During a visit to Montreal, we had the opportunity to chat, in an informal way (sitting at a bar with a beer in hand), with valuable people with whom we share, confront and nurture what we are and what do at Culturans. These are some excerpts from our conversation that we would like to share.
Culturans
“Culture”: means to create and to share. This is even true with the etymology of “Culture”, namely: to cultivate; to grow.
We have given the name “ambiens” to the interactive surroundings where people live in. It also meas that ‘where I live’ is created by the interactive surroundings which frame necessities —including the elements, social interactions, and so on.
In order to face their necessities people within a community have a role to play: which involves the adventure of using their imagination, to learn both from the old and the new and to create something out of it. This is responsibility as creativity.
A city can be conceived as an ecological network of `ambiens´that stems from collective responsibility and collective creativity. And behind the complexity of a city, what matters is simple: a city is not a mere accumulation of territories; but a value: Civitas: a benefit exchange network which starts right from where you stand.
Co-producers of Public Space: a Renaissance vision.
A City made from the public space consequences of a socio-economic symbiosis, between ideas and imagination, aimed at improving the quality of life. One of the keys of understanding how this happened during the Renaissance: is to understand the micro ‘ambiens’ called Bottegas: here, a symbiosis between education & production took place as a mode of social being (Otium & Negotium). Friends with a common goal.
And what happened inside echoed to the outside: From imagination to realization, and then into city life.
The creative products of the Bottegas were part of the life of the city, such products increased opportunities that common citizen were seeking of becoming co-producers and co-builders of their City. All this by inspiring and encouraging participation.
Public ideas engage social emotions / socialization is affective
Imaginative and emotional engagement is achievable through the perceptual realm: beauty, forms and narratives matter. This is particularly true in social experiences and especially relevant in our cities. But, when we think about beauty, we look not for a predetermined idea of beauty, but a “quotidian beauty”; which can emerge from site specific necessities, and every-day caring activities. ‘Beauty’ moments. The possibility of turning negative affects into positive affects.
Creative citizenship
How do we work out encouragement?
Setting a social collaboration framework around a group of ‘creative civilians’ from a community and with a particular goal. We set a collaboration network with members of different fields that can help to achieve the goal. We build the way through bottom-up networks, from local community members to public decision makers. We aim at empowering people to create their own world and inhabit it; and to influence their own environments so they are able to realize their own ideas.
How it works?
Socialization: the process of transformation from a group of persons to an empowered community by working problems into ideas. This ideas are further worked into a feasible City Design Idea, which then is worked further into fruition through different funding methods and programs. From socialization to realization: creative citizenship.
