COMMON LAB MANUAL: CASE STUDY
LESSONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

​Text: Max Spielmann

OVERVIEW

1. It is important to formulate the vision and an overall objective in the Open Call. At the same time, space should be given to develop specific questions, approaches and local goals as part of the project work in the context of the local circumstances. 

2. Specific target groups should be addressed individually and mentored throughout the project.

3. Digital meetings are able to reduce or eliminate inhibitions and obstacles as well as social differences and power relations. This strongly supports creativity in the search for solutions and exchange in general.

4. The partner institutions are to be strengthened in various ways. With workshops the contents of the project and the changes of the social tasks of GLAM 's (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) are to be communicated and negotiated. Ambassadors within the institutions and external support by senior participants can help to support and complement the internal resources.

5. Evaluation must be seen as an integral part of the project. Lessons learned in each phase must be collected and directly incorporated into the work process. This work has to be done by a mixed team (participants, institutions, management and external support). 

6. The capacities for media work can be quickly developed. In production and post-production, additional support can easily help to identify, prevent and/or correct common mistakes.

7. The project process has to be structured more clearly and transparently. Transitions between phases should be made recognizable and celebrated as highlights. 
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8. The specific qualities of art and design thinking are to be emphasized and communicated in cooperation with all participants. Here lies the central transfer performance (spill-over) into society and thus the social, ecological and economic effectiveness.

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ANALYSIS

Tale of X Cities was exploratory, designed as a pilot and practice-based feasibility study. The evaluation focused on exploring the project system (methodologically, medially) in a new environment, both online (extensive use of teleconference tools) and offline (a wide geographical area) and responding to newly emergent circumstances, stemming from a world-wide crisis. 

We sought answers to the following basic practical question: How can a project with this decentralisation and a large geographical perimeter, open to a wide range of participants and institutions, as well as a processual approach without fixed end results, be realised digitally for the most part?  The digital implementation was inevitable due to the COVID19 pandemic. At the same time, an analogue implementation was not possible with the size of the geographic perimeter with limited resources and probably not reasonable. The study may yield a variety of clues for future projects. In the following paragraphs, we present some conclusions:

Open Call and objectives
In the study, it is striking how strongly the content specifications of the open call steered the course of the project in terms of content. This was necessary to give a project direction and to attract participants. At the same time, some development opportunities remained unused. This is a disadvantage, especially for a project like Tale of X Cities, which wants to initiate an open project process and accompany changes.

We recommend including a content-related project development phase with the participants at the beginning of the project and to explicitly announce this process in the Open Call. In this way, a field of participants with different interests and social backgrounds can be better addressed. At the same time, the requirements of the Open Call are put into perspective and taken as a starting point. 

For the project development it makes sense to fall back on methods of citizen participation, which have been developed and used since the 80s of the last centuries (e.g. Future Workshop / Robert Jungk, Rüdiger Lutz, Norbert R. Müllert but also well-known large group methods like the world café). This approach can be aligned with the Theory of Change (ToC) model.  
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The goal of an intermediate step includes the definition of concrete objectives of social transformation, the search for objectives, approaches to solutions and concrete projects, and the definition of indicators for theses against which the changes sought can be verified (ToC approach). The last point is of importance for the evaluation of the project (SRS standards) and for the basic verifiability of theses.

Open Call and Diversity
A broader range of participants is desirable to include 

• Non-academics and those not working in the creative or educational fields,
• Adolescents and young adults,
• Men in general,
• Members of subaltern groups such as, unemployed and foreigners/asylum seekers can be better addressed.

It is realistic to address young people via educational institutions, which must be won over as active parcticipants in advance. Special offers should be introduced for this group to facilitate their access to the overall project.

A similar approach with partner institutions in the corresponding area, specific addressing in the call, and access workshops is also to be taken into account for other target groups. 

Project Phases
The transitions between the project phases are to be incorporated in more detail as hinges for exchange, for mediation and as group events to

• better connect participants and institutions,
• clarify open questions (retrospective/outlook),
• celebrate the completion of the previous project phase (team-building, audience development).

Attention should be paid to the phases

• Specific, methodical adjustments to the individual phases (emphasise the difference between the phases).
• No phase starts shortly before or directly after a caesura in the course of the year (summer break, holidays). 
• Define the methods used and suitable working environments (digital, hybrid or physical) in the different phases.

Support of specific participant groups
For individual participant groups, specific supports such as direct addressing at Open Call, special workshops, or mentoring and project support work are important:

Socio-cultural definable groups

• Older participants, 
• Young participants,
• Defined social groups with higher access thresholds for an educational program (migration background, marginalized groups)

The support includes

• Canvassing and recognition (special addressing and approach at initial workshops). 
• Seminars and mentoring.
• Depending on the situation, also specific vessels for the dissemination of results.

Senior participants (participants of previous projects, specific professional background) 
Training program for tutors in the following areas

• Support in technical, journalistic, dramaturgical and aesthetic questions.
• Interface work between project groups and institutions. 
• Support of institutions in dramaturgical and curatorial questions. 
• Accompanying research (Theory of Change, Action Research, Social Reporting Standards).

for use in

• Support in conception and implementation.
• Own presentations/seminars if required and depending on level of knowledge.
• Support of the institutions in terms of content and when resources are scarce.
• Active participation in the accompanying research.

Employees of partner institutions

• Continuing education in audience development in the understanding of a collaboration and cooperation with the audience.
• Continuing education in aligning and addressing current social issues. 
  • To understand the potential of art for social change and 
  • of creative industries for regional centers and rural areas (in connection with tourism).
• Specific for municipalities also: introduction to design and art thinking and to the potentials of creative industries.

Support and operation local
The situation after Corona presents a new challenge. In Tale of X-Cities, the communication and collaboration situation was clear; virtually everything took place digitally. In the future, local work may again take place physically. This poses two problems

• In local work, digital collaboration simplifies certain processes. Differences in knowledge and thus power can arise between those who are physically more involved and those who are only digitally involved. This must be minimized.
• Synchronizing the work process between the local work (much of it in physical space) and the central digital work (workshops, lectures, etc.) becomes more difficult. Updates among each other are therefore of great importance, but at the same time must not take up too much space, so that there is enough energy left for the main content (lectures, workshops). 

It is a task of the tutors to summarize the local activities and make them available to all. The Transition Events are to be understood as hybrid exchange platforms. They bring people together locally and digitally, thus promoting exchange and a sense of belonging.
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Additional workshop offers
The existing workshops/lectures are useful. In the interpretation of the media products, some dramaturgical, narrative and aesthetic errors stand out, the avoidance of which is possible with little time investment. This can be done through additional workshops or through direct support in the work process. Basically, everything that can be realized in the support should also be realized in this way. Each additional workshop extends the start-up time and reduces motivation.

Verifiability of results and social legitimacy
Artistic and cultural achievements are only quantifiable to a limited extent. Social reporting standards based on indicators and target formulation (Theory of Change-developed) help to find a common language.
What matters are the qualitative arguments and evidence that show that cultural activities make a difference, precisely in terms of economic prosperity and social resilience. With this study, we sought to correlate qualitative interpretation of outputs with participant data (particularly motivation). This approach seems promising for finding robust arguments and for integration into systems such as the Social Reporting Standards. This report attempts to chart a path toward that end. In a triangulation between the media interpretation of the results, the quantitative and qualitative data of the stakeholders and the qualitative interviews (focus groups), robust statements unfold. They remain heuristic on the basis of few facts meaningful conclusions are drawn.
More experience is needed to verify this approach. 

Measures for future evaluation
Comparable participant numbers as in Tale of X Cities 2021 allows meaningful evaluations. In a next project the following should be considered.

• Enrollment by means of detailed form and recording in a database.
• Additional questions and more intermediate forms between fixed answers and free text (lists).
• Short digital surveys in each transistion phase.
• Specific questionnaires for institutional participants.
• Final questionnaire complementary to the focus groups.
• Simple survey forms for outsiders (public, exhibition visitors, residents) - e.g. postcard with 3-4 questions to drop in or short surveys via webpage.
• Ensure evaluability of the website/Vimeo visitor data and carry it out.

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