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4.3 Participation level: participative
Cultural mediation formats with a participative level of participation allow audiences to independently influence the design, content, form and sometimes even rules within a project and framework defined by the cultural mediation provider. Examples of this include formats like the
→ Musikkollegium Winterthur [Collegium Musicum Winterthur] projects, in which children and young people take part in the creation of an opera. An example from the literary domain is the
→ Schulhausroman [Schoolhouse novel] project, in which young people collaborate with literary figures to produce a novel. The possibilities created by the Internet for participative cultural mediation are also being discussed and developed. In the exhibition field, there are increasing numbers of projects which aspire to “user generated content” and use the Internet as a medium for communication, production and documentation in that context. “Net literature” includes examples such as the
→ Assoziations-Blaster [Blaster of Associations], now in its 12th year, which enables users to randomly generate new texts by drawing on multiple individual contributions. Participation options include entering, reading, rating texts or discussing them in a blog. Although Assoziations-Blaster is intended less for the purposes of literary mediation than as a forum for the collective production of literature, it does come up in the discourse on literary mediation. This is an area where the already blurry line between the production of art and cultural mediation is fading rapidly.
One basic observation: when discussion turns to participation – and in cultural mediation circles it does so frequently and in ever more depth – it is crucial to raise the question of who is in the position to allow participation, and who bears the responsibility for its results, as well as who is participating in what and to what degree.
