To help the creative sector – which was hit hard by the pandemic – develop innovative digital products, the new KreativInstitut.OWL in Detmold has received start-up funding of 8.5 million euros from federal state resources. Minister for Economic Affairs and Innovation Prof. Andreas Pinkwart and Minister for Culture and Science Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen announced the funding decision on 13 June. With the institute's help, the OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts (TH OWL), Paderborn University and HfM Detmold will be intensifying applied research and significantly expanding the transfer of the resulting findings into the cultural and creative industry.
Minister Pinkwart: "During the pandemic, we learned that digitalisation increases society’s resistance to crisis and makes us more future-proof. This is particularly true of the creative industry. The KreativInstitut.OWL is therefore seeking to help freelance artists, media professionals and companies develop digital products and business models. In order to do so, we are pooling skills from three universities in Detmold and Paderborn, and thus combining IT excellence with creative and inventive capabilities. Using innovative tools such as virtual and augmented reality as well as music and film informatics, researchers plan to collaborate with creative professionals in order to sustainably reinforce the sector."
Minister for Culture and Science Pfeiffer-Poensgen: "With the KreativInstitut.OWL, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is seeking to promote cooperation between art, science and technology. Artists are already increasingly expressing a desire to work in the digital and multimedia world. The new institute will serve as a scientific project group combining the varying specialist expertise offered by a university, a university of applied sciences, and a music college, in order to create a research and transfer environment that will help to remove barriers and fear of contact between science, technology, the creative industry and artists."
The president of TH OWL, Prof. Jürgen Krahl, is delighted about the new opportunities this affords: "The KreativInstitut.OWL will provide cultural and creative professionals with prospects for how new digital business models can firstly offset or mitigate pandemic-related economic consequences, and secondly ensure long-term, sustainable economic success." The target audience for this is very broad, ranging from freelance artists and self-employed media professionals to companies in the cultural and creative sector, or even transregional media industry groups.
"The KreativInstitut.OWL’s focus will be on shared, pioneering research in the fields of digital media production, music informatics, film informatics and digital humanities. The aim is to use this new form of collaboration to tap the potential of the region’s cultural and creative economy and establish the Kreativ Campus Detmold as a port of call for creative professionals in the building of the same name", explained Prof. René Fahr, Vice President for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Paderborn University.
This collaboration between a university of applied sciences, an art school and a university combines three complementary skill sets for producing innovative media products. "To sustainably support projects incorporating both art and technology, professorships need to launch multimedia and transdisciplinary projects. One example would be further developing and testing computer-based composition and putting it to use in innovative media installations", explains Prof. Thomas Grosse, Director of the music college HfM Detmold.
"I am grateful for the trust shown in the proposal concept and for the unique opportunity to reshape research and transfer. In particular, we want to support creativity and technological innovations and give students an opportunity to push themselves and develop business models for the cultural and creative industry", notes Prof. Guido Falkemeier, who is Dean of the Media Production department at TH OWL and is serving as the project manager.
The ‘KreativInstitut.OWL – future-proofing the creative industry’ project is being funded by resources from the Ministry for Economic Affairs.
