Communication strategy

The aim of our communication strategy is to increase visibility of innovative artistic practices and methodologies that have been developed in the spirit of Free, Libre and Open Source Culture and which can be expanded into collective creative productions, alternative cultural industries and other fields, like education and cultural management.  

Creating web pages and displaying information on-line has become easier and easier for non-expert users, but it mostly results in a bare mirror of regular information brochures, cultural announcements and text-publishing. We aim to set up multi-directional communication channels, and are interested in making information circulate back and forth. We would like to give material away and receive it transformed: enriched by different connections, contexts and contradictions.  

In particular, our communication strategy will be axed on 2 actions: step-by-step communication of the project content and program and after-life dissemination of the documentation and publication.

Step-by-step communication

The step-by-step communication will happen through different channels.

> Existing platforms & contact databases
From the start of the project, partners will make use of their existing on-line platforms (websites, social networks, newsletters), contact data bases and specialized distribution mailing lists to communicate activities and open calls. They will use these channels to disseminate programs of activities, documentations and other information about the project. Each website will display logos and links to Creative Europe when related activities are mentioned.  

Constant 






esc medien kunst lab


Hangar


Dyne.org


> Website 
A specific website will be created at the beginning of the project. The website will be used as:



The website will be edited in 5 languages (EN, FR, NL, DE, ES, IT) and will also contain logos and links to Creative Europe programme. Through a simple system of import and export of feeds, the project website will be connected to the partner websites in order to be able to receive and send feeds from/to other related projects. I

> Streaming
IRC channels will be used during the project to enable communication and exchanges between the participants, artists, cultural actors and others that will be interested in closely following the process. Hangar runs its own publishing and distribution system, completely based on open source software, and especially developed to be easily used by other collectives, art projects, or initiatives.?This service can be used for live streaming and recording of events, talks, performances, etc.

> Specialised reviews 
Next to press releases and invitations broadly sent to the local, regional and national press, to provide more specific and dedicated reviews on activities developed within the project, specialised reviews will be invited as guests to the larger events. Some suggested names are: Neural, Rekto::Verso, L'Art Même, …..

> Print media
Dedicated flayers to communicate public events will be made with open source tools and fonts and spread throughout the cities involved. 
Moreover, these events will also benefit from specific communication campeign. For example,  Iterations in Graz will benefit of various means of communication implemented by a network of galleries of which esc is part of: a website, a brochure printed in 15,000 copies and distributed in Graz and Vienna. 
The last Iteration that will be hosted by the Brussels Electronic Art Festival and will benefit from a wide range of posters, brochures, panels and publicity widely spread by Palais des Beaux-Arts. 


Afterlife communication
The after-life communication will be axed on the dissemination of the documentation and the publication resulting from the project.  

> Active Archive
Digital cultural archives today fall into two categories: fragmented archives and over-centralized archives. Fragmented archives look like isolated islands. Every institution sits on top of its treasure and tries to regulate and control the way it is used. Centralized archives gather collections and resources from different origins but disconnect the material from its original context. An active archive is a decentralized archive which is not only open for reading but also for re-appropriation, comment, divergences, transformations. The website of the project will be used not as a passive repository, but as an active archive to gather, present, share and re-work the documentation produced during the project.

> Digital Open libraries & specialised distributors
The publication will be not only free to download on the websites of the project and of the partners, but also available in existing non-profit on-line Open Libraries such as ….. that will ensure a world wide visibility. Moreover, we will asked specialised distributors to ensured the dissemination of the publication in different circles. (???)

> Nomadic conferences and lectures
Members of Constant (and the partner organisations?) are regularly invited to participate to conference, round tables, festivals (Transmediale in Berlin, FOSDEM and CPDP in Brussels, LGM in several locations worldwide, …..). At these occasions the project and its results will be presented to different communities of makers, artists and cultural actors.




Audience development
We will focus on specific communities of interest (artists, makers, designers, performers, thinkers, educators, cultural entrepreneurs) during residencies, reflection and hands-on moments, hacking sessions, as well as on a general and wider public through exhibitions, conferences, presentations.
Local governmental institutions, fellow cultural organisations, F/LOSS makers communities, academics and other cultural actors will be invited to attend all the public activities that will happened in the countries participating to the project.

Presentation moments as Constant_V in Brussels and esc lab in Graz will take place in parallel with the Iterations happening in the other countries so as to ensure a cross-borders visibility of the project activities. 

Some Iterations will also take advantages of existing networks. For example, esc is part of a network of contemporary art galleries in Graz who always organize opening of their exhibitions together to give the visitors the opportunity to walk from one gallery to another and therefore to exchange public and to intensify the visibility of artists. This will also be the case for the Iterations in Graz.  

The last Iteration will reach a much wider public thanks to being part of the Brussels Electronic Art Festival organised every year by Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels (some numbers from Bozar).