Arts Council Norway at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019
During this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, Arts Council Norway is hosting a seminar on the consequences and the politics of digitalization in the arts sector. Are we headed for a cultural economy where "the winner takes it all"? What happens to diversity in arts and literature if size trumps everything in the digital marketplace?
«Superstar Economy?» - Art and Cultural Economy in the Digital Era
The term "Superstar Economy" refers to a theory stating that while digitaliization creates opportunites, it also demands vast resources in order to be a part of it. Will the digital economy give us less diversity? Or does it simply provide easier access to music, literature and movies, making art more profitable?
For Arts Council Norway, this is a debate that needs both a national and a European perspective. And we start off by exploring two interesting aspects of the Norwegian cultural sphere:
Despite being a small country with a small language market, a large number of books are written and published in Norway. Authors, publishers, bookstores and other industry actors are important for the scope and quality of production and distribution of Norwegian literature. But if the literature is to develop as it should, there must also be an active and committed literature policy.
Meanwhile, Norway is a leading country when it comes to digitalization and streaming music. Recent numbers show that 9 out of 10 Norwegians are streaming music, and more than half are paying for these services. In 2017, 85 % per cent of sales revenue for recorded music in Norway came from streaming. Can the Norwegian literary policies and the Norwegian digital consumption of culture learn anything from each other? And what can we learn from the main players in the cultural sector themselves?
In Frankfurt on October 18th, we will hear from Norwegian and international experts, writers and academics.
Place: The runway stage at ARTS + PAVILION
Date: October 18th
Time: 10:00 - 12:30
Program
Host: Camara Lundestad Joof, Oslo. Writer, artist and Arts Council board member.
Opening and keynote: 10:00 - 10:50
Opening speeches
- Juergen Boos, director of the Book Fair
- Kristin Danielsen, director of Arts Council Norway
The Creative Economy in Europe
Keynote
- Dr. Tom Fleming, director of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (UK)
Session I: Literature 10:55 - 11:30
The Tools of Literary Politics
Conversation
- Professors Helge Rønning and Tore Slaatta (Norway) in conversation with journalist Mara Delius
Interview
- Author Maja Lunde (Norway) in conversation with Mara Delius
Case: Storytel
Interview or presentation
- Helena Gustafsson, head of global license publishing for Storytel
Session II: What can we learn from other art forms 11:35- 12:00
Disruption in the cultural industries
Keynote
- Will Page, chief economist for Spotify (UK)
Case: The Munch museum: "Infrastructures of feelings"
Presentation
- Gerd Elise Mørland, director of learning at The Munch Museum (Norway)
Panel discussion 12.00 – 12.30
Superstar Economy?
- Will Page
- Kristin Danielsen
- Anja Nylund Hagen (post-doctorate, Department of Musicology)
- Helena Gustafsson
Moderated by Daniel Nordgård
Biographies
Juergen Boos
Juergen Boos is the President and CEO of the Frankfurt Bookfair. He has held this position since 2005.
Kristin Danielsen
Kristin Danielsen is Director of Arts Council Norway. She has held several managing positions in the art and cultural sector in Norway, and was previously managing director at the Deichmanske Library in Oslo.
Camara Lundestad Joof
Camara Lundestad Joof is a Norwegian actress, producer and writer. She has since 2008 managed and developed «Den Mangfaldige Scenen» (The stage of diversity) which is a theatre and stage for young people. She also sits on the board of Arts Council Norway.
Tom Fleming
Dr Tom Fleming is a leading international expert on the creative economy. His work focuses on advising governments, municipalities and institutions to develop effective research, policy, strategy and action across the creative economy. Major clients include The World Bank, UNESCO, European Commission, British Council, Arts Councils, Film Councils, cultural and educational organisations and NGOs.
Helge Rønning
Helge Rønning is professor emeritus at the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo. He has written and edited several books on media science as well as on African culture and society. Together with Tore Slaatta he has recently published the book The Tools of Literary Politics - The Norwegian Model, where they argue for a forward-looking literature policy in Europe and provide a review of the most important instruments in Norwegian literature policy.
Tore Slaatta
Tore Slaatta is professor of media science at The University of Oslo. He was general secretary for The Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association from 2015- 2018. He has written and edited several books on media science and literature. His latest book is The Tools of Literary Politics - The Norwegian Model, in collaboration with Helge Rønning.
Will Page
Will Page is the (soon to retire) Director of Economics at Spotify. He has previously worked as Chief Economist at the PRS for Music, a non-profit collection society representing writers, composers and music publishers in the UK. He has published several highly cited report from the Music Industry such as ‘Adding up the UK Music Industry and ‘In Rainbows, On Torrents'. He sits on the advisory board of music agency Sound Diplomacy.
Maja Lunde
Maja Lunde is the most sucessful Norwegian author of her generation. Her books have so far been translated into 36 languages. Lunde's debut novel The History of Bees (2015) was an instant hit and was sold to several countries even before Norwegian publication. It was the best selling book in Germany in 2017 and has so far spent 2,5 consecutive years on the official German bestseller list.
Helena Gustafsson
Helena Gustafsson has been head of global publishing at Storytel since 2018. Storytel is northern Europe's leading audiobook and e-book streaming service and offers unlimited listening and reading of more than 200 000 titles on a global scale. Storytel is a digital platform provider as well as a comprehensive publishing group.
Gerd Elise Mørland
Gerd Elise Mørland is an art historian and is currently director of learning at the Munch Museum in Oslo. She has previously held several positions as curator at Norwegian museums and art centres.
Daniel Nordgård
Nordgård is an associated professor in music and music business at the University of Agder in Norway. He has conducted research on international music industries and changes in relations to the digitization process. In 2013 Nordgård published a government report on the Norwegian streaming market.
Anja Nylund Hagen
Anja Nylund Hagen is currently working on her post-doctorate at The Department of Musicology at The University of Oslo. Her PhD was about user experiences with music streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal etc. Her current postdoctor project is about the digitalisation of the music industry, with emphasis on changes in economy and copyright.
Mara Delius
Mara Delius is the editor of „Literarische Welt", Germany's oldest and biggest literary supplement, which appears every Saturday in the newspaper „Die Welt". She holds a PhD in German and Comparative Literature from King's College London and has studied in the U.K. and in the U.S.A. at Stanford University. She's the recipient of the 2019 Julius-Campe-Preis for literary criticism. For the Frankfurt Bookfair 2019, H.R.H. The Crownprincess Mette-Marit of Norway curated a special edition of „Literarische Welt".