Introduction: The New Spirit of Creativity
Section I: Creativity, Critique, and the Art School
1. Our New Spirit and the Dilemmas of Artistic Critique
Positioning the New Spirit of Creativity
Fond Memories of Rebellion
2. What Could Be More Creative Than an Art School?: Canada’s Art and Design Universities
Art and Design Higher Education in Canada
The Art School, the Art College, the Art University
New Challenges, Familiar Stories
Section II: Everyday Work at Imagination University
Meet the Faculty
3. Welcome to the Department of Non-Applied Creativity: Strategic Planning and Talk of Research
The Dilemmas of Research at the Art and Design University
Talk of Research
The Rise of Niche Bureaucracy
4. Creative Excellence, Ambiguity, and Audit Culture
Designating and Measuring Creative Value
Judging Others and the Boundaries of Creative Practices
The Openness and Uncertainty of Interpretation
5. Performing at the “Shit Show”: The Conscripted Performers of Institutional Identity
The Cultural and Economic Performativity of Work
Creative Identities at Work
The Institution and the Abject
The Cost of Remedy
6. Navigating the Permanent-temporary Divide: Insecurity, Flexibility, and Nostalgia
Academic Work and Labour in Transition
Redeeming Insecurity: Distancing Strategies and Associations
Exiting the Institution
7. Rocks and Bubbles: Metaphors of Institutional Duress
Describing Institutional Landscapes in Times of Uncertainty
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The Fragility of Creative Past and Future
Same Difference
Conclusion
The Terms of Compromise
Methodological Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
