Kiez Lab at Utopolis | Hybrid Space Lab

UTOPOLIS_001_PARTICIPATORY_CITY_WEBP_130726 — Smart & the City, Participatory City, Hanover, 2016

What are the new challenges for socioculture?

How are different target groups to be reached, what are the interfaces to the real, physical neighborhood environment?

Lecture & Workshop Kiez Lab @ Utopolis , German Federal Association for Socioculture, Digital Socioculture in the Neighborhood, Germany, 16 September 2021

UTOPOLIS

The German federal programme “UTOPOLIS – Sociocultural Activities in Neighbourhoods” was made possible from 2018 to 2023 as a cross-departmental strategy within the framework of the “Social City” funding programme by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Construction.
In development processes lasting up to five years, socio-cultural centres across the country tested new creative participation formats, exploring how art and culture can be used to foster social cohesion in neighbourhoods.

the Future is Hybrid!

Kiez
Lab

Investigation into the future of cultural spaces requires looking at physical, urban spaces together with digital media networks. With the increasing hybridity of the digital and the physical, new forms of participation in social cultural life are emerging – also in and from the neighborhood.

Kiez Lab as a Model

To this end, the concept of the Kiez Lab was developed in the context of the Alliance Digital City Berlin: Kiez Labs are designed as low-threshold neighborhood labs with inclusive discursive formats. They are temporary workshops embedded in the urban context with interfaces with the physical neighborhood – in typical places such as libraries, hospitals, old people’s homes, schools or parks.

Kiez Lab Workshop

The workshop, curated by Hybrid Space Lab, starts with a short presentation of the Kiez Lab concept and of locally embedded hybrid formats that allow to involvement of the urban society in cultural co-creation processes. Workshop participants then develop ideas for inclusive hybrid spaces embedded in the city with inspiring hybrid formats for cultural collaborations.

Utopolis

New Formats for Neighborhood Work

Cultural district work experiments with new digital and hybrid formats. These support the networking of urban society, let people participate, bring the world into the neighborhood, and – above all – are fun!

How are different target groups to be reached, what are the interfaces to the real, physical neighborhood environment? Where are the boundaries and what are the new challenges for socioculture?

Innovative Socioculture

The cultural district work has been very creative and innovative in dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. New digital and hybrid formats were developed to connect people, enabling participation in the neighborhood, and keeping the district alive despite contact restrictions. Socioculture has reached its limits in this regard. At the same time, however, new paths and possibilities have been opened up.

The online conference “Digital Socioculture in the Neighborhood. New Formats for District Work” experiments with a platform for online encounters, with digital formats and interactive artistic methods.
German Federal Association for Socioculture

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