CEDITRAA – OPENING CONFERENCE 08-09 July 2021
Structured in three keynote presentations and four panels, the Opening Conference discussed transformations of cultural production in Africa and Asia in the light of digitization and cultural entrepreneurship, with a focus on Nigeria and Korea. The first Keynote by Michael Hutter addressed his concept of cultural production evolving in a “Novelty Spiral”. Referring to the keynote, the first two panels discussed innovations of forms, formats, and content, and the negotiation of legal aspects where existing cultural products are appropriated and recombined. On the second day, the Keynotes of Michael Lounsbury, Alice Lam, and Steve Casper were related to the concept of “Cultural Entrepreneurship”, whereas the panels focused on aspects of archiving and heritage, and the regional and transnational consumption of cultural products.
SPEAKERS AND ABSTRACTS
Ji-Yoon An [University of Tübingen]: Aliens, Mermaids, and Cartoons: Generic Hybridity in Twenty-First Century South Korean Dramas
Abstract In the past decade, K-dramas have engaged in varying levels of generic hybridity. This paper takes interest in a cycle of rom-com series that have fused romance with fantasy and the heritage genre. Since the phenomenal hit of My...
Yonghoon Lee [Hong Kong University of Science and Technology]: Identity, Networks, and the Road to a Successful Career in the Creative Labor Market
Abstract Labor market identity and professional networks have been two important pillars for understanding creative careers advancing outside of organizational boundaries. Despite the fact that identity and networks are closely related, the related fields have been advancing in parallel while...
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo [Film & music critic, PR & media consultant, Lagos]: Culture, Technology, and Currency in Nollywood and Nigerian Pop Music
Abstract Inasmuch as the Nigerian film and music industries have achieved similar levels of recognition, if not acclaim, globally, the route to achieving that has been vastly different. While Nollywood inadvertently overwhelmed with its volume of production and some illegal...
Michael Hutter [WZB Berlin Social Science Center]: Novelty Spirals in African Megacities
Abstract In Neue Medienökonomik (2006), Michael Hutter suggested that the emergence of new information goods, particularly cultural and creative goods, follows a spiral movement: praise and critique by the users in period 1 have an impact in the “arenas of...
Veit Erlmann [University of Texas at Austin]: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions: South Africa’s Copyright Reform
Abstract In the aftermath of apartheid, South Africa embarked on an ambitious revision of its intellectual property system. This paper explores the role of copyright in this process and its intersection with the South African music industry, the largest on...
Luo Li [Coventry University]: Uncertain Future of Chinese Folk Music in Digitalisation
Abstract Digital technologies bring huge changes in stimulating music creation, distributing music, and enhancing the audio-visual experiences of humans. Folk music, embracing ethnic minority groups’ unique culture, has also been transformed by the digital revolution. The digitalisation of folk music...
Mary W. Gani [Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria]: Re-thinking Copyright Reversion for Nigerian Popular Music in an Evolving Digital Culture
Abstract Afrobeats, which is the catch-all term for popular music from Nigeria and much of West Africa, has enjoyed increasing global attention in the 21st century. Vibrant markets for mobile phone technology and increasing ease in access to the internet...
Michael Lounsbury [University of Alberta]: Frontiers of Cultural Entrepreneurship
Abstract Cultural entrepreneurship research has grown dramatically over the past couple of decades. This talk provides a brief overview of cultural entrepreneurship theory based on the speaker’s 2019 Cambridge University Press primer (co-authored with Mary Ann Glynn) entitled, Cultural Entrepreneurship:...
Alice Lam [Royal Holloway University of London]: Entrepreneurial Stories, Cultural Brokerage and Creativity in Hybrid Space
Abstract Alice Lam has been asked to comment on Michael Lounsbury’s talk on cultural entrepreneurship by drawing on her research on identity, hybridity, and creativity. The field of entrepreneurship or cultural entrepreneurship is on the fringe of my area of...
Steve Casper [Henry E. Riggs Professor of Management, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont]: Perspectives on Cultural Entrepreneurship
Abstract Commenting on the keynotes of Michael Lounsbury and Alice Lam. About the Speaker Steve Casper is Henry E. Riggs Professor of Management at Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California. He is a leading expert on the “business of science”...
Rebecca Ohene-Asah [Filmmaker / University of Ghana]: Audio-Visual Archiving Dynamics in Ghana
Abstract Ghana’s historical audio-visual archives are largely inaccessible. As such, there is a disconnect between current cultural productions and what already exist. On the national level, archived films are mostly stored in sub-standard deplorable conditions, thus most have deteriorated. Where...
Ji-hoon Kim [Chung Ang University, Seoul]: The Uses of Found Footage and The ‘Archival Turn’ of Recent Korean Documentary
Abstract This paper examines the ways in which several Korean documentary films in the 2010s use archival footage of the distant or recent histories of Korea. It argues that the films testify to what the author calls the “post-vérité” turn...
Hyginus Ekwuazi [University of Ibadan]: Nollywood—The Making of a Digital Dark Age
Abstract The consciousness that runs through this paper is that a film industry is developed in direct proportion to the extent that it is able to put film production, film distribution, film exhibition, and film archiving into a loop. The...
Dal Yong Jin [Simon Fraser University]: Transnational Korean Popular Culture in the Korean Wave Tradition: From K-film’s and K-pop’s Perspectives
Abstract In the early 21st century, Korean popular culture, including Korean cinema and K-pop, have continued to expand their global reach. Even during the COVID-19 era, BTS—a seven boy band from Korea—achieved No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with...
Suk-Young Kim [University of California]: Millennial North Korea: New Media Technology and Living Creatively under Surveillance
Abstract North Korea might be known as the world’s most secluded society, but it has witnessed the rapid rise of media technologies in the new millennium. While the North Korean state is anxiously trying to catch up with the world...
Alessandro Jedlowski [Sciences Po Bordeaux]: Disrupting Pan-Africanism: New Technologies and the Fragmentation of Nigerian Film Circulation Across Africa and the Diaspora
Abstract The emergence and tremendous success of Nollywood throughout the 1990s made scholars suggest that a new form of pan-Africanism had emerged, based on the transnational circulation and vernacularization of religious, cultural, aesthetic, and linguistic elements coming from Nigerian films....
