Pina Bausch, creative industries and the materiality of artistic labour

Abstract

The creative industries policy framework has focused attention on artistic activity as a means by which intellectual property is produced: ideas are reduced to material forms, the economic value of which derives from dealing in the rights to reproduction or performance of the work. In this paper, I argue that the emphasis on ‘intellectual’ property within the creative industries ignores the embodied nature of much artistic practice. Using the example of contemporary dance and in particular the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch, I attempt to locate this practice within various formulations of the nature of labour activity itself. These theoretical framings of labour include Karl Marx’s ‘non‐productive’ labour, Frederick Taylor’s ‘machine labour’ and the concept of ‘creative labour’ popularised by Ned Rossiter. This paper is offered as a contribution to the creative industries debate; a contribution that seeks to value artistic labour and practice alongside the artistic ‘product’.

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