STAR WARS in Tunisia...A decor that needs life!

There are some international classics in cinema, that almost every cinefile know, most of them are americans and some of them are filmed in Tunisia; The Arab by Rex Ingram (1924), Pirates by Roman Polansky (1986) which inspired the very famous Pirate of the Caribbean franchise, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark by Steven Spielberg (1981), The English Patient by Anthony Minghella (1996), and Star Wars by George Lucas (1977), etc., which leaves us a unique international patrimony. Which is different, due to its modernity and its presence in international media.

My last visit to the set remains pushed me to write this article, because I have to express a big disappointment.  I have to confess, I am not a Star Wars fan and I have never been able to watch a whole movie out of the franchise. But I am well aware of the importance of this movies on an international scale and its impact on the national scale, here we are talking about tourism and artistic creations.  It was the first time I visit the Star Wars set in Tunisia and I can’t tell you how fun the trip is. But some images made me angry and sad because of the carelessness of those who supposed to protect the site from damagers. What I have found was some locals using the set houses as shops to cook traditional bread, I have found leftovers of  beer bottles in some other decor houses, the middle area was occupied by shoppers with their stands (photos). I examined the quality of the decor, and it is very fragile to be used as shops. I don’t blame locals to use the set in order to make business, it is one of the very few ways to survive in that area.

Some images from my last visit

This is a call to the responsible organisms in Tunisia, and a proposition for entrepreneurs. This is a solution proposition to give back the Star Wars Set another life. First we should consider that all around the world there is a very large Star Wars community, who don’t know yet about the Tunisian amazing experience. I have red in some blogs, that foreign press claim that ISIS took over the set, but this was not true!

My proposition is as follow, the set must be preserved clean and empty. In the same area there should be creation of more adequate buildings for shops and camel tours. There should be an implementation of a better Star Wars experience, where I propose to open shops for movie costumes (after all the movie costumes are inspired from Tunisian traditional outfits) where visitors can wear them, ride a camel and make a tour in and around the set. Now let’s introduce more technology, I propose to use 3D technology or Holograms in order to recreate movie heroes and creatures. Imagine yourself walking with Princess Leia or Luke. As a finish, a wall must be built in order to protect the whole site from dune migration.

This may cost a fortune, but imagine the economic effect that this can engage on the long term. A Public-Private Partnership can be applied in this project in order to lighten the tension on the ministry of tourism and beneficiate from private expertise.

Lightening Effects on Hedonic Consumption in a Music Concert

It is the weekend, or holidays what is better to do than going to a music concert. Just for fun, to watch your favorite band playing or just to discover new styles or bands.

But what would make of this experience something unforgettable?

Hirshman and Holbrook (1983) have introduced the expression of “Hedonic Consumption” this kind of consumption is the expression of high level of satisfaction, emotional arousal and imagination. Thus, in our research we have decided to explore the effect of light shows associated to a musical performance (or in other terms; the visual effects in a musical show) on the hedonic experience lived by spectators. What we have discovered through several interviews about people experienced “Jean Michel Jarre” Music show in the “International Festival of Carthage” and the “IMANY” Music show in the “Jazz in Carthage by Ooredoo Festival” both held in Tunisia in 2013, was as following.

The quality of a music concert is perceived in its whole as Hirshman and Hilbrook mentioned it in 1983. But still, lightening effects can enhance the Hedonic Consumption characteristics:

Jean Michel Jarre in Carthage (2013)

Imany in Jazz à Carthage (2013)

·   When lights effects are creative, in coherence with the music and can be surprising in certain levels of the show. Spectators would feel more pleasure than in the case of random lightening effects.

·    On an emotional level, the more visual effects are intense the more people feel excitement.

· Lightening effects would activate for some spectator fantastic imagery, this is called multisensory images and are activated when the consumer remembers past actions or just like the case of “Jean Michel Jarre” concert, some people imagined that Aliens were watching them.

But in association to the visual show, it is imperative that the sound quality should be at a high level.

It seems a little late posting this article, but I do believe that it still important. 

In today post, I am tending to introduce myself and why have I chosen to create this Blog.

I like to qualify myself as an explorer, thus I haven’t much traveled in this world. But, I don’t mind living new experiences and discovering different things.

My name is wiem, a PhD Student living in Tunisia. During my study journey I have been introduced to different subjects, but I had a little attraction to business and commercial ones...pursuing my career I have discovered Marketing as a subtle and clever combination between different sciences (mathematics, statistics, psychology, sociology, design and art, etc.) So I have chosen to be more specialists in Marketing and have chosen to get a Master Degree in that area of studies. While working on my Master degree research project, I have stumbled on a specific Marketing domain called "Marketing of Arts" it was not techniques of marketing products but it was the universe of spreading Art around the world. That was like Alice finding the rabbit hole; the ability of practicing knowledge that I have collected through years on a field that inspires me a lot and that accompanied me during my studying nights, which is music. So as a starting point for my research career, I have done a Master dissertation, about lightening effects on hedonic consumption of a music concert. And I admit that I was extremely lucky, because at that time in Tunisia, there were no music bands associating lights shows to their music, everything was randomly done. Fortunately, there was "Jean Michel Jarre" who came to the "International Festival of Carthage" in 2013 and I have got the ability to ask people about their experience after that music show. 

Jean Michel Jarre in Tunisia 2013

The success of my Master Research inspired me to go further in research, to become an expert in the "Marketing of Arts" by making a thesis that would let me uncover event management issues, find solutions and transmit knowledge about how Art should be marketed to future generations of artists.

So here I am now, engaged in a 3 years Thesis Project about "Public Private Partnerships in the field of arts: festival management". The objective is to find the best solution to implicate private institutions in public events. Enhance the economic texture in Tunisia which is based on tourism and services. 

My next blog will be exposing my latest findings and explanations about my thesis project. Stay Tuned!

All toguether for a better artistic Tunisia! 

Stakeholders and Festival Management

Tourism based economies, lately, opt to an event strategy. This strategy would help promoting the country's regional culture and create traffic in some places. 

When talking about events we are mostly evoquing festivals. A brilliant activity that would mobilize a bunch of businesses, without forgetting the Artistic industry and, mostly, promoting young artists.

But in order to get what managers need  to create their festivals (and here we are talking about finance and services), they turn to stakeholders and the application of the Stakeholders Theory. A very small number of festivals resort on borrowing money (GETZ and ANDERSSON, 2010). And this is legitimate, because CSR oriented companies are multiplying and the best way to apply CSR is by sponsoring cultural events.

In deed, Stakeholders can participate in an event, in different ways. The following framework presents different partnership possibilities betweeb companies and an artistic event.

It's crucial for festival managers to identify each Stakeholder, his relationship with them and the relationship between different stakeholders. Spot leading stakeholders and their followers. And most important, is beeing able to keep the largest Stakeholders satisfied without beeing highly depending to them, so that the artistic creation with all its values stay as pure as it should be without beeing modified in order to meet economic objectives.




For moke aknowledgement:
http://redwardfreeman.com/stakeholder-management/
D.GETZ and T. ANDERSSON (2010) "Festival Stakeholders: Exploring Relationships and DependencyThrough a Four-Country Comparaison" Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research2010, Sage Publications.

My Opinion about the 51st Edition of the International Festival of Carthage

It took me a while to write this text explaining my full opinion about the 2015th edition of the International Festival of Carthage. After all researches I have made on the topic which is the subject of my thesis project. I couldn’t hold my feelings of disappointment. To be honest I don’t know the majority of shows or artists performing on the scene of the festival, but the choice of two performers have shoked me this year, and also a considered number of festival followers.

Through my research I have found that the scene of Carthage is one of the most famous in the Arabic world, a scene that makes a lot of artists dreaming to perform on. The few years where Rotana managed it and used it to communicate its newest artist projects even if they were bad, there where mans courage enough to delete the contract because they knew this would demolish the image of the scene that held performances on patriotism, love, beauty and most of all art. The 51st edition is worst because it’s us Tunisian screwing with our own hands a patrimony that our grandfathers have left for us. Here I am talking about Kafon and Akon performances, both extremely commercial and with no real contribution to the cultural field neither artistically nor technically. Using a lot of sound effects in order to hide their unpleasant voices, adding to that, themes they are treating, I will be publishing the latest Kafon video clip to make my idea clearer.

In the FIC presentation where their slogan was “The future is now” one phrase retain my attention which is « Et si on pensait aussi aux 51 ans à venir et confirmait encore plus la nécessité de l’art et de la culture dans l’avenir du pays comme un fondement majeur de la société et de son identité, de plus en plus large et ouverte ? » Well thank you for confirming the identity of tunisian people with such poor and unartistic performances.

To finish, as a friend once said: “we are in an era where the bad is glorified”

Thank you for reading!

The link for Kafon's video clip, and please don't tell me it is artistic, remember that there are children following him  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o__CxDjlCxM

From artist to consumer: the process

This article is inspired from BOTTI* (2000) research about the role of marketing in art.

The distribution of cultural products in recent years is affected by the Internet. As we had mentioned for music and movies, it pushes artists and professionals in this field to work the live presentations like concerts and live performances: Through interactions between interpreters and spectators, and also through the staging of an atmosphere contributing to the enhancement of the experience. But usually an artistic product goes through several players to finish a presentation to the consumer. The following diagram shows its stakeholders and the order of appearance.

The artistic product diffusion process

First we have the artist who is the origin of the work, He is the creator, in case he decided to spread his art and do not keep it to himself, he will use the second level stakeholder namely the champions who are either individuals or organizations (eg. galleries) they resemble the product to consumers but to do their job, they have to appeal to experts who are persons with a taste and historical knowledge of the art enables them to assess and define the value of the work and the appropriate dissemination strategy. Sets champions and experts define the set will be available to the public to make socially acceptable product and enable appropriate experience. And finally reaches the consumer, who is directly related to the product in order to satisfy experiences and share all or some of his artistic needs.

So in a cultural offer, the consumer is in a very important position because he's the ultimate target, so it is important to understand and discover his tendencies.

*BOTTI (2000)“What Role for Marketing in Art? An Analysis of Art consumption and Artistic Value”, The International Journal of Art Marketing p.22

Who do artists interact with?

In this article we will be exposing Sohier study (2006) about spectators in rock festival. And which I think is applicable on all other art forms. This schema will present the four consumers types and the relationship between them.

Connoisseurs: generally they are musicians, they have a sharp taste and they understand all tools and technology used. They are looking for good quality.

Followers: we know them as “groupies”, they are absolute fans, they can follow their idol where ever he goes. Followers are mostly interested in the artist not his art.

Discoverers: They are always looking for new talent and styles. Their infinite research makes them talent leaders. Generally, they are journalists, musicians, prescribers. Discoverers are sensitive to novelty.

Festive: these people are looking for entertainment. Going to cinema or a concert are the same because their aim is to hang out with friends, meet new people and mostly enjoy themselves.

The semiotic square does not stop in the definition level profiles of spectators but it also defines the relationships that coexist with each other. SOHIER (2006) explains as follows: "The relations of contradiction are based on negation of the other class, so the experts are at odds with the festive and discoverers are with followers. Connoisseurs moving on events for a musical experience while festive are coming to live events. As for the discoverers, they have the desire to fill their thirst for new while followers feel the need to relive for the umpteenth time moments with his favorite band. Relations of contrariety linking connoisseurs to followers and discoverers to festive are explained by the fact that there is an opposition between these categories. The followers that have all the answers regarding questions relating to their peer group but know little or almost nothing about music in general, as opposed to connoisseurs who are keen aesthetes in the field, but do not feel the need for knowing the private lives of artists. Regarding festive, they are in no way intended to note new talent for, they remain close to their achievements and musical themes related to the party, they do not pay attention to groups that create the event by using new approaches to music, groups to which the discoverers are extremely sensitive. Finally, the notion of complementarity existing in our semiotic square, between, on the one hand, the discoverers and connoisseurs, and, secondly, festive and followers, from the fact that one of the categories would not exist without the other. Each needs the other to survive. Thus, the discoverers could not stand without the existence of connoisseurs. The former approach to music that is heavily intertwined with that of the experts. Each of these profiles sees music as something intelligible to them, it is necessary to have good musical foundation for understanding music. Conversely, the complementary relationship between festive and followers are ignorant of these issues understanding. For both categories of festival-goers, music is understood as something superficial, what is important is also in the party and emotion essentially. "