Rethinking waste and the logics of disposability: Compound 13 Lab
Lead Research Organisation:
Bath Spa University
Department Name: Bath School of Art
Abstract
Since the 1950s, more than 9 billion tons of plastic has been produced worldwide. Many plastic items are used once and thrown away. As most plastics do not naturally degrade, they remain with us, usually buried in landfill or floating in the ocean. India generates around 3.4 million tons of plastic per year, of which 60 - 80% is recycled, boasting one of the highest rates of plastic recycling in the world. In 2018, the state of Maharashtra banned single use plastic, making Mumbai currently the largest city in the world to do so.
Rethinking Waste...focuses on the knowledge politics of the informal waste management industry in the 13th Compound in Dharavi, Mumbai's largest informal settlement, where members of the project team have been working within a series of partnerships established since 2012, in particular through intensive collaboration, dialogue and action research with Acorn Foundation, India. The 13th Compound processes approximately 80% of Mumbai's hard domestic waste, where up to 250,000 rag-pickers supply 40,000 people employed in grassroots recycling micro-enterprises, working in risky and unsanitary conditions. This process of self-organised work is undertaken almost entirely by those with low incomes, low social status and migrants. Most industries in Dharavi are labour-intensive, producing high levels of pollution, even though they contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the city. Hazardous and cramped working conditions, combined with poor sanitation means that a factor of such production is that it comes at the expense of human life.
Compound 13 Lab will be a space for experimental design and learning, whose innovative programme introduces design and media tools, audiovisual technologies, 3D design and digital fabrication to disadvantaged, marginalised citizens who because their socio-economic status do not normally have access to these resources, developing a learning environment that has the potential to alter their future. Inspired by the makerspace movement, it utilises the materials and resources of the recycling industry as the starting point for learning and teaching about ecological design and living solutions. Through a programme of workshops and residencies by artists, scientists, engineers and designers, the lab will share emerging tools and technologies of the circular economy with those who would not normally have access to them. The project explores a paradigm of smart city where the technologically advanced city emerges from below rather than being centrally planned and implemented. In particular, members will be able to test and innovate with various technologies, exploring the ways in which plastics can be recycled, remanufactured and remade safely, reliably and creatively.
ACORN members will have co-designed and developed a bespoke 'living curriculum' that responds to their issues, addresses their needs and aids their future goals. The implementation of the Lab is intended to create a space of enquiry where these local knowledges and practices can be communicated within and beyond Dharavi, through a process of increasingly self-organised making and learning. It will have the potential to be implemented in similar settings elsewhere; it will open up research avenues for digital fabrication industries; and may offer gateways to more skilled employment, even potentially incubating/testing new products and services made with recycled materials. The project will also host a 'hackathon' and conference exploring innovative approaches to the circular economy hosted by Makers Asylum, Mumbai. It will develop, test and share learning materials that can be used worldwide by organizations engaged with communities working in the informal circular economy.
Rethinking Waste...focuses on the knowledge politics of the informal waste management industry in the 13th Compound in Dharavi, Mumbai's largest informal settlement, where members of the project team have been working within a series of partnerships established since 2012, in particular through intensive collaboration, dialogue and action research with Acorn Foundation, India. The 13th Compound processes approximately 80% of Mumbai's hard domestic waste, where up to 250,000 rag-pickers supply 40,000 people employed in grassroots recycling micro-enterprises, working in risky and unsanitary conditions. This process of self-organised work is undertaken almost entirely by those with low incomes, low social status and migrants. Most industries in Dharavi are labour-intensive, producing high levels of pollution, even though they contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the city. Hazardous and cramped working conditions, combined with poor sanitation means that a factor of such production is that it comes at the expense of human life.
Compound 13 Lab will be a space for experimental design and learning, whose innovative programme introduces design and media tools, audiovisual technologies, 3D design and digital fabrication to disadvantaged, marginalised citizens who because their socio-economic status do not normally have access to these resources, developing a learning environment that has the potential to alter their future. Inspired by the makerspace movement, it utilises the materials and resources of the recycling industry as the starting point for learning and teaching about ecological design and living solutions. Through a programme of workshops and residencies by artists, scientists, engineers and designers, the lab will share emerging tools and technologies of the circular economy with those who would not normally have access to them. The project explores a paradigm of smart city where the technologically advanced city emerges from below rather than being centrally planned and implemented. In particular, members will be able to test and innovate with various technologies, exploring the ways in which plastics can be recycled, remanufactured and remade safely, reliably and creatively.
ACORN members will have co-designed and developed a bespoke 'living curriculum' that responds to their issues, addresses their needs and aids their future goals. The implementation of the Lab is intended to create a space of enquiry where these local knowledges and practices can be communicated within and beyond Dharavi, through a process of increasingly self-organised making and learning. It will have the potential to be implemented in similar settings elsewhere; it will open up research avenues for digital fabrication industries; and may offer gateways to more skilled employment, even potentially incubating/testing new products and services made with recycled materials. The project will also host a 'hackathon' and conference exploring innovative approaches to the circular economy hosted by Makers Asylum, Mumbai. It will develop, test and share learning materials that can be used worldwide by organizations engaged with communities working in the informal circular economy.
Planned Impact
Our previous projects demonstrated that people living in challenging economic circumstances can be imaginative participants in a range of bottom-up artistic interventions (Wakeford et al 2014). We have shown that such processes enable people who are excluded from the spaces of policy discourse to live in the present differently, imagine alternative futures and build their aspirations and hope.
In the short term, each residency will involve facilitated group reflection on the learning, activities and themes. These reflective dialogues will be documented, transcribed, translated, and analysed by the project team (led by Jeffery and Hay). Throughout, we will also use our 'Reversing the Gaze' method (Parry 2015) which involves repeatedly revisiting and reviewing artefacts, images, and stories with the communities that generated them in order to develop a shared understanding of meaning and affect, rather than undertaking extractive research under a colonial gaze. In Reversing the Gaze, "The idea that emerged was to momentarily and symbolically invert the relation between researcher and subject" (Parry, 2015, p. 215) by supporting Acorn participants to interview and challenge those who come to document and interrogate the conditions in which they live. This approach will extend to the symposium at Makers Asylum, which will allow Acorn participants to directly dialogue with an audience of experts, technologists, designers, business people and policymakers. In this way we intend to share, test and discuss our approaches in order to provide a grounded proof of concept.
The project will also offer training. Throughout the process we are modelling creative, participatory pedagogies based on the idea of peer mentoring, shared enquiry and the weave of formal/informal in creative learning (Jeffery 2005). The project will offer development for Acorn staff and shared learning at multiple levels: older youth mentoring younger youth, between the research team and Acorn staff, and between residency facilitators, and outwards to the wider communities of practice.
We will develop materials designed to influence policy and learning practice, supported by expert research (Co-Is Gill, Hay). The project's primary outputs - the report, learning materials, artefacts, objects and audiovisual materials - will be produced and/or translated into Hindi and English, and also Tamil and Marathi as necessary. The peer reviewed journal articles, aimed primarily at an international audience will be written in English.
Our approach is not suited to 'logic models' because:
a) we are working in a complex, fast-moving and unstable urban environment;
b) our model of development is not imposed from outside, but is instead evolved and co-developed with the participants through a shared learning process;
c) our model is of 'creativity as agency' in which the foremost requirement is for participants to become more empowered to determine their own potential and futures (Jeffery, 2005).
Underpinning all our work is a commitment to co-design, co-creation and repeated, reflexive self-evaluation and self-critique. Throughout the project there will be a need for the research team to challenge and question our own assumptions and draw on indigenous and situated knowledges. By showing how Acorn and its partners in Compound 13 Lab can build a 'living curriculum' in response to these material conditions of oppression and hope, we plan to influence policy and practice and share resources that have wide potential for application elsewhere.
(References in Case for Support)
In the short term, each residency will involve facilitated group reflection on the learning, activities and themes. These reflective dialogues will be documented, transcribed, translated, and analysed by the project team (led by Jeffery and Hay). Throughout, we will also use our 'Reversing the Gaze' method (Parry 2015) which involves repeatedly revisiting and reviewing artefacts, images, and stories with the communities that generated them in order to develop a shared understanding of meaning and affect, rather than undertaking extractive research under a colonial gaze. In Reversing the Gaze, "The idea that emerged was to momentarily and symbolically invert the relation between researcher and subject" (Parry, 2015, p. 215) by supporting Acorn participants to interview and challenge those who come to document and interrogate the conditions in which they live. This approach will extend to the symposium at Makers Asylum, which will allow Acorn participants to directly dialogue with an audience of experts, technologists, designers, business people and policymakers. In this way we intend to share, test and discuss our approaches in order to provide a grounded proof of concept.
The project will also offer training. Throughout the process we are modelling creative, participatory pedagogies based on the idea of peer mentoring, shared enquiry and the weave of formal/informal in creative learning (Jeffery 2005). The project will offer development for Acorn staff and shared learning at multiple levels: older youth mentoring younger youth, between the research team and Acorn staff, and between residency facilitators, and outwards to the wider communities of practice.
We will develop materials designed to influence policy and learning practice, supported by expert research (Co-Is Gill, Hay). The project's primary outputs - the report, learning materials, artefacts, objects and audiovisual materials - will be produced and/or translated into Hindi and English, and also Tamil and Marathi as necessary. The peer reviewed journal articles, aimed primarily at an international audience will be written in English.
Our approach is not suited to 'logic models' because:
a) we are working in a complex, fast-moving and unstable urban environment;
b) our model of development is not imposed from outside, but is instead evolved and co-developed with the participants through a shared learning process;
c) our model is of 'creativity as agency' in which the foremost requirement is for participants to become more empowered to determine their own potential and futures (Jeffery, 2005).
Underpinning all our work is a commitment to co-design, co-creation and repeated, reflexive self-evaluation and self-critique. Throughout the project there will be a need for the research team to challenge and question our own assumptions and draw on indigenous and situated knowledges. By showing how Acorn and its partners in Compound 13 Lab can build a 'living curriculum' in response to these material conditions of oppression and hope, we plan to influence policy and practice and share resources that have wide potential for application elsewhere.
(References in Case for Support)
Title | Plastic Mahal (Plastic Palace) |
Description | The Palace of Plastic (Plastic Mahal) is a temporary public sculpture and political performance in the mode of a processional ritual that occurs in various sites across the city of Mumbai. The temple is built from the city's waste, which aggregates in the informal recycling centre in Dharavi's 13th Compound. The Palace of Plastic is made in the collective mode of self-construction that is visible throughout the informal settlements of Indian cities. Built with and by those of the worker colonies in a choreography of waste, the temple can be seen as a celebration of the livelihoods of all those working in Mumbai's waste management chain and their handling of the city's plastic and its recycling. At the same time, challenging public perceptions of the politics of human disposability, advocating for the work of informal recyclers as essential and valued labour within wider systems of production. The co-design and co-creation process take place at the Compound 13 Lab, working with young people to explore issues of work, waste, survival and their social and political contexts. These issues are then enacted through the role of ritual and performance as dramatic means of collectively taking action, personal expression, instilling solidarity and creating visible issues that lie beneath plain sight.. |
Type Of Art | Artwork |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | Ongoing - this project is being curated and presented throughout 2020, and has been included in the international exhibition/academic network "Project Anywhere'. |
URL | http://www.projectanywhere.net/plastic-mahal-palace-of-plastic/ |
Title | Sharing stories, making space. Aqui Thami Compound 13 Artist Residency |
Description | Outcome from the artist residency at Compound 13 Lab by artist Ian Dawson. The Rethinking Waste project, confronts the question of waste and disposability through the introduction an artist / designer / engineer residency programme. The residency programme activates the lab as an experimental design and learning space. Located in the very spaces and cycles of waste production and recycling in Dharavi's 13th Compound, the Lab is likewise, embedded in an area of the city that might be described as one of the largest informal aggregations of (re)maker and (re)manufacturing spaces on the planet.. Artist Residency Programme: Mrugen Rathod / Akhila Krishnan / Aqui Thami / Sharmila Samant / Vrishali Purandare / Ian Dawson / Ben Parry |
Type Of Art | Artwork |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | The artist residency has a direct impact on the participants who were able to co-create alongside the artist through a series of making and 3D printing and scanning workshops. Through a programme of workshops and residencies the lab shares emerging tools and technologies of the circular economy with those who would not normally have access to them, developing a learning environment that has the potential to improve their life chances. At the Lab, young people are placed at the centre of their own learning, to co-design and develop a bespoke 'living curriculum' that responds to their issues, addresses their needs and aids their future goals. The residencies will be used as a springboard for generating and developing informal design learning materials. We draw on the technical and design expertise of our communities of users, who will assist in evaluating the outcomes of residencies and workshops. The outcomes of the residency will inform thinking and content of a design curriculum. |
URL | https://www.compound13.org/aqui-thami |
Title | THE POLYMER CHAIN: plastic itineraries and plastic images. Ian Dawson |
Description | Outcome from the artist residency at Compound 13 Lab by artist Ian Dawson. The Rethinking Waste project, confronts the question of waste and disposability through the introduction an artist / designer / engineer residency programme. The residency programme activates the lab as an experimental design and learning space. Located in the very spaces and cycles of waste production and recycling in Dharavi's 13th Compound, the Lab is likewise, embedded in an area of the city that might be described as one of the largest informal aggregations of (re)maker and (re)manufacturing spaces on the planet.. Artist Residency Programme: Mrugen Rathod / Akhila Krishnan / Aqui Thami / Sharmila Samant / Vrishali Purandare / Ian Dawson / Ben Parry |
Type Of Art | Artwork |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Impact | The artist residency has a direct impact on the participants who were able to co-create alongside the artist through a series of making and 3D printing and scanning workshops. Through a programme of workshops and residencies the lab shares emerging tools and technologies of the circular economy with those who would not normally have access to them, developing a learning environment that has the potential to improve their life chances. At the Lab, young people are placed at the centre of their own learning, to co-design and develop a bespoke 'living curriculum' that responds to their issues, addresses their needs and aids their future goals. The residencies will be used as a springboard for generating and developing informal design learning materials. We draw on the technical and design expertise of our communities of users, who will assist in evaluating the outcomes of residencies and workshops. The outcomes of the residency will inform thinking and content of a design curriculum. |
URL | https://www.compound13.org/ian-dawson |
Description | The key findings have been written in the form of a new publication - Jeffery & Parry (2022) Waste Work: The art of Survival in Dharavi. Bath: Wunderkammer Press to be published in the first half of 2022. In addition, Compound 13 Lab have been invited to participate in a new touring exhibition, Plastic Remaking our World, by the Vitra Design Museum, V&A Dundee and maat, Lisbon. The first leg of the exhibition takes place at Vitra Design Museum, Germany. 26.03.2022 - 04.09.2022. https://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailpages/plastic.html For all ongoing activity relating to this project please visit http://www.compound13.org |
Exploitation Route | The lab reopened during Covid-19 pandemic, including introducing a digital classroom so that certain activities could be delivered online. There is an ongoing programme of activities, we are continuing active engagement with stakeholders through a series of public events and workshops planned for the remainder of 2022. Projects in 2021 include: Artist residency and film-making workshops. Amol Lalzare is a Filmmaker, community correspondent with Video Volunteers, and also an autorickshaw driver. Lalzare lives and works in Bombay and often collaborates with the residents at home in Sathenagar. At C13 Lab, Amol conducted workshops on citizen journalism with the young members of ACORN Foundation and is due to make a documentary on the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the recycling industry of the 13th Compound. The project website (www.compound13.org) continues to be regularly updated with new materials as they emerge. We will launch our publication Waste Work in the autumn with a large scale online event involving project partners and local partners in India. In addition: We are exploring issues of digital governance, unequal access to digital infrastructure and the ways in which the Covid pandemic may have exacerbated existing inequalities. Food security, sanitation and acute poverty brought about by the absence of opportunities to work and very limited relief/mitigation during the pandemic have continued to heavily impact residents of informal settlements, particularly women, older people and children. Access to education and learning has also been severely curtailed due to school closures and lack of resources for remote / distance learning. We are documenting and gathering testimonies, experiences and perspectives from the ground that can feed into international discussions and debates about how to build a more equitable recovery from the pandemic and also address issues of unequal access to urban resources. A programme of workshops and seminars has been ongoing involving members of the project team; the next scheduled one is a symposium for PhD students under the auspices of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities which will take place on 25th June and involve participants from Scotland, India and the USA. A symposium took place with the Global Tapestry of Alternatives involving grassroots community groups discussing their response to the pandemic as part of a set of events in May 2021 organised by co-investigator Dr Ben Parry. We have begun discussions with our partners at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi, about establishing a parallel rural 'lab' in Dadri, UP, near the SNU campus, which will focus on issues of sustainability, work and survival, training for young artists/designers/engineers/graduates who want to work in community-based and participatory methods, and also offer a 2 / 5 medium of exchange between the urban and rural. The key idea is to set up a parallel set of residency/workshops involving live work with communities. The Labs act as a medium of exchange between different kinds of knowledges and enable dialogue and experimental learning to be undertaken in safe and secure conditions. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Environment |
URL | http://www.compound13.org |
Description | Compound 13 Lab engages local communities and to date has upskilled over 100 marginalised young people. Working with local businesses and entrepreneurs, NGOs and academic partners we have led national planners and international analysts to revalue and rethink the creative potential of marginalized citizens. Rethinking the smart city from below, the Lab's work enables local citizens to challenge top-down visions of conventional urban research, planning and policymaking. We have established an internationally recognised digital infrastructure for knowledge exchange and educational access to learning programmes, tools and resources that has changed the life chances and outlook of young people living and working in Dharavi. Compound 13 lab has now moved into a brand new building which offers two floors of classroom and learning space with high quality resources including fast broadband, computers and digital tools for 3D design and visualisation. The work of ACORN India has featured in many national and international media reports, during which time we worked with other NGOs to provide rations to residents who were unable to work and therefore feed themselves. Training and support was provided to ACORN staff by the Lab in making short films with residents that documented their struggles during the COVID crisis. A selection of these films are available on the C13 Lab website. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
Description | Urban Infrastructures of Well-Being 2019 |
Amount | £300,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | UWB190022 |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2020 |
End | 11/2022 |
Description | Urban Infrastructures of Wellbeing 2019: Waste, Water and Wellbeing: lessons from the interface of formal/informal urban systems in Dharavi, Mumbai |
Amount | £299,948 (GBP) |
Funding ID | UWB190022 |
Organisation | The British Academy |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 11/2021 |
Description | ART1ST art and design classes |
Organisation | Art1st |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The pedagogical approach applied to this partnership is built from various traditions in youth and community arts (Jeffery, 2008), with a focus on dialogical and experimental methods. Some parallels can also be drawn with the creative approaches to learning developed by the education charity House of Imagination UK (formerly 5x5x5=creativity, Bancroft et al 2008)). The charity's signature project, School Without Walls, poses the question 'What is school, and how can we do school differently? For example, School Without Walls projects begin by taking up residency with whole classes of children and inserting the creative learning space into a chosen cultural setting in which the conventions and frameworks associated with the 'classroom' begin to disappear. Children are placed at the centre of their own learning, so that the themes, programmes and content of learning is largely directed by the children, facilitated through a method of co-enquiry. Adults (including artists, educators and mentors) work alongside the children 'as companions in learning' to facilitate meaningful, creative enquiries in real life contexts. Arts, media and design education - using creative methods and creative pedagogies - includes hands on learning with new and digital technologies. This process sets out to develop a repertoire of 'learning to learn' skills and competencies and has shown increased motivation, purposeful engagement, authentic learning and social empowerment (Hay and Paris 2019). |
Collaborator Contribution | Art 1st, led by social entrepreneur Ritu Khoda, and advised by Sharmila Samant, develops curriculum materials and pilots approaches to arts education pedagogy across a range of education settings in India. It is one of the leading organizations campaigning to introduce a more systematic and sustained approach to arts education and creative learning within the Indian education system as a whole. Underpinning this programme of work is a comprehensive initiative to develop better training and support for artist-educators in India who want to work in school and community settings, a important source of employment and opportunity for arts graduates. In Dharavi, any approaches to learning need to take account of the complex issues around knowledge politics , the qualities of informality, conditions of marginality and specific local context, including language differences, gender inequalities and the very limited access to technologies and resources faced by most children and families. The Lab explores and tests out a creative, inclusive and innovative pedagogy that is learner-centred and participatory, to develop a sense of creative agency (Jeffery, 2005, Hay, 2019). This space of enquiry sets out to value local knowledges and practices that can be communicated within and beyond Dharavi, whilst remaining mindful of the risks and power relationships involved in rhetorics of 'empowerment', agency and creativity (Banaji, 2017; Banaji, Burn and Buckingham, 2010; Denmead, 2019). The guidance of ACORN's experienced team of facilitators and youth workers, many of whom are drawn from Dharavi and have 'come up through the ranks' of ACORN's work, has been essential in developing approaches which take into account the very complex circumstances and challenges faced by the young people who attend. A residency in collaboration with India-wide arts education charity and research organisation Art 1st acted as an important stimulus and catalyst for the first phase of this work, which in turn built on scoping work/pilot projects undertaken by industrial designer Rajat Gajjar and artist Mrugen Rathod (both graduates of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda Faculty of Fine Arts) with Jeffery, Joag and Parry between 2017 and 2019. |
Impact | Working alongside leading artists and designers in residence and ACORN Foundation, young people explore issues of waste, work, education, survival and sustainability in Dharavi. Music and the arts open up spaces of possibility and inform ongoing community development. Young people are invited to make small acts of reclamation, given space, time and attention, and working with the haptic and sonic materials and tools that are to hand, experimenting with technologies - photography and digital media, audiovisual tools, solar power, new processes, re-manufacturing, cultures of repair, adaptation and re-use. This 'maker culture' is open source, horizontal and shared, prioritising holistic and kinaesthetic approaches to learning, and engaging with the wider neighbourhood with learning in motion, in and through the spaces of the city. ART1st Classes: Number of workshops by ART1st : 36 workshops Average 18 participants per session |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Compound 13 Lab: ACORN Foundation, Mumbai |
Organisation | Acorn Foundation |
Country | New Zealand |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Using methods developed as part of the Challenging Elites project, and linked to an AHRC follow on grant Resources of Hope: giving voice to underprivileged communities in India, we have established an urban lab in Dharavi, Mumbai. Compound 13 Lab, inspired by the makerspace movement utilises materials and resources of the recycling industry as the starting point for teaching and learning about ecological design and living solutions. Through a programme of workshops and residencies by artists, scientists, engineers and designers, the lab will share emerging tools and technologies of the 'circular economy' to those who would not normally have access to them. By equipping the lab in this way, the project proposes to develop a different paradigm of 'smart city' where the technologically advanced city emerges from below rather than being centrally planned and implemented. In particular, members will be able to test and innovate with various technologies, exploring the ways in which plastics can be recycled, remanufactured and remade safely, reliably and creatively. Through exploring issues of waste management and recycling we want to explore the essential interdependence between the formal/informal, the 'socially included' and 'socially excluded' which are uncovered in representations of the material and imaginary city. |
Collaborator Contribution | ACORN provides space, resources and employs local people as facilitators for the Lab. The formal launch of the Lab will be in April 2018. |
Impact | None yet - project being launched in April 2018. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Art 1st symposium on developing the art and design curriculum in India |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Public sumposia and workshop in Mumbai and Delhi as part of Indian arts education advocacy organisation's seminar/workshop series on developing creativity through visual arts education - Co-Investigator Dr Penny Hay invited as keynote speaker. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | http://www.art1st.co.in |
Description | October School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | An annually recurring October School focuses on specific local concerns of global relevance. To advance intercultural understanding, students, researchers and faculty members from the network collectively investigate the validity and significance of public art concepts. In light of an increasingly globalised world, the October School explores the future functions of public art and enables crucial debates on how contemporary art can initiate, invoke and contribute to public debates. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://inoctober.org/ |