N.O.W
New Open Working process for the performing arts
(2014-2017)
As cultural Europe needs to work collectively to find new springboards for its evolution facing the major social, economic, and environmental transformations and disruptions, the New Open Working process for the performing arts (N.O.W.) worked at finding creative solutions that would help professional actors from the artistic and cultural sector to adapt to the new paradigm.
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With a broad view of the European territory, the N.O.W project has brought together a range of complementary structures with assorted scales and missions, production, artistic and scientific profiles, within a very varied and at times tense European geo-political context.
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N.O.W was a 3 year project conducted between 2014 and 2017.
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This European cooperation project involved professionals (artists and operators) working in the field of the performing arts, researchers from the social and human sciences fields and publics from nine different countries (France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Iceland, Hungary, Canada, Japan).
laboratories
Phase 1 of the process (2014-2016) made it possible to structure the group and their exchanges, to gather and organize content, to start labs and coordinate initiatives.
Phase 2 (2017-2018) was devoted to the implementation of activities, analysis and restitution of research, exploitation and distribution of results oriented towards future projects.
lab 1
A space of collaborative and prospective reflection regarding our professions in mediation and accompaniment (2 years).
The partners and people associated with the project were able to benefit from an informal and collective training, namely a work process that reinforces the skills and capacities of each individual.
Following is the report that retraces and concludes the work process, elaborated by Danae Theodoridou (researcher associated with the N.O.W project).
https://nowperformingarts.eu/
lab 2
A "networked" system of accompaniment engaged with 4 artistic teams (1.5 years).
5 artists participated in the lab: Sonia Gomez (ES), Leonardo Delogu (IT), Gosie Vervloessem (BE), Dance for me - Pétur Ármannsson (ICE) Brogan Davison (UK).
- collaborative networking and the creation of experiments that develop artistic work and the projection of artists' careers ;
- collective support adapted to each, implicating the co-development of economic and territorial strategies favoring sustainable artistic practice ;
- co-construction of an immersive and prototyped cultural event by the partners and artists of N.O.W, as conclusion to the project ;
- Half a House was hosted during the Festival Fabbrica Europa in Florence in 2017, implicating local Italian artists and European researchers ;
- The documentation for this event was produced by Danae Theodoridou and students of the PCAI Masters degree at University Paris 8.
lab 3
Co-writing by the partners of an artistic commission process (1.5 years)
- elaborating an artistic commission gave life to the project Rope, possibilities of binding created by the artist Ief Spincemaille;
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- this performance was documented by the researcher Valérie Pihet; https://nowperformingarts.eu
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The catalog was co-written by Ief Spincemaille and Valérie Pihet.
lab 4
Compendium of good practices and digital mediation tools (2 years).
- over the course of the itinerant sessions, we collected practices related to development and digital mediation issues, as well as on the engagement towards audiences.
- this process generated the design and conception of The End of N.O.W platform, whose objective was to create narrative forms and expressions off the (commercial) beaten track, as well as to enable the creation of work communities and interests around issues common to different groups of actor.trice.s.
In resonance with this initial plan, have been grafted :
Meetings
A series of multidisciplinary meetings (echoing the thematics addressed in the project entitled "The Saloons”) were organized by extrapole, with the support of Arcadi (Paris-Île-de-France region cultural agency).
Residences
Research and artistic creation residencies have been offered to artists by Italian, Belgian and Icelandic partners.
Performances
Artistic performances took place in Italy, Belgium, Spain and Iceland.
Geared primarily at communities with specific interests and works, the ambition of The End of N.O.W was to offer projects different visibilities enabling the generating other forms of storytelling. Users of the platform are invited to unite around common centers of interest, to imagine and generate new arborescence. A first prototype of the platform was launched in January of 2019. The second stage of development and organization of the community is currently being modeled.