Visioni Urbane project. My presentation prepared for the December "Technology enabling creativity in Basilicata" workshop with Bruce Sterling - December 2007
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1. Visioni Urbane The Basilicata Creative Sceneas Seen by a
Traveller Alberto Cottica
2. 3. Disclaimer
The following is only a rough, oversimplified sketch of the
Basilicata creative scene. However, it has been run before the
community and approved by it
VU's ideology: the market is not evil. It is a major locus for
cultural communication. This does not necessarily represent the
scene's generally accepted view
Photos are courtesy of the Basilicata creatives
4. 5. Who are the Basilicata creative people?
Meetings and interviews (June-November 2007)
A virally compiled database
about 50 interviews, 90 sightings
www.visioniurbanebasilicata.net/creativi-lucani/
6. 7. What do they do? 8. 9. Where are they? 10. 11. More
theater in Potenza? 12. 13. More ICT/audiovisual/literature in
Matera? 14. 15. Good news
Good attitude to cooperation
Fairly good skills on organizing cultural events (some have
been going on for many yaears)
Strong ties between Basilicata creatives and high-profile
artists (Abbado, Kiarostami...)
Very strong ties with the land itself, seen as engine of the
artistic experience
The returnees move back to Basilicata, bringing fresh air,
vision and relationships
16. 17. Bad news
difficulties to access cultural markets
Most events are free: difficult to extract revenue from
attendees
little involvement of private sponsors
insufficient demand analysis
little drive to reducing dependency from public sector
grants
only very few art orgs have NOT quoted public sector grants as
a very important financial source
cultural training activities are a little more private demand
driven
18. 19. More bad news
little scene awareness
The relationships between Basilicata creatives and cultural
movers and shakers are point to point
Some of them have been opportunistic and driven essentially by
the availability of public grants
20. 21. What creatives are saying:
There is no real cultural strategy for Basilicata
There is no integration between the cultural and other policies
(tourism, region marketing...)
So, culture is not viewed as part of the region's strategy
There is a shortage of venues/production spaces
There is a shortage of certain key skills
22. 23. Lucania's blogosphere: a resource
In Basilicata blogs and online fora have become a locus for
public debate
Strongly connected between them and with the outside
About 15 bloggers on the VU community, among which 2 of Italy's
top 50
A bloggers association to establish an offline presence