Transdisciplinary tinkering in socially engaged and public art
Date: Ongoing since 2022
Location: Online and in different locations across six universities in Barcelona, Belfast, Cork, Montreal, Rennes, Weimar
Role: Concept, coordination, process moderation, teaching, design
Project team: Alexandra Toland (co-initiator, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), Marion Hohlfeldt, Hélène Bailleul, Taylor Still, (Rennes2 University, EUR-CAPS), Yvon Bonefant (University College Cork), Silvy Panet-Raymond (EUR-CAPS), Eloi Puig, Jo Milne, Ramón Parramón, Maria Eugenia Agusti Cami (University of Barcelona)
Former team members: Anne Goarzin (Rennes2 University), Jools Gilson (University College Cork), Patrick Leroux, Keely Whitelaw (Concordia University Montréal), Susanne Wille (Facillitation, Bauhaus-Universität)
Students: Ph.D. and MA students of all partnering Universities
Supporters: DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in the program IVAC – International Virtual Academic Collaboration, Bauhaus-University Weimar in the frame of the program Bauhaus Module, ERASMUS Blended Intensive Programmes BIP. Graduate School Greative Approaches to Public Space (GS-CAPS).
Website: www.pag2022.uni-weimar.de
The “Public Arts Garage” is a joint seminar across partner universities from the international graduate school “Creative Approaches to Public Space” EUR CAPS (led by Université Rennes 2). We use the “garage”-metaphor to lean into the spirit of experimentation and the joy of tinkering. Embracing this “garage” spirit, the project connects students from MA and Ph.D. level, from different disciplines, countries and academic cultures. In small teams, the participants create new collaborative methods for creative engagement with public spaces. The Public Arts Garage was initiated at Bauhaus-Universität by Alex Toland and Martin Leibinger (funded by the DAAD IVAC programme) in collaboration with faculty members and students from six EUR CAPS partner universities. Starting as a virtual teaching collaboration, PAG extended into a hybrid and on-site program in different European cities. Since 2022, the network is constantly growing, forming a community of practice in socially engaged and public art, that brought forth collaborative projects within and outside academia. (Photos: video stills, Doug Moffat, Chanelle-Lize Marshall, 4th Space, Concordia University Montréal)
Collaborative work in public spaces through virtual exchange
Testing new methodologies
Between multiple crises, public space has remained a contested terrain of negotiation and political attention. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, the students are encouraged to leave their comfort zones and develop new methods together to approach critical issues in public spaces in different local contexts and to develop projects that operate at the boundaries of artistic practice.
In the latest edition in 2024, the seminar took place in Rennes, France. The group engaged with the theme of “Third Spaces as Intercultural Places for Commoning”. The students visited local civic and cultural initiatives. They conducted experimental research through playful ethnography, walks, vocal and scenographic practice. Paper-based publications served as a space where their research took place, became embodied and re-presented. Given the limitations of engagement during an intensive week on-site, the artist book was understood as a multidimensional and interactive medium that allowed interventions in space. Moreover, the book became a resource for further output to be followed up and developed beyond the frame of the program. (Photos: Anna Duval for CAPS documentation, PAG2024)
Public presentations
The project was presented at the international conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) in Belfast in July 2022. We presented the didactic concept and the students’ works through a poster exhibition and a talk. Additionally, we held a transdisciplinary lab to test methods developed in the seminar in collaboration with a group of social anthropologists and with participation of the conference audience.
Moreover, the Public Arts Garage was selected for a presentation at the 70th anniversary meeting of the DAAD in London in September 2022, as one of seven best practice examples of student mobility projects and joint-degree programs. (Photos: © DAAD, Falcone)
In 2023, we presented the educational approach of the Public Arts Garage at the conference of Higher Education Advances HEAd in Valencia, followed by a publication.
In 2025, we host a round-table at the Conference Art in the City in Niece, France to present and demonstrate the Public Arts Garage as an evolving methodology of tinkering.
The “Public Arts Garage” created lasting bonds among some students that lead to follow-up projects. The partner universities were part of the recently founded network Creative approaches to public space (CAPS). The project served as a pilot in this network and is since then continued. The network is continuously extended into a growing community of practice in socially engaged and artistic practice in public spaces.