Aesthetic Education Expanded - Artistic Experimentation and Political Culture in the Age of Networks
Aesthetic Education Expanded is the project of collaboration of five organizations: Berliner Gazette from Germany, Kontrapunkt from Macedonia, kuda.org, Multimedia Institute from Croatia and Mute magazine from Great Britain, which is supported by the program Culture 2007-2013 of European Commission and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).
The project starts from the Enlightenment concept of aesthetic education that stated the interdependence between arts (literary culture back in its day), politics (revolution) and technologies (print and publishing) with the aim of creating an emancipated sphere of public action. We expand this concept (as much as the project of the Enlightenment might have become troubled) with the objective of jointly researching, aggregating, documenting and disseminating knowledge on how heterogeneous geographies and practices can transversally connect to create a common space of action and reflection in the age of networks when the forces of disintegration and fragmentation are increasingly conflicting with the projects of integration as can be currently experienced in Europe.
The project Aesthetic Education Expanded establishes long-term cooperation between those 5 organizations, all working in a broader cultural field where artistic experimentation meets political culture and communication technologies. The specificity of this project lies in that it brings together organizations working in different geographies and practices: from trans-European publishing networks, emancipatory (self-)education projects, to intense local public action.
The activities of the project will include a joint multilingual web platform syndicating content with prominent internet catalysts of critical debate: Berliner Gazette and Mute, seven conferences, five workshops, two public debates, two exhibitions and seven publications.