Artsformation produced the RESISTANCE Residency. which involved the organisation and hosting of a series of residencies in Lesvos-Greece. The residencies were conducted during June 2022, and 30 Arts professionals from across 20 EU/EEA countries participated in them. The purpose of the residency was to provide a dedicated space for Arts professionals to express their voices in shaping the digital transformation. Residents were invited to collaboratively ideate and co-create unconventional training tools for peers, policy makers, businesses, and the public to tackle digital and social inequalities arising from the digital transformation. Residents were invited to collaboratively ideate and co-create unconventional training tools for peers, policy makers, businesses, and the public to tackle digital and social inequalities arising from the digital transformation. Further, residents engaged in participatory action, peer learning, and civic engagement as mechanisms for social change. The residency was also instrumental in streamlining the formation and mobilisation of a European artistic community which proactively responds to the challenges of the digital transformation, and also provided testbeds and evaluation for the arts-based intervention methodologies developed across Artsformation. In order to achieve the objectives of the residency, a theme for the residency was developed through several iterations and co-creation meetings between Artsformation partners LATRA and European Alternatives. The theme of ‘RESISTANCE’ was meant to introduce residents to the objectives of the residency, whilst simultaneously serving as a ‘call to action’ inviting them to develop and shape the residency through the co-creation and facilitated sessions offered. The ‘RESISTANCE’ theme is presented below.

These are testing times for our European community. As we are slowly emerging from years-long lockdowns, it is becoming evident that during the pandemic, governments chose to support corporations and the financial elite rather than communities and people. Together with vulnerable and marginalized communities, the virus also decimated the capacity of arts and culture empowering them to rise. For the first time since World War II, arts and culture practices had to shut their doors, postpone projects, cancel events, and purge frontline services for socio-economically excluded groups who do not have means to alternatives.

The dispersion to our homes gradually gave way to segregation, and the hopes that the pandemic could act as a change agent quickly gave way to the reality that it acted like an accelerant. We had to learn how to make the economy run without being in the office, and work from home accelerated six years. Students had to learn without showing up in class, and remote education accelerated eight years. Citizens’ needs had to be met remotely, and online public services accelerated ten years. Every facet of our lives experienced profound digital transformations, however the digital literacies and competences which were critical for maintaining equitable outcomes, were unequally distributed across Europe’s citizens.

A selected few, expanded the privileges that position them at the helm of society, creating asymmetrical capacities between citizens living not just in different European countries, but across neighbourhoods, communities and streets. In the name of public health, adversary forces who have long fought against democracy, freedom, equality, human rights and dignity, found an opportunity to curb civil rights and freedoms, turning our continent, communities and commons into civic deserts. Citizens were forced into their homes, and their only domain of resistance became the digital sphere. Established power structures took advantage of the civic vacuum left by the digital transformation and colonized the opportunities for change.

Artsformation seeks to change this narrative.

We strive to support, enable and develop the capacity of arts and culture practitioners, researchers and frontline operatives to respond effectively and decisively to the challenges that society’s digital transformation created for Europe’s citizens and communities, particularly those with a vulnerable, marginalised and socio-economically excluded background. We believe that arts & culture have the capacity to invigorate communities and civil society into creating a united advocacy front strengthening active citizenship and social cohesion at a community and European level. This is a moment of opportunity to systemically reconstruct a resilient civic fabric and shared democratic space, capable of inducing systemic change and reframing the present narrative of survivability to one of sustainability and resilience.

The outcomes, outputs and resources of the residency can be of relevance and importance to shareholders who engage in work related to Europe’s digital transformation, such as the decolonisation of digital practices and online environments, the digital integration of diverse and often marginalised groups and communities and employment of artistic and cultural practices to expedite an equitable transition during 21st Century European transformations. Future research is encouraged to be undertaken in what is the uptake and application of artistic practices in decolonising Europe’s digital transformation, and how communities of practice decide to self-organise and structure their movements.

You can read Artsformation full report on the RESISTANCE Residency here.