Professional creativity – a masterclass and a reminder
Professional creativity – a masterclass and a reminder
Rosalind Hardy
On 15 May I met my classmates for the first time. It was a Saturday and, after months of online lectures, ‘break-out room’ activities, and virtual roundtable sessions with writing, editing and publishing professionals, we gathered together at the Bowen Street Press for an intensive masterclass for our first-year course, Contemporary Writing and Publishing. Throughout the day we were joined by seven experts who presented on their specific fields, and gave us valuable insights into their daily commitments and routines. They discussed the unique journeys they’d travelled to get to where they are now, and left me feeling inspired and re-energised about all the possibilities that await us beyond our student lives.
Mark Dean from the Australia Institute shared with us some key findings from his research on the impact of digital technologies and the automation of work processes on the creative industries. He identified that technologies have enhanced elements of the publishing industry, and made life easier in some regards—something I couldn’t disagree with. As someone who generally prefers the old-fashioned way of doing things though, I found it refreshing to hear him talk about how machines will never replace humans, because while their capacity for logic is profound, their ability to experience life (and to touch, feel, taste, internalise and process those experiences inherent to our human experience), will always remain limited.
We create to express our feelings, to share experience with others, to validate our own realities. We create to protest and process, to celebrate and liberate, to live and to breathe. We create to understand what it means to be a human. So fundamental are these needs and desires, that we have entire industries to support them. So important are these parts of our lives, that we were joined that day by seven professionals who’ve devoted their working lives to various facets of the publishing industry, or related fields, to further the capacity of our society to engage in, and experience, creativity.
The relationships cultivated between industry and students within the BSP ensure we don’t ever lose sight of why we’re here. Sharing the room that day with current personnel in Australia’s publishing, and allied, industries brought us a step closer to actualising our passions, and to exploring the paths available to us to achieve whatever we hope to achieve. Ultimately, I am in the BSP to invest in my creativity and on Saturday 15 May, building a career around that became a very real possibility.