Kiez Lab @ Utopolis

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?

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?

Utopolis

The federal program “Utopolis – Socioculture in the Neighborhood” is made possible as a cross-departmental strategy within the framework of the “Socially Integrative City” funding program by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction. In four-year development processes, sociocultural centers nationwide are testing new creative participation formats under the question of how art and culture can be used for the coexistence of society in urban neighborhoods.

One focus is on identifying suitable artistic methods for reaching a diverse neighborhood and encouraging residents who have had little previous contact with art and culture to actively participate in shaping their living environment. Networking with local initiatives and institutions plays a major role here – with the neighborhood management as well as with social associations, municipal administration and business enterprises. All results and experiences are bundled and made available on this website. Imitation is expressly encouraged!

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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