“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” Fredric Jameson’s quip, suggesting that the capitalist horizon had become co-terminus with our human imaginary, has turned into a bad joke. It seems both might go down together.
In their public lecture, Professor Justin O’Conner (University of South Australia)
and CARADT Professor Sebastian Olma explored where art and culture might stand in relation to the end of the world and what we might expect from it. Their discussion centered around the following questions: ‘What kind of shared imaginary can art help create? What kind of dramatological orientation can it give us towards a future culture in-common?’
The event was part of Sebastian Olma’s visiting professorship at the Hawke EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of South Australia (UniSA) in February 2025. Invited by Professor Susan Luckman, Founding Director of the Creative People, Products and Places Research Centre (CP3) and Cultural and Creative Industries Research Platform Leader at UniSA, Olma’s visit provided an opportunity to deepen academic collaboration between CARADT and UniSA.
Beyond the public lecture, the visit facilitated a productive exchange with UniSA Executive Dean Craig Batty, focusing on questions of organizing research within the creative domains. CARADT extends its gratitude to Professor Luckman for her generous invitation and to Satu Teppo for her excellent organization of the event.
For those interested in revisiting the discussion, recordings of the public lecture are now available
‘Our research group investigates the role artists, designers and cultural producers in general can play in developing the aesthetics and poetics of a desirable future.’
Sebastian Olma is professor Cultural and Creative Industries. He works for the Expertise Centre Art, Design and Technology.
The research group Cultural and Creative Industries investigates the role of artists and designers as creative innovators and drivers of social and economic change. Affiliated researchers analyse the cultural and creative industries from a critical point of view and examine the conditions under which timely forms of aesthetic expression and social connectedness can actually take place within the precarious reality of this field. What economic models are required by artists and designers to create a meaningful practice within the aesthetic, social, and economic intentions of the cultural and creative industries? What skills sets are required for those artists and designers who don’t just want to follow movements, but actually shape novel social and economic models of the future?
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