Responsive Spaces: towards a design practice of multipolar creative places

RESPONSIVE SPACES
towards a design practice of multipolar creative spaces

During the last decade there has been a noticeable increase in hybridisation within the arts. The mutual influence of disciplines such as performance, visual art, media art and social practices has led to the development of a wide variety of new artistic languages and formats. What characterises a significant part of this movement is a fundamental shift in the relationship to the public. In addition to the classic theatre set-up with the separation between auditorium and stage, there are experiments with installations and interventions in which the space of the audience and that of the work of art coincide. The audience is more directly or actively involved, thus developing more diverse connections and relationships between art practice and life.

Parallel to these art forms, alternative forms of creation and trajectory development are emerging. These are often collaborative in nature, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the work. Makers, each with their own background and expertise, join forces here, not only as performing subcontractors, but increasingly as autonomous stakeholders in a collective process. With this diversification of formats, the context of these practices is also shifting. Productions with a different set-up, scale or duration than classical presentations in the black box or white cube migrate differently: from theatres and museums to (higher) education, care sector, companies, city festivals and public space. Increasingly, these social contexts are being actively addressed, giving them an active role in both creation and presentation.

If this development of responsive and context-specific forms is topical, and various publics and social sub-domains are becoming a starting point in artistic co-creations, what do these trends mean for my design practice as a dramaturge, audience mediator, curator and cultural manager? What methodologies or organisational forms are needed to facilitate or stimulate these groundbreaking trends? And even more: how can artistic strategies inherent to these alternative forms influence my design practice as a curator and cultural manager and lead to renewed cultural or creative spaces that can generate added value to the existing typologies of theatres and museums in our collective capacity to engage with art and creation in society?