/ 1968

CREATIVE CLUSTERS

The global pandemic is changing the world in significantly high speed and in many dimensions-economic, social, cultural, digital.Covid-19 certainly had a negative effect on all sectors requiring traveling and physical presence, including many arts and culture events and organisations, as well as sectors that are complementary to the culture and creative industries value chain. Despite, the global pandemic opened up new opportunities of living more among our communities, consuming more local products, reorganising our life to be more resilient, catalyzing both business and social innovations, using much more digital and online tools, including also for further increase of cultural participation and democratisation of the arts. In the last few months we have received plenty of evidences worldwide that culture does contribute to the economic and social vitality of cities across the world. This paper aims to identify the essence and key characteristics of “creative clusters” (CCs) and to offer a typology of their diverse forms of existence. It also summarises key business models and sources of external financial support for development of CCs. Finally, the paper draws key success factors for their development. The research for elaboration of this paper was done during 3-months long period (April June 2020) in collaboration with Nikoloz Nadirashvili and Creative Georgia, within the framework of the Project – “Designing a Creative Cluster Ecosystem in Georgia” under the support of UNESCO and the European Commission. The research methods used for elaboration of this paper are: desk research of documents and publications, mapping and analysis of diverse cases and targeted in-depth interviews with professionals and managers running creative clusters.

/ 1968

CULTURE OF RESISTANCE

The main goal of this paper is to point out the power of the alternative and independent theatre in changing society, based on the scientific research of prof. dr Milena Dragićević – Šešić. The first part of the paper offers deliberations on the theories of reflection and shaping of Victoria de Alexander, according to which art and theatre always reflect social events. In the second part of the paper, we will analyse the work of independent theatre troupes (Dah teatar, Mim Art.) during the nineties, and their resistance to the regime of Slobodan Milošević – a significant contribution to the struggle for freedom of thought and the right of every human being to take to the streets freely. And the streets were indeed cordoned by police during the student and civil protests. This paper wants to point out the importance of the applied theatre for spreading of culture and the influence of the theatre on the audiences. The work was written based on the sociological theories of art of Victoria de Alexander, the theory of applied theatre by August Boal, and also the studies of dr Milena Dragićević Šešić: Art and Alternative, Culture of Resistance and Indian Theatre.

/ 1968

MEDIA AND CULTURE

Along with studying the world of culture, Milena Dragićević Šešić has also dealt with reflections in the field of media theory. These two parallel lines of study, as well as long-term teaching activities in the designated areas, in my opinion, represent a paradigm, where they approach each other, conflict and fight for the dominance of two different value system sexisting today. In principle, on the side of culture and its interests and possibilities, M. D. Šešić does not fall into the trap of technophobia, but, on the other hand, does not fetishize the existing media reality. By analysing the current media scene – either theoretically or practically, the author Šešić discreetly supports culture in its struggle for a more equal status in relation to the media dictum, in the era of the rule of modern communication technologies. Without disputing the idea and practice of accelerated technical and technological progress, M. D.Šešić critically valorises the world of media, advocating a cultural value paradigm in the field of the media communication.

/ 1968

VALORISING MARGINALISED HERITAGE

The paper is dedicated to the work and research of prof. dr Milena Dragićević Šešić in the field of cultural heritage and memory studies. The paper analyses the key questions, topics and problems dealt within the work of Dragićević Šešić, contextualising them in relation to the broader socio-political transitions, as well as in relation to the international academic trends in the field of cultural heritage, cultural memory and cultures of resistance. The core research interest of Dragićević Šešić is linked with the critique of ethno-national politics of memory, marginalised and dissonant layers of heritage, heritage and memory of the marginalised groups within patriarchal nationalistic models of heritage, as well as to counter-cultural memorial practices of artistic collectives, lesser known artists and civil society organisations. By analysing the work of Dragićević Šešić in the field of cultural heritage it becomes obvious that the very core of her work is a particular kind of engaged scholarship and academic activism dedicated to non-authorised heritage discourses and memory politics, triggered on the one hand by the socio-political crises of the dissolution of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, and on the other hand by the engagement with contemporary socially relevant scholarship trends.

/ 1968

CONTRIBUTION OF MILENA DRAGIĆEVIĆ ŠEŠIĆ TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF INTERCULTURALISM AND TRANSCULTURALISM

The paper analyses Milena Dragićević Šešić’s contribution to understanding of the concepts of interculturalism and transculturalism in the theory and practice of cultural production in Yugoslavia, in the period from the 1980s to 2020, with a special emphasis on three important books that the author considers particularly representative for elaborating these concepts. The ways in which Milena Dragićević Šešić first introduces these concepts into Yugoslav theoretical and professional discussions, and then develops, applies and re-examines them, follows the developmental path of her overall theoretical, pedagogical and activist engagement over more than forty years of active work. The paper shows how the approach to the concept of multiculturalism and interculturalism in Milena Dragićević Šešić’s works has developed through the interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity of her research and how it marked her approaches to cultural production, distribution and consumption, as well as her social engagement in the turbulent times in the Balkans from the twentieth to the twenty-first century

/ 1968

CRITICAL THINKING ON SERBIAN DIGITAL PORTALS

The paper explores critical thinking in columns as a genre of analytical journalism, taking on the peculiarities of digital media such as hypertextuality, multimedia and interactivity. Through an analysis of over eighty columns from various portals, the topics of columns in online journalism will be considered, deriving which journalists write analytically today and whether they write critically. The research sample has enabled analysis of 85 columns published in the period from July 1 to July 31, 2020 on the N1, Nova.rs and Pečat portals. Out of the total of 85 published columns in the given period, 13 columns were published on the N1 television portal, 19 on the Pečat portal and 53 on the Nova.rs portal. The main goal of the research was to determine whether and to what extent critical thinking was present on these online portals.

/ 1968

MEDIA TEXT AS AN INTERPRETER AND A CRITIC OF REALITY

In March 2020, a state of emergency was declared worldwide as a result of the rapid spread of COVID-19. In Serbia, this led to strict preventive measures (curfew). In Sweden, such measures were not taken, but the system relied on personal responsibility of each individual, instead. In emergency situations, the media gain great importance as a source of information, and as such have the ability to alleviate or worsen the insecurity that the public feels, which can further contribute to the moral panic. In order to determine the potential of electronic media for informing citizens and encouraging critical thinking (during an emergency situation), we have explored rhetorical strategies and their potential for affirming the pluralism of views. The subject of research were broadcasting practices of three TV stations: two public media services (Radio Television of Serbia and Swedish Television) and one cable TV from Serbia (N1). By method of content analysis, we have come to a conclusion that all three media provided viewers with comprehensive, coherent and verified information. During the analysed period, the media in Serbia almost doubled the duration of their news programs, which gives an impression of non-selectivity and a desire to prove maximum coverage on all topics. On the other hand, SVT was consistent in the duration and scope of news programs. The way in which events were presented was mainly characterized by objectivity, although the Serbian public service also displayed a tendency towards intimidation. The biggest differences were noticed in terms of pluralism of views, since it was much more present in the programs of the Swedish public service and cable television (N1) than in the Serbian public service television programs. One of the rhetoric specifics in the way how N1 was presenting the news is discrediting the current political leadership and the decisions they have made. 

/ 1968

CRITICAL THINKING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

This paper starts from a premise that critical thinking is a threat to the owners of capital in the media, but that a critical view of the world is also an essential need of journalists and wide public. That is why there are so many changes in the work of modern journalists. The paper, through empirical insight, points out the inevitable pitfalls that stand in the way of the development of critical thinking among journalists employed in new media. The main goal of the paper is to investigate survival of the role of critical thinking in the digital environment media, which keep developing faster and faster in the (never clearly stated) conditions where critical thinking remains foreign to most Internet users. Possible strategies of resistance against exclusively market-oriented media are also pointed out at the end of the paper.

/ 1968

HATSUNE MIKU – THE SUBVERSIVE POTENTIAL OF PARTICIPATORY CREATED CYBERPOP IDOL

Virtual worlds and online interactions are the base of cyberpop culture, in which consumption also causes production of meaning. It possibly can, but does not have to bring out subversive and/or activist potential. The overflow of the virtual into the spaces of physical reality, by use of technologies as gestural interfaces, holographic projections and the like, allows direct bodily interactions with virtual objects. Some of these objects are so-called virtual idols. Their appearance, identity and celebrity status are constructed and assigned by real people in the real world. This paper analyses the role of fans in the creation of the most famous virtual idol, the vocaloid Hatsune Miku. Based on this analysis, the paper puts forward a thesis that existence of Hatsune Miku puts emphasis on the activity (participation) per se, instead of activism. It does not serve the idea of social change, but the maintaining of the social status quo.