Urban Islands Symposium: "The Business of Culture"
Date/Time: Tuesday 1st August 2006, 6.30 - 9pm [6pm open]
Location: The Darlington Centre, City Road, University of Sydney
Admission: Free
RSVP: Please send an expression of interest email to joanne@jakovich.net so that ample seating can be arranged for everyone.

The Urban Islands Symposium brings together international guests and local specialists from the urbanism, culture, planning and architecture domains to discuss the morality and logistics of the 'business of culture', focussing on the challenges for Cockatoo Island.

Introduction

In 2001, the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust was set up by the Australian Government to plan the future of eight Defence and Commonwealth sites around Sydney Harbour, most of which had been hidden away from the community for many years.

The Harbour Trust's vision is to create from these lands a lasting cultural and physical legacy for Sydney.

Cockatoo Island is one of these unique opportunities – a site both physically and historically iconic, inviting responses to its unique qualities and generating investigations into strategies to reinhabit the island in a manner that is both vital and sustainable.

The deployment of Sydney Harbour's Urban Islands as not only cultural capital in themselves but as sites of cultural production has prompted The Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney and Altogether Elsewhere to convene a Symposium and 2 week Design Studio (August 1st -12th 2006) aimed at exploring the use of cultural forms and meanings in two interrelated projects:

1. the competitive positioning of Sydney within the contemporary cultural economy of capitalism and,
   
2. the regeneration of Cockatoo Island

The Business of Culture

In a world increasingly dominated by city-states, continuing urbanization, the corporatisation of government, and a global economic condition which has seen the critical distance between capital and culture collapse (Jameson, 1991), cities, now more than ever, are deploying strategies geared towards the ‘production and consumption of culture’ in order to be more competitive.

As Allen Scott notes, the realm of human culture is being increasingly commodified with an ever widening range of economic activity concerned with producing and marketing goods and services infused in one way or another with broadly aesthetic or semiotic attributes. Cultural forms and meanings have now become crucial if not dominant elements in the productive strategies of cities.

Under the banner of “The Business of Culture” a symposium will take place on Tuesday 1st August from 6.30-9pm at the Darlington Centre, University of Sydney. A panel comprising leading analysts and commentators will discuss and debate insights with respect to two key issues:

1. The moral content of cultural commodities/ objects
   If one understands culture as the values that guide expression rather than expression itself we are immediately confronted by an endless array of objects and artefacts that could be seen as cultural and therefore able to be bought and sold. This not only applies then to the produced objects per se but also to the places where they are produced. How then in a cultural economy of capitalism do we ensure that the morality which underpins a cultural value system and supports aspects like authenticity and diversity are maintained
   
2. The logistics of cultural production
   The sites or places of cultural production are in themselves a crucial variable in the production of cultural commodities. Issues concerning proximity and impact on clustering, supply chains and exposure are as relevant as issues dealing with spatial requirements, experiential qualities, communications and governance.

Prof. Alexander Cuthbert >
[ Sydney ]
Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales

Prof. Stephanie Donald >
[ Sydney ]
Institute for International Studies, University of Technology Sydney

Lisa Iwamoto >
Architect / Academic [ USA ]
IS.Ar Iwamoto Scott; Department of Architecture, Berkeley University

Dr. Martin Kornberger >
[ Sydney ]
School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney

Jaime Rouillon >
Architect / Academic [ Costa Rica ]
Jaime Rouillon Arquitectura; Collaborator at Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica

Craig Scott >
Architect / Academic [ USA ]
IS.Ar Iwamoto Scott; California College of Arts and Crafts

Roderick Simpson >
Architect / Planner [ Sydney ]
NSW Urban Design Chapter, Planning Institute of Australia

Satoru Yamashiro >
Architect / Artist / Academic [ Japan ]
building landscape; Responsive Environment; Engineering Faculty, University of Tokyo.

Chair: Ingo Kumic >
Urban Strategist [ Sydney ]
MPIA urban design chapter, economic development chapter

[ more panelists to be confirmed in the coming days ]

The symposium will last about 2.5 hours and be broken into two sessions to allow for focus. More information about this breakdown and speakers will be posted in the coming days.

Following the Symposium a small reception will be held to continue the discussion over drinks.

These texts have kindly been made available to read online by the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

Reflections on a Maritime City
An Appreciation of the Trust Lands on Sydney Harbour
The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust

Sites Unseen
Exploring the Future of Trust Lands on Sydney Harbour
The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust