Democratising culture
How might we develop tools to support democratic cultural development?
Service design | cultural development | Team work | 4 monthsUsecase
The Copenhagen-based association Kulturdistriktet fosters a framework of cultural actors and institutions, volunteers and urban developers, all focused on developing culture in their communities from the bottom up. Their most prominent contribution, Åben Festival, collects these cultural leaders together once a year to engage residents in and out of the districts with a rich cultural landscape. In order to provide year-round cultural engagement for residents, we developed a service concept to increase the space available for cultural actors through community-led action.
Project strategyExpert interviews • Cultural Probe • Design intervention • Conceptualisation • Prototype testing • Concept adaption • Prototype testing
The landscape of cultural development
Process
The project started with desk research to analyze and understand in what way service design can support cultural development processes.
To further grasp the implementation of cultural development, we conducted 3 expert interviews with specialists from this field of practice. As a research group, we wanted to investigate the following questions:
What even is culture?
How do you go about evaluating it?
Is it possible to create culture? And if yes, how?
How can we provide a democratic cultural offering to citizens?
To find an answer to the first questions, we carried out a 10-day Cultural Probe with diverse target groups to understand the definition and practice of culture from the perspective of the locals. The aim was to get a better understanding of what locals do on a daily basis, what they call cultural and where they go to engage with culture.
Some results from the Cultural Probe
After going through all our research results and identifying patterns, we developed two rough concepts that we wanted to test first before finalising them, in order to determine the decision for one of these concepts in an insights-driven way.
To do so, we created low-fidelity mockups for each idea which were tested in an intervention in Copenhagen.
By carrying out this testing, we were able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of both concepts and thus further develop the concept that better meets the needs of the respondents.
In two focus groups, we then reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of the concept, in order to again incorporate the voice of the target group into the development of the service.
Result
The service offering to create an inclucive cultural framework for citizens is called Culture Couch, a multi-sided platform that connects cultural actors with hosts wishing to contribute physical space for cultural initiatives. Culture Couch considers cultural initiatives to not be limited to just the performing and fine arts and takes the broader view that culture is what happens when people and ideas meet. Adopting this definition allows the platform to encompass things like shared meals, board game nights, and book clubs. Cultural actors and hosts share any income generated from those participating in cultural initiatives. Kulturdistriktet, as the platform operator, takes a small commission from these earnings to verify cultural initiatives and enable platform growth.
We developed the Culture Couch solution to increase the availability of space on offer for cultural initiatives. New venues for engagement will benefit everyone involved in this ecosystem from hosts, to participants, to cultural actors, and the association too. Setting their terms will allow for cultural actors and hosts to create sustainable, value-driving experiences for residents of Copenhagen. And when cultural actors and venue owners are compensated fairly, participants win as well through outstanding cultural experiences.
