Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Mo's First Day at CIDA

Hi! This is Mo.

It is time to look back on my first day at CIDA, with joy and pleasure. I chose the Brick Lane on my way to CIDA, being immersed in the atmosphere that full of street arts, different ethnicities and stylish people. Now that I’ve been studying in the Northbank and West End, living in the Southbank, working in the central of East London would be a totally different experience for me. On a typical Tuesday, sitting in a nice office and working with great people, what else could I ask for? I am starting my internship now!

I am currently completing a master's degree in Cultural and Creative Industries at King's College London. As a MA CCI student, the modules I have had taken would be extremely helpful to start this internship at CIDA. Contested Culture and Analysing the CCI have taught me how to think critically with different issues and group seminar help me further practise this skill, as well as how to communicate with different opinions. Meanwhile, I have got a deeper understanding of contemporary debates about the nature of work in the cultural and creative industries from the Creatives: Working in the Cultural Industries course, which aims to situate the understanding of cultural work in broader frameworks concerned with globalisation and transformations of contemporary capitalism. Furthermore, Digital Industries and Internet Culture course has explored role of social norms and cultures as central components of digital industries in relation to internet cultures. Management of Art has presented to me how aesthetic knowledge and being ‘artful’ can foster better organisations.

As for my dissertation, I aim to focus on creative clusters, which comprise creative people, creative economy and creative policies. Creativity is something that divides the world, which has led many clusters to advance either economically or politically and, to some extent, spiritually. Here I want to discuss about London West End and Beijing 798 Art Clusters with an emphasis on creative people, who can be called as creative class. Human capital and talent are becoming the driving forces to achieve economic growth in the knowledge and creative economy. Besides, Creative people and talents are attracted to environments characterized by openness, a diverse and inclusive community and the existence of abundant and vibrant high quality experiences. According to my research, I expect to gain a better insight into creative clusters that linked to the economic and social life. Since I’ve read the copy of a speech by Dr Richard Florida given at Cr8net last year, I am sure that working in CIDA would be the best choice I have ever made for CIDA is doing everything that can support those working in the CCI.

In terms of my task preference, I would like to take part in as many activities as possible, from brainstorming to practicing. Moreover, Toks briefly talked about considering expanding career to China by opening a Sina Weibo account in my interview, I am quite interested in it.

CIDA is such an outstanding agency that keeps pace with the times, so it is my honour to be here with you. London is such an amazing city that the longer I stay, the more I love it. I’ve been here for a summer when I was in high school, and this summer, will be the memory I cherish forever. Finally, have you heard that ‘when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’ by Samuel Johnson? It is definitely true!


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