128 largefirms, 566 medium-large firms, and anaverage employees per firm of 6.3.Table 12.2 – Firms of architecture, engineering and related activities in EuropeEmployees Firms PopulationFirms/PopulationTurnover(million €)Employees/FirmUK 384,731 58,724 60 1,021.7 47,554 6.6France 333,657 80,600 60.6 751.9 45,752 4.1Germany 416,587 91,688 82.5 899.8 36,409 4.5Italy 361,439 253,377 58.5 230.9 27,367 1.4Spain 265,097 100,236 38.2 381.1 20,605 2.6Netherlands 111,579 17,125 16.3 951.8 11,827 6.5Sweden 72,668 31,189 9 288.6 7,908 2.3Denmark 39,135 5,917 5.4 912.6 6,437 6.6WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 282

Chapter 12Figure 12.3 Technical firms by size ( from 10 to + 250 )DenmarkSwedenItalyNetherlandsSpainGermanyUKFrance0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 500010 -19 20- 49 50-249 +250Figure 12.4 Technical firms by size (1-9 employees)DenmarkNetherlandsSwedenUKGermanyFranceSpainItaly0 50000 100000 150000 200000 2500001 2-9WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 283

Chapter 12There is undoubtedly a relationshipbetween size of firm and investment inresearch and development, andtherefore innovation andcompetitiveness. Clearly with the Italianmodel of firm, architects encounterdifficulty in innovating. For the samereason they find it hard to participate ininternational competitions and tenders,partly because they run into obstaclesdue to shortcomings in information,language skills and in understandinglocal regulatory frameworks. Someuseful information for practising inEurope is available on the site of theConsiglio Nazionale ArchitettiPianificatori Paesaggisti Conservatori lxviibut the Ministry for Foreign Tradecurrently does not provide supportabroad for architects who take part ininternational competitions becausearchitectural firms are not classed ascommercial enterprises.Market and ReputationBut a reputation in architecture is notachieved only on the grounds ofturnover and number of employees, thecriteria used by the Building Designranking in which few architecturalpractices are mentioned for the qualityof their research and experimentation.In the top 100, in addition to Foster &Partners (Pritzker 1999 and RIBA GoldMedal 1983), ranked 5th, and OMA –Rem Koolhas (Pritzker 2000 and RIBAGold Medal 2004), 40th, we findHerzog & De Meuron (Pritzker 2001and RIBA Gold Medal 2007), 51st,Grimshaw 71st, Chipperfield 76th andCoop Himmelblau 83rd.But there are no other architects whohave won major international awards,such as the Pritzker Prize, the RIBAGold Medal, or the UIA Prize. Amongthose missing are Frank Gehry (Pritzker1989, RIBA 2000), Renzo Piano(Pritzker 1998, RIBA 1989 and UIA2002), Zaha Hadid (Pritzker 2004),Tadao Ando (Pritzker and UIA 2005and RIBA 1997) Richard Rogers(Pritzker 2007 and RIBA 1985) and JeanNouvel (Pritzker 2008 and RIBA 2001).When the criteria change and weconsider the reputation of practices inthe classification of the Top 100 “mostadmired practices”, again in the 2008World Architecture, we find that RenzoPiano is ranked second, after NormanFoster, and the top ten names includeHerzog & De Meuron, SantiagoCalatrava and Frank Gehry.Significantly, we find Herzog & DeMeuron and Norman Foster in bothrankings and the latter features on thecover of the review as “Mr. Motivator”.This testifies to the fact that these firmsreconcile experimentation and businessorganisation.It is equally significant that Renzo Pianois admired because of his innovativesolutions aimed at improving the qualityof life, respect for the environment, andthe reduction of harmful emissions inthe atmosphere. His reputation is basedon the Italian model of creativity whichpursues objectives such as sociallyshared architectural quality endowedwith value and has a vision thatinterprets the context to createinnovative works inserted harmoniouslyin the historical, landscape andenvironmental context.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 284

Chapter 1212.4 The bricks of creativity“The architect must be a prophet. . . aprophet in the true sense of the term. . . if hecan't see at least ten years ahead don't callhim an architect.”F. L. WrightTo identify what kind of policies mayencourage the creative development ofarchitects, we must analyse the contextof their activity, which is much differentfrom that of artists, who in expressingtheir own personal poetics areconditioned by fewer elements –materials, techniques and financing.Firstly, we must remember that the termarchitect covers various figures, whooperate and change the space in whichwe live at various levels, from region tohome, or to quote a famous phrase“from the spoon to the city”. Architectsshape the environment of our everydaylife and work through urban planningand the redevelopment of historicalcentres, landscape layout, parks andgardens. They deal with the restorationof historic architecture to be handeddown to the future generations, andmany other activities such as museuminstallations, archaeological sites, placesto live in, ships, trains, aeroplanes,yachts, and even furnishings anddesigner objects.Often one person has several skills:designer-architects like Gio Ponti,architect-engineers like Sergio Calatrava,Pierluigi Nervi, Riccardo Morandi andSergio Musmeci, or polymaths likeRenzo Piano, who has designedmuseums, cruise ships, an artificialisland for the airport of Osaka, themasterplan for the development of theGenoa waterfront (the so-called“Fresco”), and even work surfaces forkitchens. Today leading architecturalpractices include figures who are simplyclassed as “creatives”. lxviiiAn architect’s creativity is conditionedby many factors, which are at the sametime the initial ideas and conditions fordesign research.Context – A work of architecture beginsfrom the client’s requirements and thevariables of context and regulations.Architects shape space which is lived inby others and interpret and respond tothe desires and requirements of publicor private users. They have to providesolutions for other people’s desires andprogrammes. The work may becommissioned to represent an externalimage, a political programme andtherefore is the expression of power, aplace to find peace and quiet, culturalstimuli, etc. The nature and location ofthe site strongly condition designchoices: i.e. the position and geometryof the site, the landscape andsurrounding context, the climatic andenvironmental conditions, the energyresources and material available forconstruction and functioning. Limits tocreative freedom are imposed by thecurrent legislation and restraints aimedat defending collective interests: urbanplanning rules and building regulations,technical and anti-earthquake standards,the safeguarding of cultural goods in thelandscape, and guarantees for access toall citizens.The collective dimension – Architectureis practised in a social context. Thearchitect-client relationship is rarelyone-to-one, unless it involves a housedesign for a single person. The creativeWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 285

Chapter 12result of the design process is theproduct of collective thinking in whichthe various individual contributionscannot be distinguished in the finaloutcome. The creative design process israrely carried out by only one person.Much more often the design comes intobeing from the continuous exchangingof ideas in a multidisciplinary teammade up of architects, engineers,installation engineers, environmentalengineers, and from the dialogue withstakeholders, which can range from asingle family to a nation, in the case ofbuildings of collective interest. Thework of each of these experts,designers, technicians, and clientscontributes to the overall creation: see,for example, the role of technicalinstallations in the image of thePompidou Centre and the consequencesin terms of form in the solutions toreduce energy consumption and CO2emissions in Richard Rogers’environmentally sustainable buildings.Investments – Creativity presupposesinvestments in time and resources.Building a work of architecture involveslarge finances and therefore cannot beimprovised. The design path fromdesigning to constructing a buildingruns along a ridge dividing the twoslopes of art and technology.Architectural solutions are not only theoutcome of research into form, but areconditioned by the principles ofengineering, technology and availablematerials; innovative materials oftenrequire research and developmentactivities.All the variables and consequences ofinnovation can be foreseen beforehandthrough research, calculations andpreliminary tests. Innovation hasrepercussions throughout theproduction chain. The constructionindustry must adapt and skilled workersmust be trained. If the production chainfails to respond to the new inputs, thenthe work cannot be built.Long-term vision – One of architects’main objectives is to represent theirown time. Their creative actions mustinnovate, make something that does notyet exist, prefigure. Often by startingfrom existing elements, architectsintuitively pick up on a new trend andgive it practical form. But given the leadtime from design to construction, theymust reckon with a very long periodbetween an idea and its realisation. Thearchitect must thus anticipate, orprefigure a space today for therequirements of tomorrow, taking intoaccount the long-time scale forconstruction.12.5 The wings of creativity“Without that element of uncertainty and thatfeeling of setting off on a journey towards theunknown, there can be no progress.”Zaha HadidAs we saw in Chapter 12.1, studies haveshown that a culturally creative milieufosters the production of good ideasand that a creative process is stronglyinfluenced by the environment in whichit develops. But the more the culturalmilieu is interdisciplinary andstimulating, open to new ideas, free anduncoerced and therefore capable ofencouraging the intrinsic motivation ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 286

Chapter 12individuals, then the greater theproduction of talents.In order to foster a climate thatencourages creativity we must reflect onthe factors which in some waycontribute to “stifling” it: culturalobstacles due to individuals’ tendency toconform to present standards andeconomic difficulties forcing them toaccept far from ideal workingconditions or unavoidable excessiverestrictions. Similarly, there areintellectual or emotional obstacles andan incapacity to renew. All of thesefactors force architects into a“conservative” attitude, to repeat ratherthan innovate – just as some peoplereplicate the model of their parents’house.In the architectural world, the economicinterests at stake and pressure due tospeculative interests exercise a greatinfluence. Anyone wishing to optimiseprofits calculates costs and benefits veryaccurately ahead of the project, andtherefore tends to play safe and avoidrisks.Architects with strong personalities whoare tenacious and very able in handlingrelations manage to overcome thesefactors and convince clients to set outon the risky road of innovation. Andthey must continue to defend theirchoices at every crucial stage until thebuilding is completed. This attitude issummed up in a famous film icon whichhas influenced more than onegeneration: in Fountainhead, inspired bythe life of Frank Lloyd Wright, GaryCooper plays an architect who destroyshis buildings because his designs havebeen warped by changes to formintroduced by the client.But if we wish to promote quality andinnovation on a wider scale, we cannotonly count on strong personalities,capable of overcoming conservativetendencies thanks to their charisma. Wemust promote models which encouragecreativity and foster the acceptation ofinnovation. This is the way to removethose “obstacles” found at everycrossroads which force designers to fallback on familiar ways rather thanventuring into the at times obscure andnot easily traversed territory ofcreativity.To foster a climate more favourable tocreativity, we must ensure that architectsare not penalised when they experimentand innovate but, on the contrary, areencouraged.Quality public commissionsThe great innovative works come intobeing through collaboration withrefined clients, who have a clear visionof the needs for visibility and prestigeand are interested in conveying animage reflecting a spirit of innovation.But clients can also be influenced by thelatest tastes and trends. Seeinginnovative ideas applied with goodquality results makes potential clientsbolder. Even though the press at timeshype up controversy surrounding therole of “archistars”, often foreignerswho are commissioned works to thedetriment of Italian architects, we mustbear in mind the positive impact ofthese operations on taste and oninducing customers to “open up to thenew”. Seeing that the innovative ideasof pioneers, of the more courageousvisionary architects, are accepted canmake designers bolder and build upWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 287

Chapter 12their self-confidence. Commissioningwell-known contemporary architects todesign low-cost housing in France hasled to liveable quarters which, in turn,are fresh sources of inspiration for otherarchitects.The diffusion of ideasArchitects’ studios are crammed withbooks and reviews, providing examplesfrom which to approach the conceptionof a new work. The continuous dialoguewith previously built works is not basedon a banal “sample book” of solutions.It is a source of creative inspiration andalso serves as the basis for interpersonalcommunications. In dealing with theworld of forms and creative activity,shared by others, architects engage incommunications informed by modelsand references to the works of greatmasters, to contemporary works theyhave visited, drawn and photographed.Publications and reviews are tools in thedesign process, as is the continuousdialogue between an idea and itsrepresentation, elaborated in sketches,designs, models, numeric models,prototypes and projections ontodifferent scales.One of the most significant ways tofoster communications is to promotepublic meetings in which architects canshow their projects and describe thegenesis of the creative process.As regards sources and models, thesafeguarding and conservation ofarchitectural archives is of vitalimportance and these kinds of resourcesmust not be dispersed. Designs are thematerial evidence of the intangiblecreative process. Through the eyes ofthe architects who study them, they aregiven new life and inject fresh sap intothe creative process.Expos, architecture exhibitions andBiennialsMajor exhibitions and shows of highstandardarchitecture attracting largenumbers of visitors, such as the SãoPaulo International Biennial ofArchitecture in Brazil, or the morecelebrated Venice Biennale (in 2008 itattracted over 130,000 visitors in justover two months) contribute to makingknown the results of the latest researchand experimentation also to a lessspecialist audience.Quality architectural exhibitions areextraordinary opportunities to exploreongoing experimentation. Theyencourage optimism in designers, whosee that it is possible to construct newforms, and contribute to fosteringcuriosity and interest. They are thus afertile ground for ideas and inspirearchitects to adopt a bolder approach toexperimentation.In addition to the big architectureexhibitions, there are also events such asExpos (e.g. Seville and Valencia) andvarious festivals also intended for awider public, such as the Festival ofArchitecture in London, when thewhole city is invaded by exhibitions,performances, installations, meetings,discussions, workshops, guided walks,concerts, lectures and animations.CompetitionsArchitectural competitions are a meansto stimulating competition andcreativity, and help produce high-qualityWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 288

Chapter 12designs. Exchanging ideas brings outthe best solutions and highlightsinnovation. Although the long-awaitedItalian law on architectural and urbanquality has still not been approved,thanks to the intense promotion workby the Ministry for the Heritage andCultural Activities and the professionalorders, the number of competitions inItaly has risen considerably: from 19 in1995 to 223 in 2007. lxixFigure 12.5 Number of competitions in Italy per year25020018722318515010079500483219410 17 18 2811995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007The chance to build a projectToday experimentation does not pay.Taking part in competitions involveshuge expenditure for architecturalpractices and not all of them can affordit. Moreover, even if they do manage towin the competition, the chances ofactually constructing the building areeven remoter.Although the number of competitionshas risen considerably in recent years,the percentage of works constructedfrom prize-winning designs is still verylow. This discourages many designers,especially since competition prizes arefairly insignificant and do not cover thecosts involved. Architectural firms thusreckon that the business risk inparticipating is too high. Nothingcomparable happens in other Europeancountries. For example, in France,designers are chosen on the basis oftheir curriculum and those admitted tothe competition stage receive apayment to cover the costs ofdesigning a quality work. In Italy theprocess requires improving, alsothrough the use of feasibility studiesand financial cover for the worksentered in competitions to ensure thatarchitects are encouraged toexperiment and innovate.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 289

Chapter 12Architecture prizesThe way to create the right climatefostering creativity and motivatingarchitects to pursue creative processes ispublic acknowledgement of the value oftheir creative work for the collectivity.The most obvious way is to reward theresults: boldness in breaking withconvention and looking beyondeconomic difficulties and culturalconditioning should be rewarded.In Italy there are many architectureprizes awarded according to criteria ofthe effective innovative character ofdesigns. They encourage architects notto fall back on stereotype models but toinvest time and money in trying out newsolutions. The prizes are an incentiveand trigger off mechanisms of positiveemulation, especially since innovation isa winning card in making a name incompetitions.Among Italian prizes promoting qualitythroughout the country are the OderzoPrize, which is based on the opinion ofa network of experts who bringattention to quality works in Italy, andthe Dedalo Minosse Prize, awarded toclients whose names are put forward byarchitects and engineers on the groundsof the works they have commissioned.TrainingBecoming an architect requires manyyears of study and practice. A buildingmust satisfy the client’s requirementsand programme, be enduring and solid,and comply with regulations. Architectsmust learn various artistic and technicalskills: from drawing (the wholeconception process requires the capacityto represent ideas) to a knowledge ofthe history of architecture (enablingdesigners to compare their ideas withsolutions already adopted in the past),the capacity to analyse and understandthe social and economic dimension ofthe work, an ability to negotiate,mathematical skills and technicalexpertise. Training usually takes placethrough the transmission by an expertto a student of the design processthrough cases handled by the firm.Starting from the initial conditions (site,programme and budget) the teachertrains the student through simulationsof real cases which as training proceedsbecome increasingly complex. Othersubjects studied gradually built upexpertise in solving technologicalaspects, which often influence theformal solutions. Architects graduallylearn how to move faster through thedecision-making process, identifying thedead-ends and the parts requiring moretime or consulting from qualifiedexperts. Encouragement must be givento forms of training which take intoaccount flexibility, stimulate the questfor innovation and encourage new ideas.The intercultural dimensionArchitects usually travel, photograph,draw, annotate and frenetically fill theirtravelogues with sketches of places theyhave visited. They thus accumulatedetails, technological solutions,decorative elements and sketched plans.These tools of analysis record ideas thatcan come back to mind and be reelaboratedwhen working on designs.Some critics have dubbed today’s youngItalian architects as the “Erasmusgeneration”, since they share theexperience of having spent studyWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 290

Chapter 12periods abroad thanks to exchange andstudy stays or the Leonardo programmeenabling them to gain practice in foreignfirms. These are great opportunities forpersonal development and architectsbenefit from the rich stimuli inexperiencing different cultures. Thisvery useful mobility can be furtherencouraged by moves to abolish residualobstacles to exercising the professionabroad.Research and technologicalinnovation: architecture and patentsInnovative architectural solutions arepossible thanks to research andtechnological innovation, the use ofspecialised talents, experimenting in newmaterials and building techniques andthe parallel development of newtechnologies. Innovation is alsoconditioned by progress in research andother specialist disciplines, such asmathematics, engineering, materialsciences and information andcommunications technology. Researchin other sectors, for example, hasrevolutionised the design and control ofform. Drafting machines, pencils andink have now been abandoned asarchitects design with the computer.CAD has revolutionised the designprocess.Form and structural solutions areinseparable aspects of designing, andtoday the technical level is verysophisticated. Innovating is difficult,therefore, without the collaboration ofstructural engineers. The mostcelebrated include Peter Rice and OveArup. If we look at one “classic”example, we see that the large tensilestructures created by Frei Otto for theroofs of the Olympic Park in Munich in1972, were designed and developedthanks to research carried out at theInstitut für Leichte Flächentragwerke(“Institute for Lightweight Structures”)at the Technisch Universitat, Stuttgart.In fact tensile structures cannot bedesigned on the drawing table using theusual formal criteria for composition.Experimentation on wire modelssubmerged in a soap solution led to thecreation of the form of the roof, whosesurface tensions are reduced to aminimum.The means of representation are alsoreflected in the architectural product.The continuous exchanges in the designprocess require tools of analysis andcontrol: drawings and sketches andphysical or virtual models inform theexchange of ideas, dialogue, and thecommunications to those constructingthe work. In time these instrumentshave also changed: from guidelinescarved in stone, palimpsests, drawingson <strong>paper</strong> and models to software forrepresentation and rendering or forcalculations and sizing structures.Today the final result of using verycomplex forms can be envisioned andchecked, whereas previously it was verydifficult to represent them. FrankGehry, for example, built one of hisworks thanks to a sophisticatedsoftware which produced a formalsolution, processed by means of a threedimensionalmodel which was graduallytransformed into a numeric model toallow the structural calculations andrepresentation to be made.Some solutions can be repeated andtherefore patented. lxx For example,Herzog & De Meuron, who are at theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 291

Chapter 12top of the rankings both for reputationand size-turnover, have taken out manypatents of various kinds, from silkscreen prints on concrete, to structures,and cladding fabrics. The firm’s researchis continuously associated withindustrial production and the idea ofexporting the solution. The stage ofcreation and experimentation does notgenerate a one-off product but is gearedto generating products and resultswhich can be repeated.It would be interesting to conduct aresearch on the number of patentsregistered in Italy. The initial data wehave analysed, however, suggests thatItalian architectural creativity is of acraft kind, associated with the model ofthe individual studio run by an expertpractitioner.There is an undeniable relationshipbetween firm size, investment inresearch and development and thereforeinnovation and competitiveness. Thewidespread Italian model does notencourage the kind of dialogue betweenresearch and the production of newmaterials, building systems andinnovative solutions which in otherEuropean countries has produced alarge number of patents. The Italianmodel cannot be changed in the shortterm but a number of measures can beintroduced to create more favourableconditions and to concentrate energiesin strategic sectors. This can be done bypromoting the creation of andsupporting centres of excellencefocused on research andinterdisciplinary experimentationapplied to the sector and aimed atdeveloping innovative solutions gearedto market requirements. These must beopen structures so that they providesupport for architects designingdemanding complex works and act asreference centres to which firms canturn for specific research requirements.The size of Italian firms makes itdifficult for them to achieve the criticalmass required to compete at global levelin the sector of new constructions. Butthere are fields in which we havedeveloped expertise and have built up apool of knowledge that can make asignificant contribution to globalresearch and innovation. One exampleis the traditional sector of restorationand the innovative field of the relationsbetween the redevelopment of historicalarchitecture and energy savings. Varioussolutions have emerged and can befurther studied and elaborated from thepoint of view of research andcontemporary models.Given the high percentage of youngarchitects working in the country, Italyhas a great potential: 49% of architectsregistered with Inarcassa (the obligatoryarchitects insurance and pension fund)are under 40, and as many as 22,416(which is not far off 27,000, the totalnumber of French architects) or 22%,are under 36. These young architects areonly just setting up in practice, investingenergy, talent and money.A recent competition promoted by theDepartment for Landscape Quality andConservation, Architecture and theContemporary Arts for a selectionworks to be shown at the LondonArchitecture Biennial 2008 attracteddesigns of very high average standard.In just over a month, 170 works weresent in (more of a third had been built)on the theme of sustainability and theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 292

Chapter 12harmonious insertion of architecturalworks in the Italian landscape. Afteryears of stagnancy, ideas and designcompetitions are offering many moreopportunities for young architects towork on the market after making aname for themselves with high-qualitycompetition entries. Unfortunately,however, far too often the winningprojects are never built.Engaging in experimentation and takingpart regularly in competitions involveshuge investments for youngarchitectural firms. But constructing theworks of the prize-winners rewardstheir investments in research andenables emerging firms to grow andreinvest in research. Measures todevelop the creative potential of youngarchitects and remove the obstaclesforcing them to fall back on well-triedsolutions can ensure they continue onthe path of research by encouragingexperimentation and innovation.12.6 ConclusionsGiven the high percentage of youngarchitects working in the country, Italyhas a great potential: 49% of architectsregistered with Inarcassa (the obligatoryarchitects insurance and pension fund)are under 40, and as many as 22,416(which is not far off 27,000, the totalnumber of French architects) or 22%,are under 36. These young architects areonly just setting up in practice, investingenergy, talent and money.A recent competition promoted by theDepartment for Landscape Quality andConservation, Architecture and theContemporary Arts for a selectionworks to be shown at the LondonArchitecture Biennial 2008 attracteddesigns of very high average standard.In just over a month, 170 works weresent in (more of a third had been built)on the theme of sustainability and theharmonious insertion of architecturalworks in the Italian landscape.The younger generations of Italianarchitects thus show great potential.Supporting them through developmentmeasures that remove the obstaclesforcing them to fall back on well-triedsolutions could ensure they continue onthe path of research and encouragethem to experiment and innovate. Therecommendations at the end of thisbook outline the principal objectivesand actions to be taken, which can bebriefly grouped into five kinds ofmeasures.1. Encouraging creativity. The road tofostering a culturally lively andstimulating climate, encouragingcreativity and motivating architects topursue creative paths, must be pavedwith initiatives promoting qualitycontemporary architecture: debates,conferences and meetings featuringcontemporary architects, exhibitions,architectural biennials and expos. Wemust also pursue forms of training thatstimulate innovation and encourage newideas, also on the basis of experiencesinvolving intercultural exchanges. Thismeans supporting mobility andremoving residual obstacles topractising the profession abroad.2. Creating new opportunities. Majorinnovative works are the outcome ofworking with refined clients interestedin conveying an image reflecting theirinterest in innovation. But clients areWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 293

Chapter 12also conditioned by taste and currenttrends. Excellent buildings and publicdebate on new works influence theculture of potential clients and theirwillingness to accept novelty. Fosteringa climate generating new opportunitiesfor young architects also requires publicacknowledgement of the value ofcreative works. Meetings and eventsmust be open to a non-specialist public,supplemented with teaching activities inschools and communicated for use bythe contemporary media.Public-sector clients play an importantrole, as does encouraging the practice ofdesign competitions. Comparing ideasstimulates competitiveness andcreativity. It brings out the bestsolutions and highlights the mostinnovative, thus improving the chancesof commissions to build contemporaryworks being given to quality architects.3. Rewarding innovation. The courageto break down the barriers ofentrenched practice and overcomeeconomic difficulties and culturalconditioning must be rewarded. Thesekinds of actions include design prizesand awards for enlightened clients, butalso actually constructing the works incompetitions, which thus rewards thosewho have invested in research andenables emergent practices to continueto experiment. For a youngarchitectural practice, systematicallytaking part in competitions involveshuge outlays, but in Italy far too oftenthe prize-wining projects are neveractually built. This process must beimproved, also through the use offeasibility studies and financial cover fordesigns entered in competitions.4. Instruments and mechanisms tosupport research and technologicalinnovation. The widespread Italianmodel does not encourage the kind ofdialogue between research and theproduction of new materials, buildingsystems and innovative solutions whichin other European countries hasproduced a large number of patents.The Italian model cannot be changed inthe short term but a number ofimprovements can be made to createmore favourable conditions, such aspromoting the creation of andsupporting centres of excellencefocused on research andinterdisciplinary experimentation.Similarly, energies can channelled intothe strategic sectors in which we havebuilt up the kind of expertise that canmake a considerable contribution toglobal research and innovation, as forexample in the sector of restoration orthe innovative field of the relationbetween redeveloping historicarchitecture and energy savings.5. Launch action programmes atinternational level for Italianarchitectural creativity. Italian architectsencounter difficulties in participating ininternational competitions and tenders,due to shortcomings in information,language skills and in understandinglocal regulatory frameworks. PrizewinningItalian architects in majorinternational competitions cancontribute to improving Italy’s overallreputation and be a driving force forItalian firms in the sector. Goodsupport could be provided by thecreation of “bridgeheads” in the mostdynamic countries. They could have thetask of making updated sector studies,supplying local support for constructionWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 294

Chapter 12work, linking up and integrating variousItalian operators, and informing in goodtime about forthcoming opportunities.The candidature of Italian sites ofmodern contemporary architecture forthe UNESCO World Heritage Listcould be an important action forpromotion both at national andinternational level.The above-mentioned support actions,if co-ordinated systematically, especiallyat international level, could generatespin-offs for cultural tourism and forother major export-driven sectors.They could yield considerable results,because they are focused on a sector inwhich Italy enjoys an excellentreputation thanks to its history, culturalheritage and past and present architectswho have won international fame. Inshort, Italian architecture holds somewinning cards for the internationalpositioning of our country in theeconomy of creativity and the culturalindustries: a very high reputation to bedefended, talents that must not bewasted, expertise in specialist sectorswith little competition from othercountries, a high standard scientific andcultural debate, and an exceptionallandscape and architectural context justwaiting to be put to good use. It is onlya question of taking action, but asquickly as possible.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 295

Chapter 13Michelangelo Pistoletto - “Turkish Bath” 1962-1971Screen print on polished reflecting stainless steel, 70 x 100 cm

Chapter 13Chapter 13The Performing Arts: The powerless stage13.1 The performing arts andcreativity : introductoryremarksOpera definitely occupies anoutstanding position among thesymbols of Italy. Music historians tracethe birth of opera and many of its majordevelopments to Italy and Italiancomposers, from Claudio Monteverdi tothe protagonists of 19th-century musicup to contemporary composers whoattract considerable interest, also on theinternational market.A combination of various art forms,opera is the sum of several creativestages. It is a striking example of whatalso occurs in all areas of theperforming arts, from symphonic andchamber music to ballet, modern andcontemporary dance and drama. In factmany kinds of artists and technicians areinvolved in staging an opera. They alluse their own particular creative skills todefine the content and methods ofproducing the final result, thuscontributing to the creation of itsoverall value.A composer’s activity is undoubtedlycreative (like that of a playwright orchoreographer), but it is only thestarting point for a logical sequence offurther stages. In fact the skeleton ofthe product is built up through strategicchoices usually made from a range ofpossible options. In this way much ofthe performers’ contribution involvesinterpretation and this gives new valueto the original work through its creativereinterpretation. Staging an opera is thusa typical example of creativeinterpretation, and in fact in severalcases reference is made to the stagedirector rather than the composer (e.g.Visconti’s La Traviata, Zeffirelli’s LaBohème, or Ronconi’s Aida).But in opera as in other performing arts,creativity features as an important inputright from the preparatory technicalstages: through the design and makingof set and costumes, whose technicalproduction is often the outcome ofcreative innovations in terms of theprocess or the product. The chief stagetechnician at the Teatro della Pergola inFlorence lxxi is the heir of technicalknowledge handed down almostthrough initiation as regards theconstruction of the stage hammers,whose blend, processing and creationwere secret. This equipment was thenexported worldwide on the grounds oftheir unique nature and their capacity toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 297

Chapter 13place creative invention at the service ofspecific functional needs.Similarly, the interior structure of atheatre owes its quality to a combinationof technology and aesthetics in whichthe creative components are crucialboth in elaborating technical solutionsand designing the appearance of theauditorium. Having spread throughoutthe country, the so-called Italian-styletheatre (i.e. with stacked semi-circles ofboxes round oval-shaped stalls), is oneof the most important treasures of thenational heritage. From the Teatro dellaPergola, which was declared a nationalmonument by Mussolini, to the host ofsmall-size theatres scattered throughoutthe country, especially in towns inTuscany, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna,these theatres are an excellent exampleof the typically Italian blend ofcraftsmanship, decoration, aestheticinvention and technical skill.The tiny Teatro di Bibbiena in theprovince of Arezzo, restored in the late1990s, today appears exactly as when itwas built in the 18th century: itsbalusters, bulging columns, parapets andstairs are an exact reproduction of theoriginal stone structure but made offibreglass. Non-deformable andenduring, this reconstruction materialhas preserved the style of the originaltheatre. Only by touching the columnsdo theatre-goers realise that they arelooking at a new combination oftraditional forms and innovativematerials.The performing arts is thus one of thesectors in which creativity is expressedin a variety of forms and ways, and forwhich it is a significant indispensableinput. This applies not only toindividual creative skills but also to thefecundity of the whole system in whichcreative ideas find an effective groundfor their systematic development. But tofacilitate the systematic gelling ofcreativity, we must not only focus onindividual talents. We must alsostructure the institutional framework,the working methods of the productionsystem and the distribution network forcultural products. The following analysisaims at highlighting the major profiles inthe performing arts sector in order toindicate its strengths and critical pointsbefore going on to suggest some simpleguidelines for enhancing the value anddevelopment of creativity.13.2 Opera, Italiana ma nontroppoOpera came into being in 16th-centurycourts as a complex cultivated stagedspectacle and then developed from thelate 18th-century as a more popular artform. It has all the ingredients to attractvast mixed audiences because of itsfinely-honed immediacy in describingsentiments and dramatising theirdynamics. Audiences in the 19th centurywere so strongly attracted to opera thatproductions were even packaged intouring versions to visit towns withouttheatres: the Carro di Tespi travelledround the country with operacompanies and productions ofdebatable quality, but satisfied thedemand for the emotional involvementprovided by theatre. In future thisdemand was to be met by film,WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 298

Chapter 13photostories, soap operas and televisionserials.The 19th-century middle-class attendedopera houses, transforming the prerevolutionarymusic academies intomeeting places for fashionable society.Recently composed operas were usuallystaged with entr’actes of dance andconjuring. In the foyer, the heads offamily played chemin-de-fer thus boostingthe finances of the impresario, whoseskill lay in bringing in singers popularwith audiences and introducing clevergambling ploys. Opera was the symbolichabitat of the 19th century bourgeoisand until the turn of the century itpassionately involved insiders andaudiences in the surprising evolution ofits musical and dramatic language(Verdi’s Falstaff and especially Puccini’sTurandot were the last productions of agenre which already looked to thefuture).But what has survived of thatatmosphere and those audiences? Nextto nothing. The passion for opera,although never completely extinguished,soon became mummified. While mostof our musicians and some foreigncomposers (Bizet, Wagner, Mozart anda few others) featured regularly in newproductions of by then historic titles,contemporary production slowed downconsiderably since it was no longerdriven by the guarantee of largeinterested audiences. The 20th-centurycomposers basically wrote for othermusicians and connoisseurs butcertainly not for the wider public. Thuswhile cinema was providing an effectiveresponse to the demand for sharedentertainment, opera was increasinglyseen as a high-society ritual for itsaudiences which, despite all the greatconductors and performers, seemedmore interested in the divas’ love storiesand rivalries, on one hand, and themusical orthopaedics of hitting the topnotes, on the other.Table 13.1 – Demand for opera in Italy (2000-2006)Year Performances Admissions Proceeds2000 2,482 1,594,074 62,640,195.822001 2,882 1,477,486 70,410,309.492002 3,198 1,582,015 78,302,263.272003 3,205 1,329,914 70,274,077.612004 2,695 1,336,076 78,195,502.172005 2,760 1,942,834 85,825,135.362006 2,361 1,963,614 85,290,125.01Table 13.1 shows a fairly modestsituation, especially considering that thecolumn of the admissions does not referto the number of theatre-goers but thenumber of tickets sold. And if weconsider that audiences are partly madeup of regular opera-goers, then thenumber of individuals effectivelyinvolved in the consumption of opera isWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 299

Chapter 13not high, although the last two yearssurveyed show a recovery, suggestingthat specific investments in educatingthe public (which are totally missing inItaly) could achieve interesting results.In a mummified sector in which littleimportance is attached to new works, thecreative aspect is concentrated on thefigures of the performers, especially theconductors and singers, on one hand,and the stage directors and designers ofsets and costumes, on the other. This is acompletely natural process which to acertain extent takes into account theevolution in audiences. The approach tointerpretation is based on respecting theoriginal works and adapting the finalproduct to the cognitive and perceptiveexpectations of contemporary audiences.The need for this kind of artisticlanguage may involve risks, such as themere transposition of the whole opera tonot strictly pertinent places and periods.Such justifiable decisions can, however,if pursued superficially, contribute to theperception that opera is difficult tounderstand – a condition from which ithas suffered in the last few decades.The awareness that the wider public isfairly unfamiliar with opera has also ledsome producers to emphasisespectacular aspects by makingproductions in which the aim is to createa unique event going well beyond thecore cultural values of the operation:thus, for example, we have a productionof Aida among the pyramids of Giza inEgypt, or a television production ofTosca set in the period and placesdescribed by the libretto in a striking mixof hyper-realism and special effects.These initiatives reveal a certain distrustin potential audiences and their criticalcapacities. In the attempt to attract newopera-goers or convince current ones, itis believed that “scandal” is an essentialingredient in capturing their interest.Opera is given very little space in themass media. There are someprogrammes exploring opera and liveperformances are broadcast on RadioTre RAI, but television only hosts a fewshort programmes shown at night. In therecent past two popularisingprogrammes of opera criticism lxxiiattempted to establish a new relationshipbetween opera and television, but theywere never followed up. Operas havealso been staged in mass venues such aspublic squares, and more recently,football stadiums, without leading to asystematic approach to promoting theirdiffusion. There was a major briefseason of Puccini operas at the OlympicStadium in Rome, a place familiar to thewider public and therefore capable of“reassuring” potential audiences aboutthe enjoyable nature of the experience.These good-standard productions ofwell-known operas supported bytechnology capable of guaranteeingacceptable acoustics managed to attractvery large audiences – proof of the stillunexpressed potential of the demand foropera. Obviously it is not enough simplyto attract large audiences to these nonconventionalevents. There is a need toencourage the audiences in publicsquares and stadiums to attend thewinter opera seasons by offeringadvantageous conditions and sogradually consolidate their interest in thegenre.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 300

Chapter 13These experiments, seen alongside thesuccess of films of opera of excellentquality, lxxiii demonstrate an awareness ofevolving audiences and the opportunitiesoffered by technologies and links withother production sectors. The growingpublic interest can also be detected bythe presence for the first time of anopera album in the Nielsen Top 100 –Mozart’s Magic Flute conducted byClaudio Abbado – and the fact that 12%of music downloads from iTunes areclassical and opera music. On the supplyside, in some cases the audiences’ needsand expectations have been catered to byinstalling displays with subtitles on thebacks of seats or the use of subtitlesprojected on a screen above the stage.This may mark the beginning of radicallydifferent approach compared to previousseasons, provided that the publicstrategy of protecting, consolidating anddiffusing opera is not only supported byeffective rules, but also by greaterefficiency in managing opera houses andtheir activities.13.3 The productionstructure: lavish sets andunion restraintsHeir to the flexible, agile and resourcefulimpresarios of the past, operaorganisation today suffers from unwieldysuperfluous structures. The need –certainly indispensable – for publicfunding has over the decades graduallycreated a “gilded cage” in which operaproducers enjoy privileged institutionalconditions but at the price of awidespread aversion to risk.Entrepreneurial stagnancy has ended upbeing reflected in a widespreadconformity in terms of style,accentuating the mummification ofopera houses which, on the contrary, onthe grounds of their cultural reputationand financial resources could follow thepath of creative production andinnovative management.In principle, opera is an art formcharacterised by great immediacy. In thissense it seems capable of attracting widerand more heterogeneous audiences. Itssemantic power is confirmed by theplundering of the opera repertoire fortelevision theme tunes, film soundtracksand advertising jingles. Opera is thus atthe centre of a host of markets withvarious technological media, fromrecords to internet platforms, lxxiv whichcombine a variety of traditional modes,styles and content with advancedtechnology. These features requireflexible multidimensional structures.But the current situation is characterisedby very rigid and compartmentalisedorganisations. This is not the outcome ofa deliberate policy, but rather astratification created in parallel byoperators in the sector and legislators ina gradual consolidation which currentlyprevents painless change. Moulded bythe outlook and structure of their natureas public bodies (and until the 1990sthey had this formal legal status), Italianopera houses have complex andambiguous decision-making processes,inflexible labour relations, and static,limited activities.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 301

Chapter 13Even after their recent transformationinto “foundations” regulated by privatelaw, opera houses continue to be mainlyfinanced with public funds and to begoverned by the local Mayor, who is bystatute the chairman of the board ofdirectors. Moreover, they areconditioned by very influential – albeitoften obsolete and unjustified – unionactivities and the agencies representingsingers which create restraints, despitenot being formally recognised by Italianlaw.In this environment hostile toinnovation, however, there are manyexamples of creativity, found throughoutall the sectors in the long operaproduction chain. From the conductorto the stage director, and the stage andcostume designers, as well as thosetechnical departments required toprovide practical solutions so all theseforms of creativity are expressed on thestage, opera tends to be enhanced by aprocess of reinterpretation which couldradically innovate each production stage.We must, however, point out that apartfrom fairly frequent but individual,occasional cases, the opera system inItaly appears to be static andconservative.Creativity as a source of new expressiveand interpretative approaches is oftencontrasted by the recourse to lavishnessand a tendency to elephantiasis in anequation making quality as perceived byaudiences a function of the scale ofspending. This is a very debatablelogic. lxxv If we look at the range of titleseach season, or the conductors andsingers engaged, we find the same namesrecur. On one hand, opera houses thusshow a strong aversion to risk and preferto rely on the taste of consolidatedaudiences (season ticket-holders andregular opera-goers) and the approval ofthe public sector which finances them.On the other hand, believing they haveto compete, especially as regards theallocation of public funds, they tend notto stray far from mainstreamprogrammes, which in any case tend toreassure the commissions and the publicbureaucrats. At the same time, the castsengaged are seen as a sign of quality, andthis ends up limiting the choice ofconductors and singers to the mosthighly “quoted” big national andinternational names, in a classificationmainly decreed by the agencies.This has led to the paradox of a muchmore limited range of works beingperformed in Italy than in otherEuropean countries and in the UnitedStates as well as a striking reluctance toinnovate and greater barriers in terms ofopportunities for young opera singers atthe beginning of their careers. Thecritical relationship between externalfunding and its influence on the subjectfunded demonstrates that public supportbased on evaluations of quality leads to ashrinking in the range of the supply,whereas the prevalence of greater privatefunding, typical of other advancedcountries, encourages diversification andproductive innovation. lxxvi The followingtable shows a summary of a comparisonbetween Italy and Germany, highlightingthe smaller size and lack ofdiversification and innovation of operasupply in Italy.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 302

Chapter 13Table 13.2 - Diversification of opera supply in Italy and Germany (2007)Composers Performances Titles New productionsItaly 78 1186 153 53Germany 188 6882 388 389This comparison must be interpreted inthe light of two fundamental aspects.The first concerns the way opera isproduced in the two countries, i.e. themodel of the “season” in Italy and thatof the “repertory” in Germany. Whereasthe season involves producing a fewoperas with ad hoc casts and a limitednumber of consecutive repeatperformances, the repertory modelconsists in the continuous rotation ofmany titles with basically the same cast.In short, the season meets the artists’need for “specialisation”, whereas therepertory satisfies a need for averagequality and wider consumptionopportunities.It is not the task of this work to assesswhich system is preferable. We wouldstress, however that, in many cases theseason model seems unable to guaranteeadequate qualitative standards because ofthe intense commitments of many of theartists involved and, therefore, limitedrehearsing time with the opera companymusicians and choruses. Moreover, sinceopera houses basically cater to localaudiences, lxxvii continually engaging thesame lead singers is superfluous: a wellchosencast presupposes a stylistic andinterpretative balance and not necessarilyhaving world-famous singers.The second aspect which limits thepossibility of speeding up production ofItalian operas is connected to thephysical and technological structure ofopera houses. Although usually historicmonuments of great aesthetic value,Italian opera houses are often obsoleteas regards requirements for moreadvanced opera productions. Thus, forexample, advanced opera houses are in aposition to set up new productions andrehearse while another opera is beingstaged, thanks to revolving stages orlarge enough spaces to allow the relevantpreparatory work to be done. This isalmost never possible in Italy wherethere are long downtimes between thestaging of one production and another.Moreover, the already complex andproblematic situation of this staticproduction structure is compounded bya network of restraints linked to themanagement of human resources. In factthe union organisations have separatebargaining powers and they oftenboycott premières as a tool for obtainingspecific benefits in a system that is per serather favourable to employees.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 303

Chapter 1313.4. Italian opera houses:income and expensesBecause of their inefficient productionstructure, the inflexibility of humanresources and the low level ofentrepreneurship, the fondazioni liriche(opera house foundations) reflect thestagnancy of a model no longer suited tothe cultural, social and economic contextin which they operate. Other opera andlive performing arts organisations aregradually attempting to abandon thismodel in favour of foundations withvarious shareholders. Althoughmaintaining its impact, as highlighted bythe use of classical and opera music inadvertising and able to establish linksupstream and downstream with marketsof various technologies, opening up verylarge secondary markets, opera still isunable to completely abandon its 19thcenturymodel, more for reasons ofcultural resistance than on the groundsof the practical requirements forcreativity and performing. And evenwhen confronted with innovative signalsfrom abroad, new experiments in Italyare fairly limited. Among them, we cancite a production of Don Giovanni stagedby the Piccolo Teatro, Milan (notsurprisingly not an opera house but adrama theatre?) and the Festival of Aixen-Provence,at which an opera wasproduced at least partly according to thephilosophy of the long-running showwith a company of young musicians andsingers. We must also bear in mind thecreative vitality of many small and tinytheatres which, free of the institutionaland financial restraints besetting thelarge foundations, are able to innovateby staging little-known operas andcourageous productions with emergingartists.The following figures show a summaryof the budget structure of the 13 largestItalian opera-orchestra foundations.Figure 13.1 – Income of Opera-Orchestra Foundations, 2006Tickets and seasontickets 13,1%Adv and sponsorships1.7%Outsideperformances 2.6%Radio and TVbroadcasts – 0.4%Other revenues 6%Private andinstitutionalcontributions 7.3%City funding 10.6%Provincial funding1,7%Regional funding10,3%Ministry for theHeritage and CulturalActivities – 45.7%WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 304

Chapter 13Figure 13.1 presents the average data forthe income of opera-orchestrafoundations as shown in their financialstatements for 2006. We must add thatthe criteria in the foundation statementsare often not uniform and that eachfoundation classifies a series of costs andproceeds in different ways.In order to provide a general picture ofthe state of health of opera-orchestrafoundations, we chose to highlight in theincome, the proceeds from institutionalactivities, distinguishing between boxoffice, proceeds from performancesoutside the theatre, advertising andsponsorships and the sales of rights forradio and television productions. Asecond item of income refers to publicresources, divided into various levels ofgovernment and the total resourcesprovided by the private sector, eitherthrough the contribution of foundingmembers or the market.Figure 13.2 – Costs of Italian Opera Orchestra Foundations, 2006100,0%90,0%80,0%70,0%60,0%50,0%40,0%30,0%20,0%10,0%0,0%42,3%43,1%33,9%37,9%44,0%46,2%37,8%37,3%29,1%27,5%41,7%20,1%32,7%37,0%57,7%56,9%66,1%62,1%56,0%53,8%62,2%62,7%70,9%72,5%58,3%79,9%67,3%63,0%Teatro Regio di TorinoTeatro alla Scala di MilanoTeatro Carlo Felice di GenovaTeatro Comunale di BolognaTeatro Maggio Musicale FiorentinoTeatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di TriesteTeatro La Fenice di VeneziaArena di VeronaTeatro dell'Opera di RomaAccademia Nazionale Santa CeciliaPersonnel costs Production costsSan Carlo di NapoliPetruzzelli e Teatri di BariTeatro Massimo di PalermoTeatro Lirico di CagliariSource: elaboration of data from opera-orchestra foundation financial statementsWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 305

Chapter 13Figure 13.2 highlights how the costs ofthe permanently employed artists,technical and administrative staff are thelargest item in opera-orchestrafoundation spending in 2006. Thus forexample, for the Teatro dell'Opera andthe Accademia Nazionale di SantaCecilia in Rome and the TeatroPetruzzelli in Bari, this item accounts forover 70% of total costs. The remainingcosts were aggregated in the item“production costs”, comprising expensesfor services, materials and goods,obtained by subtracting the personnelcosts from the total costs.A possible solution to the restraints onthe budgets of opera producers, whichoften prevent the necessary flexibility inthe use of human resources, can comefrom the creation of independentcompanies employing the orchestras andchoruses. Their collaboration with theopera producer would thus be based ona renewable contract for services, takinginto account the continuous nature ofservices.In this case, the orchestras and chorusesare induced to operate alongentrepreneurial lines, expanding theirown markets for concert activities (alsowith chamber groups and medium-sizedensembles). The opera producer(foundation, regional or cityadministration) would have less financialrestraints with self-evident spin-offs inthe planning and creative spheres. Fromthis specific point of view, the greatlavishness of the opera seasons couldgradually be replaced by a mixed system,based mainly on repertory but tending tofocus interest through festivals and otherevents in which the innovative elementsand creativity of the composers andmusicians is highlighted.The most convincing results, also ininternational terms, come from theRossini Opera Festival in Pesaro(founded in 1980). In this case therigorous interpretation of Rossini operasare associated with highly creativeproductions, thus suggesting thatfestivals are an effective way ofstimulating and encouraging the creativeskills in the wide sector of opera. Inaddition to this, there is a need tostrengthen the educational structure ofopera, currently consisting of a twofoldsystem in the conservatories (see belowfor a detailed analysis) and competitions,which can often lead to the productionof an opera, as happens in competitionsat the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale “A.Belli” in Spoleto. There is also anundergrowth of a variety of schools andprivate courses of varying quality andeffectiveness which are the “unofficial”source of opera training and in somecases can give artists the opportunity toenter the labour market thanks tonetworking between teachers (practisingand retired opera singers), and the operahouses.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 306

Chapter 1313.5 The performing arts:bureaucracy in the limelightIf we extend our analysis of opera to alllive performing arts, the picture basicallydoes not change much. The basicfeatures of the sectors whose creativity isfocused on the stage appeared to berather similar: stagnancy,“bureaucratisation”, cloning of publicaction in various levels of government,support mechanisms with absolutely noform of incentives, and institutionalconnivance with unofficial labour.Naturally all this does not obscureindividual creativity completely, whichcomes through in various parts of thecountry in innovative theatres,contemporary dance, new forms ofcrossovers between various creativelanguages, and the contribution of videoart and digital art in theatre productions.Nonetheless, these are occasional andisolated cases albeit fairly frequent. InItaly there is no systematic approach tocreativity in the performing arts, sincethe stage production model is still basedon the figure of the head of the theatrecompany, who may show any amount offlair and generosity but is not part of asystematic entrepreneurial approach.Production is focused on the seasonsbecause of a series of regulations whichhave gradually limited the strategic spacefor theatres, imposing uniformconditions according to the number ofrepeat performances and other easilymeasurable data. These elements,however, are hardly representative of thecreative and cultural commitment madeby the various organisations operating inthe performing arts sectors. So, forexample, festivals must rely on amajority of Italian companies, thusimpoverishing international exchanges inlanguage and creativity which are a fertilesource of innovation (in bothdirections). Music seasons mustnecessarily include a quota ofcontemporary compositions, and so on,in a kind of bureaucratic vicious circle ofcultural choices.Table 13.3 - Performances (2006)TheatreActivities*No. ofeventsAdmissionsTicketofficeSpendingby audiencesTurnover168,482 22,506,895 358,387,423 460,516,768 478,204,987Concerts 34,634 9,942,735 177,395,681 251,155,605 274,545,995Danceand musicTouringPerformancesVariousgenres854,193 32,391,060 285,707,462 1,168,890,407 1,199,071,46339,067 10,632,269 87,745,959 275,459,923 275,680,48544,829 1,496,915 9,301,257 98,698,803 115,552,250Total 1,141,205 76,969,874 918,537,782 2,254,721,506 2,343,055,180Source: elaboration of SIAE data* Theatre activities include: drama, literary recitals, opera and operetta, classical and modern ballet,musicals, variety, circus and puppet shows.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 307

Chapter 13Table 13.3 shows the data for the liveperforming arts sectors in Italy in 2006.More specifically it highlights the data ofthe number of events, the admissions tothe events, the money paid by spectatorsto acquire tickets and/or season tickets,the overall sums paid by audiences toattend performances, including boxoffice and all other costs (drinks,cloakroom, theatre programmes, etc)and the overall proceeds for theorganisers.The institutional system of theperforming arts is characterised byfunding methods which encourageexcellence in terms of quality selectionsaccording to the assessment of technicalcommissions with consulting power.This produces a long-term drain on thecreative fertility of the system, sinceinstead of supporting the developmentand consolidation of a widespreaddiversified production system, it simplyopts for the large-scale productionorganisations which more obviouslyfollow tradition. In this way over thedecades, a closed sector withconsiderable obstacles to entry hasdeveloped.The paradox of a system structured inthis way is that outside the officialdomof public funding an extremelyinteresting breeding ground made up oftheatres, companies and groups has beendeveloping. Capable of creatingstylistically innovative works, they tendto be rooted in the local area, partlythanks to the interest shown in them bylocal public administrations. One strikingexample is the city of Bolzano. In themid-1990s a theatre, designed by MarcoZanuso, was buit in the city to host theactivities of the Teatro Stabile diBolzano, the Orchestra Haydn and thenewly created Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen.While the Teatro Comunale attracted theinterest of the bigger institutions whichperceived its symbolic value in terms ofinstitutional representation, an informalfabric made up of very solid smallinnovative groups working in nonconventionalspaces spread and attracteda growing part of theatre audiencesinterested in new forms of creativity.Ten years on from the construction ofthe theatre, the upshot is an unrivalledferment in the whole performing artssector, with very encouraging growthfigures. This demonstrates that emergingaudiences attach less importance to the“assessment” by officialdom andrecognise and appreciate creativity. lxxviiiThe case of Bolzano, like other examplesof growth in creativity, albeit lesssystematic but equally intense (found inareas ranging Romagna to Pescara,Catania and Terni), demonstrate that theinterest by local government institutionscan be an important element in bringingout and consolidating creativity in thesector of the performing arts in whichexperiments usually do not involve largecosts or huge production machinery, butsimply the perception of a physiologicalpositioning in a favourable social andcultural climate. In this sense, in additionto driving cultural growth, public actionmay be an effective way of boosting thereputation of the whole area.The Bolzano model clearly shows thatpublic action must be continually tunedin to the situation, intervening wherenecessary to shore up elements offragility or encourage potentially positiveWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 308

Chapter 13developments. Moreover, this kind ofpublic action is typical in the experienceof industrial districts, in whichproduction activity characterised by highquality, specific creative and identitybuildingelements has an idiosyncraticassociation with the local area. Althoughthe label of “district” appears to be havebeen abused in recent years in terms ofcultural production it can beconveniently adopted in the case ofnetworks of museums or local craftindustries. We can thus justifiably alsouse it in interpreting the production ofthe performing arts as a cultural districtwhen they are strongly linked to a localarea and its cultural roots.Opera in Emilia-Romagna andinstrumental music and singing inNaples are two very eloquent examplesof district cultural production, partly dueto their long-standing solid creativeroots. Encouragement to bring outcreativity and its long-term growth in thesector of the performing arts could comefrom careful public action combininggeneral tools able to influence educationprocesses at national level and specifictools (such as the supply of technologies,infrastructures and services) to indirectlyspur on some regional administrations.In this way stimulating creativity is themost effective method to ensure that theinnovative artistic culture generatesexcellence and maintains its influence.In this context, public action is,however, the last piece in a complexmosaic in which various kinds ofresponsibility are found and they oftenrequire a cultural breakthrough by thecreatives themselves. In addition to anentrepreneurial and a capacity to developprojects, which performing artsproduction organisations must in anycase adopt as soon as possible, a leadingrole can also be played by theprofessional education of talent. Thisdoes not mean simply acquiring morecertificates (the proverbial “piece of<strong>paper</strong>”) but a way of reconciling rigoroustechnique with the interpretative flair ofeach individual artist. A crucial sensitivearea, education can give the performingarts a competitive advantage in the formof a hot house nurturing the talentswhich will form the creative backbone ofthe future.13.6 Education for theperforming arts: “an ass, buta solemn ass!”For over half a century, conservatorieshave been the most backward area of theItalian education system. For almost 70years, from a royal decree of 1930 untilthe reform law of 1999, the structuresand study programmes of the musicschools remained almost unchanged.This was the reflection of a society inwhich compulsory education only lasteduntil the end of primary school. Theconservatories were simply organised tomeet labour requirements in an agewhen the fields of musical activities werelimited to professional performances andplaying in churches.Originally founded as charitableinstitutions to take in and educateorphans or poor children, theconservatories were transformed intomusic schools in the 17th century, whenWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 309

Chapter 13the demand for musicians grew sharply.The conservatories aimed at producingall-round musicians who played variousinstruments, sang and composed inorder to meet the practical needs formusic in society: religious and militaryceremonies, public celebrations, courtperformances and especially opera.Musical education in Italy still derivesfrom the long tradition of theprofessional training of the cantors inchurch and noble chapels. From thepoint of view of professionalpreparation, the study of music basicallytook place under the guidance of a singleteacher who followed the students fromthe beginning of their education until theend of schooling in a relationship ratherlike that of master craftsman andapprentice. With the rise of soloconcerts, the conservatory programmesgradually became more specialised, withthe aim of turning out virtuosos, highlyspecialised performers whoseprofessional training became increasinglyanachronistic due to changes in society.For too long study programmesremained anchored to the past, fossilisedin limited repertories which ignored therevolutions in musical language, andwere dominated by an excessivelytechnical approach, stifling creativeresources to pursue the myth of thevirtuoso. This educational contextstunting the growth of creative talentwas unfortunately the norm. Activitiessuch as composition or simply evenimprovisation were relegated to theschool of composition and otherspecialist courses.At a time when teaching was the mainsource of jobs in the music sector, alarge number of students did notcomplete the diploma programme,because they were faced with the soleprospect of working in schools or, ingeneral, because they had other musicalinterests than giving concerts. In acountry which conserves over 50% ofthe sources of the history of Europeanmusic, the music schools paid theconsequences of a long period of closureand isolation which opened anenormous gap between educationprogrammes and the requirements of themusic market.The law reforming the conservatories of1999 began from the attempt to respondto the needs for new music professions.But the conservatories’ teaching staffhave never been equipped to train themand to offer educational programmes fora changed outside world: e.g. the drasticreduction in job prospects for organistsbecause of the changes in the Catholicliturgy or the growing number of jobopportunities in advertising creativityand the recording and televisionindustry.But even the role of concert musicianhas undergone deep changes in the pastfew decades. Having been stripped ofthe status of “diva”, performers havebecome aware of their twofold role ascreative artists and cultural mediatorswhose task is to preserve and makeavailable to society large repertoires ofmusic presented in a well-documentedhistorically accurate approach.That the objective of a closercorrespondence between educationWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 310

Chapter 13programmes to changed socialrequirements really can be pursued isrevealed by study programmes in severalEuropean countries. In these countriesprofessional musical training is onlyoffered at university level, whereas thefield of preliminary teaching follows alogic of offering musical educationcapable of combining various skills.Degrees in music disciplines in Europeand the United States offer theopportunity to pursue specific studies ofthe repertoire and to obtain theindispensable qualification required toteach music in schools. On one hand,these degrees are geared to making thetraditional figure of the performer andcomposer more multifaceted byorganising study programmes in a richseries of varied courses with obligatoryon the job training and, on the other,they aim to turn out new professionalfigures in collaboration with public andprivate institutions.Inadequate in terms of content andregulations, for a long time the wholeItalian music education system wasstructured in a way that wasincompatible with the systems in almostall other countries in the world. Therewas no clear division into stages with afinal period of music studies to becompleted in the last three years ofhigher education.Thanks to Law 508\99 the rightconditions have now been created, after70 years of immobility, to bring themusic schools up to date. The followinghighlights the basic differences betweenthe old and new study programmes.Table 13.4 – Comparison of the old and new programmes in Italian conservatoriesEntrancequalificationAge limitsPast• Diploma from the fifth class ofprimary school (cf. Royal Decreeno. 1945 of 11 December 1930).• In 1962 when compulsoryeducation was raised to 14,middle schools were annexed tothe conservatories.• Private students are admitted toexams.From 13 to 20, differentiatedaccording to the type of instrument,except for the singing school forwhich the upper age limit is 25.Present• Diploma of 2nd level secondaryeducation. Meritorious students cancomplete their secondary schooldiploma during studies beforeobtaining the conservatory diploma.• Artistic and technical skills equivalentto the third year of courses in the oldsystem.• Private students are no longeradmitted to exams.Ages limits for traditional courses nolonger apply.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 311

Chapter 13ObjectivesStudyprogrammeFinalqualificationTraining highly specialisedperformers.The cycle of studies can last up to10 years.The courses have obligatoryattendance for principal coursesand complementary courses.The principal course is assigned toa teacher who gives individuallessons.The average class is made up of10-12 students who attend once ortwice a week according to atimetable agreed with the teacherfor a total of 25 hours per year foreach course.Music Diploma.Development and acquisition offundamental skills in the fields ofperforming, composition or teaching.The programme includes theintegration of further practical andtheoretical aspects in preparation forvarious careers in the field of music.Courses last 3 years, plus 2 furtheryears (similar to 3+2 university model).The degree programme is dividedinto foundation courses, specificand supplementary courses,measured in credits, with a total of60 credits per academic year. Thecourses are taught by differentteachers and involve variousteaching methods (individual andgroup lessons, seminars,workshops).Two levels of Academic Diplomas.Qualifications and credits are generallyrecognised as being equivalent in thetwo systems – AFAM (Higher Art andMusic Education) and university.13.7 Towards a reform lawAs in all sectors of the performing arts,education also requires new legislationtaking into account professional trainingas a strategic element for the growth ofcreativity. Below we list the mostimportant laws on the subject.Law no. 508, 21 December 1999 -"Reform of the Accademie di belle arti,the Accademia nazionale di danza, theAccademia nazionale di arte drammatica,the Istituti superiori per le industrieartistiche, Conservatories and equivalentMusic Institutes."This law reformed the art and musicsector, responding to the constitutionaldictate which in Article 33 makesprovisions so that art and musiceducation run parallel to the universitysystem. It replaces the Royal Decree no.1945 of 11 December 1930 establishingthe regulations for the organisation ofmusical education and examprogrammes.Law 22 no. 268 November 2002, -"Urgent measures for the school,university, scientific and technologicalresearch, and advanced music and arteducation."This law introduced a number ofmodifications which made diplomasawarded by institutions before Law no.508 equivalent to first-level (i.e.“ordinary”) degrees, also certifying thatthe diploma awarded by the ScuoleDidattiche della Musica (“musicWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 312

Chapter 13education colleges”) provided teacherswith the necessary qualification foremployment in secondary education.Decree of the President of theRepublic no. 132, 28 February 2003 -"Regulations with criteria governing theindependent status, rules andorganisation of art and musicinstitutions, according to Law no. 508,21 December 1999.”This law gave the institutionsindependent status, with their own rulesand organisation, and identified thegeneral criteria for adopting statutes andexercising independence.Decree of the President of theRepublic, no. 212, 8 July 2005, -"Regulations for defining the teachingstructures in institutions of advanced art,music and dance education, according toLaw no. 508, 21 December 1999."Ministerial Decree no. 142, 27 April2006 - "Definition of the artisticacademicdisciplinary sectors, declaratoryjudgements and paradigmatic fields inthe Conservatories."Ministerial Decree no. 483, 22January 2008 - "Definition of the newteaching systems in Conservatories."The aim of raising music educationstandards by proposing programmeswhich take into account career prospectsfor students should be the foundingelement in the long – and in many waysincomplete – process of reforming theconservatories as described in the Table13.4. At least in theory, the new coursesare designed to eliminate the selfreferentialaspect of music teachingwhich was previously only organisedfrom the point of view of turning outperformers. Having established freshpoints of reference for identifying neweducational objectives, the reformedconservatories tend to place the accenton integrating music studies with a widercultural education so as not to precludestudents from having diversified optionsin terms of their future career.We must point out, however, that thenewly baptised “Institutions forAdvanced Art and Music Education”(AFAM) are in the paradoxical andanomalous situation of still having towork with both systems. There are stillno specific regulations for basic musiceducation, i.e. the acquisition of thenecessary skills to pass the entranceexam to the first level courses, except fora reference to rules enabling institutionsto introduce basic music courses,organised in such a way as to allow themto be attended by students enrolled inmiddle and upper secondary schools.Until the reform has finally beencompleted, the conservatories still havethe task of organising basic musicinstruction pending the creation ofstructures (music middle schools andhigh schools), to see to this kind ofpreparation. Moreover, although theprinciple of parity between universityeducation and conservatories has beensanctioned with a consequent obligationto engage in advanced music education,research, specialisation and especiallymusic production, the change in the legalframework has not been accompaniedby the allocation of the necessaryresources for its implementation.The difficulties of adjusting have yetagain been left to individual initiative,without the support of a co-ordinationguaranteeing a logical systematicWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 313

Chapter 13development. The conservatories areforced to adopt independent teachingprogrammes, accepting some aspects ofthe reform and rejecting others. The twosystems are thus mixed according to theresources available and the problemsthey have to solve. Individual cases ofexcellence and changing the mindset inmany valid musicians are still left to theopportunities that each one seeksindividually in order to pursue differentpaths from those offered by institutionaleducation, which precludes thepossibility of diversified career options.If we simply considered the largenumber of top-level international Italianmusicians, we might conclude that at thehighest level of conducting and virtuosoperformersthe Italian conservatorieshave been a great success. Unfortunately,however, the many cases of excellencewhich the world envies us are notenough to make up the lost ground in asector whose creative culture is foundedon an education system still goingthrough a deep crisis.13.8 The recording industry:weaknesses and potentialFrom the point of view of their culturalimportance, the performing arts, andespecially opera, the “nationalchampion”, are the most interestingsectors in the sphere of culturalproduction.However, at this point, we mustinevitably also offer an overall view,even if only an outline, of the Italianrecord industry and the whole marketfor non-live music which is reproducedand transmitted in advancedtechnological media.In Italy the situation in this field is verycomplex and is characterised byweaknesses but also considerablepotential.Firstly, the Italian market for recordedmusic is relatively very small. The Italianmarket is only half the French marketand a quarter of the English market,despite having the same number ofinhabitants (and potential consumers) asin the other two countries. The annualper capita consumption of albums (0.9)is much lower than the EU average (2.3).Secondly, over the years the recordmarket has seen a relative growth in salesof recorded Italian music compared tointernational products. In 2000, Italianmusic accounted for 35% of total sales,today they equal those of internationalproducts, with over 50% of total sales(FIMI figures). This trend points to arenaissance in Italian music, also interms of its capacity to satisfy consumertastes and preferences.Overall the Italian record market, lxxixincluding traditional and digital albums,had a turnover in 2007 of 211 millioneuros, a drop of 17% on the 253 millionin 2006. This confirms the process ofongoing change in the sector involving agradual switch from traditional forms ofmusic consumption to forms moreclosely associated with the rise of newdigital technologies.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 314

Chapter 13Table 13.5 – The Italian market for recorded musicSUMMARY OFMARKETDATASELL-IN 2007(net of unsoldcopies)units in thousands,value in thousandsof eurosSELL-IN 2006(net of unsoldcopies)units in thousands,value in thousandsof eurosCHANGEUNITS VALUE UNITS VALUE UNITS VALUETotal audio 23,200 196,815 26,051 238,876 - 2,851 -11% -42,061 -18%Total singles 325 1,387 627 1,965 - 302 -48% -578 -29%Vinyl 6 108 2 23 4 200% 85 370%Cassettes 0 0 0 1 - 0% 0 0%Others 8 61 0 0 8 0% 61 0%Total albums 22,875 195,428 25,424 236,911 - 2,549 -10% - 41,483 -18%Vinyl 35 403 10 114 25 250% 289 254%Cassettes -10 -24 -43 -278 33 77% 254 91%CDs 22,850 195,050 25,456 237,057 - 2,606 -10% -42,007 -18%Others 0 -1 1 18 - 1 -100% -19 -106%Other data,excluded fromtotal audioTotal musicvideos955 11,354 1,493 18,214 - 538 -36% -6,860 -38%VHS 1 0 -1 -11 2 200% 11 0%DVD 954 11,357 1,493 18,215 - 539 -36% -6,858 -38%Other 0 -3 1 10 - 1 -100% -13 -130%Totaldeletions0 0 0 0 - 0% 0 0%Total kiosks • 0 0 179 505 - 179 -100% -505 0%Total82 240 283 1,114 - 201 -71% -874 -78%premiums ••Source: FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) data• Products sold together with publishing products distributed at news<strong>paper</strong> kiosks or bookshops.•• By premiums we mean individual licences per title for music products distributed as freepromotional products enclosed with other commercial products.Overall digital music had a turnover ofmore than 14.5 million euros, accountingfor 7% of the total, thanks to thedevelopment of a range of new businessmodels (e.g. online services funded byadvertising). In Italy mobile musicaccounts for over 50% of digital sales,ranking the Italian digital music marketthird in Europe, after the UnitedKingdom and France, and first fororiginal music downloads. This is a clearsignal of customer satisfaction with theentertainment content available onmobile telephones.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 315

Chapter 13Table 13.6 - Summary of the market data for digital music in Italy, 2006 - 2007MARKET DATA FORDIGITAL MUSIC2007value inthousandsof euros2006value inthousands ofeurosCHANGE% CHANGEONLINE MUSICSingle tracks 3,164 2,673 491 18%Albums 2,320 1,618 702 43%Music videos 58 4 54 1350%Total Internet downloads 5,551 4,420 1,131 26%Streams 974 367 607 165%MOBILE MUSICMaster ringtones• 3,987 4,049 -62 -2%Single tracks 2,667 3,925 -1,258 -32%Ringback tones•• 383 483 -100 -21%Music videos 481 1,013 -532 -53%Other products 405 215 190 88%Total Mobile DigitalContent•••7,923 9,685 -1,762 -18%Streams 170 52 118 227%TOTAL ONLINE MUSIC 14,618 14,524 94 1%Source: IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) data• Audio content extracted from original master audio which play when the telephone rings.•• Tunes replacing traditional tones which ring after dialling and prior to the call being answered.••• The decrease of 18% recorded in Italy in 2007, after two years of fast growth, may be attributed tofewer initiatives by mobile operators.On the world scene, the major changesdriven by the development of the newmedia affecting the whole record musicmarket have influenced the consumptionof music genres previously considered tobe less commercial (e.g. there has been arise in sales of titles of classical musicand jazz). A Mozart concerto performedby the New York Philharmonic,downloadable as a Universal album onthe Internet got into the Top 40 iTunesboth in the United States and the UnitedKingdom. In April 2006, Warner becamethe first record company to launch anonline music store of classical musicwith over 25,000 titles. The whole recordindustry is attempting to go beyond theimpasse of the physical music market byincreasing the distribution of a widerange of music content on a variety ofplatforms, thus swinging increasinglytowards the concept of music as aservice rather than a product. In thissense the case of Warner Music isWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 316

Chapter 13emblematic. The company recentlyinvolved rival companies and suppliersof Internet access in launching anunlimited music supply in exchange foran increase in the monthly fee of usersubscriptions.13.9. ConclusionsThe performing arts still have aflourishing centuries-old tradition inItaly, in line with the rest of the culturalheritage, of which they can rightfullyclaim to be part. Our analysis of opera,the Queen of the Italian music tradition,has highlighted, however, the excessiveweight of bureaucracy, a lack ofinnovation, a failure to produce a newmusic culture, and the weaknesses inprofessional training.One positive factor continues to be thepresence of the music heritage, made upof internationally renowned theatres andorganisational structures, which are stillthe basis for prestigious activities.Popular music is encountering majordifficulties in competing on both globaland domestic markets. There arenumerous possible channels for furthermarket development: portable playersand music phones, new music formats,such as ringback tones, advertisingfundeddownloads, the opening of musicchannels direct to the consumer and thealmost unlimited availability of titles inonline stores. All of these arecontributing to changing the structure ofthe market.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 317

Chapter 14Michelangelo Pistoletto “Woman drawing” 1962-1975Screen print on polished reflecting stainless steel, 2 panels, each 250 x 125 cmPhotograph: P. Pellion

Chapter 14Chapter 14Contemporary Art14.1. Contemporary art asdriver and mirror of postindustrialchangeContemporary art is per se purecreativity and speaking about oneimmediately conjures up the other. Butwhen we enter the world of visual arts,we discover that social relations, themarket, production and institutions areimportant factors modifying the verymeaning of the concept of creativity.In the last six months, aninternationally acclaimed artist likeDouglas Gordon has had 22 soloshows, Jonathan Monk 25, and OlafurEliasson 32 (source: artfacts.net). Thisis without counting their participationin collective exhibitions: in ten years,Gordon has been involved in 200,Monk 160, and Eliasson 184. Andthese are conservative estimates. At atime when companies are changingtheir organisation models to create amore ludic and relaxed atmosphere inworking environments so as to makemore room for individual expressionand creativity, contemporary art, therealm of creative thought par excellenceand all the complex and elusivemodalities of its manifestation, seemsto be moving towards the Tayloristmodel of the production line, in aperpetual race with pressing deadlinesfor programmes of increasingly intenseand geographically widespread artevents. Many of the most successfulartists – and especially those who tomake their work require productionprocesses involving a large number ofinterdisciplinary skills – now rely onteams of collaborators, organised insmall or even small to average-sizefirms. We are thus dealing with aprofound change in the productionmethods of contemporary art andperhaps even in the making of art itself.But what drives these artists to work somuch? Why do they engage in suchfrenetic activity, running the risk ofburning up their talent and consumingthe time and energy required for theconception and development of new,profound original projects? Ultimatelythey risk sacrificing the long-termsustainability of their creative processesfor the sake of short to medium-termproduction efficiency. The answer issimple. An enormous quantity ofrequests coming from all quarters: fromtraditional art places, such as museums,galleries, foundations, fairs, privatecollections and publishing houses butalso an increasing number ofcompanies, public institutions,hospitals, universities and scienceparks. Artists are no longer only askedWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 319

Chapter 14to produce exhibitions, public artprojects or more generally to installworks in public places, a field in whichdemand is growing incessantly. In factany opportunity is a good opportunityto call in an artist. Art is everywhere,and the more it spreads the more itwhets the appetite and brings in newrequests. Fashion and life stylemagazines plan issues round art andartists, or even directly entrust themwith the creative editing. Urbanplanners vie for their services.Companies ask them to holdworkshops for managers andemployees or to design objects andcommunications processes.Artist are beginning to be as sociallyvisible as rock stars. But the differencelies, or rather lay, in the fact that rockmusic is part of the so-called industrialculture – i.e. the production sector inwhich the product on sale is made tobe infinitely reproduced, and whoseeffective size depends on demand.Contemporary art, is or (as we shouldnow say) was –part of core culturalproduction: i.e. the nucleus of culturalproduction which is organised in a waythat has nothing to do with industrybut rather the small crafts workshop.But evidently that is no longer howthings are. Even artists, in their ownway, are beginning to produce in series.Not many copies of the same object,but a host of “unique exemplars”which lie outside the confines of awork of art as traditionally defined.And here too we basically find ananalogy with rock stars who now writebooks, put their signature to perfumesand clothes, or open bars andrestaurants. This kind of practice caneven be found among artists, as in thecase of Damien Hirst.But why do art and artists attract somuch attention? The reason actuallylies in the mass markets. Consumers onmass markets are now basicallybecoming sated, and artists offer a kindof good which is still scarce in a worldof abundance: meaning. Artistselaborate systems with apparentlypointless and senseless rules, whichhowever reveal unexpected aspects ofthe world and suddenly call intoquestion apparently solid socialconventions. Consumers are nowshowing a certain impatience with theritual of increasingly predictableproducts and therefore find art asatisfying distraction. And if this is trueof people living in affluent societies, itis even truer of the new consumers inemerging countries like the Arabs statesor the Far Eastern countries, wherecontemporary art has become a symbolof the new social status associated withthe opportunities to access globalisedconsumption. The behaviouralpreconditions for this consumption areacquired quickly and then equallyquickly transgressed and abandoned inthe search for a credible, identitybuildingsynthesis of the old and new,the traditional and innovative, andconformity and transgression.In mass markets, abundance or ratherthe aggressiveness of products whichdemand our attention everywhere,drive consumers to increasinglysophisticated forms of defence. Peoplestruggle to remember the names ofproducts, confusing one with another.They consume without even noticing it,perhaps already looking forward towhat they will consume next. AndWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 320

Chapter 14similar phenomena are now occurringin the art world. Art consumers now nolonger go to visit a specific exhibition,but set off on tours of exhibitions orthe stands of fairs, and are thusexposed to hundreds of works in oneday, often while engaging insimultaneous complex, varied relationalactivities. Art is adapting to the newstate of things by adopting strategies ofseduction to attract the worn-outattention of an absent-minded,distracted public. And this is true notonly of the works, but also the veryconcept of exhibitions, which in turnintroduce unusual and original formatsand methods to whet the appetite of apublic perennially sated with stimuli.14.2 The effects of selection.Italy in the internationalcontext“For whosoever hath, to him shall begiven, and he shall have moreabundance: but whosoever hath not,from him shall be taken away even thathe hath.” This celebrated passage fromthe Gospel According to St Matthew(13:12) is why we talk about the“Matthew effect” for a typicalphenomenon on many culturalmarkets: the focusing of attention (andresources) on a very small number ofartists to the detriment of all the others.And this is not only a typicalphenomenon in the cultural sphere.Something similar also happens inscience. When an essay is signed by acelebrated scientist it receives moreattention compared to others signed byless well-known scientists, irrespectiveof the content. As James Surowieckiobserved in The wisdom of crowds, whentwo jointly written articles arepublished one after the other in thesame review and on basically the samesubject, but one signed first by afamous scientist and the other with thesame scientist’s signature after that of ajoint author, then the first article iscited and read much more often thanthe second, because the contribution ofthe more “noteworthy” scientist issupposedly greater.In the field of contemporary art wewitness very similar trends. The sameidea can be put forward at the sametime by many artists, but those withouta greater reputation generate moreinterest and attention than others. Thisper se does not mean the system isrigged, since in assessing an artist, hiscareer counts much more than anindividual idea or work. But it doesraise very deep doubts. The fact thatwhen an artist reaches a certain level offame and recognition, or is simplyproposed through channels with acertain authority in the system, ensuresthat his work is inevitablyacknowledged or at least of greatinterest, irrespective of whether it isreally appreciated or not. On the otherhand, if artists who come from lessauthoritative channels or for somereason have not reached a certainthreshold of fame, despite having donesignificant work, they mustautomatically face a kind of systematiclack of interest which undermines thequality and quantity of attentionrequired for an adequate understandingof their work.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 321

Chapter 14Given these extreme forms of theeconomy of attention, there is a needto implement strategies which givemore authority to a particular nationalor local scene, or rather its qualitativelymost important component, as aninteresting stage for art capable ofoffering artists who operate on it anadequate initial reputation. In the lasttwo decades a rather complex situationhas gradually been taking shape in Italy.Artists belonging to older generations(such as those of Arte Povera or theTransavanguardia) enjoy high levels ofinternational recognition and attractgreat interest both from internationalart institutions and the market, whereasfor the younger generation thisfocusing process has paradoxicallyturned out to be more selective,filtering a very limited number ofnames, who are successful because theyabandon the Italian scene early forother countries providing greateropportunities for building a reputationand convincing the public. Theparadoxical nature of this state ofaffairs lies in the fact that in historicalterms the opposite usually happens: thepyramid of fame gets narrower as wego back through the generations, sincethe longer an artist remains on thecompetitive scene in the art system, thestronger the selection effect. In theory,there should be a large number ofyoung artists who achieve some degreeof initial success before the gradualselection takes place. In the Italian case,the opposite happens and this is due tothe fact that from one generation toanother, the rules of the game havechanged, or rather the standing of theItalian scene in the internationalcontext has changed – from a leadingstage to a relatively marginal secondarystage.14.3 Elements for acontemporary art policy inItalySo why does Italian art have a lowprofileon today’s global system? Thereis no lack of raw material, i.e. validartists potentially capable of attractingattention and interest on theinternational scene. The problem liesrather in the fact that our systemsuffers from a number of structuralweaknesses which considerablypenalises artists and forces them, ifthey really wish to aspire tointernational success, to go and live andwork elsewhere.Let us briefly outline these weaknesses.Firstly, the country lacks a collectingculture and institutional and corporateclients. In art systems with little privatecollecting, they traditionally offer artistsprofessionally qualifying andeconomically profitable opportunities,raising their social status and givingthem a sufficiently solid income toconcentrate entirely on a career in artwithout having to waste energy insecondary activities to surviveeconomically. But in Italy privatecollecting is anything but weak andindeed more widespread and lively thanin most countries. But it is also veryfragmented and there are relatively fewcollectors with big buying power. Thusa collecting system and competentpublic and corporate clients wouldmake an important contribution tocreating a demand base capable ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 322

Chapter 14driving the growth of galleries withsufficient economic resources tocompete on international markets andto really invest in leading Italian artists.An important role can be played byformer-bank foundations, a network ofplayers, typical of the Italian situation,with strong buying power andconsiderable interest in culture. Butwith a few exceptions, they have notshown a great interest in qualitycontemporary art and have preferred topursue a more local, culturally modestlogic. Lastly, public commissions couldbe boosted by seriously applying theso-called “2% Law”. In its latestformula, managed by the publiccontrolledcompany ARCUS (Societàper lo sviluppo dell’arte, della cultura edello spettacolo S.p.A), this law nowallocates 3% of the cost of constructingor redeveloping public buildings to thecommissioning of a work of art to beinstalled on site. Today this law is oftenignored or gives rise to debatableoperations from the cultural point ofview.Another weak point in public action isthe way Italian artists are promotedinternationally. The promotion ofItalian art usually takes place throughthe organisation of exhibitions, at timesrather costly, and often hosted inrelatively minor venues in theinternational art capitals. The art worksare typically parachuted into thesecontexts without any real preparatorycommunications with the local scene,which would help the featured artists tointeract and make themselves knownby those who might be interested intheir work and could then open up newspaces and opportunities. But thiswould mean public institutionsinvolved in promotional activities, ortheir art advisers, would have to have asolid up-to-date knowledge of the mostimportant local scenes of internationalart and equally solid and up-to-datecontacts with the leading players onthose scenes. In the absence of all this,the most convenient and painlesssolution for everyone is the “tourist”exhibition in which the artists arrive,install their work, attend the openingand leave without ever having gainedthe slightest knowledge of the artisticcontext with which they have (not)interacted. Paradoxically from the pointof view of an artist’s reputation thiskind of operation will have greaterrepercussions at home. The worldwidenetwork of Italian institutes of cultureabroad is not usually much help in thissense. They are often not competent inthe field of contemporary art and hostprogrammes of art events with noconsistent quality criteria and havedifficulty in being noticed on the artscene in the country in question. Butthere could be various more efficientsolutions in this sphere, such as:offering grants for exhibition projectsand artist-in-residences to artists whoare capable of making a name andtherefore will receive invitations fromcultural institutions, galleries and majorindependent exhibition spaces; fundingprogrammes for internationalcuratorships in Italy in order to giveforeign curators a real opportunity toget to know the Italian art scene andestablish a genuine dialogue with Italianartists; attaching competentprofessional contemporary artconsultants to Italian institutes ofculture in the cities of most interest forthe contemporary arts system; andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 323

Chapter 14transforming the institutes’ role asexhibition centres (with a few justifiedexceptions) into agencies promotingartists and networking with the local artscenes. Further support could be given,for example, by acquiring significantadvertising spaces for the mostinteresting foreign projects featuringItalian artists and by funding the Italianart reviews with the highestinternational circulation to enable themto publish or enhance their Englishlanguage editions. Examples of nationalagencies promoting contemporary artcould be followed, such as the FinnishFRAME, which publishes Framework,an excellent review entirely dedicatedto Finnish art.Another critical point lies in the systemof public and private non-profitexhibition spaces. While the museumnetwork for contemporary art hasgrown considerably in recent years, andwill probably continue to grow, giventhe continuing spate of new initiatives,the same cannot be said for the circuitof independent and non-collectingspaces, of which there are very few inItaly. And although many of the newItalian museums have small or even nocollections, this is more due to budgetproblems than a real desire to createspaces mainly for projects. The absenceof this kind of exhibition spaceseriously hinders young artists becauseit deprives them of workingopportunities in which to experimentand develop research with nocommercial-type restraints andconditioning. It is no accident thatmost internationally acclaimed artistsput on their first significant solo showsin this kind of space. The mosteffective system in this sense is theKunsthalle in German-speakingcountries. These are non-collectingexhibition spaces, normally funded bythe cities and local authorities, whichoften offer very high qualityprogrammes, alternating internationalartists and the most promising nationaland local artists. They also inviteforeign curators to collaborate andpursue interesting talent scoutingactivities on the local scene. TheKunsthalle is complemented by thesystem of Kunstverein, privateassociations of collectors which alsooften promote high-quality exhibitionactivities and enable private individualsto pursue collective projects andpromote art which goes far beyondsimply looking after and developingtheir own personal collections.Moreover, this kind of system, whichcould also be introduced in Italy, andexisting contemporary art museumscould benefit from selective forms oftax reductions – e.g. the abolition ofVAT – or a privileged tax status likethat enjoyed by non-profitorganisations working in the socialworld, thus attributing art with a socialfunction which today is greatlyunderestimated and rarely perceived bypublic opinion.Lastly, Italy has a large number of oftenvery lively galleries but they struggle togrow and therefore to invest in theirown artists and provide them with aneffective international springboard. Inthis case the most urgent initiative, inaddition to strengthening public andcorporate collecting (which could enjoyfiscal incentives) is the never too oftencalled for reduction of VAT from thecurrent 20% to 4%, in line with mostEuropean countries. The loss inWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 324

Chapter 14income for the state would be modest,given the size of the sector and couldeven be offset, since this measurewould probably lead to many moreunofficial businesses coming into theopen and declaring their activities. Atpresent, for these non-registeredbusinesses VAT at 20% is quite simplyincompatible with making acceptablemargins on the collecting market,which, as we said, is lively but usuallyvery vulnerable to the price factor.14.4 The difficulties ofyoung Italian artists andshortcomings in theeducation systemIn books providing internationalrankings, such as Cream 3 or FreshCream published by Phaidon, we findthat the Top 100 artists only includestwo Italians: Luisa Lambri and GraziaToderi. In another classification (2002)– Art Now. 137 Artists at the Rise of theNew Millennium published by Taschen –the Italians artists mentioned areMonica Bonvicini, Maurizio Cattelan,Paola Pivi and again Grazia Toderi.There are few Italian artists in theinternational lists of young illustrators,painters and photographers. We rarelyfind Italian galleries in the major artfairs, such as Frieze (London), ArtBasel, Art Basel Miami and so on. TheItalian galleries often prefer to takeinternational stars to fairs rather thanrisking not making sales. Moreover, in2008 the Italian fair MIART (Milan),made its latest attempt to renew thesections dedicated to young Italians,but in so doing probably decreed itsown end.One of the key reasons why Italianartists struggle to make a name abroad,at least as a category (there are strikingsuccess stories, but always involvingisolated individuals and never membersof a national group), may be attributedto shortcomings in educationalstructures.For centuries, the Accademie di Belle Arti(art colleges/fine arts schools) havebeen the only specialised institutionsfor teaching the figurative arts. Basedon the master-apprentice relationshipand on the repetition of historicmodels, they were founded at the endof the 16th century, when art haddecorative functions. The Accademiethus produced decorative, stucco andfresco artists who had a clearlyrecognisable style. The first element ofweakness in the Accademie is thatexperimental art, as conceived today,has taken such different new paths,characterised by technical, theoreticaland aesthetic experimentation, thatturning out students with a uniformstyle is no longer feasible.The system of Accademie still mainlyfocuses on teaching technical expertise,which is sacrosanct in some cases suchas Carrara, where the local areaprovides marble and thus requiresspecific skills, but not in the majority ofcases.Another problem with the Accademieconcerns the very long time thatstudents spend with only one teacher.This is an important issue, especiallywhen there are no uniform teachingsstandards. For four years studentsbasically study only one creativemethod in one approach to theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 325

Chapter 14discipline. Although there areexchanges and opportunities fordialogue with other teachers, thisprolonged contact is only suited tothose capable of following the projectlogic of their teacher, but also able tobranch out and pursue their ownindependent path..Reforming the Accademie di Belle ArtiA series of measures to reform the Accademie have been introduced since the 1970s inorder to fill gaps; they were partly driven by student movements. Initially, so-called“special courses” were introduced to complement practical studies with a knowledge ofart history and theory.In the 1990s a process was set up to enable students to complete a diploma on a parwith the so-called “short degree” (three-year university course). This change took placefollowing the application of Law no. 508 of 21 December 1999, but was more nominalthan substantial: the Ministry for Education, the University and Research adopted twodifferent general levels for university education in the traditional sense and the so-calledInstitutions of Advanced Art and Music Education, which include the Accademie.A step forward has been made. By completing a two-year university specialisationcourse, Accademia students are awarded a full university degree. This means that at leastfor qualification purposes, Accademia students have similar rights to university students.The teachers, on the other hand, are still in a limbo, and not only in economic terms,which discourages them but also tends to make them denigrate any other kind of arttraining.The revolution of the Accademie was possibly not indispensable, since a country likeGermany, which has recently given the art world many leading names and major schools,has never departed far from the original model of studies. The top German artists take apride in teaching and very few are not involved in it in some way. This was even true ofa great rebel like Joseph Beuys, who was initially a regular teacher and then after beingdismissed went on to found the Free International University, which he conceived as awork of art. But very few renowned artists in Italy have turned to teaching. Of the artistsin the most significant movements in the post-war period (Abstract art, Arte Povera andTransavanguardia), at most we can recall the teaching of Emilio Vedova in Venice andLuciano Fabro in Milan.Many of the state art schools were created in the south of Italy not so much to meet thereal requirements of student demand, but for political reasons. In order to meet therequest from a huge student base, areas with strong demand, like northern Italy, areforced to turn to city-run Accademie (e.g. the Cignaroli in Verona, the Ligustica in Genoa,and the Giacomo Carrara, Bergamo), accredited privately-run schools (e.g. the NABA,Milan) or private schools which do not award legally-recognised qualifications (e.g. theDomus Academy, Istituto Europeo del Design or other, often extemporaryorganisations, with few outside controls and therefore of dubious efficacy).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 326

Chapter 14Table 14.1 - Accademie di Belle ArtiLocation No. students No. Graduates 2003Bari 400 48Bologna 1233 167Carrara 482 78Catania 560 48Catanzaro 171 34Florence 1081 194Foggia 215 24Frosinone 139 28L'aquila 104 30Lecce 512 78Macerata 246 34Brera, Milan 2155 423Naples 1405 103Palermo 846 122Reggio Calabria 417 66Rome 1822 301Sassari 326 44Albertina, Turin 540 103Urbino (Pu) 251 44Venice 905 74Total 13810 2043Source: Miur, 2005.One response to the shortcomings inart education has been to createdepartments of arts, music and theatre(DAMS) in the university arts faculties.The first was set up in Bologna in1970-1971 with the specific aim ofcritically exploring and developing thesynergies between the main non-verbalexpressive languages of art, cinema,music and theatre. Today this formulahas been adopted by many universities.But what should have been a keyturning point has had to reckon withmainly theoretical teaching and thedifficulty of providing significantworkshops. Moreover, it has beendifficult to hire teachers who havewider interests than only an academiccareer. Therefore it is often the casethat the DAMS departments have littlecontact with production centres andalmost none of the contract teachersare leading world artists. Thepotentially very effective recourse toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 327

Chapter 14contract teaching, i.e. short-term wellpaidjobs, bringing in internationallyrenowned artists, has been seriouslyundermined by a misunderstanding ofthe role of high-level contract teaching.This is the most significant issuerequiring a solution in the next fewyears: liberalising and promotingcontract teaching should not be amakeshift measure to shore up staffshortages, but a way of bringing leadingcultural figures into our universities.As of April 2008, there are only twofaculties in state universities which gounder the name of “Design and Arts”:one in Bolzano and the other inVenice. Only the IUAV in Venice has aspecialist degree course in visual arts.Created in 2001, this course attemptsto foster lively exchanges withinternational artists and critics, also byexploiting the opportunities offered bythe presence in Venice of the VisualArts Biennale. Significantly, the courseis often boycotted and not only by thelocal Accademia. But in fact underlyingthe boycotting and difficultiesexperienced by the DAMS and theAccademie in general, there seem to bedoubts about the need to offer arttraining at university level at all.The deep-rootedness of this opinion –i.e. considering the visual arts not to bea “cognitive activity” – is confirmed bythe state of abandon of the so-calledLiceo Artistico (“Art GrammarSchool”). Considered on a par withtechnical colleges, these schoolsbasically focus on painting andsculpture but do little to supplyfundamental theoretical tools. Anotherserious shortcoming is the low-keyapproach to teaching English, which isof vital importance to anyone wishingto work in an international context.All of this is happening at a time whenart education facilities in othercountries are developing fast accordingto several models: the fine arts schoolmodel (Germany, France and China),the art college model (UK and formerCommonwealth countries), or theuniversity-type schools (especially inthe USA). Whether the model adoptedis the German meisterklasse or that ofthe UCLA and the CalArts in LosAngeles or the Staedel in Frankfurt, inwhich rotating teaching involvesleading artists, for many years now themajority of top international artistshave come from one or several centresof excellence. German artists whostamped their influence on the 1980sand 1990s – Thomas Ruff, ThomasStruth, Andreas Gursky – were taughtby Bernd and Hilla Becher inDüsseldorf. The “Young BritishArtists”, who won such clamorousfame in the 1990s, nearly all came fromGoldsmith College, London.Moreover, student exchanges areincreasingly frequent in these schools(see for example the annual Real Presencemeeting, usually organised in Belgrade).In 2003 a similar meeting was held inVenice, Italy, as part of the BiennaleRecycling the Future event. But in Italy,the initiative in most cases forattending these kinds of internationaleducation meetings is left up to theindividual without the activeencouragement of the art schools.Suspicions about the cultural validity ofthe visual arts in the years of theirgreatest success has been compoundedby the fatal embrace of entertainmentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 328

Chapter 14and the perception of the culturalindustry as being focused on marketvalues. Hence the little interest shownby publishers in serious essays ortranslations of leading theoretical andhistorical experts. The rise inpopularising texts on art has led to theproduction of what are little more thanbooklets with a cynical and complacentundertone of “anybody can do this”,typical of those with no real knowledgeof contemporary art. There are alsovery few translations of Italian studiesinto English, and this situationcontinues to encourage the selfreferentialisolation of Italian scholars.Arts booksItalian publishing houses tend to consider contemporary art books as products to bepaid for in advance by a client. Even when there are no costly illustrations, translationsare not considered worthwhile business ventures because of the small size of the Italianlanguage base and the costs of publication (translation, rights and distribution). Seminalanthologies for an understanding of the thinking of 20th-century artists and critics, suchas Art in Theory (Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, Blackwell, 1995) or Theories andDocuments in Contemporary Arts (Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, California Press, 1996) havenot even been published in Italy or only in abbreviated editions. Some hope has comefrom new initiatives: although we had to wait until 1993 for a translation of a work bythe classic American critic, Clement Greenberg (Allemandi, Turin), the most significantbooks by his rebellious heir Rosalind Krauss have been translated by various publishers(e.g. Bruno Mondadori and Codice). Moreover, there is every reason to suggest that thiswillingness to publish translations is not so much due to an interest shown by art schoolsto meet their requirements, than the visitor boom to visual arts events from the 1980swell into the 2000s and the interest in the non-specialised press. This kind of publishingis thus an epiphenomenon of the growing number of exhibitions, which are the outcomeof local cultural policies catering to a wider public.This could also explain the fact that the costly, hefty Art since 1900 by Hal Foster,Rosalind Krauss, Yves-Alain Bois and Benjamin Buchoh (Thames and Hudson) has beentranslated and published by Zanichelli.Further food for thought comes fromthe fact there are very few teacherswho cover the various aspects of thehistory, criticism and sociology ofcontemporary art: this is an inevitablelegacy of the belated introduction of artteaching in universities and in turn, alegacy of the belated, reluctantacceptance of contemporary art notonly by science teachers, but also artsfaculty teachers and, most significantly,art historians who deal with art fromother ages. There are no faculties anddegree courses on the production andproject aspects of visual arts, and it isnot even a subject in degree courses inliterature, the cultural heritage, historyor philosophy, i.e. in the so-calledWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 329

Chapter 14“arts” faculty. In short, the teaching of20th-century art has only made slowsporadic progress. This brings us backto the leitmotif of our argument: thevery phrase “contemporary art” is metwith suspicion by connoisseurs ofancient and modern art.14.5 Repercussions on artcollectingCollecting art works is not simply a wayof expressing personal taste or aspiringto a social status. It is a way of more orless consciously taking a stance in avery complex, fast- evolving symbolicarena. What is particularly interesting isthe phenomenon of collecting ineconomically emerging countries,where an upwardly-mobileentrepreneurial social class, anxious toforge its own distinctive identity, oftenadopts the language of contemporaryart as the symbolic counterpart of itsnewly acquired position as protagonistin the globalised economy. The sizeand speed of this phenomenonhighlight another crucial aspect ofcontemporary art collecting – its linkswith geopolitics. The great currentinterest in contemporary art in Chinaand India, for example, is the naturalreflection not only of economicdynamism but also of the growingpolitical influence of these countriesand in some ways provides indirectauthoritative cultural endorsement.Driven by powerful change and now ina condition to finally express whatpreviously had little place and attractedno interest, the Chinese and Indiancultural scenes are now undoubtedlythe most interesting and vitalworldwide. But at same time theirinterest in art forms seems to transcendany considerations about quality and ischaracterised by a lack of realcompetence or knowledge of thelanguages and issues. In short, theirattitude reflects the awareness thatcontemporary art is more aboutidentity-building than physical objectsand must be watched over as theindispensable expression of the spiritof the age.The geopolitical scene provides apossible key to interpreting thecontradictory situation of Italian art inthe context of international artcollecting as a backlash. On one hand,in the major London auction housesItalian works continue to be sold andalmost invariably meet with greatsuccess, fetching record prices. But onthe other, there continues to be aworrying absence of Italian art,especially that of the latest generations,in the major international collectionsand especially more recent or currentlymore dynamic collections, There aresome partial exceptions, such asFrançois Pinault who, having chosen toinstall a collection in Italy, is inevitablymore in touch with what happens inthe country.But the contradiction is really onlyapparent and is easily cleared up bylooking at the facts a little closer.Today the Italian art that sells well isthe work of artists no longer with us,like Burri, Fontana, Manzoni, Boetti,and all the leading Arte Povera artists.Moreover, the many enthusiasticbuyers at London sales are usuallyItalian collectors. If we look at youngerartists, we find a much differentWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 330

Chapter 14situation. With very few exceptions, theleading players on the Italian art scenestruggle to reach the top auctionrooms, never mind fetch significantprices.And this is clearly a repercussion ofgeopolitics. Today Italy counts for littlein the world of international collectingbecause the country not only gives theimpression of not being forwardlooking,but seems to be closed off in akind of self-referential delirium. To theeyes of the world, we have a greatfuture behind us rather than in front ofus. We are a country in which most ofthe population does not speak a foreignlanguage and, more importantly, has nointention of learning one. It is notsurprising that even our collectors,when they wish to appear sophisticatedand cosmopolitan, prefer to invest inyoung foreign talent rather thanhomebred artists (not to mention theattitude of Italian curators invited toselect works and make suggestions forlarge international events).Collecting, therefore, is also abarometer of what is happeningoutside the cultural arenas. But it is alsoa way of accumulating wealth. Acollection is basically capital in theeconomic sense of the term. It is aninvestment whose value will graduallyemerge as the choices made are sharedor not by the market. The short termand long term can express verydifferent verdicts. Not surprisingly, thebanking and financial world are wellaware of what happens in the no longerclosed-off world of art and there hasbeen a proliferation of products andinitiatives: from consulting services forprivate banking clients, to the creationof art funds and expansion plans forcorporate collecting programmes. Thisinterest in art is also shared bycorporations whose core business haslittle or nothing to do with art.14.6 The corporate view ofcontemporary artSo why do Italian companies investrelatively little in contemporary art?While private Italian collecting is livelyand dynamic, unlike their German orUK counterparts, Italian companies aremuch more reluctant to invest in art.Even when entrepreneurs becomecollectors, they are more inclined tobuy for themselves than for theircompany. The classic argument putforward to explain this lack of interestshown by Italian companies is theabsence of tax incentives. If artpurchases were tax free, thencompanies would buy much moreoften. But there are good reasons fordoubting the validity of this argument,at least in part. When talking toentrepreneurs who have decided toinvest in art at corporate level or evento build up a corporate collection, theyhardly ever argue that tax incentiveswould have played out crucial role intheir decision to collect art works.What counts is a passionate interestand a belief in the importance of thiskind of initiative. There are far moreentrepreneurs, on the other hand, whodo not invest and point to the lack oftax incentives as a justification, whichoften sounds like an easy way to dodgethe subject. If we go further into theissue, we find much more crucialWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 331

Chapter 14elements: the fear of not beingconfident enough to tackle the artmarket and of the negative reactionsfrom employees who might considerthe collection a waste of moneydiverting resources away from moreimportant priorities, especially at a timewhen global competition is gettingtougher; and the fear of attracting theattention of the customs and exciseauthorities which might subject themto particularly tough inspections, andso on. These assorted fears are basicallydue to a singly underlying factor: a lackof knowledge about contemporary art.This prevents entrepreneurs fromunderstanding that competence can bebuilt up by gradually exploring thecontemporary art scene or calling inexperts whose choices they share.Employees who consider art to be awaste of resources, or an irritatingwhim of top management, may changetheir view if they are given the chanceto explore, understand and take part inthe process. Indeed, they often becomeadvocates of this kind of programmewhen they understand the contributionit can make to improving organisationalculture and the quality of their workingenvironment or to opening up mentalhorizons and encouraging a greaterwillingness to explore the new.Similarly, a lack of knowledge andunderstanding prevents the taxauthorities from considering art as aninvestment instead of a luxury good.Indeed there is widespread criticism ofVAT applied to transactions which,unlike in other European countries, isat 20%, thus also preventing unofficialdealing from coming into the open andexpanding the market.Strong, mature corporate collectingwould be very healthy not only for thecompanies but also for the Italian artsystem, which would have theopportunity to grow and invest moreresources in artists, thus encouragingtheir international careers. Aninteresting challenge for the Ministry ofthe Culture and the Ministry ofEconomic Development would be tolaunch an awareness campaign aimed atcompanies on the subject of corporatecollecting and to grant benefits tomuseums and cultural institutions whospread this culture with specificinitiatives for companies in their ownlocal area, also actively involvingbusiness associations.14.7 Museums and raisingpublic awareness aboutcontemporary artWhen considering organisation modelscapable of supplying culture in the vitalcompetitive world of local economicdevelopment, expectations areconcentrated on museums. But ifmuseums are usually unable to makeprofits, what practical role can theyplay? The now vast internationalliterature on the subject reveals thatmuseums can have two importantfunctions in a local cultural system: i.e.as an “attractor” and “activator”.Museums of contemporary art lendthemselves particularly well to thesefunctions in that they become places inwhich the whole symbolic worldunderlying modern value chains isexpressed most effectively andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 332

Chapter 14completely. In other words, museumsprovide ideal conditions for “researchand development workshops” in whichto elaborate and make accessible all themost interesting and innovative aspectsof the symbolic universe ofcontemporary culture with noimmediate commercial objectives.These aspects are then metabolised inthe value chains of production systems,generating ideas for communications,design and packaging, but also forrelational models, lifestyles and productconcepts. And this is none other thanthe staple fare of post-industrialcompanies on whose competitivenessthe future of our economies andsocieties depends.On one hand, museums act asattractors in so far as they are capableof increasing the visibility of the localsystem by contributing to tourist flows,investment decisions, media coverage,etc., which are all precious resources inthe modern processes of localdevelopment. If we look at someEuropean examples – the BilbaoGuggenheim, the Tate Modern inLondon, the MART In Italy, and thePompidou Centre in Paris – we seethey are all museums with a cleartradition as attractors.On the other hand, museums functionas activators when their initiatives andcontent can encourage the emergenceof new entrepreneurial projects, theeducation and selection of newprofessional figures, the launch ofcommunity projects, and thelocalisation of production andresidential functions in an urbansystem. Examples of activatormuseums, again in a European context,are the ZKM in Karlsruhe, the Baltic atGateshead, the Palais de Tokyo inParigi, and the CAC in Vilnius.In all the case studies on success, whenboth the attracting and activatingfunctions emerge strongly, we clearlysee that alongside the indispensablecapacity to catalyse energies andresources from outside the localcontext, the museums successfullymobilise and actively involve the localpopulation and economic resources ofwhich they are an expression. In otherwords, museums which performsuccessfully, irrespective of theirspecific location and features, areexperienced and used as a resourceprimarily by those who live in the cityor metropolitan system hosting themand who enjoy privileged access.Rather than pursuing pre-packagedformulas, there is a need to ensure thatthe dialogue between a museum and itslocal area defines the model for usingthe space and time of the museumitself. This kind of dialoguepresupposes large investments in thelocal area in developing cultural skills,the capacity for projects, and openingup to the new and to internationalexperiences.In Italy, the vertiginous rise in the sizeof our contemporary art museumsystem over the last few years, currentlygrowing faster than ever, requires aconsiderable commitment to strategicco-ordination to avoid creating – evenwithin a metropolitan area – thecounter-productive overlapping ofcompetencies and conspicuousstructural gaps in the overall system.The same metropolitan area or regionmay paradoxically host severalmuseums, each dedicated to buildingup small, incomplete collections, ratherWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 333

Chapter 14than concentrate efforts on a singlehigh-quality project. At the same timethe area may, for example, becompletely lacking in project spaces fornon-collecting purposes. A special rolein the contemporary art museumsystem will be played by the MAXXI,which as a national museum of 21stcenturyart will inevitably haveleadership responsibilities and so mustbe carefully built up and organised.14.8 A radical change inlanguageToday’s art has lost the technicalfeatures and recurrent iconography ofthe art of the past. Materials may onlybe presented and not manipulated.“Figures” may be completely absent,even only as abstract and geometricalelements. Some media used recently byartists, such as photographs, video andfilm, are not recognised as being partof the techniques in the category basedon painting and sculpture. It is difficultto highlight traces of continuity withart history, which, however artists stillclaim as their source of inspiration andmain reference as regards the past.There is a genuine difficulty inattributing the value of art to what isno longer recognisable such. Arthistorians consider many artiststherefore simply as bluffers with notechnical skills or respect for tradition.Moreover, international art was alreadymoving in this direction in the 20thcentury: the “ready-made” is about tocelebrate a hundred years. Since the1970s in the field of conceptual art themedia have been reduced to a trifle (adictionary definition, a statement, agesture) inducing the American scholarLucy Lippard to talk of the“dematerialisation of the art object”and the critic Harold Rosenberg todescribe the work of art as an “anxiousobject” in search of its ownredefinition.Moreover,dematerialisation and the absence ofmanual skill contributed to stating thepower of the work beyond allcraftsmanship and according only tothe underlying idea. Here we aredealing with a longstanding row whichtakes us back to the time of theRenaissance artists who had to fight sothat painting and sculpture would beincluded among the Liberal Arts and,more generally, fields associated withknowledge. This process of recognisingthe epistemological value of works ofart was very slow. And this slownessexplains the failed or belated birth inthe European and especially Italianculture, of truly university-standard artschools. The visual arts, painting andsculpture were compared to decoration,the third field of traditional education.The fourth, architecture, only recentlyemerged from the “ghetto” of minorknowledge in the Accademie, andarguably this explains why it stilldefends its recently acquired status withsuch vehemence.All the circumspection roundcontemporary art arises from acircumspection that has alwayssurrounded the territory of the visual,but today it is further reinforced by thedifficulty in understanding whatdeserves to be called art. After theFuturist, Dada and Conceptualprovocations, it is genuinely difficult toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 334

Chapter 14find one’s find bearings in a field whichauthorises the general public to tareverything with the same brush.Moreover, we must wonder if the timehas not come to restore – or simplygive – dignity to the visual arts as avehicle of knowledge, especially sincemost of the new forms ofcommunications have been developingso quickly in this field. The supremacyof the image over the text can nolonger be considered a fad, a transitoryphenomenon doomed to decline. Infuture non-verbal languages willinevitably be increasingly crucial.Contemporary art collections – “booksmade of things” – require separatetreatment. They are opportunities tolearn to explore and practice thelanguage of art. Collections in Italianmuseums are piecemeal and ratherinconsistent, which does not help whenit comes to the teaching the discipline.As can be seen in Table 14.2, there isno lack of artists. What is lacking isinternal consistency in the collectionsand quality in the items.Despite the great drive in the 1990s tocreate new museums, built to designsby leading architects – e.g. the MARTat Rovereto by Mario Botta, theMAXXI by Zaha Hadid and theMACRO by Odile Decq, both inRome, and the Museo d’artecontemporanea in Milan by DanielLiebenskind – the opportunity to forma consistent collection of 20th-centuryart has now been lost. This happeneddespite the fact that Italy was thecountry best placed to make one, atleast for the second half of the century,given that the major artistic trends andall the leading artists in the last 70 yearsfeatured very early on at the VeniceBiennale, when their works still costonly a few thousand dollars.Unfortunately, no government body ormuseum adopted a policy of buyingworks at the Biennale, at a time whenthey were inexpensive and would havebeen shrewd and long-sightedinvestments. Prices of contemporaryart works have soared so much,especially since the 1980s, that fillingthe gap is no longer possible. Italy willbe able to have a museum of 21stcenturyart, if it learns from thismistake and this will surely bringpredictable benefits in the field ofeducating the public. Phenomena suchas exhibition-going for entertainmentand tourism and the temptation toconstruct museums for the purposes ofbuilding speculation in the surroundingarea (often hypocritically dressed up asurban redevelopment) have nothing todo with the genuine need to pursueeducation and raise awareness about artin the country. Focusing only onattracting large numbers of visitors toexhibitions and museums can even becounter-productive. It resuscitates thespectre of pure entertainment andplunges contemporary visual art intothe umpteenth misunderstanding. Theprimary function of contemporary artsurely must not be to enrich art citiesalready crammed with historic art andarchitecture, but to produceknowledge.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 335

Chapter 14Table 14.2 – Collections in Major Italian Museums of Contemporary ArtMuseumMUSEIONMuseo d’ArteModerna eContemporanea,BolzanoMARTMuseo d’ArteModerna eContemporaneadi Trento eRoveretoGAMeCGalleria d’ArteModerna eContemporanea,BergamoCastello di RivoliMuseo d’ArteContemporanea,Rivoli, TurinFondazioneTorino MuseiGAM, Galleriad’Arte Moderna eContemporanea,TurinGalleria Civica,ModenaGAMGalleria d’ArteModerna,BolognaNumber ofitems incollection*1,7007,000Period20th century,especiallyItalian andGerman artmovementsEntire 20thcentury60 20th century30015,0009,0004,0001950 to thepresentLate 18thcentury to thepresent20th century tothe present19th century topresentPrincipal artistsAccardi, Afro, Beuys, Cage,Capogrossi, Fontana, Hofer,Lawler, Lewitt, Locher, Kosuth,Kounellis, Kowarz, Manzoni,Nauman, Novelli, Paik, Paolini,Rudolf, Stolz, ZimmermannBalla, Boetti, Burri, Carrà, Depero,de Chirico, Fontana, Long, Kiefer,Kounellis, Martinetti, Merz,Morandi, Nauman, Prampolini,SironiBalla, Baj, Basilico, Boccioni,Casorati, Cattelan, de Chirico, DePisis, Fontana, Hartung, Kandinskij,Manzù, Morandi, Pirandello,Richter, TesiBonvicini, Cattelan, Cragg, Flavin,Fontana, Goldin, Halley, Kiefer,Kounellis, Long, Marisaldi, Merz,Nauman, Ousler, Paladino,Penone, Pistoletto, Richter, TesiD’Azeglio, Fattori, Mancini, Pellizza da Volpedo, Medardo Rosso;Anselmo, Balla, Boccioni, Boetti,Burri, de Chirico, De Pisis, Dix,Ernst, Fontana, Hartung, Klee,Kounellis, Martini, Manzù, Melotti,Merz, Modigliani, Morandi, Picabia,Picasso, Paolini, Pistoletto,Severini, WarholCarrà, Evans, Fontana, Ghirri,Goldin, Lorca di Corcia, Morandi,Penone, Sironi, ZorioAngeli, Beecroft, Burri, Cattelan,Cesar, Cucchi, Gilbert & George,Gilardi, Merz, Ontani, Pane,Paladino, Paolini, Penone,Schifano, Schnabel, ZorioWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 336

Chapter 14Centro per l’ArteContemporaneaLuigi Pecci,PratoGNAMGalleriaNazionale d’ArteModerna, RomeMAXXIMuseo Nazionaledelle Arti del XXIsecolo, RomeMACROMuseo d’ArteContemporanea,Rome5001,9001950 to thepresent19th century topresent250 21st century1,000MANMuseo d’Arte 100della Provinciadi Nuoro, Nuoro* The number of items is approximate1960 to thepresent20th-century artin SardiniaBagnoli, Boetti, Cucchi, Fabre,Gilardi, Kapoor, Kounellis, Lewitt,Merz, Paolini, Pistoletto, Schnabel,ZorioCanova, Cézanne, Courbet, DeNittis, Fattori, Lega, Michetti,Monet, Pellizza da Volpedo,Previati, Medardo Rosso, VanGoghAirò, Alys, Anselmo, Arienti, Avery,Bartolini, Basilico, Beecroft,Beninati, Boetti, Cattelan, DeDominicis, Esposito, Galegati,Gilbert & George, Kentridge,Khebrenzades, Linke, Manzelli,Manzoni, Marisaldi, Merz, Moro,Oursler,Pessoli, Pivi, Richter,Ruscha, Schutte, Tesi, Trickell,Tuttofuoco, Vezzoli, WalkerAccardi, Castellani, Perilli, Pivi,Pizzi Cannella, Rotella, TesiBalleru, Canu, Collu, Floris, Lai,Mura, Nivola, Spada, SiniWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 337

Chapter 1414.9 Concluding remarks:some simple actionmeasuresTo conclude, we would like to mentionwhat we believe could be the initialelements in an impact therapy for theItalian contemporary art system. Theseactions are not meant to replace thepatient work of constructing a longtermstrategy but as an eloquent andcredible sign of real change. Themeasures will be illustrated in greaterdetail in the Final Recommendations.Here we will outline and highlight theirinterdependent character. Rather thanworking on broad issues and structuralproblems which are difficult to solve, itseemed more useful and practical tobegin with the intermediate issues forartists and operators in the sector.These action measures should beaccompanied by a more in-depthcomplex study on the themes andplayers discussed in the previous pages.1. Set up international programmesoffering foreign curators the chance tospend time studying in Italy2. Include Italian artists in thenetworks of the most interestinginternational artist-in-residenceprogrammes3. Accustom artists to presenting anddiscussing their own work4. Support artists invited to majorforeign institutions, not only in theearly days of their career, but especiallyduring the crucial stages ofconsolidating their internationalreputations5. Develop the DARC (GeneralDepartment for ContemporaryArchitecture and Art in the Ministry ofCulture) with suitable funding andmake it function as an agency ofcontemporary art6. Introduce a fair tax system forItalian galleries, enabling them todevelop their business and compete onequal terms with galleries in othercountries.This is an ambitious but feasible actionprogramme, as has been demonstratedby experiences in many European andother countries which have madeawareness of contemporary art a toppriority in cultural policy. There is noreason why Italy cannot do likewise.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 338

Charter 15Michelangelo Pistoletto “Love Difference, Mar Mediterraneo” 2003-2005Mirror and wood, 738 x 320 cmIn the exhibition Voltjeti Razlike/Amare le differenze, Zagreb 2007Photograph: D. Fabijanic

Chapter 15Chapter 15Creative ItalyStrategies and actions for the growth and internationalpositioning of Italy in the economy of creativity and thecultural industriesThis chapter uses the previous analyses to make suggestions for cultural policy andrecommendations for policy-makers. The chapter is divided into:• Ambitions and objectives outlining the picture of short-term strategicexpectations which emerged during the work of the Commission• Decisions and actions which the various sectors can adopt in their own areas ofcompetence and governance.The targets for the recommendations are:• The institutional framework, meaning all levels of local, regional, national andEuropean administration with responsibility for policies, standardisation andconsultation for joint decision-making in the system• The economic and productive framework, meaning the areas of convergenceof intellectual, financial, technological and entrepreneurial resources operating inresearch, experimentation, production and the diffusion of products and servicesin the production of culture and creativity.• The framework of pure research and education, meaning the links ineducation supply chain which associate study programmes and research, especiallyin the university system.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 340

Chapter 15Ambitions and Key DecisionsAmbition 1. Greater co-ordination between institutions dealing withcreativity and the cultural industriesIn Italy there is no political co-ordination for strategies for the development and growthof the cultural industries.Many institutions, whether Ministries (for Industry, Culture, Education, the Environmentand Agriculture), local government bodies (Regions, Provinces and CommunalAdministrations) or public and private non-profit organisations must find an frameworkfor governing creativity in all sectors in which it appears to be indispensable. Thisambition may give rise to a new role for the Ministry of the Heritage and CulturalActivities (MiBAC), which under the new name of the “Ministry for Culture” shouldoversee policies for the production of culture and creativity in Italy and their coordinationwhen required.Key decision 1Reorganise the MiBAC to create a General Department for the Production ofCulture in Italy to deal with design, the taste industry, the export-driven sectors,fashion, television fiction, video games, etc. The new department mustsupplement the knowledge acquired in existing General Departments. TheMinistry should be renamed the “Ministry for Culture” thus highlighting anepoch-making change in approach.The new reorganised Ministry would naturally thus be a centre of responsibilityfor the policies on the cultural and creative industries. This decision will helpidentify the areas of convergence of institutional competences in the fields ofculture, education, innovation, production activities and local and regionalpolicies and so create easier conditions for dialogue and consultation withstakeholders.The overall strategic vision can shape the future cultural and creative profile ofItaly as a country which knows how to conserve its past, and most importantly,produce its future in the field of culture.Ambition 2. Give greater recognition to creativity and raise standards ofexcellenceCreate models to be emulated: giving due acknowledgement to more creatives in thepresent generation will lead to an increase in the number of creatives in the nextgeneration.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 341

Chapter 15Key decision 2Pursue initiatives in order to:• recognise talents involved in the field (except for a few sectors alreadyhighlighted by the media, most excellent creatives are not known by thegeneral public)• give talents greater dignity and promote the diffusion of role models• implement tutoring programmes (“adopt a creative”)• support the setting up and development of creative communities• recognise and develop places of creative learning.Ambition 3. Guarantee the generational turnover of creative talent in thecultural industryCreativity is expressed in ways which are revealed in time and places through “waves” ofgenerations: e.g. fashion in Milan in the 1970s, fashion in Paris in the 1960s, design inMilan in the 1970s, and Italian comedy films in Rome in the 1960s. Sustaining creativitymeans that each generation must expresses a level of creativity at least equal to that of theprevious generation.To maintain high standards of creativity and competitiveness at international level forItalian products, there is a need to select fresh ranks of stylists, designers, artists,composers, filmmakers, architects and creatives to guarantee future generations havehigh levels of creativity.Key decision 3Creativity can be produced in at least three ways, which must be subject toreform policies:• improving academic and professional training, raising the standards ofteaching and the content of study programmes, developing moreinterdisciplinary studies and freedom of expression;• including learning by doing and learning on the job in training programmesto enable young people to acquire tacit and explicit knowledge based oncompany practice and traditional knowledge• developing policies to attract young talents from abroad and to preventItalian talents from having to emigrate.Ambition 4. Training systems and human capital: the origins of creativityThe Italian education system lags behind those of Europe, Japan and the USA in terms ofquality. Urgent reform is required, not only at administrative level but also in terms ofteaching techniques and content so that education enables students to give free expressionto their creativity.On the job training is an excellent widespread possibility in Italy. Moreover, in theacademic and professional world it is currently underused and often only takes the formsof disappointing, ineffective workshops.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 342

Chapter 15Key decision 4On the demand side of creativity, there is a need for greater transparency withgeneral information that is as objective as possible on the system of art schools,conservatories and universities involved in artistic and cultural education. Thiscan be promoted by organising a system of annual ratings for universityinstitutions. An independent organisation could rank schools universities andother institutions by assessing education content and results. Although Italy hasno market for private academic institutions, quality rating could in any case bean incentive for improving the efficiency of the education system.Ambition 5. Enhance Italy’s reputation as a creative society. Improve theinternational standing of Italian culture so that the country is identifiedas a top “creative nation”Italy already enjoys an international reputation as a creative country, thanks to its historyand cultural heritage, and architects, artists, writers, singers, designers and stylists whohave won fame abroad. The Italian creative potential must be supported so as to achieveresults and once more make the nation a leading model.This kind of support, if co-ordinated in a system, especially at international level, cangenerate spin-offs in cultural tourism and in important Italian production sectors,especially export-driven sectors.Key decision 5Reputation is a capital, which to be maintained and developed, requires majorinvestments of public and private resources. This decision involves investing inbuilding up an international reputation which primarily highlights Italianexcellence in terms of the quality of cultural and creative products, ourproduction capacity and exports.Awards bringing a global reputation must be tenaciously sought, also bypursuing collective projects: How to win Oscars for Italian films? How to winthe Nobel Prize for literature? How to win the Ferruccio Busoni Prize forpianists. From this point of view, teamwork involving institutional and privateresources is an essential support for the success of artistic and creative talents.In other cases, investing in a global reputation consists in organising majorinternational art exhibitions, hiring internationally-renowned communicationsexperts, enhancing the large Italian “Biennials”, supporting and improving thequality of festivals, creating international prizes and developing designproductions reflecting the strength of our material culture.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 343

Chapter 15Ambition 6. Italy as a magnet for talentA programme to attract foreign creative talents and increase thecosmopolitanism of Italian citiesTo increase the capacity to attract more new talents from abroad, often from developingcountries, with different religious and cultural practices, the cities must adopt a moreopen approach to integration, social inclusion and citizenship services for foreigners.Otherwise, the power of cultural attraction will be weak and cosmopolitanism will notfunction as a magnet for new talent as happens in creative cities like London and Paris,which are in a position to offer very enticing cultural environments and lifestyles. Inaddition to the traditional immigration of low-cost low-skilled labour, this ambitionredirects public policies towards the high-skilled range of immigrant talent, by providinggrants and workshops in creative companies or cultural institutions, with culturallogistics support (Italian courses, accommodation services, etc.) and a fast-track inbureaucratic procedures (e.g. for visas or renewing stay permits).Key decision 6Creating a more open society requires:• reducing to a minimum the external costs of entering the country• developing tolerant policies acknowledging cultural differences, both interms of religion and the field of art history• developing new policies of social inclusion• creating multilingual public and social services (libraries, schools, gyms) foruse by foreigners• maintaining the right levels of diversity in urban environments andreducing the sources of social hardship by encouraging measures aimed atcohesion, integration and cultural openness, especially among the youngergenerations (school, university and other programmes).Ambition 7. Support market access and consolidation for new creativetalents in Italy by reducing entrance barriers and sustainingconsolidation, funded by quotas from profitable creative businessesKey decision 7The creativity sector is characterised by an endemic difficulty for youngindividuals and groups, often vulnerable novices, to gain access to the market.The approach to public support action for creative activities is usually based onthe criteria for selecting excellence and offering awards for successful activities(e.g. contributions to film proceeds and supplementing copyright income). Byidentifying, therefore, the profitable areas for creative activities capable ofgenerating high incomes, tools can be introduced to support and encouragecreatives to enter the market and consolidate their position.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 344

Chapter 15Ambition 8. Culture and developmentSupport the growth of the Italian cultural and creative industries tostrengthen their impact on the national economic systemCharacterised by the use of information and communications technology and the growingimportance of the qualitative component of products, the global economy increasinglyrequires the creation of goods with high symbolic content, cultural images andsophisticated branding.The cultural industries are the economic macro sector best suited to meeting the newchallenges of globalised markets and positioning Italy at the top of the internationalrankings by country as well as making a significant driving impact on the nationaleconomic system.Key decision 8Boost the widespread supply of art and culture in the country to enableperipheral industrial districts to incorporate inputs of creativity and newknowledge in more traditional industrial skills.Key decision 9European and Italian regulations for the sector of culture and the culturalindustries are extremely heterogeneous: incentives vary considerably fromcountry to country and attempts should be made to make them as uniform aspossible.At present the cultural industries are governed by the same laws as traditionalindustries. But clearly the cultural industry cannot be treated in the same way as“heavy industry”.Moreover, within the cultural industries it would be useful to distinguishbetween artistic activities which benefit from state funding and those which donot.Another issue concerns the contribution of cultural and creative sectors toeconomic growth and the creation of jobs. There should be a focus on the largenumber of SMEs operating in the various sectors. The studies conducted andthinking on the subject highlight the need to adopt competitive and fiscalpolicies to rebalance the market, given that businesses in the cultural andcreative sector are mainly SMEs or even micro-firms which are at adisadvantage due to the presence of big players.Key decision 10Consolidate and give more breathing space to the young cultural enterprisescreated in the last 20 years so that:• the professional skills they have developed can be further enhanced• they become mediators between the various sectors in the cultural industry• they have greater financial solidity and job security.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 345

Chapter 15To do this involves:• a systematic analysis of production processes• studying the ways that the young cultural enterprises fit into productionchains, given the changes over the last few years• a systematic comparison between skills acquired on the job and skills taughtin formal training centres in the same sectors, also in order to integrate,where possible, the various kinds of training• setting up, where possible, dedicated information desks and, in agreementwith the major financial institutions, specialised bank desks in a position tounderstand the specific features of the sector• defining specific forms of contracts, taking into account the inevitably noncontinuousand mainly collaborative nature of work in the sector and theimplicit property rights of services provided.Ambition 9. Develop intellectual property rightsIntellectual property rights in Italy are still not as widely applied as in the rest of Europe,the USA and Japan, especially as regards the field of counterfeiting and commercialpiracy.In other cases, the application of rights has been reduced due to a limited demand andcapacity to register rights, which does not reflect the real innovative potential ofproduction sectors.Key decision 11On the supply side, enforcing intellectual property rights requires a greatercapacity for monitoring and inspecting protected products and the possibility ofarresting and condemning counterfeiters.This key decision must be supported by suitable tax policies encouraging thegradual and planned emergence of unregistered firms onto the legal market. Atthe same time, organised crime, the main producer and distributor ofcounterfeited goods, must be combated rigorously and unconditionally.Key decision 12From the point of view of demand for the application of intellectual propertyrights, there is a need to encourage the use of property rights for the exportdriven sectors and for architecture. Awareness must be raised among creativesabout the protection of ideas and indirectly their economic development, alsoby creating a systematic process (through publicly funded announcements andcompetitions) which takes technologies out of non-market-oriented laboratoriesand transforms them into indispensable attractive solutions for the market. Acontribution to this process can certainly be made by involving creatives notonly in designing innovations, but also in developing patents which have beenregistered but never used.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 346

Chapter 15Ambition 10. Express an Italian position in the European Union on theissue of the cultural and creative industriesAs far as the MiBAC is concerned, there is clearly a need for an ad hoc flexibleorganisational structure, making use of specific skills, which by establishing relations with thekey EU institutions pursues the necessary consultation process with all Italian and otherstakeholders involved in the sector of culture.Key decision 13To consolidate an active European policy in the field of the cultural and creativeindustries it would be useful to:• state the Italian position at times of decision-making with an approach basedon proposals and not reactions• organise consulting activities with the various EU institutions on the variousthemes of interest (cultural and creative industries)• map out the EU strategies on the theme of cultural and creative industries inthe Commission, Council and Parliament• organise consultations on EU proposals with stakeholders in culture in orderto establish a joint Italian position.Key decision 14Provisions for the sector of the culture and the cultural industry are extremelyheterogeneous in the 27 member states. Incentives vary considerably fromcountry to country.At present the cultural industries are governed by the same regulations astraditional industry. The cultural and creative industries have many specificfeatures: the prevalence of small or micro firms, a flexible intermittent labourmarket, a highly-educated workforce, the phenomenon of superstars, thesymbolic and identity-building aspect of goods based on culture, and the highcomponent of intellectual property. On the grounds of these characteristics,they require uniform economic policies capable of shaping a joint Europeanapproach to the sector.Ambition 11. Setting national priorities: investing in the cultural heritageThe cultural heritage and its impact on the national economic system – from jobs toexports and global competition – has a very low profile on the Italian political agenda.There is a need to raise collective awareness of its economic value, starting from theestimates in this report that the macro sector of the cultural and creative industriesaccounts for almost 10% of the GDP. Moreover, resetting national priorities must takeinto account the positive, non-monetary impact on social quality and everyday life.Key decision 15WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 347

Chapter 15Reform spending on culture involving all the Ministries concerned. Too muchmoney is spent and, most importantly, spent badly. Ministerial spending poweris not controlled and residues and savings are accumulated. Reformed spendingrequires more streamlined flexible institutional solutions with a reduction inGeneral Departments and an analysis of the validity and effectiveness of everyitem of spending.Key decision 16Redefine public resources allocated to the world of culture, creativity and thecultural industries. The objective of dedicating 1% of the state budget to culture(at present only a meagre 0.22%) must be reconsidered, also bearing in mind thespending of local government bodies and non-profit organisations. Increasingfivefold the current state commitment would make it possible to developpolicies to promote the Italian cultural and creative industries. This wouldinvolve a shift in focus in the relation between conservation policies and policiesfor new cultural production. There are serious doubts, however, about raisingthe spending power of the Ministry, which would seem to be unable to copewith such a large increase in activities and projects in the short term.Key decision 17Increase incentives for private donations by emulating the successful strategy inEnglish-speaking countries based on tax allowances for donors, and byreturning to a tradition rooted in Italian culture: i.e. developing incentives forprosocially or morally motivated forms of donations.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 348

Chapter 15Creative cities and local territoriesObjectiveEncourage institutional activities linked to the creativity and productionof culture in cities and local areasAction 1 : The creation of Territorial Agencies for Creativity. Giving voiceto creative citiesAreas of competence on creativity and the production of culture are dividedbetween various institutions and public bodies. Funding is provided by theEuropean Union, Communal Administrations and foundations. The many issuesin a given area can range from cinema to design and are highly diversified. Thereis a danger of indiscriminate funding without real knowledge of the context orany co-ordination of specific policies.The Territorial Agencies should play the role of co-ordinating initiatives andpublic and private resources associated with creative activities in the productionof culture. The Agency could be configured as a public-private partnership madeup of representatives from commercial associations, local administrative officers(involved to varying degrees in the cultural field and creative sectors), localeducational institutions (universities), urban planning and employment agencies.The Agency will have the task of identifying the many areas of interest and thesocio-economic actions required to encourage cultural and creative initiatives. Itcould, for example, recommend some urban zoning initiatives to encouragesocial inclusion, maintain diversity in city centres and encourage thedevelopment of creative urban communities. One idea could be to set up acommission with the objective of studying, discussing and outlining newstrategic pathways for Italian cities. They would take into account variations insize, economic and production structures, the role of the historic centres, therelationship with the periphery, etc. In this way joint strategies and specificpolicies could be identified for some types of local territories/situations.Action 2 : Set up a Fund for Creative Communities. A public-private fundto encourage cultural creativity in local areasIntroducing incentives for creativity requires setting up public-private funds tofinance the efforts of artists.The international reference models are the Creative Capital Fund and the NewYork City Cultural Innovation Fund.The funds should be privately run and public tenders used to allocate subsidisedloans or contributions to entrepreneurial initiatives.Through the creation of these funds it will be possible to foster ideas andcultural creativity in the local area without any political interference in theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 349

Chapter 15process of choosing the initiative to be funded, made according to quality criteriaor the capacity to produce economic results.ObjectiveEstablish a Creative Social NetworkOne of the main problems experienced every day by creative professionals,especially in limited or peripheral contexts, is coming into contact with marketscharacterised by dynamic lively demand and understanding who may be potentialclients and their requirements, as well as simply finding a way of getting“noticed”. Similarly, companies which need original professional and creativeskills often struggle to find them on the traditional labour market.Action 3 : Making a database to bring together demand and supply forcreativityBuild up a software/interactive database, like the social network sites now widelyfound (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) with a space for questions, messages, forums,etc and also a user rating system giving an indication of the quality of theservices purchased/received. All of this should be translated into English to giveforeign companies easier access to creative talents in Italy. The network wouldhave relatively low costs because it uses consolidated programmes and is notcomplicated to develop, and also because it could be at least partly funded by thefees from user companies and schools (but not individual creatives, who wouldbe offered free access). This initiative would have the merit of being simple andaccessible to all, thus overcoming barriers associated with social status andgeographical location. It would help those living in small and peripheral towns tocome into contact with larger markets and other resources. In short, the databasewould be a relatively simple, cheap way of bringing together supply and demandof creative ideas and talents.Highlighting material culture as a sign of Italianexcellence1 Design, Material Culture And CraftsObjectiveStrengthen the international reputation of Italian designWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 350

Chapter 15Action 4 : Organise international exhibitions and events on Italian designand exportsItalian design must be promoted abroad not only in terms of marketing andimages of companies, but also through the new communications channels, suchas international exhibitions and events showcasing with greater communicationalpower the thinking and cultural meanings underlying Italian design.One starting point could be to recognise the cultural mission of Italian productsas carrying specific values which have always characterised their exceptionalnature and which can be summed up in eight points: landscape; motivatedworkforce; flair for invention and entrepreneurship; production districts; makingthe most of diversity; ethical and aesthetic excellence of products; the world ofthe family; and a focus on the person as a “workshop” for human development.These eight points of value are the intangible heritage underlying the excellenceof Italian exports, which are greatly acclaimed worldwide.To implement projects for international exhibitions and events, an initial modelcould be the Italia in Persona project, suggested by Michelangelo Pistoletto.According to this project:• Italian production is almost completely made up of goods for the person.The person, therefore, is both reference point and privileged recipient• there is a need to raise awareness about the cultural mission of Italianproducts – both as regards the producers and citizens-consumers – requiredfor the competitive development of the Italian system• relations between products, producer and consumer must be redefined.This means each product will reappropriate its history, craftsmanship andsymbolic and affective values.ObjectiveShowcase young Italian designers internationallyCompetition in the design sector, whether the design of products, services orcommunications has assumed global proportions. The design sector ischaracterised by a labour market with enormous creative potential on the supplyside. But only a few superstars emerge who, thanks to their talent and acquiredfame, involve fewer risks and guarantee growing profits for clients. There arethus considerable obstacles for young talents entering the market due todifficulties of an economic and relational nature, especially at the stage oftranslating ideas and projects into models and prototypes.Giving more room to young designers is important not only for the specificsector but for the whole Italian economy. Promoting designers and their projectspromotes the system of symbolic and cultural values expressed by theenvironment in which designers live and of which they are an expression.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 351

Chapter 15Action 5 : Creative workshops in the cities and export-driven industrialsectors; ideas competitions involving public and private playersCreative workshops must be promoted in the places of design and in “creativequarters”, as happens in many international cities, which combine policies forurban redevelopment with policies to promote artistic activities. This encouragesthe localisation of design studios in areas equipped with suitable material andintangible infrastructures for creative activity (libraries, digital archives, corporatemuseums, etc). Another element that must be strengthened is collaborationbetween training facilities for designers and enterprises in the districts, forexample, by organising district summer schools, and exchanges of teachers,students and entrepreneurs. They can be the first step towards working on jointproduct projects.Lastly, ideas competitions can be held for young designers both through directpublic action and suitable tax incentives that encourage private enterprise toembark on independent initiatives. The aim of these competitions must be theimplementation of specific projects that can be reproduced and launched on themarket, signed by the designer and not only by the production company.Action 6 : Incentives for setting up associated firms of young designersDesigning is a very complex profession which increasingly involves not only anindustrial design stage but also collaboration on an overall project for products.It thus requires a set of highly specialised skills which are all part of the designfield but are not all found in single professionals.Competing on international markets requires economies of scale which onlydesign firms of a certain size can achieve.There is thus a need to promote various kinds of concessions (legal, fiscal, etc.)for the creation of associated firms of young designers in which the variousdesign skills of the members are combined in associate projects. This should giverise to growing results in terms of scale and so drive success on the market. Itwould also promote forms of self-employment in a sector, characterised bywidespread forms of unofficial temporary contracts.Action 7 : Define the professional identity of the designer; set up apermanent observatory on design and make annual business reportsFrom a regulatory point of view, making use of work carried out by professionalassociations in recent years, it will be useful to describe the professional profileof the designer in order to guarantee suitable representation in the officialinstitutions, which has been missing so far. The creation of the National DesignCouncil in 2007 as a consulting agency of the MiBAC and the Ministry ofEconomic Development could be the ideal opportunity to set up a practicaldialogue between policymakers and professional associations which have workedWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 352

Chapter 15so hard in recent years to promote and protect Italian design. The main tasks ofthe Council could include – in collaboration with the business associations – thesetting up of a permanent observatory on design which would draft an annualreport on business trends in the sector, as happens in many other countries.ObjectiveRaise awareness of the influence of the material culture and widespreaddesign on the export-driven production sectorsThe specific features of successful Italian design productions are universallyrecognised as having originated in the high-quality craftsmanship which has beenconsolidated and handed down from generation to generation in the districtareas. Innovative processes are often not simply produced by an individualprofessional figure, typically a designer, but are the outcome of closecollaboration between various professional figures involved in the productionprocess: the entrepreneur, specialised technicians and workers.There is a need for a greater awareness of the role played by district areas for thepurposes of fostering dialogue between the two different kinds of district:industrial districts, real or even only potential, found throughout the local areawhich are custodians of the local material culture and in which production takesplace; and metropolitan cultural districts whose services are used for advertisingand commercialising products.Action 8 : Set up institutions dedicated to the conservation anddevelopment of the material culture in the districtsThe conservation and development of the common heritage of material culturein a local area is the outcome of the joint action by a set of public and privatestakeholders:• museums and historic archives which not only conserve and collect modelsand projects that may be a source of new inspiration but facilitate access tothem though the use of digital and audio-visual media• specialised schools and technical institutes which work on encoding thewidespread know-how of a local area and provide training andapprenticeships guaranteeing the transmission of knowledge also to thosewho have not inherited a family tradition; the educational institutions mustalso develop a shared language and facilitate free creative expression topromote a more conscious widespread participation in the process and agreater capacity to dialogue with designers inside and outside the area• local committees and agencies whose members are representatives of localgovernment bodies and business associations with the aim of creatingcollective brands to preserve the average quality of local productions anddevelop a greater focus on process and product innovation. This wouldcontribute to guaranteeing the economic value of the collective brand overWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 353

Chapter 15time and consequently the individual brands of businesses in the district: i.e.the intangible component of production which will increasingly be a crucialelement for accessing private finances in the design sector• district forms of patronage to stimulate the small and medium businesses inthe sector by offering financial resources to develop projects and thecreation of private funds for development programmes.Action 9 : Promote communications and services design hubs in areaswith district productionsThe small average size of both firms and towns in the production districts meansthat the cost of producing the intangible component of a product in advertisingand communications can only be borne by a few leading companies. Thephysical distance from the places in which the design component is currentlyconcentrated (Milan-Turin) increases costs, especially for those district areaslocated between the Apennines and the Adriatic coast (from Romagna to theMarches and Apulia) and the southern and central regions of the country. Forthe purposes of promoting and involving various cultural businesses (publishinghouses, photographers, event organisers) in the communications activities ofdistrict productions, it would be useful to identify towns with concentrations ofthese types of services to make them the cultural and creative hubs for theindustrial districts in the area. Today doubts are justifiably raised as to whetherthe Milan design system can cope with the growing widespread demand forcommunications campaigns, or if it can be replicated in other areas of thecountry, where there are mainly district productions.2 FashionObjectiveStrengthen the material and intangible infrastructure supporting thefashion industry and guarantee continuing quality in the generationalturnover of stylistsAction 10 : Promote the international fashion districtsThere are many reasons for adopting a cultural policy for fashion: to promotegreater creativity in fashion businesses (clothes and textiles); to enable visitors toidentify with a potential museum; to provide young stylists with access toworkshops at subsidised costs; and to attract the public to exhibitions with aninternational appeal where they also find opportunities for shopping in adjacentspaces. All of this will also serve to increase the impact on the economic areathrough attracting cultural tourism and giving greater visibility to the ItalianWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 354

Chapter 15system. As the “global fashion city” of Milan demonstrates, transformations anddevelopments in fashion can be driven by a policy based on a multidimensionalmodel of the fashion district, with suitable spaces for proposals to createmuseums, workshops for young stylists, temporary events and exhibitions, andservices for experimental production involving a wider public of visitors andconnoisseurs of elegance.There are five possible strategic lines for constructing the initial hub of a fashiondistrict:• exhibitions and events• creative workshops• setting up Fashion Commissions• fashion collections and museums• the creation of archive centres providing creatives with original historicmodels; this service would be especially useful for small firms with in-housestylists.The strategic lines not only suggest five development projects, but also afunctional sequence which could lead to the practical implementation of thesystem itself.In fact the district may be considered a national and international source ofcommunications about fashion, and also a place for cultural events, experimentalresearch and training of highly specialised professional profiles.Action 11 : Creative WorkshopsMake available creative workshops, spaces, and production, legal andcommercial services to a group of young stylists, chosen on the basis of theircapacity for projects and an international competition. These facilities wouldenable the stylists to experiment, produce collections and have a scaffolding forpromoting their activities.The services will include incentives for study trips and research in Italy andabroad.Creative workshops would attract foreign talents and help recruit new Italiantalents and thus make up for the lack of professional skills currentlycharacterising fashion. A system monitoring and training various professionalfigures could be organised for various profiles: managers of cultural events,project managers in the fashion industry, product managers, managers ofcollections, images, and cultural mediators.Action 12 : Fashion CommissionsSet up, along the lines of film commissions, Fashion Commissions operating atcity or a macro area level in the areas most concerned with the textiles sector andfashion. Fashion Commissions should be non-profit organisations funded bypublic institutions, local government bodies and other private foundingWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 355

Chapter 15members, such as stakeholders in the field of fashion and clothes, or privatefirms which wish to be socially useful enterprises operating in the local area withsocial and cultural initiatives.The Fashion Commissions will have several functions, the main ones being:• the construction of an Italian and international historic archive, networkingwith existing archives, possibly through the Internet• fund and friend raising (the creation of associations such as Friends of theMuseum of Fashion and the District)• production of high-quality merchandising• management of commercial spaces• creation of an Internet site• advanced training activities• strategic studies• relations with international fashion and design schools• relations with cultural and fashion foundations• development of possible partnerships with various Italian companies andthe fashion systems in Milan, Florence and Rome• relations with tour operators and organisations promoting the citiesinternationally• research activities on the economic impact of the Piedmont fashion system;monitoring of activities conducted and assessment of results.ObjectiveProtecting brandsAction 13 : Step up the fight against commercial content counterfeiting.Develop policies to bring small companies producing and distributingcounterfeit products out of illegal markets. Increase protection for brandsAction 14 : Collective brandsThe creative workshops and an international district for enhancing thereputation and strengthening the collective identity of a local area can beendowed with collective brands, primarily developing the managerial aspectsinvolved in increasing the quality of members’ products.This is a tool to enhance the material and intangible aspects of the district’sactivities, mainly providing the creative workshop with the media contentrequired to create a reputation and access national and international markets.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 356

Chapter 15ObjectiveEncourage the entrance of the Italian distribution industry into retailsegmentsThe distribution sector has seen the great international success of segmentsdedicated to young consumers based on low-cost good design products with amedium to low end-product quality. Examples of success in this sector, such asthe Spanish brands Zara and Mango, the Swedish H&M, the French Promodand the US Gap, have not met with much market response in the Italiandistribution sector, which, moreover, includes Benetton, a world product leaderin distribution.Action 15 : Provide incentives for the localisation of low-cost clothes retailcentresBring together young fashion designers and producers of low-cost goods,choosing direct management rather than the now mature technique offranchising. Set up an economic and financial study of this segment of Italiandistribution, developing at the same time knowledge of similar practices abroad,such as IKEA, which has an annual turnover of 6.5 billion euros. Supportprojects to develop this segment of distribution in Italy and abroad.3 The Taste IndustryObjectivePromote and protect the Italian wine and food heritageAction 16 : Promote the candidature of Italian cuisine and wine culturaldistricts as UNESCO world intangible and material heritagesThe culture of Italian cuisine, like that of France and other nations has all therequirements requested to be included in the UNESCO list of the world’sintangible cultural heritage (Convention for the Safeguarding of the IntangibleCultural Heritage, 2003).Similarly, Italian wine culture and the wine landscape have all the requisitesrequired by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the World Culturaland Natural Heritage (1972) to be included in the list of the material culture ofhumanity. Other countries like France, Switzerland, Portugal, Hungary andGermany have already received recognition for their wine cultures, which areincluded in the World Heritage list.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 357

Chapter 15ObjectiveStrengthen the link between the taste industry and the cultural quality ofthe local territoryAction 17Boost synergies involving uses of the cultural heritage and food and wine goodsRegional gastronomic systems must be developed and promoted to recoverrecipes from traditional Italian cuisine and reinterpret them in a logic of “highcuisine”, and to protect local and indigenous varieties which are the mainingredients of local gastronomy.At the same time, to strengthen and consolidate the perceived link between thecultural quality of a local area and its taste industry, action must be taken so thatplaces of culture (archaeological sites, monumental areas, historic centres,libraries, museums, archives, etc) open up to the content of the food and wineculture, as regards iconography and knowledge on the subject, but also thepractical aspect of tasting products.Special care must be taken over communicating this overall image to foreignmarkets. Moreover, tourist operators must be trained to make them activepromoters of the cultural value of the areas in which they operate.ObjectiveStrengthen the system protecting quality productionsAction 18 : Promote the diffusion of information about the quality andorigin of productsOn the demand side, various measures can be implemented.Firstly, action can be taken to promote education about quality food in schools,with field trips to farms producing typical products. This could also involveparents so that, through information and education on good quality, a virtuouscircle of direct buying is created.Secondly, consumers must be given clear concise information on the origin ofproducts so they are better informed when choosing and avoid confusion and illinformedexpectations about quality. The field of application for DOP and IGPshould be limited to farm and food products with a clear link between thecharacteristics of the product or food and their geographical origin.On the supply side, adequate support must be given to producers by protectingregistered products so they enjoy greater benefits from the reputation of thebrand and be encouraged to invest in quality.Desirable measures in this field include:• encouraging advertising and sales of typical products on the Internet toguarantee the widest possible direct distribution• encourage short distributions chains, i.e. direct sales of protected productsby consortia of producersWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 358

Chapter 15• stop agricultural and organic counterfeiting by strengthening the monitoringof DOP, IGP and typical products: intense official checks controlling thestandard of animals’ feed and health, as well as a system of direct controlsto guarantee the respect of regulations for farm and food products andprevent the counterfeiting of products.Giving more space to creativity in the world ofinformation, communications and the production ofcontent1 CinemaObjectiveRestructure the public film industry, eliminating duplications,encouraging the assumption of responsibility, and redesigning stateregionsrelations. Many organisations and bodies are involved inmanaging the sector and rationalisation is urgently required.Action 19 : A film agencyThe archiving, production, training and promotion activities of the Italian filmindustry is currently carried out by various institutions: Istituto Luce, Cinecittà,Filmitalia, and the Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia. Encouragementshould be given to proposals to rationalise and merge the existing activities in asingle overall agency.ObjectiveIncrease spin-offs from films on local areasEnsure that the film sector and film content contribute to raising awareness andknowledge about local areas.Action 20 : Recognise the social and cultural role of cinemas in citiesSupport city cinemas in providing film education for school students.Help cinemas in deserted degraded urban areas or in historic centres to surviveas places for cultural programmes in cities (also as a deterrent to urban crime).Encourage the creation of new audiovisual professions and the networking ofthese professions in specific geographic districts.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 359

Chapter 15ObjectiveIncrease the number of films shown on televisionAfter a long period in which films were often shown on television, there hasnow been a dramatic drop in films scheduled, thus also depriving filmproduction of a key source of income (broadcasting rights) for its own businessmodel.Action 21 : Promote films on televisionLiberate (at least public) television networks from being hostage to audiences, byincluding films in prime and second time through a scheduling policy in whichfilms are not only seen as a “stopgap solution” when audiences are expected tobe lost to blockbuster events on rival televisions networks.Schedule television programmes which give constant in-depth coverage to theItalian film world.Promote the premieres of major new films by Italian directors, also by showingtheir previous works at the same time, which can play a vital role in educatingabout directors’ styles and thinking.ObjectiveHelp young film professionals to emergeEnsure young film professionals (filmmakers, actors, technicians, screenwriters,editors, photographers, costume designers, etc) are provided with opportunitiesto work on marketable projects.Action 22 : Provide financial incentives for film productionThe uncertainty of success on the film market, summed up in the famous phrase“nobody knows”, makes funding young filmmakers very risky. Hence the needfor subsided loans for a first or second films.Setting up competitions to reward the best talents from professional schools is away of creating a strong connection between educational institutions and theworld of work.Awarding prizes at leading festivals is a way of selecting talent, while the qualityof demand can be honed through international competitive contexts.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 360

Chapter 152 Publishing, Radio and TelevisionObjectiveAn Italian publishing industry that is competitive on the domestic andinternational markets by offering multilingual publicationsPublications in Italian are inevitably restricted in terms of readership and sales bythe limited use of Italian in the world. A possible solution to the language barrieris to publish in the most commonly spoken languages (English, Spanish, French)in order to penetrate new markets.Action 23 : Incentives for translationsIncentives for translations could encourage publishing houses to assume theresponsibility of translating works into other languages. This would lead to agreater diffusion of Italian works among foreign-language communities in Italyand abroad. At the same time expertise in translating could be a stimulus forselecting foreign-language authors living in Italy for publication.Promote the translation into foreign languages of brief texts (short stories, verse,essays) by Italian authors for publication in literary reviews and for readings atliterary events. This format has had a great influence in the cultural world,especially in the United States, but is only rarely used in Italy.Action 24: Training Centres for the publishing industryIn agreement with unions and business associations, create one or severaltraining centres for the publishing production chain.Promote the growth of the average size of companies through financial, legaland advertising incentives and the creation of medium-sized publishingconsortia.ObjectivePromote creative reading to attract young people to booksThis is the reading method which Giuliano Soria, founder of the Grinzane-Cavour Prize, describes as reading “simply for leisure or pleasure”. It requiresthe creation of an institutional system rooted in local areas.Action 25 : Creative readingUse literary institutions, such as prizes and events to attract young people tocreative reading. For example, in its 27 years of life, the Grinzane Cavour Prizehas involved 200,000 young people in its initiatives and 85,000 in competitionswith the participation of 3,000 schools and 25 school judging panels.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 361

Chapter 15ObjectiveGovern the radio and television sectorAction 26: Provide regulations for the trade in radio and televisionfrequencies, bearing in mind the following:• radio frequencies are public goods and the holders are not owners butconcessionaires• frequencies are granted for specific services, defined by a law of 1990;frequency-holders who have no regular radio or television schedules, orwhose schedules are not in line with the legal criteria (e.g. no specificallyprepared information programmes) will have their licence revoked.ObjectiveProvide incentives for the production of quality contentAction 27Stimulate the creation of independent radio promotion by specialised companiesand consortia of networks with incentives for projects and programmes withinnovative features.Regulate the market of independent television production through publicsupport for projects and pilot productions in television fiction series anddocumentaries. Funding will be provided according to quality assessment ofprojects by commissions set up according to rigorous quality criteria (made up,for example, of critics and teachers but excluding public officials in the sector,producers and other stakeholders liable to conflict of interest).Dedicate part of the income from licence fees and/or proceeds from possibleauctions of frequencies to production, promotion and broadcasting in the RAIand private networks according to special conventions for innovative andexperimental programmes.Action 28Promote jointly with other Latin countries a quality television network dedicatedto developing mutual cultural knowledge and the production and circulation ofinnovative products.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 362

Chapter 153 Computer, Software and ICTObjectiveEncourage the production of ICT consulting to support the Italian modelof “creative adoption” associated with current innovations in the fieldToday software consulting in Italy, worth 10 million euros of value added, has avery high impact on the productivity of the national economic system. Toimprove the introduction of ICT in companies and the public administration (egovernment)with spin-offs for the whole economy, encouragement must begiven to adapting and personalising software by supporting the sector supplyingthese services.Action 29: Incentives on the demand sideEstablish a percentage of total spending on the construction and refurbishing ofpublic works (along the lines of the 2% law, introduced by Bottai forcontemporary arts), to be dedicated to ICT for administrative and managementprocedures.4 Communications, Advertising and Branding,ObjectiveCreate a system of public-private relations. Govern bargaining onstandards and regulationsThe communications sector has always had a weak interaction with theinstitutional framework.The increasingly active involvement of state-run institutions as communicationsproducers or interacting players (in the sector of public branding and local areamarketing) has for several years created cultural and professional crossoversbetween institutions and the professional communications world.Action 30 : Set up an agency to encourage relations between institutionalskills and companies in the field of communicationsConceive of a more structured relational tool between institutional skills andcreative sectors of communications. Three specific institutions should beinvolved and encouraged to take more interest in developing initiatives in thisfield: the Consiglio Superiore delle Comunicazioni in the Ministry ofCommunications (especially for its involvement in the new technologicalprocesses in communications) and the two Authorities for communications andpersonal data (privacy), respectively.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 363

Chapter 15Action 31: Identify a place-event for the overall representation of processesin the sectorOn the grounds of their fragmented nature, business organisations in the sectorcould be encouraged to take part in initiatives to illustrate publicly trends in thecommunications world. For years this problem of an event has been on theagenda, but the right conditions are still lacking for a permanent shared initiative.Even if an initiative in this direction were to be set up by professional players,institutional stimulus could be helpful. Recent forums promoted by operators tomake a “creative industry map” and the first sessions of the National designCouncil, set up in Milan in 2007 by the Ministry for the Heritage and CulturalActivities have highlighted the need to give more room to information andknowledge about a sector whose overall contribution to the development of thenational community should be recognised.ObjectivePromote product placementWith the application of the “Urbani Law on the film industry” (DLS 28/2004),which includes a chapter on product placement, companies have been offeredthe possibility to include their brands and products in Italian films (productplacement is widely used in US movies, whereas in Italy it was banned by theLegislative Decree no. 74 of 1992). Since 2004 this opportunity has not beenexploited adequately by Italian companies. In fact there are very few cases ofItalian film productions which have benefited from investments in productplacement (except for the films Natale a Miami, and Il mio miglior nemico, in2005, in which many companies inserted their brands and products).Action 32 : Product placement in television productionsThe great drawback of the Urbani Law, however, is that it did not also legalisebrand and product placement in television productions (“overlooking” the longtail effect whereby films reach homes anyway, through the home video market,satellite channels and the traditional television networks). In this sense Italy (andEurope) has lagged behind the rest of the world (the world market for productplacement in television grew by 46% in 2004, and was worth 1.8 billion dollars,exceeding the figure for the film industry). European regulations on this subjectwill be introduced in 2009, but in Italy there has been little discussion on thesubject. This is because, although product placement is an opportunity forcompanies, it is seen as a threat to advertising agencies who expect a furtherfragmentation of communications budgets to the detriment of classicadvertising.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 364

Chapter 15ObjectiveRedesign the relations between the advertising sector and universities andtrainingDegree courses in communication sciences (and similar courses, such as publicrelations and advertising) were introduced to universities in the early 1990s, afterdecades in which the main professions in the system – journalists and advertisers– often boasted about not having a university degree and having only trained onthe job. The universities can influence various factors: the professional context,the importance of the new technologies, the construction of a media-typeenvironment, the incredible growth of the intangible economy round thisframework of functions and professions, and the vital growing interdependencebetween many sectors and the communications sector. The contribution of theuniversities will silence the sarcasm of those who still used to criticise the growthof this discipline only a few years ago, yearning for “technicians” to combat therisk of growing numbers of “ephemeral” professions. The creation of the newdiscipline should in reality have been seen as a stimulus for a further improvingstudy programmes in the sector, avoiding weak recycled programmes andsupporting solid skills and proven capacities in research and innovation linked toteaching.Action 33Co-ordinate institutions, enterprises and professional systems to improvestudy programmes and adapt them to the emerging professional figuresThe connection with the educational institutions is of vital importance. Thecompetent institutions in various fields (education, labour, culture and especiallyuniversities and research) have the task of raising awareness in the whole field ofcreativity with the main focus on communications sciences, design studies,subjects linked to tourism and culture and the promotion of local areas, andsciences linked to information and communications technology.Professional systems and companies must be a source of continuous updating ofstudy programmes, which develop faster in this sector than in other fields ofuniversity education.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 365

Chapter 15Increasing the value of the historic and artistic heritage1 The Cultural HeritageObjectiveBoost demand and support for the cultural heritageAction 34 : Promote voluntary contributions and free admissionAn experimental stagePromote the involvement of citizens in their own historical and artistic heritage.Experiment funding through voluntary contributions and free admissions inpilot museums. Monitor the results in terms of increased demand, the number ofnew visitors, duration of visits, and consumption of auxiliaries services.Encourage participation through a system with specific targets for monetarydonations. Create an office for donations. Increase volunteer work, deregulationand deunionisation.Action 35 : Private donationsEstablish specific targets for private donations, currently only paid to theMinistry as generic contributions, through the creation of a procedure both atcentral level and individual museum level to remove obstacles to voluntarycontributions and donations and create a clear direct link between the personalreasons for making donations and what they achieve.ObjectiveDevelop and improve the supply of cultural tourismTo increase demand for cultural tourism, measures are required to provide moreand better information about sites of the cultural heritage and to improve thequality of visits to them and the services connected to the visits.Moreover, in the case of temporary cultural events, the short lead time from thecommunications phase to the staging of an event is one of the majorshortcomings in promoting Italian cultural events internationally.Action 36 : Promote minor sites and improve the use of major sites andmuseumsA quality urban/regional signage is required to integrate the heritage of “major”and “minor” sites. This will contribute to the promotion of the minor heritageand to the redistribution of tourist flows in the large art cities.• Improve the management of the flows to large attractions through suitablepolicies of price discrimination (not only according to the characteristics ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 366

Chapter 15visitors but also taking into account time slots) and through internal signage(e.g. short “tourist itineraries”, in-depth itineraries, thematic itineraries, etc).• Define quality standards for museum services and extend the servicescurrently offered.Action 37 : Promote interaction between cultural event organisations andtour operatorsEncourage planning and communications of cultural events enabling touroperators to organise and sell package tours in Italy and abroad, featuring theevents (around a year in advance). The short lead time from the communicationsphase to the staging of an event is one of the major shortcomings in promotingItalian cultural events internationally.ObjectiveIncrease the supply and improve the quality of temporary exhibitionsAction 38Co-ordinate dates and calendars for exhibitions. Encourage museums to plan along time ahead. Promote the conception and installation of temporaryexhibitions. Promote exhibitions of Italian art objects and of collections abroad.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 367

Chapter 152 ArchitectureObjectiveSupport the creative potential of the young generations of architectsIn Italy there is a very large number of young architectural practices: 49% ofarchitects registered with Inarcassa (the obligatory architects insurance andpension fund) are under 40, and as many as 22,416 (22%) are under 36. Theseyoung architects are only just setting up in practice, investing energy, talent andmoney. Measures are required to develop the creative potential of youngarchitects, to remove the obstacles forcing them to fall back on well-triedsolutions, and to ensure they continue on the path of research by encouragingthem to experiment and innovate.Action 39 : Promote the use of design competitions by publicadministrations with an emphasis on actually building the prize-winningworksAfter years of stagnancy, ideas and design competitions are offering many moreopportunities for young architects to work on the market after making a namefor themselves with high-quality competition entries. Unfortunately, however,far too often the winning projects are never built. But constructing the works ofthe prize-winners rewards their investments in research and enables emergingfirms to grow and reinvest in innovation.Action 40Encourage a lively, stimulating cultural milieu to create new opportunitiesfor young architectsWorks of architecture come into being though the initiative of public or privateclients. Promoting quality contemporary architecture, excellent designs andpublic debate on new works influences the culture of potential clients and theirwillingness to accept novelty.These kinds of promotions actions include exhibitions, architecture Biennialsand Expos, design prizes, awards for enlightened clients, conferences andmeetings with young architects open to non-specialists, and teaching activities inschools.Action 41 : Promote an Italian site of modern architecture as a candidatefor the UNESCO World Heritage listSuggesting an Italian site of modern contemporary architecture for the list of theUNESCO World Heritage may be an important action at national andinternational level for raising awareness about the world of Italian architectureamong potential clients.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 368

Chapter 15ObjectiveSupport the internationalisation of Italian architectsItalian architects run into difficulties in participating in internationalcompetitions due to a lack of information, linguistic barriers and shortcomingsin understanding the local legal context. An Italian architect who wins animportant international competition with an innovative quality project cancontribute to improving the overall reputation of Italy. Building works abroadcan drive other Italian firms in the sector to penetrate new markets.Action 42 : Create “bridgeheads” in the most dynamic situations in thesectorAt present the Ministry of Foreign Trade does not support architectsparticipating in international competitions, since they are not classed ascommercial firms. Considerable support could come from the creation of areference structure with various functions: making updated sector studies,supplying local support for the building of prize-winning works, linking up andintegrating the various Italian operators, and providing timely information onopportunities.ObjectiveSupport applied research and innovationThere is an undeniable relation between size of firm and investment in researchand development, and therefore also innovation and competition. Thewidespread Italian model of architectural practice, however, does not facilitateinteraction between research and production of new materials and constructionsystems and innovative architectural solutions, which in other countries yield aconsiderable number of patents. This model cannot be changed in the shortterm, but improvements can be introduced to create more favourable conditionsand concentrate energies in strategic sectors.Action 43 : Concentrate research in centres of excellenceThe widespread Italian model means architectural firms are unable to makeinvestments in research and innovation. There is a need to promote the creationof and provide support to centres of excellence in which to concentrateinterdisciplinary research and experimentation to be applied in the sector. Thecentres would produce market-oriented innovative solutions along the lines ofthe former Interaction Design in Ivrea. Conceived as open structures supportingarchitects in the design phase of complex demanding works, the centres wouldalso be a reference facility for professionals to turn to for specific researchrequirements.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 369

Chapter 15Action 44 : Identify and support the Italian strategic sectorsThe size of Italian firms makes it difficult for them to achieve the critical massrequired to compete at global level in the sector of new constructions. But thereare fields in which we have developed expertise and have built up a pool ofknowledge that can make a significant contribution to global research andinnovation. One example is the traditional sector of restoration and theinnovative field of the relations between the redevelopment of historicalarchitecture and energy savings.3 The Performing ArtsObjectiveGreater independence in projects and entrepreneurshipThe live performing arts sector is going through a stage of transitioncharacterised by the gradual technological enhancement of production anddistribution, greater interdisciplinarity in terms of language and creativity, andnew expectations from wider more diversified audiences than in the past.Supporting these trends will contribute to making entrepreneurs moreindependent and lead them to assume greater responsibility. But this can only beachieved if the current funding system is abandoned, since it completely lackseffective incentives, and if efforts are made to identify objectives, criteria andmethods for consistent and effective public support action.Action 45 : Redesign the institutional structure of the performing artssectorThere is a need to redesign the institutional structure of the performing artssector, at present characterised by rigid categories. The current structure doesnot allow the indispensable flexibility required for developing projects andcondemns organisations to produce according to pre-established formalprocedures. Moreover, it is an obstacle to the entrance of new organisations onthe wider market, thus thwarting an effective stimulus for the growth, diffusionand consolidation of creativity. Eliminating formal labels and moving the weightof funding from the organisational aspects to specific activities may removemany of the current restraints, thus freeing creative and management energies ina sector still weighed down by obsolete rules and practices.Action 46 : Rethink public funding criteria and methodsThe criteria and methods of public funding must reconsidered in the light ofsome straightforward principles:• in establishing objectives and methods of funding for the performing arts,state action must be combined with the actions pursued by regions andWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 370

Chapter 15local authorities in order to avoid doubling up and overlapping, which haswidened the gap between strong and weak organisations• among the objectives of state action, a key role must be played byinnovation and experimentation, focusing a large part of regulations andfunding in the sector on festivals, new productions, commissions fororiginal works, world premieres, international exchanges, interdisciplinaryforms of creation and artistic production, and the diversification ofrepertoires• explicit encouragement must be given to projects and initiatives revivinglive performing arts in local areas through the collaboration withuniversities, research bodies, cultural associations, conservatories, artschools, non-profit organisation and other formal and informal groupspursuing cultural activities• specific incentives must be focused on the links between the performingarts and the local economy, with a special attention to production andcommercial firms in adjacent sectors (tourism, publishing, ICT, audiovisualactivities, etc.) but as part of a wider spectrum of relations with the wholeeconomic fabric.ObjectiveProduction and distribution tuned to social changesProduction and distribution of the performing arts, still based on a 19th-centuryconception of society and its hierarchy of values, must be approached in order torekindle interest and attract the participation of wider and increasingly diversifiedaudiences.Influencing educational programmes – both specific and general – can make animportant contribution to establishing an ordinary everyday relationship betweenthe performing arts and local community life, in line with the hierarchy of valuesof the knowledge society.Action 47 : Strengthen art, music and dance education in schoolsProgrammes in compulsory schooling and upper education must be redesignedto include a substantial component dedicated to the study, practice and analysisof music, singing, drama and dance. This can also take the form of individual orgroup public performances and the creation of stable groups performing music,plays and dance. Study and practice must be completed at the end of compulsoryeducation by apprenticeship programmes in institutions operating in the sectorof the performing arts (opera houses, theatres, symphonic orchestras, concertassociations, audiovisual firms and dance companies).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 371

Chapter 15Action 48 : Redesign the role and working methods of conservatoriesComplete the process of transforming the conservatories into advancedinstitutes to make them truly equivalent to universities and at the same timeimplement a similar process for drama and dance schools. The conservatoriesrequire “feeder” structures specialised in the field of performing arts in the formof middle and high schools guaranteeing the acquisition of solid foundation skillsin various disciplines. Lastly, disciplines associated with the performing arts mustbe included in university programmes (at least as optional courses).4 Contemporary ArtObjectiveUse tax measures to support contemporary artAction 49Reduce VAT on sales of works of art to 4%.Make the adoption of a museum from a pre-established list tax-deductible: adonation plan of a least three years based on a fixed minimum sum.ObjectiveCreate demand for contemporary arts, strengthen the supplyAction 50Ensure the so-called "Bottai 2% Law" is applied. Now raised to 3%, andmanaged by ARCUS (Società per lo sviluppo dell’arte, della cultura e dellospettacolo S.p.A), because of its limited objectives, the law alone, however, stillseems to be inadequate to support the demand for art.Action 51Set up a creative capital fund supported by the MIBAC, the Ministryfor Production Activities and the Ministry for Youth Policies, and invite majorbanking groups in the country to join. The fund will allocate an annual sum onthe basis of willingness to support artistic and creative projects after a rigorouspeer review conducted by international experts, with quotas reserved for specificcategories (artists under 35, artists with significant careers, non-profitassociations, etc.). Categories of recipients could change yearly according to apre-established calendar.Action 52Create a fund to support the participation of Italian artists in internationalexhibitions and artist-in-residence programmes. When artists receive anWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 372

Chapter 15important invitation (for a major biennial exhibition, a solo show or collectiveshow in a major gallery or leading research space), they will receive a grant to beused in the production of works, publication of a catalogue, etc.Action 53Assist young artists in the Italian visual arts fields with systematic initiatives. Gobeyond ineffective one-shot shows at which artists only put in a fleetingappearance at openings. Sustain projects with several stages for a given period,e.g. 6 months, involving various promotional activities, such as exhibitions,round tables with critics and local curators, reviews and monographs in English,joint initiatives with other artists, contacts with the academic world, and thefostering of relations between the artist and local society, through meetings andseminars on art, in which the artists take part in public discussions.This action should also include, for example, advising Italian cultural institutionsabroad, such as the Italian Institutes of Culture. A medium-term programmecould provide real support to building up the international reputation of youngartists. Short-term programmes run the risk of being ineffective.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 373

NotesNotes Chapter 2i The ACP countries (ACP), alternately called the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countriesare the countries that are signatories of the Lomé Convention with the European Commission.Notes Chapter 3ii I use this term with a different analytical meaning than that given to it by F. Ascher, who hadcoined the term unbeknown to me. I am grateful to Jean Paul Hubert of DRAST for pointingthis out.iii The term is borrowed from Gian Paolo Nuvolati’s work.iv Michele Sernini, Terre sconfinate. Città, limiti, localismo, F. Angeli, Milan 1996.v Glauco Tocchini Valentini, “Collezioni mutanti di topi”, in Consiglio Nazionale delleRicerche, Animali e piante transgeniche: implicazioni bioetiche, Rome 2001, pp. 50-52.vi Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi (1996), Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention,Harper Perennial, New York.vii P. L. Sacco, G. Tavano Blessi, and M. Nuccio (2008), Culture as an Engine of Local DevelopmentProcesses: System-Wide Cultural Districts, Working Paper, Università IUAV, Venice.viii Elizabeth Currid, The Warhol Economy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2007ix Irene Tinagli, Talento da Svendere. Perché in Italia il talento non riesce e prendere il volo, Einaudi,Turin, 2008x US Census Bureau figures.xi I. Tinagli, R. Florida, P. Ström. E. Walqvist, Sweden in the Creative Age, Handels School ofBusiness, Economics and Law, Göteborg, 2007xii Ake Andersson (1985), Creativity and Regional Development, Papers of the Regional ScienceAssociations, Volume 56.xiii Richard Florida, “The New Megalopolis”, Newsweek, 3 July 2006.Notes Chapter 6xiv Accademia della Cucina Italiana - Censis: “L’evoluzione delle tradizioni alimentari degliitaliani tra nuove tendenze e solide tradizioni” November 2007.xv With the term “traditional farm and food products ” we mean those products whosemethods of processing, preservation and seasoning have been consolidated and are uniformin the whole area involved, according to traditional rules, for a period of no less than 25years. The Ministerial decree no. 350/1999 assigned the Regions (and AutonomousProvinces) the task of ensuring that products aspiring to qualify as traditional products meetthe requisites, i.e. that the methods used to produce them are practised in the area in questionuniformly and according to traditional time-honoured rules; moreover, the Regions also havethe task of preparing a list of traditional regional products accompanied by informative notes.The seventh edition of the national list of traditional farm and food products, published in2007, had 4,372 items.xviThe survey on which this essay is based was completed in July 2008. We thus consideredthe system of denominations in force up to that date. We must remember, however, thatnow, in accordance with the new single CMO wine regulation, all wine-producing EUWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 374

Notescountries must incorporate the existing DOC, DOCG and IGT into the two EU labels ofDOP and IGP (PDO and PGI in English). In Italy, this means that DOC and DOGC wineswill become DOP, while IGT wines will become IGP, with all the attendant problems thatwill be involved in adapting the system of denominations. At present (February 2009) thisissue is still a thorny issue. The Ministry for Food and Forestry Policies seems to offerassurances about the possibility of continuing to use DOC, DOCG and IGT in future sincethey are seen as traditional indications (art 54, par. 1, Reg. EC 479/2008 and Reg. EC753/2002) and therefore are included in the automatic mechanism established by art. 51 forexisting denominations at the date of application of the new CMO. These denominations willbe entered in the Register of Denominations, but will still be subject to EU controls andcould be cancelled if they do not conform to the said regulation.xvii AGER srl, Confederazione Nazionale Coldiretti, 2005.xviiiThe protected areas considered are national and regional parks. They do not includeprotected areas with no typical products or no producers meeting the Slow Food selectioncriteria.xix Atlante dei prodotti tipici e tradizionali della Aree Protette, edited by Ministero dell'Ambiente,Slow Food and Legambiente, in collaboration with Federparchi (2002).xx ISMEA data, December 2006xxi ISMEA data, December 2006xxii http://www.gastronauta.it/. For cultural tourism see also Chapter 12.xxiii Cf. Fabio Taiti “L’enogastronomia dà più gusto al turismo italiano” – La Rivista del Turismo2/2007, Touring Club Italiano.xxiv A.S.I.A or the Annuario Statistico delle Imprese Attive. Drafted by ISTAT, this yearbookprovides a statistical picture of the Italian production system.xxv ISTAT 2004, Struttura e dimensione delle imprese.xxvi ISMEA: December 2006, I prodotti DOP, IGP e STG.xxvii UNIONCAMERE, Camere di Commercio Italia – in collaboration with IstitutoGuglielmo Tagliacarne – Nomisma, Rapporto sul settore vitivinicolo 2007Notes Chapter 7xxviiiBy Europe we mean the following countries in Western Europe: Austria, Belgium,Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and the UnitedKingdomxxix In 2005 the average ticket price was 6.41 dollars in the USA (a rise of around 50% on 1995)and 6.88 euros in Europe (+34%).xxx Many British films, however, are actually produced by the US majors; we will discuss thispoint below.xxxi This analysis does not include the United Kingdom, on grounds of logic and uniformitywith other countries. Since the United Kingdom is an English-speaking country it has aprivileged relationship with American cinema, as highlighted by the large number of filmsjointly produced with American companies. These nominally British films or joint UK-USproductions are actually US productions made in the UK.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 375

Notesxxxii In Figure 7.6 the market shares include joint productions.xxxiii These results are confirmed by a previous study conducted by the Università Bocconi onbehalf of the BNL. It showed how Italian films produced from 1998 to 2000 obtained on theprincipal non-English-speaking European markets a share of just over 3%. In EuropeanUnion countries, the average market share of Italian films is around 1% (Centro StudiCinecittà Holding, 2007).xxxiv Cinemas/screens open for over 60 days a year.xxxv The only Italian film first distributed in the low season and which at the end of the yearwas one of the Top 20 at the box office was La meglio gioventù (Parts One and Two), released incinemas on 20 June 2003.xxxvi Italian distributors are classified as primary and secondary according to the admissions incinemas for the films distributed. The principle tie and distributors include all those in theperiod considered (2000-2005) which had over 2.5 million admissions for the film.xxxvii Osservatorio sulla Fiction Italiana data.xxxviii In the early years, i.e. from 1999, Montalbano was produced at the rate of two episodes ayear; the first couple of televised episodes had the subtitle La voce del violino.xxxix See Chapter 1, Table 1.2.Notes Chapter 10xl According to the latest information in February 2007.xli Promoted by RAI, Sacis and Sipra with the collaboration of Agip, Ferrero and Lavazza, theexhibition was staged for the first time in Milan on 5 December 1996 and closed in Turin on 23October 1997 after also being shown in Naples and Rome(http://www.sipra.it/eventi/carosello/mostra.html ).xliiAt the time of writing, news has come of the death of this brilliant advertising agent and ourthoughts naturally go to him and the memory of his quiet style and his social vision of the professionhe so coherently practised throughout his highly successful career.xliii The study is divided into two stages (a qualitative and extensive stage) conducted using the CAPImethod on a sample of 1,000 Italians aged 18 to 64.Notes Chapter 11xliv Agenzia del Demanio, 2007.xlv The event had six exhibition venues, involved 50 national and international art galleries, andattracted over 35,000 visitors.xlvi http://whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape.xlviiL’UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) defines cultural tourism as the movement ofpersons for essentially cultural motivations, including study tours, performing arts, culturaltours, travel to festivals, visits to historic sites and monuments. But the WTO definition alsomentions the possibility that a part of cultural tourism is participating in the customs of apeople and experiencing its traditions and life style.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 376

Notesxlviii The Doxa-Mercury-Touring survey was conducted in collaboration with Ciset-UniversitàCà Foscari, Venice, on behalf of the Dipartimento per lo Sviluppo e la Competitività delTurismo.xlix The most significant international examples of movie-induced tourism are the visitorsattracted to the Notting Hill “set” in London, New Zealand (Lord of the Rings effect) andKorea in the wake of the Winter Sonata soap-opera. In Italy the Castle of Agliè has seen atourist boom thanks to the success of Elisa di Rivombrosa, a television fiction.l Richards G. and Wilson J. (2007) Tourism, Creativity and Development, London, Routledge.li Source Sistan, Servizi Aggiuntivi dei Musei, Monumenti e Aree Archeologiche Statali, 2006lii See also W. Santagata “Elogio della gratuità”, Il Giornale dell’arte, September 2007Notes Chapter 12liii William Morris 1882, Hopes and Fears for Art ( www.gutenberg.org/etext/3773 )liv This definition was formulated by the World Commission on Environment andDevelopment (WECD) in 1987: “Sustainable development is development that meets theneeds of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their ownneeds”. The definition was further elaborated from the point of view of a greater equilibriumbetween man and the environment in 1991 by the World Conservation Union, the UNEnvironment Programme and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Accordingly, sustainabledevelopment also involves “improving the quality of life while living within the carryingcapacity of supporting ecosystems”. In 1994, the International Council for LocalEnvironmental Initiatives (ICLEI) further refined the definition: “development that deliversbasic environmental, social, and economic services to all residents of a community withoutthreatening the viability of the natural, built and social systems upon which the delivery ofservices depends”. Lastly, these definitions can be supplemented by articles 1 and 3 in theUNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001): “ Cultural diversity… is one ofthe roots of development, understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as ameans to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence.”lv Such a broad and complex creative sphere creates objective difficulties in gathering andcomparing quantitative data to be used in understanding and evaluating the sector. Forexample, in this study, design is included with material culture and not with architecture. Thedata of Eurostat, the main statistical source at European level, refers to a system ofclassification which groups under NACE K 7.4.2 “Architectural and engineering activities andrelated technical consulting”. In addition to engineering of machinery and industrialinstallations, this includes all types of engineering: civil, hydraulic, transport, electric andelectronic, geological and prospecting activities, chemical, mechanical and industrial, safetysystems, weather forecasting and geodetic surveying. Technical testing and analysis ofbuildings is not included since it comes under NACE K 7.4.3.lvi “Community Strategic Guidelines on Cohesion for 2007-2013” (2006/702/EC), par. 2.1.lviiIn Italy around 54% of building activity is dedicated to maintenance; of this around 36%concerns redevelopment and special maintenance.lix Source: ISTAT web site: http://culturaincifre.istat.itWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 377

Noteslx Ten Italian reviews appear in both lists: Abitare, L’Architettura cronache e storia, Casabella,Domus, L’Industria delle Costruzioni, L’Arca, Lotus International, Parametro, Rassegna di Architetturaand Urbanistica.lxi Source: DEE - Dipartimento Europa ed Esteri on the CNAPPC web site,www.archiworld.itlxii The Pritzker Architecture Prize is such a prestigious international award that it has beendescribed as the “Nobel for architecture”. Created in 1979 by the Hyatt Foundation, run bythe Pritzker family, the prize is awarded annually with the aim of "honoring a living architectwhose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision andcommitment which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and thebuilt environment through the art of architecture".lxiii The most prestigious prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects, Londonlxiv The prize is awarded at the International Union of Architects Congress, held every threeyears.lxv http://www.bdonline.co.uklxvi Source: website of Il Consiglio Nazionale degli Architettilxvii On the site www.awn.it , the section professione/Europa, designed, constructed anddeveloped by the CNAPPC (Dipartimento Europa ed Esteri) provides information onpractising the profession in the various European countries.lxviii The Building Design World Architecture Top 100, 2008 (p. 17-19) published for the firsttime the number of creatives in firms, described simply as “non-architects and nonadministrativestaff”.lxix Source: on-line archive of the Osservatorio concorsi del Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordinedegli architetti, pianificatori, paesaggisti e conservatori.lxx The archives of patents registered in the USA, accessible with Google Patent, contain manyarchitects’ patents: e.g. structural glass designed by F. L. Wright.Notes Chapter 13lxxi One of the first stage technicians in the Florentine theatre was Antonio Meucci, who iscredited with having invented a forerunner of the telephone as a technical solution for theproblem of communicating orders between the stage and other areas of the theatre.lxxii The first was a series shown 15 years ago, presented by Enrico Stinchelli and MicheleSuozzo (they also host La Barcaccia, a radio programme that has been running for around 20years which offers a light-hearted but in-depth look at the world of opera). And the second isL’amore è un dardo, presented by Alessandro Baricco. The title of this programme (“Love is adart”) hints at the ambiguous situation of opera sitting uneasily between lofty poeticinspiration and popular taste: in fact the title is a distortion –misunderstandings are commonin the public perception – of the line l’amore ond’ardo (“Love in which I burn [with desire]”)pronounced by the Count di Luna in the aria Il balen del suo sorriso in Il Trovatore by Verdi.lxxiii Notable opera films since 1980 include: Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by Joseph Loseyand entirely shot on location in Venetian Villas and in Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico; Bizet’sCarmen directed by Francesco Rosi; and Verdi’s La traviata and Otello, both directed by FrancoZeffirelli.lxxivA leading Italian site is www.operaclick.itWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 378

Noteslxxv A recent study (D. Urrutiaguer, 2002, “Quality Judgements and Demand for FrenchPublic Theatre”, Journal of Cultural Economics, vol. 26, no. 3) inferred from some data onnews<strong>paper</strong> criticism that the size of production may be considered a determining factor inperceived quality. That the data appears to be in line with the critics’ expectations may not besurprising; but this does not justify arguing there is a causal nexus between the scale and thequality of the productions, partly in the light of the mixed nature of audiences and theconsequent variety of expectations and objectives concerning the contribution that the operaexperience may make to the growth of wellbeing in individual consumers.lxxvi On this subject, see Cognata, A. (2003), “Note stonate: il finanziamento pubblico deiteatri d’opera”, Sviluppo Economico, no. 2.lxxvii In the case of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, which has a universally acclaimed internationalreputation, 90% of the season ticket-holders live in the province of Milan and 81% of nonseasonticket-holders in the Lombard Region; on this point, see Trimarchi, M. and R.Ponchio (2007), 79. “I fantasmi dell’opera: la lirica in Italia tra nostalgia e imprenditorialità”,Ticonzero. Knowledge and Ideas for Emerging Leaders, no. 78 (http://www.ticonzero.info ).lxxviii On the Bolzano experience see, Studio e monitoraggio dell’offerta teatrale in Alto Adige nel 2005,Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano-Alto Adige, 2007.lxxix The FIMI survey provides an estimate of items produced by the major record companies.Due to a lack of data in some links in the chain, the market values shown here are not fullyrepresentative of the recording sector, but do provide clear indications as to how the musicbusiness is evolving.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 379

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AuthorsAuthorsPriscilla Altili – Project Unit “Ambiente, cultura e territorio” Istituto di Studi e AnalisiEconomica (ISAE).Cristiano Antonelli – Professor, Political Economy, Università degli Studi di Torinoand Bureau of Research on Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge (BRICK), CollegioCarlo Alberto.Christian Barrère – Professor in Economic Sciences, Economie Politique, Universitéde Reims.Pier-Jean Benghozi – Director of the Pole de Recherche en Economie et Gestion del’Ecole Polytechnique, Paris.Enrico Bertacchini – Università degli Studi di Torino.Paola Borrione – IRES Piemonte.Aldo Buzio – Politecnico di Torino.Francesco Casetti – Professor, Cinema,Photography and Television, UniversitàCattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano.Annalisa Cicerchia– Head of the Project Unit “Ambiente, cultura e territorio” Istitutodi Studi e Analisi Economica (ISAE).Tiziana Cuccia – Professor, Politica Economica,Università degli Studi di Catania.Caterina Federico – Expert in Cultural Heritage for planning and management oftouristic systems, Università di Roma Tor Vergata.Sergio Foà – Professor, Law of Cultural Heritage, Università degli Studi di Torino.Martha Friel – Università IULM.Armando Fumagalli – Professor, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano.Andrea Granelli– President of Kanso e Scientific Director of Domus Academy.Guido Guerzoni – Researcher, Storia Economica,Università Luigi Bocconi, Milano.Paolo Leon – Professor, Università degli Studi Roma Tre.Gian Paolo Manzella – European Investment Bank and head of the Office for theEconomic Development and International affairs of the Province of RomeGuido Martinotti – Professor of Urban Sociology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.Ariela Mortasa – Researcher in Sociology of Consumption, Università IULM diMilano.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 393

AuthorsGiuseppe Ortoleva– Professor, History and Theory of Media, Università degli Studi diTorino e Presidente di Mediasfera, Firenze.Alessandra Puglisi – Expert in Cultural Marketing.Francesco Quatraro – Università degli Studi di Torino and Bureau of Research onInnovation, Complexity and Knowledge (BRICK), Collegio Carlo Alberto.Andrea Rocco – Expert in Cinema.Stefano Rolando – Professor, Business Management and Communication, UniversitàIULM di Milano and General Secretary, Fondazione Università IULM.Pier Luigi Sacco – Professor, Political Economy, Università IUAV, Venezia.Severino Salvemini – Professor, Business Organization, Università Luigi Bocconi,Milano.Walter Santagata – Professor, Public Economics, Università degli Studi di Torino.Erminia Sciacchitano – Architect, Responsabile International Relationships/PARCDirezione Generale per la qualità e la tutela del paesaggio, l’architettura e l’artecontemporanee, Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.Emanuela Scridel – Economist, expert in international strategies and EU.Irene Tinagli – Researcher, Carnegie Mellon University.Michele Trimarchi – Professor, Economic Analysis of Law, Università di CatanzaroMagna Grascia.Angela Vettese – Professor, Museologia e Critica Artistica e del Restauro, UniversitàIUAV, Venezia.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 394

AppendixAppendixWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 395

AppendixAppendixCreative and Cultural Industries ClassificationSic codesConceptionand ProductionInput andAuxiliaryProductionDistributionNoteFASHION74875 a Industrial Design17711772192019301810182218231824171117601712171317141715171617171721172217231724172519101830173051165124514151425147852425241Manufacture of clothing items like hats, shoes,outerwear and underwear or accessories likebags and luggageManufacture of fibres, textiles, prepared furand prepared leatherWholesale of, and activates of agents involvedin the sale of, fabrics, fur and clothing,Retail sale of cloths, accessories and footweara: The added value and employment for this activity has been split (50%) withthe Industrial Design and Crafts sectorWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 396

AppendixConception andProductionDistributionNoteINDUSTRIAL DESIGN and CRAFTS74875 b Industrial Design1751 Carpet and rug making20512052Wooden household furnishings and otherproducts2630 Ceramic tiles2812 Metal fixtures2861 Cutlery3150Fabbricazione di apparecchiature perilluminazione e di lampade elettriche3350 Watch and clock making361136123613Furniture36143622 Jewelry, silverplate and plated ware3630 Making musical instruments3650 Toys1754517546Laces20301 Wooden fixtures26152 Glass26210 Ceramic pots and other utensils26702 Marble work51471 Wholesale household furniture52441 Retail household furniture5244252443 Retail household furnishing5244452453 Retail of musical instruments52483 Retail of watches, clocks and jewelryb: The added value and employment for this activity has been split (50%) withthe Fashion sectorWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 397

AppendixFOOD AND WINE INDUSTRYConceptionand ProductionInput andAuxiliaryProductionDistributionNote15512 c Cheese And Milk Derivatives15130 c Meat And Meat-Based Products1131 d Wineyards15931 d Wines And V.Q.P.R.D. ( Doc, Docg, Igt)55235 Guesthouses And Farmhouses55301 e Restaurants5225 Retail Of Beverages52271 Retail Of Milk And Milk Derivatives52220 Retail Of Meat And Meat-Based ProductsC: Estimate Of The Products Covered By A Distinctive MarkD: Estimate Of The Sector Only Considering Products V.Q.P.R.D.E: Only High Quality Restaurants (Guide Touring E Michelin)COMPUTER AND SOFTWAREConception andProduction7221Development and supply of ready madesoftware "off the shelf"72600 Computer related workInput andAuxiliaryProduction7222Development of made to order software,software consultancy and web pageDistribution 2233 Reproduction of softwareInput andsupport todistribution5184Wholesale of computers, peripherals andsoftwareWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 398

AppendixPUBLISHINGConception andProductionInput andAuxiliaryProductionDistribution2211 Publishing books2212 Publishing news<strong>paper</strong>s2213 Publishing journals9240 Journalists and news syndicates222122222223222422255247152472Printing and other related activitiesRetail sale of books, news<strong>paper</strong>s and stationeryTV and RADIOConceptionandProductionInput eAttivita'Connesse aProduzioneAttivita'Connesse aDistribuzione9220Radio and Television Production andBroadcast32201 Transmitters and television cameras32305143152451Manufacture of TV's, video recorders,camcorders, record decks, microphonesWholesale of radios, TV's, lightingequipment and some other appliancesRetail sale of radios, TV's, DVD's, musicalinstruments and musical scoresConception andProductionADVERTISING74401 Advertising agenciesDistribution 74402 Advertising space servicesWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 399

AppendixConception andProductionDistributionCINEMA9211 Film Production9212 Motion picture distribution9213 Cinemas2232 Riproduzione di registrazioni videoConception andProductionCULTURAL HERITAGE9251 Libraries and Archives9252 Museums and Monuments9253 Gardens, Natural parksInput andAuxiliary5510 dHotels and HostelsProduction 5521 dNoted: Only Hotels and Hostels in the main historical and artistic citiesConception andProductionDistributionMUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS9231 Authors, performing artists92723Casting for theatres, motion pictures ortelevision2214 Music publishing92342 Circuses2231 Reproduction of sound recording92341 Night clubs and other recreative activities9232 Theaters and concert halls51432 Wholesale of records, CD's etc. and players52452 Retail of records, CD's etc. and playersWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 400

AppendixConceptionand ProductionARCHITECTURE74201 Architectural servicesInput andAuxiliaryProduction74202Engineering advice and design forconstruction projectsCONTEMPORARY ARTConceptionand ProductionValue added and employment has been estimated trough:1) number of art galleries in Italy (Source: Art Diary)2) multiplying the number of art galleries for an averagevalue added esteem, based on bilance sheets of a sampleof art galleries. (Source AIDA);3) Sales in Italian art auction ( Source: Il Giornale dell’Arte).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 401