Report from the Citizen Science Award project "Memory and the Imaginary

1. June 2022 Citizen Science
Graphic recordings (von Felix Deiters) als Dokumentation des dritten Erinnerungs-Labs mit einer Schulklasse des BRG6 Marchettigasse
In three memory labs, students explored methods of art-based research and the themes of "citizenship" and "community."

The project "Memory and the Imaginary" critically explores with students what it means to be a citizen. Who can or may actively participate in political community? Who can or is not allowed to? The goal is to find strategies together to change the state of exclusion.

The joint research process makes it possible to experience the role that remembering, retelling and reimagining the past and the future plays in living in a political community.

In this process, the artistic-creative approach plays an essential role: in the memory labs, students and artists used rap, photography, drawing, image analysis and excursions into art history to share their knowledge of marginalisation, participation and community and document it in drawings.

The project sets new impulses in the Citizen Science field, as it combines Citizen Science with art-based research. Memories and imaginings are collective and relational forms of knowledge that are experiential, multi-layered in space and time. Citizen Science and art-based research are innovative ways to gain insight into such imaginings and their potential for democratic citizenship.

HERE is more information about the project.