COMMON LAB MANUAL
​ABOUT COMMON LAB

MISSION
Common Lab’s (CoL) mission is to create a Manual for Social Innovation through Art, aiming to empower communities to overcome crisis.​

Crisis is perceived through the issues arising from the current social, financial and political conditions, within the post-industrial environment (indicatively: lack of democratic cohesion, impoverishment, youth unemployment, exclusion from decision-making processes, social segregation, the effects of environmental crisis etc.). To address these issues, Common Lab deploys art for social change, post-industrial design and commoning practices; and designs actions, which include non-formal learning across generations; use of tools created through participatory prototyping in post-industrial design (mobile stage, studio and high tech app); activities of research, participatory planning and evaluation at the level of community. Two main target groups are the focus of CoL: communities of space (people of different generations and backgrounds active in a given geographical area - a neighbourhood in crisis) and communities of interest (artists, designers, social activists, researchers).

COMMON LAB RESPONDS TO THE PANDEMIC
​The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed by governments to many cities across the globe presented a unique situation, which caused a modification of the initial planning of CoL. The restrictions taken to halt the spread of Covid-19 made any kind of social gatherings impossible. The generalised lockdown of cities and the measures of social distancing taken to prevent the spread of the contagious disease, posed, therefore, a question regarding public space and communal life. Besides the arising psychological issues that affect the well-being of people in lockdown, and the newborn economic problems related to the suspension of work and consumption, the epidemic has enforced upon us a biopolitical crisis of democracy. The administration of life and a locality's populations, which both medicalises and intervenes into private and public life, can be seen as a potential threat to democratic cohesion that potentially challenges the very existence of open societies. Hungary passing emergency laws with no time limit that currently suspend the parliament and enforce a general lockdown is a valid example of this development. For this reason, the crisis as perceived by CoL has been redefined within the social parameters defined by the administration of the pandemic. Since governmental plans for the gradual lifting of imposed restrictions is assessed and updated based on the daily epidemiological data, possible lockdowns remain an option, with which we will have to live with in the future. 

Empowering communities to overcome systemic inequality, poverty, social segregation, and discrimination – issues that existed long before the virus, and which are now being cracked open for all to see – remain the main target of CoL. However, communities are not seen only as localities, but as global networks of people scattered around the world and affected to a more or less same degree by the pandemic.

COMMON LAB ADAPTS TO THE PANDEMIC
In response therefore to the urgent circumstances, CoL adapted its approach. We addressed open calls for participation to various people in different cities around the world, thus forming a community of interested individuals that want to work together. Through artistic means, they find ways to counteract the psychological and social effects brought about by the continuing need for containment-actions and the social, cultural, and economic consequences. Online events and workshops organised by CoL have been designed to empower actors and stakeholders to shape specific objectives that will affect and possibly enhance and improve their immediate personal and social life. The physical presence of the participants has been replaced by their online presence. Events and workshops organised by CoL had to adapt to the new condition and have been re-designed both in terms of content and format. CoL’s studio for audio-visual productions related to the content of the research has been supported by cloud platform applications for video and audio conferencing and webinars. These modifications opened up the project to novel possibilities, challenges, and changes, making it even more clear that crisis doesn’t affect only the life of a local community, but an interdependent global network of various agents from different communities, places, and with different goals. ​

---

MAIN ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW

TALE OF X CITIES

Seminars
Workshops
Participatory Hybrid Festival

Based on the How-To workshop series, realised by Common Lab in 2020, Tale of X Cities is addressed to residents and institutions of Northern Greece and includes a series of online seminars and workshops and a hybrid festival. The seminars and workshops are offered for free to people of all ages and backgrounds, and provide media literacy order to familiarise people with the use of new information and communication technologies, focusing on topics related to local history, traditions and current issues, In the first phase (seminars) a team of experts from different fields (literature, journalism, cinema, photography, production of cultural programmes and events) provide theoretical and technical knowledge for telling stories and building narratives with the use of different media. In the second phase (workshops) participants submit and work on their own ideas for projects that put into practice the knowledge acquired during the first phase, under the guidance of artist Elli Chrysidou and the project's curatorial team. The results are presented in the Tale of X Cities Festival, in both physical spaces in the participating cities, and online. The Tale of X Cities Festival brings together participants and institutions, creating a network of communities and organisations in the cities of Northern Greece.

TALE OF X CITIES RATIONALE

---

STATE OF THE ARTS

Discussions
Experiments
Online Conference & Exhibition

State of the Arts explores the major issues in the way visual arts are produced, presented and received, that have been triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. With the contribution of artists, theorists, critics, curators, policy makers and other stakeholders, and in partnership with institutions from Greece and abroad. State of the Arts includes discussions with established figures of the art world, and an online conference and exhibition focusing on New formats & Audiences (2020), and Art in the digital public sphere: Curating & Live Arts ​(2021).

STATE OF THE ARTS RATIONALE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
About Common Lab
​Background
Timeline

ACTIVITIES RATIONALE 
​Tale of X Cities & media competences for community building
State of the Arts & the digital public spheres

KEY THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
​Social innovation through art
​Art for social change
​Post-industrial design
Cultural and creative industries
Bibliography

CASE STUDY: TALE OF X CITIES
​About the case study
​Tale of X Cities key results & findings
​Lessons learned & recommendations 
Model project flow
​Media productions as evaluation tool
​Digital events and communication formats