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9.3 Cultural mediation in this publication

This publication contains very little in the way of documentary pictures or project descriptions. In other words, it does not depict cultural mediation as a practice, in the ordinary sense of that term: as a space for action in which specific, even quite literally corporeal and material practices unfold at the intersection of the arts, education, the sciences and daily life.

Instead, this publication approaches cultural mediation by way of the questions and tensions that arise when people engage with cultural mediation. These “ramifications” of cultural mediation constitute a discourse which is described in this publication.

The graphic design of this publication picks up on the ideas of fields of tension and intertwining, both of which, in the view of the editor, constitute defining aspects of cultural mediation. Spirograph figures are geometrical images, playful, multifaceted and at the same time governed by strict rules. They suggest clarity, like the manual character of this publication.

Things get complicated from there however. The perfect spirograph forms lose their shape, get tangled up, fray, blur, implode. In a complex field shaped by complex and varied interests and histories like cultural mediation, creating order and describing “what is what” can never be more than a snapshot taken from one specific angle. Fortunately so, because that gives us a reason to keep working, keep thinking.

This publication seeks to inspire readers to pick up the frayed ends and reweave them, and thus contribute further toward clarifying – or, when necessary, complicating – this professional field.