Unlearn the Apparatus - Banner story, game rules at Angoulême square, 2 Bernward street, Hildesheim

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When we explored the location of the pop-up store at 2 Bernward street and analyzed the affordances of its interior and exterior characteristics, it became clear, that we should produce an event banner in addition to other event communication media. Of course, we didn’t have a PR team who would design and produce such a thing (or flyers and posters for that matter). We just had to learn on the spot how to do this and we did.

The performance location and the storefront space at 2 Bernward street is facing a central urban square that connects via a central axis Hildesheim North, the train station, and downtown Hildesheim. It serves as a spatial hub for socio-cultural initiatives, municipal institutions, small businesses, a branch of a German bank, local pedestrians and tourists. The square is called Angoulême square (named after the French partner city of Hildesheim). We noticed that it is a very multi-cultural place where people of different cultural and social backgrounds and their kids like to hang out around the nice flowerbeds or in cafés, go shopping or participate in cultural events that are offered by art and culture institutions located around the square. One such event was, for example, the weekly participatory sound experimentations by the local Klangquartier  https://www.iq-hildesheim.de/klangquartier/

The ladder was lend to us for the period of our 3-week project by the friendly owner of the hotel Bürgermesterkapelle, Katja Strohmeyer.

Collaborators figuring out how to install the banner, given that we had to adhere to minimal intrusion requirements when working in and with the space. We had to improvise. Left to right: Dave Kemp, Martin Kulinna, Don Sinclair, and our collaborating student Emre Cenit.

Done. It was technically not possible to centre the banner so we opted for aligning it with the window and door space.

This central location and culturally networked urban hub offered opportunities for public event communication using our posters and flyers but also a banner, that we attached to the front of the pop-up store. The banner was designed by Antje Budde (using Canva) in a way that acknowledged the linguistic diversity of the citizenry of Hildesheim and its visitors but also communicated the project purpose, the game rules, and consent policy regarding the public character of this artistic research event and its multi-media documentation as part of the project. Further information was offered through QR codes that linked to the project website. Passers-by could easily check it out with their smartphones if curious. The banner marked the space as a temporary, transient place of participatory performance and exhibition/installation. After the project ended, the banner along with posters and flyers were handed to the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policies for the Arts and Transformation at the University of Hildesheim, Julius Heinicke.

Fixing the banner to the facade with only using the very few and somewhat broken elements that were already there, was a challenge. We failed to smooth out the banner but then we thought, that we are not addressing smooth problems with our artistic research. That might as well be visible from the get-go.

We contacted the city’s Stabsstelle Migration und Inklusion (Office for Migration and Inclusion) and the city’s Stabsstelle für Kultur und Stiftungen (Office for Culture and cultural/educational foundations) and received valuable advice regarding the multi-ethnic and linguistic make of the city’s population and contacts for the vibrant Hildesheim cultural scene. Both the UNESCO Chair Julius Heinicke and the department managing director Daniel Gad facilitated some of our outreach to communal stakeholders like the Office for Culture and foundations.

• The banner was produced by Paulitz Werbetechnik GmbH in Hildesheim.

• Office for Migration and Inclusion, City of Hildesheim, led by Sonja Wutke.

• Office for Culture and cultural/educational foundations, City of Hildesheim, led by Lene Wagner.

#unlearnapparatus #unihildesheim #artisticintelligence #platecamera #colonialtechnology #decolonialcritique #performativephotography #experimentalcollaboration #hildesheim #davekemp #donsinclair #antjebudde #martinkulinna #larscrosby #juliusheinicke #DAAD