Our collective aim in the next three days in Berlin is to bring socially engaged artists who are shaped by migration and displacement into a collaboration with investigative journalists and digital activists - to match and integrate the place-based skills of socially engaged art with the forensic skills of journalism and the storytelling practices of digital activists.
Welcome to Collaborative Incubator 3, designed by Beyond the Now in the context of Re-framing Migrants in the European Media.
Our collective aim in the next three days in Berlin is to bring socially engaged artists who are shaped by migration and displacement into a collaboration with investigative journalists and digital activists – to match and integrate the place-based skills of socially engaged art with the forensic skills of journalism and the storytelling practices of digital activists.
The premise of the ‘collaborative incubator’ is to facilitate experimentation and risk-taking (mixing methodologies and approaches to storytelling), for new alliances to be formed.
To think and reflect together, to (un)learn practices and ways of working with the aim of co-designing a series of collaborative commissions running from February – April 2023.
The Collaborative Incubator is a space for co-creation and ideation; to pose challenging questions, to collectively imagine new ways of telling the story of migration through the lens of creative practitioners who have lived-experience of migration and choose to work with allies exploring migration through a range of storytelling mediums and platforms.
The incubator specifically supports practitioners and actors who have lived experience of displacement or are diversely shaped by inter-generational histories of migration.
Why bring socially engaged artists into a collaborative conversation with investigative journalists?
Socially engaged artists are often agile at accessing spaces, developing relationships, and engaging with communities on the ground and at the margins. Artists use a variety of innovative place-based methodologies and skills in their projects to nurture participation and cooperation with communities and audiences. Such as, the process of deep listening, the implementation of visual, oral and performance ethnography, in addition to the use of drama and non-fiction conventions developed through a mix of art forms and media, including social media and digital curation.
Investigative journalists, on the other hand, use methods that are systematic and in-depth, resulting in original research and the reporting/unearthing of information that has been concealed to the public. The journalistic method often pioneers new techniques in its embrace of digital platforms and data. Using public records, social media, and data with a focus on social justice and accountability and a form of storytelling characterized by depth and the need for accuracy. Generally, the journalistic method is reliant on primary sources to test hypotheses by way of rigorous fact-checking and verification of sources.
The aim is to bridge and integrate these clearly different yet complimentary ways of working. To learn from each other through a mutual exchange of methodologies, evidence, content, and different forms of media, including social media and virtual platforms.
A key methodological goal is to move beyond narrowly humanistic stories (often presented as individualistic morality tales) about migrants and community displacement, to research, map and communicate a more interconnected, systemic story. A story about displacement that is shaped by multiple points of entry across a complex ecosystem, featuring many actors, places, structures, and sectors. A story that is inter-sectoral/sectional, comprising intricate relationships between the spheres of health, education, human rights and crimes against humanity, environmental destruction, housing, family and community.
To this end, we’ve framed the next few days around the following themes and areas:
- Investigative practices and trauma-based storytelling (case studies of mixed methodologies)
·Place-based socially engaged art practice (case studies of situated knowledge and neighbourhoods) - The relevance of history – colonialism, migration, and Europe (reparative perspectives)
·Digital platforms and open source (case studies of current practices) - Amplifying stories and new digital platforms (case studies of current practices)
·Truth-telling & crafting new narratives (sources, verification, and evidence) - Embedding evaluation as part of the storytelling process ·Archive of mixed practices (who is doing what and where?)
The Collaborative Incubator 3 programme comprises a mix of presentational formats – thought-pieces, provocations, case studies and workshops – allowing for a range of contributions. Our goal by day 3 is to have co-designed and be ready to launch a series of collaborative commissions between socially engaged artists, investigative journalists and digital activists. Running from February – April 2023 these commissions will then provide content for a final Resource Kit to be disseminated through wider networks.
This pilot project is designed around 3 inter-linked activities: a) the delivery of a collaborative incubator space; b) place-based pilot commissions between socially engaged artists, investigative journalists and digital activists; c) and the production, showcasing and launch of an online resource kit.
Beyond the Now aims to open up new creative cultural and political affinities/solidarities for a post-pandemic world. We comprise small to medium arts, civic, research and digital organizations: co-culture (Berlin) https://www.coculture.org/); Counterpoints Arts, (London, UK: https://counterpointsarts.org.uk/); Mozilla Festival (Amsterdam) https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/); Ettijahat-Independent Culture (Beirut and Brussels) https://www.ettijahat.org/site/index); CREATE (Ireland https://www.create-ireland.ie/); in addition to individual researchers and producers working at: Open University (UK https://www.open.ac.uk/); Arts University Plymouth (UK https://www.aup.ac.uk/).
Re-framing Migrants in the European Media – comprises a cluster of media practitioners, activists, digital researchers and foundations: including, Here to Support (Amsterdam); Zemos98 (Madrid); Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw); Eticas (Barcelona); European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam) and Beyond the Now (Berlin, London, Brussels/Beirut, Dublin).
