With our Creative Sustainability approach, we ring in the new year with a diverse project load including:

• Commencement of cultural planning for the Torres Strait Regional Authority, in partnership with Nguin Warrup  (Black Drum)
• Public art masterplanning and project development with Translink and Urban Land Development Authority
• Research for several Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessments for Connect for Effect
• Cultural Tourism initiative with Blackall-Tambo Regional Council
• Content and editorial with Aboriginal Business Magazine
• A speculative studio project, Enabling Suburbs, working with an interdisciplinary team to explore design futures for suburbs
• Several facilitations for organisations and community groups

We also maintain our involvements in Regional Development Australia Brisbane and the South East Queensland Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.

JM John Armstrong & Linda Carroli
Harbinger Consultants
Creative Sustainability :: People, Place, Product, Potential, Partnership + Pollinating

Our work with the Tambo community is focused on the relocation of a disused farm building to a new site. However, it’s more than that – it’s about the sense of pride the community has in its history as well as the desire to share its rural heritage with visitors. The building symbolises something greater than itself. Moving a building can change it and its relationships to place, so we need to work on approaches to ensure that the story can be communicated in its regional and local context. This is driven by the community itself and we have conducted several community conversations to outline the project. Interpretive planning is foundational for visitor experience planning. As a cultural tourism initiative, there is a need to ensure a quality visitor experience within the new facility as well as throughout the whole town.

While cultural heritage assessments aren’t focused on interpretive planning, they can help establish the significance of a place. This can be the precursor to other interpretive activities. Connect for Effect’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessments, with research support by Harbinger, a hidden history is being revealed for the purposes of protecting it from inappropriate development and to create greater awareness of the cultural significance of places. Freeman Tilden (quoted by Carter) said that “interpretation not only tells people what is interesting about a place, it aims to convince people of its value, and encourage them to want to conserve it.” Connect for Effect works closely with communities to find the right balance between archival documentation and community voice. In the longer term, oral history initiatives will be established within these communities. In assuring the preservation of these places and recognition of their significance, traditional owners are enabled to assert stewardship and develop interpretive and conservation plans for these areas.

The unexpected growth in the creative industries has led to a resurgence in investment and exploration. New players have begun to take on the established giants as each battles to claim the next Big Idea or Big Trend in the global domain. Despite its industrial beginnings, China has begun to emerge as one of these new contestants. On a recent trip to Qingdao and Shanghai, I witnessed how new regulatory policies are enabling the establishment of creative clusters: a concept that sees a myriad of creative businesses banding together in a singular location for the benefit of economic stability, inspiration and locational prestige. Yet, the formula remains incomplete and little has been done to explain why some of these creative clusters succeed whilst others fail. Here at Harbinger Consultants, my QUT Mentor – John Armstrong – has agreed to allow me to share my findings in this downloadable reflective diary piece and my portfolio of creative works at www.sarahpragnell.com.au.

Over the past semester, John participated in the QUT Mentoring Program as mentor for Sarah Pragnell, a Creative Industries student.

We’ve also just returned from Tambo in central western Queensland where we’ve commenced the second stage of our work on a cultural heritage tourism facility in the locality. During our visit, we undertook further consultations, townscape investigation and a site visit, and further refined the concept and vision with local stakeholders. The development of this facility is drawing on local knowledge, enthusiasm and identity to design a relevant, engaging and unique visitor experience; it is also grounded in ideas about living local economies and regional development with a view to enhancing the outback tourism offer. Architect, Jason Haigh (cloud-dwellers) is working with us to prepare site plans and indicative designs as part of the project. John’s work on public art masterplanning for Translink’s Browns Plains project has also commenced. John is also contributing, as editor and writer, to the ABM (Aboriginal Business Magazine) with the first issue now out. John has interviewed and profiled several inspiring entrepreneurs for this issue. Linda continues to work with a colleague on several Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessments. Other projects are also on the go and in the pipeline including cultural development, stakeholder engagement, research, strategic planning and facilitation.

Our studio work bubbles away with the Enabling Suburbs project now having published a Q&A with each of the participating creatives (Jason Haigh, Chiara Camponeschi and us) and plans in development for a collaborative venture in the near future.

The discussion was broad and several statements stood out as giving clear indications of the perceived personality and identity of the city:

• The city does not need a built icon. It’s identity is founded on the river – the river is the city’s icon and should be the centre of events, recreation and cultural life.
• Brisbane is a ‘city of villages’ and that needs to be embraced (might need to rethink the approach to suburban development and neighbourhood planning to promote village life)
• Need to promote Brisbane’s brand – city also needs to ‘walk the talk’ of world city and improve intergovernmental cooperation to promote the city
• Brisbane is a private enterprise city with significant presence of small and family owned businesses – we shouldn’t ignore this in an effort to become a ‘corporate city’; celebrate home grown entrepreneurship rather than become overly identified with and reliant on the resources sector
• City needs more and diverse events – keep visitors in town for longer; engage residents, grow local culture. City needs a cultural tourism strategy. It also needs a cultural plan (this has not been renewed for a few years). Perhaps the city warrants a different kind of cultural plan.
• City should include the suburbs in its identity and planning i.e. FIFO hub (people live in suburbs and need to access airport), promote localities and active centres, ensure engagement. Need to understand the suburbs and what’s going on across the whole city, particularly recognise changing demographics and ethnic profiles in communities to promote multiculturalism recognise our cultural diversity as an asset (e.g. Sunnybank is one of the most dynamic Asian hubs in the city)
• Recognition that a city is its people and citizens should be engaged in promoting the city and energising the city
• Interesting comment about the Trade Coast not having a sense of place with poor urban design and amenity; difficult for workers to access and move through (i.e. staff didn’t like going there and didn’t want to remain working there)

The table discussion we participated in addressed a broad range of ideas and experiences. There were two people working in enterprise – one from an engineering firm and the other was a restaurateur (+ us as private consultants/Linda as a member of RDA Brisbane) – who spoke of their challenges in recruitment. Others at the table were directly involved in incubating innovation and economic development. A report is due from Brisbane Marketing that will collate the findings from the consultations to deliver strategy to Council in the near future.

The topic of culture – identity, values, arts, events, lifestyle, digital culture – emerged strongly in this forum. Economic and cultural development are two sides of the same coin, important elements of urbanism and city making. There’s more to this than ‘liveability’. There’s more to this than ‘liveability’There was a focus on the under-development of this aspect of Brisbane’s offer, particularly in terms of attracting and holding tourists. As cultural planners, we were heartened to hear this. The city probably cannot cultivate a New York or London – even Melbourne – cultural life with a population of 1 million people and a smattering/reducing number of cultural resources centred on small areas and facilities in the CBD and a single city-centric local authority. That said, we can do things that arise from and leverage our own dynamic culture, events, environment and institutions. Our view is that the city could try being more adventurous in the way it thinks about and enables these opportunities.

While we were heartened by the interest in cultural events, we were concerned that there was a view that such things could be grown out of an underfunded/underresourced/shrinking cultural sector. If the conditions for cultural growth were enhanced, if the cultural sector grew and if the sector/industry was well supported then the cultural opportunities and offer could grow: this doesn’t necessarily need to continue in the manner of subsidy and patronage, and there are cultural economy issues that will need to be addressed in this equation.

Never being one to miss an opportunity, however, we spruiked the idea of a gaming festival (e.g. Come out of Play in New York/USA is a good example) which encourages engagement with games and devices that make use of GIS (e.g. geocaching, locative gaming, digital narratives). There was potential to link this to emerging precincts like the RNA redevelopment and changing environments of the city rather than bury them at fortress Kelvin Grove. Gaming is an important and dynamic aspect of digital culture that can engage urban space, art, mapping and movement and that can connect the city to the world (e.g. the massive alternate reality game World Without Oil).

If the recent Supernova Expo was anything to go by, there is some serious play happening in this city (when CosPlay happens in the Aspley Hypermarket, you know a major cultural shift has happened). There is a view that creative industries is one of Brisbane’s strengths (with notable research and production facilities) and we do need to recognise that more people work at McDonalds and the tourism industry than in the resources sector. Something like gaming cuts through the artificial divides of research, discipline, market, art and practice.

Having mentioned World Without Oil, we’d like to see a broader engagement with the shape, future, reconnecting and planning of the city through gaming – e.g. the London Festival of Mapping – where the city itself is moved and recognises its relational capital across the whole city not just the privileged inner city.  Maybe the city of Brisbane is just one big alternate reality game through which we can learn more about the challenges and opportunities that are emerging. The digital culture/mixed reality opportunities certainly need some exploration either as part of the city’s digital strategy and/or as part of its cultural plan.

We are also moving into the next phase of feasibility study for a cultural heritage facility for Blackall-Tambo Regional Council in Central West Queensland. We are working with architect Jason Haigh of Cloud-Dwellers and the community to refine the concept and vision and develop detailed plans. Since completing the pre-feasibility study, excitement about this venture and the opportunity it presents for the community – from a regional development perspective – has grown.

Our public art planning and implementation work with the Urban Land Development Authority and Translink continues with innovative and engaging ideas for placemaking. Recently, John was also approached by the Iranian community of Queensland to work with them to develop a public art concept celebrating cultural values and heritage. Linda’s work continues as part of a team producing Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessments in New South Wales. As well, her tutoring role with QUT’s School of Design in Placemaking in Architecture has drawn to a close with the end of semester – she has hopes of resuming next year. Later today she is participating in a practitioner-based panel discussion about community engagement at Griffith University, where she will talk about our recent report on SEQ Attitudes to Community Consultation and Engagement.

• V-Gathering Future Festival, 26-27 October. This will include presentations about futures and foresight methods; insights from art, design and architecture; crazy futures; and building a futures careers.
• World Town Planning Day Online Conference 2011 is themed Going Public: Spaces in our Communities,1-2 November. Speakers from around the world – Canada, USA, Dubai, China, and many more.
• Presencing Institute’s 1st Presencing Global Forum, 24-25 October. Presentations from a host of speakers including Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Michelle Long and many others.

Our public art plans and proposals have demonstrated our ability to ride the currents of cultural dynamics and artistic opportunity for urban and community innovation. Not every project idea in a masterplan will be embraced by a client. However, we recognise that as consultants we are uniquely placed to introduce new ideas and thinking that address place-based systems and interactions and support community renewal. Our work meaningfully takes a holistic view of opportunity, place, culture and community while also ensuring a partnership and participatory approach. Some of the ideas we’ve included in our public art planning strategies over the past 15 years or so included:

• An empty space proposal in 2005 as part of a town centre renewal initiative in a regional centre. Titled Re:Create this initiative drew on lessons from international successes in empty space projects and sought to make empty shops available for use by local artists and entrepreneurs. This meant developing capacity in a local arts enterprise incubator to broker and manage opportunities for underutilised/resourced local creatives while also seeding new enterprise.
• Recognition that art-environment was an emerging strength in a regional community that could be leveraged to create unique expresses of identity and place as well as enhance art-science and new media practices. In our 2006 planning for an environmental and sustainability focused precinct intended to demonstrate integrated water sensitive design and create awareness of environmental stewardship, we included a proposals to consolidate art and environment initiatives, diversify uses of community facilities as well as introduce a local food market and community garden in a community space within walking distance from the beach. This project established an environmental accounting process that recognised that human and social health are interconnected.
• Understanding and drawing out heritage and historic themes to encourage conservation and interpretation for leverage in cultural tourism, such as current work in Townsville’s Oonoonba development.
• Festivals, ephemeral works and other events that addressed transitioning economies. For example, a proposition for a light themed event, including large scale projections and screen based works, in a declining sugar growing area to capture the symbolic aspects of seasonal cane burning.
• An urban interventions and ephemeral works program offering small funds for artist/design driven projects that challenge preconceptions of space and built environment while also making spaces available and accessible to marginalised groups
• A project proposal that engaged children in scientific imaging and environmental awareness through a thematic exploration of ‘microcosm’ (and very small worlds).
• Engagements with new media, ICT and locative media to encourage new grammars of space and place and connections across and between places with particular focus on young people and content production.
• Social inclusion by enabling diverse groups to participate in creative processes and art making including outsider artists and young people.
• A hospital planning process in the 1990s in which we proposed a series of residencies for artists to work in medical research facilities and patient care environments to develop a profile for arts in health.
• Creating awareness of Indigenous cultural and traditional knowledge in commercial and community projects. For example, in the wall artwork at Dogwood Crossing @ Miles, the Campfire Group communicated an Indigenous perspective of the local landscape and environment.
• Other projects, such as recent work at Fitzgibbon Chase, have pursued cultural and community development objectives in the context of new/emerging community in a greenfield development. These projects have sought to generate experiences and connections in place.

While our approach is broad and fluid, a consideration in developing these plans and proposals is relevance – recognising the feasibility of cultural opportunities and matching those to surplus capacity and/or assets as well as political and community will. Public art can do more for, with and in a place or community than ‘decorate’. It disturbs us when we hear, as we have done, colleagues make comments like ‘public art is a sop’ or ‘what’s with all the place stuff?’. Comments like that mean there is a lack of understanding about what really can be achieved through an integrated critical and cultural approach to place and public art, and what that means for communities and places.

There is an easy segue from this conversation to Economic Development Australia’s national conference addressing ‘the digital economy’ held in Adelaide, a city undergoing its own reinvention with its mall being made over as a ‘people’s place’. The difficulty of that transition is apparent with the prevalence of commissioned graffitti murals that hide otherwise empty shops at street level and other subtle creative interventions, some more effective and striking than others. A city that has built a reputation on cultural events knows the value public spaces and creative engagements with place and people. With the promise of high speed broadband to every premises in Australia, there was genuine anticipation at the EDA Conference (#eda2011 on Twitter) about the potential for leveraging that infrastructure for diverse economic and community benefits. Part of that equation also involves attracting and retaining a skilled professional workforce while appreciating that low skilled or unskilled employment and wages are on the decline. Place is also a critically important consideration in economic development given quality of life considerations for attracting talent, entrepreneurship and encouraging local business. What is most interesting here is that most cities in Australia are comprised of multiple local authories, while Brisbane is governed by only one. Each of those local authorities in other major cities are working to establish their own competitive advantage, multipliers and sense of place. This means a finer grain of local area quality of life and engagement.

It sometimes seems like our economies have been in transition for a very long time, since ‘e-’ became a prefix that hailed a new world order at some point in the 90s. I have one nagging doubt about digital economy strategies. While I have no doubt that the digital economy - understood as “the global network of economic and social activities that are enabled by platforms such as the internet, mobile and sensor networks” – is part of and shaping both our world and us, I do have some apprehension in the development of stand alone strategies that address only that aspect of the economy or community development. In times of transition, there is a tendency to continue to segregate rather than integrate and to chart a transition from an existing paradigm to a new one. The digital economy strategy becomes an add on – a bit like the ‘e-’ of the last decade and a half. I prefer to see integrated planning and iterative approaches that recognise that the digital economy is, in fact, already with us and that ICT is cross-cutting. This is indeed foundational for the new economy. Economies, industry and enterprise are driven by innovation, services and knowledge and there are opportunities to reinvent business process and models. Further, I suggest these digital economy strategies, including theFederal Government’s strategy, are transition strategies – they are readiness, engagement, adoption, industry and/or adaptation strategies – which punctuate the evolution of economic development and other strategic planning led by local and regional agencies.

A handful of reminders and takeaways from the EDA Conference and Masterclass included:

• Digital exclusion is not an option for an ‘intelligent community’ – can’t create a digital golden age for the privileged (Robert Bell)
• At the regional and local level, we are preparing the ground for a greater vision and new opportunities (Geoff Heydon)
• Today’s business models are still relevant and will co-exist with new business models and process (Geoff Heydon)
• Social media facilitate problem solving; there are opportunities to hook into idle capacity (or cognitive surplus)
• Invest, Collaborate, Engage, Demonstrate, Share, Act (Colin Griffith)
• High speed broadband is social infrastructure (Kate Cornick)
• A sustaining narrative and vision is needed. It’s about ‘connectedness’ not just connectivity (Martin Stewart-Weeks)
• Libraries play a pivotal role in enhancing literacy and digital literacy (Ross Duncan)
• NBN is only part of the story – we have to make it sing and dance; foster cultural change; nurture and catalyse innovation (Tim Williams)
• In ‘smart city’ frameworks, governance is centrally important but the least researched (Tim Williams).
• Governance needs new tools, new interfaces and new methods e.g. urban informatics (Tim Horton)

As I read some of the example strategies, many of which do seem to chart that transitioning zone, it seems that many of them have matched their aspiration and reality, understanding the value of foresight, deliberation and visioning. The strategies establish a promise and commitment from the local authorities, while seeking to establish competitive position. However, it also presents a major challenge in that it entreats local authorities and their officers to collaborate and abandon their silos and guild structures.

Finally, continuing on this theme of knowledge and innovation, the EIDOS Institute recently hosted a conference on Achieving Regional Development: Pathway to Productivity, which we unfortunately couldn’t attend. The conference recognised that achieving regional productivity and development through innovation requires both a sound understanding of the key resources of the region and a willingness to look outside of traditional workforce and development opportunities and recognize the need for engagement with non-traditional industries such as the ICT, clean technology and health technology industries.  The presentations from this event are now available online.