The 5th LSG meeting organised by the University of Lapland took place online on 11 January 2021. 14 people attended, representing local government and policy officers, cultural and creative industry workers, university teaching, administration and research staff, and people working in the intersection of ICT and creative sectors: game companies and creative media houses.
Since there were quite many new attendees not familiar with the RegionArts project, the dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Design Satu Miettinen presented an overall look at the RA project and its projected outcomes and significance to the region. Päivi Tahkokallio was invited as an external expert and her presentation focused on the role of the creative industries in Europe: on the other hand as an independent and growing field in itself, and on the other hand as an industry that brings additional value to other industries. Also, strategies of European design companies surviving, and in some cases even benefitting from, the Covid-19 situation was discussed.
Tomi Knuutila, the new RegionArts project manager in Lapland, presented research on the peculiarities of creative work: Suomen luova potentiaali (Finland’s Creative Potential) — an artist’s work life is often chaotic, unpredictable, and income is collaged from various sources. Another presented investigation focuses on new possibilities and technological developments: 100 Opportunities for Finland and the World, huge research of new technologies radically changing our world in the next 20 years. The 450 -page research is conducted by the Committee for the Future of the Finnish Parliament. Out of this work trends and technologies which interoperate in the fields in which ICT and the Arts merge were presented and discussed.
After the presentations, the main focus of the rest of the meeting was on stepping towards the first public version of the Action Plan. Initial ideas about it were presented and the document was promised to be put to a commenting round after the version is presented first to other RegionArts Interreg partners and then to the Joint secretariat to be commented. Public discussion and ideation related to the Action Plan ranged from concrete gamification ideas about location-based outdoor activities to discussion on sustainability, and to the notion that being a small company can be beneficial, not everyone needs to grow. Also, ideas on combining performing arts better with new technologies are very much in demand — the covid situation has forced radically new ways to think about a theatre play, a dance performance or a music concert, but there is still a lot of room for exploration in these fields which requires knowledge in e.g. media programming, game engines, studio technologies, streaming etc.
During this meeting also the upcoming, almost finished version of the Rovaniemi city Cultural plan for 2021-25 was presented. All in all, this raised an interesting discussion on the differences and similarities of various types of creative activities, which include art, design and performing arts.
Affect of Covid-19 has been very strong in certain fields, such as performing arts: music, theatre, dance while in some other fields such as product-based design or media-centred art and design have stayed neutral, and in some case even benefitted from the situation, as distance meetings and participation has been facilitated, and new clientele and partners have been found around the world more easily. Also, ideas about more sustainable travel were discussed — the Lapland region relies on travel, and has suffered during the Covid-19 crises vastly. However, there are already trends visible in new digital and virtual travel or extended travel — travel happening in a physical place but extended with e.g. streaming technologies. Ideas about how this will continue to shape the region and how these kinds of developments can be supported by phase 2 of the RegionArts project and future projects to come closed the meeting.
