Thinking the Future: From Values to Structural Change in the Arts and Culture

Keynote Lecture (45 min) & Workshop (1.30 hour) live in Zürich

Methods: Causal Layered Analysis

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FAIRSPEC is an initiative to establish ethical guidelines and working methods in the independent scene. FAIRSPEC raises awareness, networks, imparts knowledge and organises events and workshops.

The FAIRSPEC Codex published in 2021 after a one-year process is one of the first guidelines for the performing arts in the independent scene in the German-speaking world and is unique in its form of mutual self-commitment.

The FAIRSPEC Tag 2023 on 2 September 2023 in the Zirkusquartier in Zurich is dedicated to reflecting on the Code and will delve into urgent, also cultural-political content in various inputs and workshops.

"Thinking the Future: From Values to Structural Change in the Arts and Culture"

Keynote Lecture #2: 11:20 – 12:05, 2.09.23

The socioeconomic precariousness of the arts and culture fields is attributable to asymmetrical, temporary, and reputation-dependent employment relationships.

This gives rise to often intense competition and concomitant pressure to be constantly visible and to market oneself, which in turn makes the cultural sector more vulnerable to various forms of power relations and discrimination. Yet (or precisely because of this?) mission statements, charters, and codes invoke solidarity-based, fair, sustainable, anti-racist values, among others.

What if these values could be read out of the institutional structures and labour relations themselves, so that the latter were described instead of having to name values? Furthermore, what if the future revealed new interpretations and concerns that would change the current discourse on values?

"Rethinking structures in the Arts and Culture"

Workshop: 13:30 – 15:00, 2.09.23

Starting from the keynote lecture, the workshop aims, with the help of a futures method, at exploring and rethinking in small groups the aforementioned structural relationships within artist teams as well as between artists and organizers or funders. So that values and structures in the arts and culture finally mirror themselves.