Introduction – Creativity matters: poetics, pedagogy, production, policy

Abstract

The Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) 2022 Conference Creativity Matters: Poetics. Pedagogy. Production. Policy. was held at Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Brisbane from Monday 11 July to Wednesday 13 July 2022. In this Journal of Media Practice and Education ASPERA Special Issue, we are pleased to present research arising from the papers presented at the conference. The conference explored matters regarding creativity across all areas of research and teaching in Australian higher education institutions today and into the future. Using the framework of the four P’s – Poetics, Pedagogy, Production and Policy – it investigated key themes impacting the contemporary screen production landscape. It presented issues, ideas and case studies centred on the pedagogy of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in our higher education institutions. It explored operational and technological changes in the screen industry and the way that institutions and individuals are pivoting to address these changes. It considered how screen-based stories are being shaped by these developments and the challenges and opportunities that are opening for the next generation of storytellers. The conference highlighted how research and teaching can be integrated to creatively address hybrid and inter-disciplinary teaching models, to work collaboratively across platforms, to embrace, innovate and lead change in education and industry. The themes of Pedagogy and Production are explored in Couzens and Cattoni’s paper, ‘Redesigning screen production pedagogy for hybrid learning models’ in a regional university. They use a case study approach to interrogate the hybrid delivery of undergraduate degree units delivered across multiple campus. The paper details the rationale and processes behind their redesigned hybrid coursework, conceived to make screen production education equitable, engaging and industry relevant for on-campus and online students. Their approach ensures teaching is technology agnostic, with a focus on students gaining knowledge and skills that are transferable to screen industry practices. The study itself offers transferable knowledge in ways-of-doing in hybrid learning models that could be applied to other disciplines facing similar situations. The authors highlight the democratizing of opportunity this teaching design offers to regional and remote communities in particular – facilitating the emergence of new content creators and screen practitioners from non-metropolitan areas and a diversity of voices on and behind the screen. The themes of Pedagogy and Production are explored in Wright-Brough, Hart, Maher and Cake’s paper, ‘Co-creative practice reconciling theory and practice in tertiary student documentary production’. The authors reflect upon the teaching design that underpins four documentary film and production units across the Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Film, Screen and New Media. The ‘spiral curriculum’ they describe is intended to build deep knowledge and understanding of the documentary form and its practices. The aim is that students demonstrate a solid theoretical, historical, ethical and technical grounding in their final year capstone documentary projects. With a focus on striving for high-level outcomes following industry