This study aims to investigate the importance of network components in creation spaces. Furthermore, it analyzes network components, and the degree of interaction and satisfaction on each case study sites.
First, we derived the components, which refer...
This study aims to investigate the importance of network components in creation spaces. Furthermore, it analyzes network components, and the degree of interaction and satisfaction on each case study sites.
First, we derived the components, which referred to influencing community theory and network through literature reviews. Above all, the importance of the components was measured by extracting detailed components as sub-variables based on three measurement fields: 1) Physical/human network; 2) Social interaction; and 3) Community sentiment. As a result, the physical/human network was generally considered as being more important among the measurement fields. We found a tendency to set a high value on: 1) human network quality; 2) space-based quality; and 3) emotional connection. When the human network and space-based qualitative aspects were satisfied, the resident artists of both Sindang Creative Arcade and Mullae Arts Space regarded emotional sentiment as a priority. This reveals that emotional interaction is urgently needed. Moreover, there is a desperate need for the resident artists to express their own worlds and meet someone that is able to mutually support each other as an artist.
When looking at the case study sites, the results from the first to the third component regarding human network quality, space-based quality and emotional connection, are the same as above. However, the results show that the residents of Sindang Creative Arcade consider ‘social support (0.016)’ and the individuals from Mullae Arts Space regard ‘formation of shared norms (0.091)’ as a fourth priority. Sindang Creative Arcade is a creation space supported by a policy where social interaction is not sufficient between residents, if there is no intended approach or specific opportunity. Therefore, it can be inferred that the interest and friendship network between members should be formed for the purpose of helping each other. In contrast, Mullae Arts Space is a self-motivated cultural creation space where there is no operational agent to restrict, control and manage the space, and thus the result stated above was shown.
Secondly, when looking at the interaction and satisfaction results of artists inside and outside creation spaces, it appears that Mullae Arts Space is slightly superior to Sindang Creative Arcade for the scale of interaction between artists in the case study areas. In addition, as a result of performing cross-tabulation in order to analyze the interaction cycles between artists in a creation space, artists in Sindang Creative Arcade are up to twice as likely to interact through telephone calls, social network sites, and e-mail rather than direct contact compared to Mullae Arts Space. It can be concluded that short-term residency of less than one year can affect the method of interaction between artists.
A T-test investigating the difference in interaction and recognition before and after moving into the creation space shows a significant increase for both the interaction scale and recognition was displayed after moving into the creative space. Therefore, this demonstrates that moving into a creation space has a positive influence on the interaction and the creative works of artists. Moreover, it emerged that up to 65% of respondents experienced appearing in the media, with almost 70% of those respondents appearing in Internet articles and social network sites, 58% in newspapers and magazines, and 36% on television.
Finally, this study investigates the overall satisfaction with the creation spaces. The satisfaction of artists in Sindang Creative Arcade was slightly higher than Mullae Arts Space since the satisfaction in Sindang was, on average, 3.77, while Mullae was 3.53. Mullae Arts Space is a place where the artists flowed in naturally, following other existing artists. In contrast, the Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture selected artists and moved them into the Sindang Creative Arcade, where they had systematic support by a public agency. Moreover, it can be inferred that the respondents at Sindang are highly satisfied since it is located in the center of Seoul. This location has the advantage of accessibility, and ceramic designers favor it because it is the only space that possesses a porcelain kiln among the creation spaces in Seoul.
Accordingly, it is observed that satisfaction of the creation space, where creative activities have been in place, leads to the satisfaction of residency although they have been formed in a different way. Furthermore, artists’ creative activities should be respected, however, the space needs to be an open space for expanding the interaction inside and outside the creation space. It can be concluded that the creative space should be a place of interaction among artists, and not just a workplace for an individual artist, and further, to provide an opportunity for artists to expand interaction that connects to the local community.
This study has a significance that it suggests the level of importance by analyzing network components as a cultural community on the creation space. However, this study was performed with the following limitations: 1) the study was limited to the self-motivated and policy-supported creation spaces; 2) each of the spaces among the categories of creation spaces was investigated; and 3) only the actual resident artists were investigated.
Accordingly, a further study is needed researching three types of spaces: 1) self-motivated spaces, 2) policy-supported spaces; and 3) privately-led spaces. Moreover, classification of nationwide creation spaces and investigation by regional characteristics is needed. It can be concluded that the surveys and interviews to artists are needed, however the analysis of the role of public agencies is also important.