Create in public space

The project of the MOOC start in 2016 thanks to IN SITU ACT program. We work during two years with the European network IN SITU, ARTCENA which is a french national center of theatre, circus and danse, and a lots of artists and europeans professionals.

For the first time, the Create in Public Space MOOC brings together theoretical and practical knowledge on artistic creation in public space.

This interactive online course is free and available in French and English, and provides artists and internationaln cultural stakeholders the opportunity to explore artistic creation in public
space.


What is public space?
Why do artists choose to work in these unconventional places?
How do they use these spaces around the world?
What kinds of legislation and technical characteristics do professionals have to take into account?

Around 15 hours of videos will be made available to learners to answer these questions, covering history, aesthetics and the specifics of dramaturgy, scenography and the relationship with the audience that characterise this sector, through a hundred or so recent artistic projects from international artists.

Learners will be encouraged to be more than passive receivers of turnkey information, and to experiment at home and in public spaces in order to master the concepts covered. They can take the MOOC alone or in study groups coordinated by our professional partners.
This MOOC will present all the artistic, political and human diversity of projects in public space and the full range of their aesthetics. It is first and foremost an analytical tool and a knowledge base, which we hope will be used by a whole host of artists from all around the world.

MOOCs or online learning

MOOCs are a digital learning tool originally from the USA, that stands for Massive Open Online Courses.
They were created in the early 2000s and used by major American universities, quickly gaining popularity thanks to captivating features such as innovative communication techniques (videos, webinars and podcasts), collaborative work between learners using forums, chats and wikis and an expansive process for monitoring and checking knowledge acquisition via self-assessment or peerassessment.
A MOOC lasts for a predefined period, often several weeks, bringing together a community of learners from around the world.
Concretely, each user registers on a dedicated website, granting him/her access to the course: video contents, additional resources and a forum. The whole of it is available over a period of various months.

Pedagogy of this MOOC

The Create in Public Space MOOC covers a number of key concepts: public spaces, aesthetics, dramaturgy, scenography, relationships withe the audience…

This content will provide three-hour learning sessions each courses, with online tools that enable learners
to interact with each other and apply their skills in situ.

Each week will focus on a specific theme and be broken down into:

• fifteen lessons, in the form of short 3-minute videos
• additional interviews with European artists and professionals providing their insight and expertise on artistic creation in public space
• educational activities for testing comprehension and putting knowledge into practice
• additional resources for “going further”

Students who complete the MOOC will receive a certificate of achievement.

The MOOC “Create in Public Space” is divided into 4 course modules, each of which is divided into several chapters and lessons, totaling nearly 15 hours of video content.


Module course 1: Creation in public space, overview 

The first course of the Create in Public Space MOOC provides an overview of artistic creation in public space. It gives an introduction to this multi-faceted movement, where the common denominator are artistic works and initiatives that are intended for spaces outside conventional art venues, such as black box theatres and art gallery or museum “white cubes”.  This simple definition is broad enough to cover an infinite number of public space projects. Each of the three lessons of this course covers a starter topics to provide a better understanding of art in public space: the history of the movement, aesthetic markers and professional organisation.

Module course 2: writing with public spaces 

The second course of the MOOC focuses on the specific aspects of dramaturgy for public space projects. Dramaturgy can be defined as the phase and process of creating artistic content and the procedures for adapting it for the stage.
Public space offers a different kind of stage, so the dramaturgy needs to work with the aspects of everyday life that resonate with the work. This course is organised into three parts:

• public space as a medium: the role of the location in the narrative and dramaturgical development
• adjusting perspective : ways of taking the space into account
• carrying a message: the aesthetic categories linked to the artist’s dramaturgical intentions.

Module course 3: scenography in public spaces

The third course of the MOOC will focus on scenography in public space, which involves the artist choosing, defining and arranging the stage area, which is not pre-defined. This section is split into three chapters:

• dialogue between artistic projects and spaces: the reciprocal influence of places and works
• the scenographer’s tools: processes for composition and transforming public spaces into stage areas
• finding the performance site: introducing reconnaissance as the no. 1 tool for staging composition.

Module course 4: the place of audiences 

The fourth course of the MOOC is dedicated to the relationship with audiences.
As we have seen, the stage does not pre-exist before the artistic expression and it is up to the artist to define its outline and forms. In the same way, the relationship with audiences is not a given and can be developed in many different ways. It is up to the artist to define the point and way in which an encounter is created between the work and the audience.

This challenge is at the heart of writing for public space and is a central component of the artistic work.

Overall coordination in 2019

Camille Fourès, educational manager – FAI-AR
Jean-Sébastien Steil, Director of FAI-AR

Educational contributors and writing

Cédric Claquin, communication and content strategy consultant
Claudine Dussollier, cultural engineer/publishing, training, international cooperation
Anne Gonon, auteure, journalist and critic
Marie Reverdy, dramaturg and lecturer at Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 university (France)

Design, multimédia et communication

Renaud Vercey, shooting, editing and web development
Carole Lorthiois, video maker
Maxime Demartin, IN SITU communication officer – Lieux Publics, centre national de création
Élisabeth Simonet, IN SITU coordination officer – Lieux Publics, centre national de création
Godefroy Giorgetti, sound engineer
Adrien Bargin, graphic designer
Amélie Féraud, communication officer at FAI-AR
Connected Language Services, traduction

Training resources

Lauréline Saintemarie et Marion Meyer, coordinators for lifelong learning – FAI-AR
Marc Sayous, head of documentation – ARTCENA
Sébastien Cotte, project manager – ARTCENA
Géry Sanchez, project manager – ARTCENA
Sarah Weber, IN SITU assistant – Lieux Publics, centre national de création

Externals eyes

Nadia Aguir, IN SITU coordinator – Lieux Publics, centre national de création
Mark Denbigh, head of production , Norfolk & Norwich festival

Coordination of exploratory phase

Pépita Car, project manager at FAI-AR during the first phase of the project

All the IN SITU members and associated pertners : 

Artopolis Association / PLACCC Festival (Hongrie), Atelier 231 / Festival Viva Cité (France), CIFAS (Belgique), Čtyři dny / 4+4 Days in Motion (République Tchèque), FAI-AR (France), Freedom Festival (Royaume-Uni), Kimmel Center (Etats-Unis), Metropolis (Danemark), La Paperie (France), La Strada Graz (Autriche), Les Tombées de la Nuit (France), Lieux publics (France), Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Royaume-Uni), Teatri ODA (Kosovo), Provinciaal Domein Dommelhof / Theater op de Markt (Belgique), On the Move (Belgique), Østfold kulturutvikling (Norvège), Oerol Festival (Pays-Bas), Terni Festival (Italie), UZ Arts (Royaume-Uni), Fira Tarrega (Espagne).

Interviewed Artistes 

Fabrice Guillot (FR) / Benjamin Vandewalle (BE) / Kubra Khademi (AF) / Seth Honnor (UK) / Thomas Lamers (NL) / Maria Sideri (GR) / Zineb Benzekri (FR) / Vera Maeder (DK) / Marco Barotti (IT)

Interviewed Thinkers and academics

Laure Ortiz (FR) / Pascal Le Brun-Cordier (FR) / Claudine Dussollier (FR)

Interviewed professionals

James Moore (NO) / Jay Whal (US) / Mike Ribalta (ES) / Trevor Davies (DK) / Fabienne Aulagnier (FR) / Werner Schrempf (AT) / Florent Mehmeti (XK) / Neil Butler (UK) / Mark Denbigh (UK) / Anne Le Goff (FR) / Hugo Bergs (BE) / Katrien Verwilt (DK) / Kees Lesuis (NL)

The idea of the MOOC was developed in 2016 as part of the IN SITU ACT programme. The European IN SITU network was looking for tools to disseminate and promote art in public space. FAI-AR, Europe’s sole higher education training programme on art in public space has been developing its teaching and learning experience in this field since 2002. The school offered to develop this innovative tool to harness its expertise and disseminate it worldwide. This gave rise to the “Create in Public Space” project, a bilingual (French/English) learning platform that is free to use and will give participants the tools and inspiration to express their art in public space.

FAI-AR

Overall coordination, educational engineering, editorial management, and production
Marseille, France

FAI-AR is the model school in Europe devoted to artistic creation in public space. It offers a 22-month specialized training course for students from superior arts training institutions and experienced performers of all nationalities who have decided to assert their position as artistic creators and organizers of projects in public space. FAI-AR’s function is to provide them the knowledge, skills, and professional know-how and to assist them in their artistic approach.

One-of-a-kind, FAI-AR also meets a demand for continuous training and educational engineering: it offers short courses, workshops, and master-classes for artists and professional technicians. Some of these activities have an international dimension and are part of partnership agreements linked to developing the sector of art in public space in partner countries.

A project specifically funded by the Ministry of Culture

IN SITU

Artistic expertise and targeting resources
European platform operated from Marseille, France

IN SITU was created by programmers passionate about new aesthetic trends and the issues around public space, who joined forces in 2003 to work together across Europe and support artists working outside of conventional venues.

The network is led by Lieux Publics, a national and European centre for creation in public space based in Marseille, France, and has developed through a number of projects supported by the European Commission. As IN SITU has grown, its expertise and activities have become clearer: it serves to identify artists, facilitate transnational artistic project laboratories and incubators, support co-productions and publicise emerging work, organise combined European and international residencies, perform artistic research, run conferences for people working in this area, operate a Think Tank and develop the first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) dedicated to artistic creation in public space with the FAI-AR. IN SITU ACT includes 20 partners and 8 associated partners from 19 countries and as many contexts, practices and aesthetic approaches.

In 2016, IN SITU launched ACT, a large-scale European project funded by the European Commission up to 2020 as part of the Creative Europe programme.

ARTCENA

Targeting and generating resources, co-editing the glossary
Paris, France

ARTCENA is an open and vibrant gathering place whose primary objective is to reinforce the foundation and development of circus arts, street arts, and theatre.
ARTCENA’s mission has three focal points:

Sharing knowledge through the creation of a digital reference portal and publishing. Assistance for professionals by providing them with advice and training; Support for exposing the various arts sectors through various mechanisms that encourage promotion, creativity (assistance in creating dramatic texts, Grands Prix), and international development (Circostrada network, Contxto …).