A snapshot from early thematic planning for podcast
We’ve been busy preparing for Collaboratory’s release in 2022. In the spirit of collaboration, we thought we would share some of the podcast development process so far. Over 2021 we’ve done a lot of planning and research into themes and topics we want Collaboratory to cover, and since around May 2021 we have been very busy interviewing people. We managed to get a few face to face interviews in, but then covid-19 lock-downs meant we moved to recording online for the most part. We are getting stuck into editing Season 1 over the upcoming Australian summer, and are working with our network
Episodes and topic development
As Collaboratory is intended as a resource for existing and emerging practitioners, we started with defining some key goals for the series. Overall, we hope that listeners walk away with:
- A broader understanding of collaboration, co-creation, and co-creativity
- More ideas and methodologies they can use to practice co-creativity whatever their industry and purpose
From here, we defined some high-level topics we wanted to explore based on our own experiences and those of colleagues and other organisations we’ve worked with over the years. Some of the key themes we identified were:
- Foundations to establish co-creative initiatives
- Enablers and barriers of co-creative practice
- Examples of co-creative practice across sectors, scales, places, and cultures
- Value and benefits of co-creative approaches
- Challenges in co-creative initiatives
- Ending co-creative initiatives
- Experiences of practitioners of co-creation across sectors and disciplines
- Skills and capabilities needed to facilitate co-creative processes
Our episodes are based on some of these topics and sub-topics of interest. Within them, you’ll hear from multiple practitioners, providing a diverse and rounded discussion of the topic being explored. We will continue to expand on these topics as our research and interviews progress.
Interviewees
As well as finding people who can speak to these topics, we also wanted to ensure we were speaking with a wide variety of practitioners with different experiences, who saw co-creation through different lenses. So, we sought out people who use co-creativity in their work across sectors such as:
- Creative arts
- Academia
- Social change and development
- Government
- Business
We’re intentionally speaking with people who use co-creative approaches at different scales and for different purposes, to highlight both similarities and what is distinct to context. We started mostly local, in Canberra and other parts of Australia, but have gradually expand to other parts of the world.
Below is a selection of the exciting practitioners we’ve already interviewed for Season 1 of Collaboratory:
- Anni Davey – Director of Flying Fruit Fly Circus
- Callie Doyle Scott – Writer and game master
- David Lilley – Consultant with Collaboration for Impact
- Diana James – Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Humanities and Arts at the Australian National University and the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at Adelaide University
- Dimitrios Papalexis – Founder of Soulgen
- Kim Cunio – Head of the School of Music at the Australian National University (ANU), performer, researcher, and Grammy long listed composer
- Professor Stephen Osborne – Chair in International Public Management and the Deputy Dean of the University of Edinburgh Business School, Fellow within the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and founding and current editor of the Public Management Review journal
- Tirrania Suhood – Founder of InCollaboration
- Wayne Barker – Activist, Festival and Cultural Events Coordinator at the Kimberly Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC) and the Director at Stompem Ground Festival
- Professor John Carty – Head of Humanities at the South Australia Museum
- Azure Hermes – Co-Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Genomic at the Australian National University
- Georgios N Yannakakis – Professor and Director of the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta (UM) and the co-founder of modl.ai
They’ve shared their experiences and insights about co-creativity in action from their multiple roles as consultants, academics and students, cultural producers and makers, program managers, musicians, facilitators, linguists, community workers and more.
We’ve got more lined up to speak with in the coming months, and are always keen to connect with others working co-creatively! We are also seeking collaborators who have examples of musical co-creativity we could feature in the podcast. Email us at collaboratorypodcast@gmail.com if you’d like to get involved or know someone else who might.