Visual culture and the autonomously creative creativity

We are living in a society full of powerful and creative images with diverse cultural meanings. The emergence of these images becomes a great benefit to the creative industry and gives an impact on reconceptualising the human situation and our understanding of culture. Influenced by popular culture, Hong Kong’s creativity can widely be represented in the form of popular visual culture such as manga and animation. The visual language used and form of representation in popular visual culture reflects an autonomously creative phenomenon that it not only indicates a unique way of self-actualizing artistic expression, but it also pictures how the global visual identity contributes to the local cultural industry. The focus of the discussion about creativity is on the process of problem solution or originality in the arts. It seems that it seldom lays stress on the discussion about the impact of the autonomous power of creativity on the creative industry from the socio-cultural and socio-economic perspective. Is the generic skill and originality the centre of creativity only? This question is essential since it is concerned with the ontology and socio-cultural understanding of creativity. Facing the globalisational challenge to the construction of the new creative industry in the 21st century, the Hong Kong SAR government has increasingly emphasised the importance of cultivating creativity in education and the local cultural industry. To facilitate creativity, we need to consider six essential questions: 1) What is the concept of creativity in the postmodern era and what is the difference from the modernist’s concept of creativity? 2) What is the relationship between creativity and contemporary culture in the global and local socio-cultural context? 3) Why is the re-conceptualization of creativity so important to the development of the arts-and-cultural related industry? 4) What is the role of the government and policy maker? 5) What is the strategy that should be taken to fit the needs of the rapid changing society? 6) How do the different sectors respond to the change and contribute to the creative industry? To respond to these, we need the new way of thinking and discourse in the existing theoretical framework, paradigm, value and belief, and strategy in terms of cultivating the creativity, identity, and visual literacy in the educational setting and cultural industry. This presentation also examines how the concept of autonomously creative creativity challenges the modernist’s concept of administration and cultural policy. It also indicates how the concept re-shapes the face of creativity and contributes to the body knowledge of the development of creative industry in Hong Kong context.