Artsformation Assemblies is a continuous effort throughout the project to build, sustain, support and empower a growing and evolving community of arts and culture professionals interested in tackling various facets of the challenges stemming from Europe’s Digital Transformation. Τhroughout the project and through the various activities (Residencies, Arts Productions, etc) the Artsformation Assemblies are formed to capture and compare the challenges faced by local, regional, and national groups in integrating their Arts-based perspectives in tackling the digital transformation, specifically through the challenges in engaging with European social, political, and research agendas. Participants in the Assemblies had the opportunity to discuss how this innovative and emerging community of practitioners with a shared digital transformation focus, can structure its governance and functioning. The purpose of the Artsformation Assemblies is to provide an implementable and scalable case study on an Arts-based participatory governance structure. This analysis will help to ascertain how individual, collective, and transnational motivations, philosophies, and practices from geographically and socio-economically diverse members influence the Assembly’s decision-making capacity.

The processes, operations, and decisions of the Assembly are conducted primarily online, but were bolstered by a physical public meeting in Berlin during the 2023 Transmediale Festival (3rd of February 2023) which was presented under the theme of ‘The Art of Decolonising Digital Resistance’. The intention of the meeting was to address how the absence of real dialogue between the arts, communities and the policy making process is detrimental to both the arts, public policy and our society at large. The event was structured as a live participatory action, where the audience was anticipated to engage and respond to a series of artist provocations exploring how arts and culture practitioners can become a catalyst for decolonising resistance practices and creating an equitable European digital transformation. At the heart of the discussion is the need to unlock the potential contribution from the arts to policymaking in our digital society. Τhrough this process the aim is to achieve practical reconciliation between artists, policymakers and communities across Europe who have been long excluded from public discourse and decision-making. During the open and public meeting in Berlin, 5 artists that had participated in the RESISTANCE Residencies were invited to give performative provocations to the public gathered, which was then invited to engage with the artists through discourse and co-creation on the intersection between the arts and public policy in Europe’s digital transformation as well as its various societal impacts. The performing artists were Alice Pedroletti, Samar Zughool, Vijay Patel, Marta Espiridiao & Jamie Allen. Following analysis of the results produced in Berlin, members of the Assembly gathered in Copenhagen (24th of March 2023) to discuss ways that the operations and insights of the Assemblies can be translated into policy recommendations.

Interested in joining the Assemblies? We would be more than happy to include diverse arts and culture professionals to Artsformation’s evolving community addressing the challenges stemming from Europe’s Digital Transformation. If you would like to learn more and join the Assemblies, please send your expression of interest to latrafoundation@gmail.com