1.1 Creative Industries 4.0
Industry 4.0, thought to be the "Fourth Industrial Revolution", refers to the increased digitisation and automation of various manufacturing and service industries. In the first lesson, the main focus was on how the creative industry both contributes towards and is affected by Industry 4.0.
In the readings, a recurring theme is the idea that the role of creativity in future careers will become more prominent with the advent of increased automation of labour (Holman, 2018). However, "creativity" in this context does not strictly refer to the ability to create artistic works, but the skill to think outside the box when it comes to solving complex issues. Other important skills, besides coding, are ethics and philosophy. This is because future programmers will need to make ethical decisions on what choices automated machines will make, especially when it relates to how they act when human lives are at stake (Wan, 2018).
The creative industry is also predicted to change in other ways - in the age of digital-driven transparency, young creatives are able to review and judge companies which they have worked with, and strive to create a different type of working environment for themselves (Kemp, 2017). In an industry where creative minds are a company's biggest assets, established design agency giants will need to step up to attract and retain young talent or risk stagnation and irrelevance.
An important factor to consider when it comes to the fourth industrial revolution is the unequal development of technology across the globe. According to the World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends, the aggregate impact of digital technologies is unevenly distributed, with the benefits skewed towards richer and better-skilled countries (The World Bank, 2016). While those in the creative industry are currently at a lower risk of losing their jobs in Industry 4.0, unskilled labourers will be the first to lose their livelihoods, as their roles get replaced by automation. In a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, "in about 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated, implying substantial workplace transformations and changes for all workers" (Manyika et al., 2017).
(Manyika et al., 2017)
At the end of the day, are creative careers truly safe from being automated? Automatically generated design already exists - Alibaba's LuBan (鲁班) "is capable of generating approximately 8,000 different banner designs per second", and was tested in 2016 when it made 170 million colourful banners for the Single's Day sales on Taobao and Tmall.
Powered by machine learning, LuBan needed to learn what components make up good design. Its design process involves generating a large amount of banners, and making decisions on which designs to move forward with. Using information such as scrolling data and click-through rates, it can then further narrow down criteria, and make more effective banners in the future.
Banner design is just the beginning of what can be automated in design. In a way, "all UIs can be seen as the permutation of some basic sub-elements" (Xu, 2017). Therefore, whole auto-generated apps and user experiences might not be as far away as we may think.
Bibliography:
Holman, M. (2018). Why the Arts are Essential to Industry 4.0. [online] Partnershipmovement.org. Available at: http://www.partnershipmovement.org/news/p/why-the-arts-are-essential-to-industry-4-0/.
Kemp, N. (2017). This is the future of work for the creative industry. [online] Campaignlive.co.uk. Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/future-work-creative-industry/1446638.
Manyika, J., Lund, S., Chui, M., Bughin, J., Woetzel, J., Batra, P., Ko, R. and Sangvi, S. (2017). Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages. [online] McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages.
The World Bank (2016). World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends. [online] The World Bank. Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016.
Wan, T. (2018). The Most Important Skills for the 4th Industrial Revolution? Try Ethics and Philosophy. - EdSurge News. [online] EdSurge. Available at: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-10-06-the-most-important-skills-for-the-4th-industrial-revolution-try-ethics-and-philosophy.
Xu, R. (2017). AI visual design is already here — and it won’t hesitate to take over your petty design job. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@rexrothX/ai-visual-design-is-already-here-and-it-wont-hesitate-to-take-over-your-petty-design-job-934d756db82e.
In the readings, a recurring theme is the idea that the role of creativity in future careers will become more prominent with the advent of increased automation of labour (Holman, 2018). However, "creativity" in this context does not strictly refer to the ability to create artistic works, but the skill to think outside the box when it comes to solving complex issues. Other important skills, besides coding, are ethics and philosophy. This is because future programmers will need to make ethical decisions on what choices automated machines will make, especially when it relates to how they act when human lives are at stake (Wan, 2018).
The creative industry is also predicted to change in other ways - in the age of digital-driven transparency, young creatives are able to review and judge companies which they have worked with, and strive to create a different type of working environment for themselves (Kemp, 2017). In an industry where creative minds are a company's biggest assets, established design agency giants will need to step up to attract and retain young talent or risk stagnation and irrelevance.
An important factor to consider when it comes to the fourth industrial revolution is the unequal development of technology across the globe. According to the World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends, the aggregate impact of digital technologies is unevenly distributed, with the benefits skewed towards richer and better-skilled countries (The World Bank, 2016). While those in the creative industry are currently at a lower risk of losing their jobs in Industry 4.0, unskilled labourers will be the first to lose their livelihoods, as their roles get replaced by automation. In a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, "in about 60 percent of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated, implying substantial workplace transformations and changes for all workers" (Manyika et al., 2017).
(Manyika et al., 2017)
At the end of the day, are creative careers truly safe from being automated? Automatically generated design already exists - Alibaba's LuBan (鲁班) "is capable of generating approximately 8,000 different banner designs per second", and was tested in 2016 when it made 170 million colourful banners for the Single's Day sales on Taobao and Tmall.
Powered by machine learning, LuBan needed to learn what components make up good design. Its design process involves generating a large amount of banners, and making decisions on which designs to move forward with. Using information such as scrolling data and click-through rates, it can then further narrow down criteria, and make more effective banners in the future.
Banner design is just the beginning of what can be automated in design. In a way, "all UIs can be seen as the permutation of some basic sub-elements" (Xu, 2017). Therefore, whole auto-generated apps and user experiences might not be as far away as we may think.
Bibliography:
Holman, M. (2018). Why the Arts are Essential to Industry 4.0. [online] Partnershipmovement.org. Available at: http://www.partnershipmovement.org/news/p/why-the-arts-are-essential-to-industry-4-0/.
Kemp, N. (2017). This is the future of work for the creative industry. [online] Campaignlive.co.uk. Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/future-work-creative-industry/1446638.
Manyika, J., Lund, S., Chui, M., Bughin, J., Woetzel, J., Batra, P., Ko, R. and Sangvi, S. (2017). Jobs lost, jobs gained: What the future of work will mean for jobs, skills, and wages. [online] McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages.
The World Bank (2016). World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends. [online] The World Bank. Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016.
Xu, R. (2017). AI visual design is already here — and it won’t hesitate to take over your petty design job. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@rexrothX/ai-visual-design-is-already-here-and-it-wont-hesitate-to-take-over-your-petty-design-job-934d756db82e.
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