Arts & Politics join forces
It’s Time to Open The Black Boxes join forces with the progressive movements: mέta, DiEM25 and Progressive International
We are so glad to announce that mέta (The Centre for Post-Capitalist Civilisation), DiEM25 and the Progressive International have decided to jointly endorse and support the ongoing, participatory project: “It’s Time to Open the Black Boxes”.
We invite you to explore our updated website in which submission is now available in over 15 languages and to participate in the two current open calls: our ongoing “Shape the World with your Word”, along with “in the Era of War”, by contributing your own two words.
Initiated in 2012 by the nonprofit organization Vital Space and the artist Danae Stratou, “Open the Black Boxes” is an international, collaborative, multilingual, participatory and continuously upgraded platform, offering real-time cultural and statistical material online for public use.
Via visually engaging formats, the open-source platform reflects an ever-changing portrait of contemporary society, eliciting from all over the world one-word responses that highlight collective fears and/or aspirations on any given subject and conjuncture. The project investigates the space between art, democracy and political action by raising awareness on present challenges, attaining global outreach and by focusing on how society responds directly to its most pressing issues.
Gathered without intermediaries, the words become a valuable record of our time. Combining new technologies with art practices can open the public dialogue at this critical time to promote direct and advanced democratic practices.
The statistics presented, and their constant flow, serve as raw materials for artists, researchers, and everyone who wants to make sense of the present crises and reimagine our future.
By jointly endorsing and supporting “It’s time to Open the Black Boxes” –mέta, DiEM25 and the Progressive International– are firstly enabling the project to grow thus gathering vital data on how society responds directly to its most pressing issues and simultaneously they are given a tool to widely disseminate their views, receive valuable feedback and propose concrete news ways of deepening public participation through artistic means.
Since 2016 the project has already offered visual and participatory material presented at many of DiEM25’s events throughout Europe as well as running specific open calls, in synch with particular campaigns by our movements, and presenting the resulting artistic video projections at the ΜέΡΑ25 launch events in Athens and in Berlin.
