Afiba Fashion Street
Basic information
Project Title
Afiba Fashion Street
Full project title
Afiba Fashion Street
Category
Regaining a sense of belonging
Project Description
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production and dissemination enterprise reimagining public spaces as more effective culture transmission spaces.
Geographical Scope
Cross-border/international
Project Region
CROSS-BORDER/INTERNATIONAL: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania
Urban or rural issues
It addresses urban-rural linkages
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
Afiba Fashion Street is a Culture production and dissemination enterprise reimagining public spaces as more effective culture transmitting spaces. The ultimate goal of Afiba Fashion Street is to enhance interactions across social classes to foster consensus building on the cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. To achieve this goal, Afiba Fashion Street’s solution does not impose colonisation of cultural spaces of each social class by the cultural ideas/products of other social classes but rather transforms public spaces (offline and online) which have a default accessibility by all social class into spaces for cross-social class engagement. To enhance cross-social class engagement in public spaces, Afiba Fashion Street intends to provide a common language and framework for engagement. The language of engagement is a carefully developed artistic practise that explore universal human ideas and concepts via a repertoire of artistic media of expression such as but not limited to film, comics, cinema, sculpture, music, graffiti, industrial design, fine art, video games, literature amongst others with fashion as the central medium of expression. Ultimately, Afiba Fashion Streets solution intends to provide a platform to build bridges across social classes and enable consensus formation in the cultural ideas that shape national cultural life through conscious engagement and not imposition.
This project is targeted to all social classes and groups that form part of European states. The project is in the prototype phase and yet to deliver on outcomes although the initial data appears to reflect the expected outcomes which is largely an emphasis on shared identities.
This project is targeted to all social classes and groups that form part of European states. The project is in the prototype phase and yet to deliver on outcomes although the initial data appears to reflect the expected outcomes which is largely an emphasis on shared identities.
Key objectives for sustainability
Afiba Fashion Street explores sustainability through two main trajectories a. sustenance of cultural life b. eco-sustainability. Sustenance of cultural life: The central theme of Afiba Fashion Street is that great cultural ideas that have the capacity for national or continental cultural shifts are not the preserve of the upper class. Great cultural ideas can come from any and all social groups thereby necessitating the need for providing enabling environments for the cultural ideas of all social groups to be accessible and to be expressed. Afiba Fashion Street pursues this cultural sustenance through a platform for cross-social class engagement to build bridges that enable cultural ideas to move easily across social classes. Through a common language and framework of engagement, cultural ideas can be shared across social classes without a need for imposition. Eco-Sustainability: All cultural products of Afiba Fashion Street shall strictly adhere to contemporary eco-sustainability standards. Currently, five fashion brands of Afiba Fashion Street are in development that is Take Back Your Youth, Unusual Ideas, CRAECE, Dysutopia and Hood Mayhem. The core goal is to produce apparel that strictly follow eco-sustainability standards as part of efforts to conscientize all social classes and groups about the shared consequence of the impending environmental apocalypse which demands a concerted action from all groups. Ultimately, sustainability is built into the fabric of Afiba Fashion Street to ensure that sustainability is pursued as a cultural practise and not a mere fulfilment of sustainability quotas.
Afiba Fashion Street’s sustainability model is exemplary because it links eco-sustainability to cultural sustenance and weaves it into the fabric of the organization and its products. This approach ensures that sustainability is a lived experience and not an externalised fulfilment of quotas.
Afiba Fashion Street’s sustainability model is exemplary because it links eco-sustainability to cultural sustenance and weaves it into the fabric of the organization and its products. This approach ensures that sustainability is a lived experience and not an externalised fulfilment of quotas.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production and dissemination enterprise that exploits Art, Design and Narrative to create a common language for cross-social class engagement to enable consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. A carefully thought-out creative practise has been designed to deliver Afiba Fashion Streets products across several media such as but no limited to film, comics, cinema, sculpture, music, graffiti, industrial design, fine art, video games, literature amongst others with fashion as the central medium of expression. These cultural ideas and products are intended to be experienced in the public space. A core goal of Afiba Fashion Street is to transform public spaces into more effective culture transmission spaces. Efficiency in culture transmission shall combine elaboration on aesthetics and the quality of design. The core objectives of the project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience is to apply aesthetics that draw attention, appeal to the senses, engage with the conscious of the audience and provide an overall pleasant experience. These goals are to ensure that information is conveyed quickly and effectively and also valued by the audiences. The project is currently in the prototype phase but to ensure that these objectives are met, the aesthetics and quality of experience is coded into the unique creative practise of Afiba Fashion Street which is applicable across the two main Afiba Fashion Street does, that is, culture production and culture dissemination.
In the context of the objectives for Afiba Fashion Street products aesthetics and quality of experience for people, this project is exemplary because the objectives are coded into the creative practise which by default ensures that these objects are met whenever audiences encounter Afiba Fashion Street products.
In the context of the objectives for Afiba Fashion Street products aesthetics and quality of experience for people, this project is exemplary because the objectives are coded into the creative practise which by default ensures that these objects are met whenever audiences encounter Afiba Fashion Street products.
Key objectives for inclusion
Inclusion is very central to the Afiba Fashion Street work. Afiba Fashion Street’s platform is intended to enable cross-social class engagement to enable consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. Ultimately, Afiba Fashion Street seeks to enable a more inclusive society with cross-social class representation on the cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. Therefore a default requirement of this platform is accessibility, affordability and other inclusivity modalities. The key objectives of Afiba Fashion Street in terms of inclusion are i. cross-social class participation in national cultural life across culture production, dissemination and experience ii. cross-social class affordability and accessibility to cultural ideas and products iii. development of an inclusive language for culture production and dissemination regardless of social class iv. Reimagination of new social realities accounting for cross-social class ideas. Through a carefully developed creative practise, Afiba Fashion Street fashion established a framework for culture production a dissemination that accounts for all the enlisted inclusivity modalities. This ensures a default reference to these inclusivity modalities in Afiba Fashion Streets practise.
In the context of the inclusivity objectives for Afiba Fashion Street products, this project is exemplary because the objectives are coded into the creative practise which by default ensures that these objects are met whenever audiences encounter Afiba Fashion Street products.
In the context of the inclusivity objectives for Afiba Fashion Street products, this project is exemplary because the objectives are coded into the creative practise which by default ensures that these objects are met whenever audiences encounter Afiba Fashion Street products.
How Citizens benefit
Conceptually, Afiba Fashion Street is tended to create a more culturally inclusive society across national life. The solution concept is applicable across all nations with Europe as the central ground for initial implementation. In Europe, the concept is intended to enhance cross-social class engagement on cultural ideas by making public spaces the centres of culture engagement as opposed to the traditional spaces of culture engagement such as museums, art galleries, universities etc that have default structures of exclusivity. The emphasis of transforming public spaces into spaces of effective culture engagement is intended to breakdown the default exclusivity structures without interfering with traditional culture dissemination institutions. At Afiba Fashion Street, this approach has been found to be more effective than current on-going attempts to make culture dissemination institutions built with exclusive frameworks, more inclusive. This project is not only relevant for cross-social class engagement but also inclusion of all exclusive social groups in active culture engagement and to help drive consensus building on the culture ideas that shape national cultural life. The project is currently in the prototype phase with assessment of how different social groups engage with the initial products developed. The current goal is to role out the first phase of the comprehensive solution in early 2024. The Afiba Fashion Street has developed frameworks to measure impact in the areas of inclusivity and shall be able to provide such data and metrics after rolling out the comprehensive solution. However there is absolute clarity on the target groups and the medium of engagement to ensure that scientific methodology can be applied to access impact of involvement.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
The goal of Afiba Fashion Street is to drive cross-social class engagement to enhance consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. To achieve this, a carefully designed creative framework intended to enable the production & dissemination of cultural products that are universal and timeless in their appeal to humans regardless of social class has been designed. Inclusivity of a social groups across national cultural life is a prevailing theme in the zeitgeist across nations. However, democratization of cultural life in the areas of collective creation and participation cannot easily be achieved because such solutions must account for unique individual needs and also account for varied accessibility to cultural ideas/products which are largely shaped by economics. Most solutions currently in implementation largely involves providing various forms of accessibility to culture production and dissemination spaces to low income communities/individuals by way of financial support such as free museum tickets or special grants for artists/creatives of low income background. The main problems of these solutions are that they do not actually democratize the culture production and dissemination space but rather give access to low income communities to culture spaces deigned to exclusively cater to the middle and upper classes. The main innovative character of Afiba Fashion Streets solution is the default accessibility to all social classes by transforming public spaces into the spaces for culture transmission/engagement and the creative framework designed to enable the production & dissemination of cultural products that are universal and timeless in their appeal to humans regardless of social class. This model effectively enables cross-social class co-cocreation & consensus building on the cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. This solution is also agile and easy to deploy in different nations regardless of the national cultural character
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production & dissemination enterprise. The goal is to drive cross-social class engagement to enhance consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. To achieve this, a carefully designed creative framework intended to enable the production & dissemination of cultural products that are universal and timeless in their appeal to humans regardless of social class has been designed. The main knowledge fields or expertise required to realise the project are anthropological philosophers, culture producers and disseminators, product designers, marketers, branding experts etc. The foundational work was designed by the Anthropological Philosophers who laid out a concept for culture production & dissemination in human society and conceptualized a framework for developing solutions for cross-social class engagement on cultural ideas. They also developed a creative framework to enable specific cultural products to made from new cultural ideas. The culture producers comprise of creatives and artists across fashion designers, film makers, musicians, sculptors, fine artists, video game designers, comics writers etc whereas the culture disseminators are specifically trained marketers of cultural concepts & products. The product designers are involved in iterating the products designed by the culture producers into products that fit the market whereas the branding & marketing experts are responsible for branding and marketing in specific markets. The project is still at the prototype phase but currently, the team has largely coordinated efficiently in a set up where the philosophers are responsible for developing and optimising the primary concept & new secondary concepts required for the project. The culture producers & product designers then take over to develop the cultural products & then handed over to the branding and marketing team who in collaboration with the culture disseminating team bring the products to the market
Methodology used
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production & dissemination enterprise. The goal is to drive cross-social class engagement to enhance consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. To achieve this, a carefully designed creative framework intended to enable the production & dissemination of cultural products that are universal and timeless in their appeal to humans regardless of social class has been designed. The main knowledge fields or expertise required to realise the project are anthropological philosophers, culture producers and disseminators, product designers, marketers, branding experts etc. In terms of methodology, Afiba Fashion Street is a creative practise that combines Art, Design and Narrative to transform public spaces (offline and online) into more effective culture transmission spaces to enable cross-social class engagement on cultural ideas. The creative core tenets of creative approach explores universality of human life and emphasis on shared human heritage despite ethnic differences. The creative medium combines fashion as a central medium in a repertoire with other media such as but not limited to fine art, film, music, sculpture, video games, comics, literature, industrial design amongst others. To ensure effective culture dissemination, the creative team works in close collaboration with the branding and marketing team to deliver great solutions. The methodology therefore combines a primary philosophical creative concept as a framework to filter and distribute new ideas or concepts to be engaged with by audiences in public spaces. This is then followed by a combination of varied creative media suitable for each secondary concept or idea in development. The last stage of each project involves combined work between creative and marketing/branding methodologies to ensure efficiency in the delivery of the new concepts or ideas to local audiences.
How stakeholders are engaged
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production and dissemination enterprise.
The main stakeholders required are intellectuals, creatives, product developers, financiers, regulatory bodies, consumers, collaborating partners, academic institutions, cultural institutions etc. The internal Afiba Fashion Street team constitute crucial stakeholders such as but not limited to intellectuals, creatives, product developers, marketers etc. However, to successfully implement this solution, a multi-level plan to engage with stakeholders at the local, regional, national and European level has been designed. For initial financing, the Afiba Fashion Street team is currently engaging with the BurgschaftBank Berlin that is currently running an initiative called BBBSocial to provide guarantees for enterprises in the social economy to obtain loans for projects in the social economy. The team is also in engagement with Investitionsbank Berlin which provides financing support for small and medium sized enterprises in Berlin and also coordinates Berlin Startup bonus which is a grant of up to EUR 50000 to support Berlin based Startups. The team has also engaged thoroughly with a network of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Berlins Startup Ecosystem. For networking, the team has also participated in BetahausX Asia Berlin Expansion Labs initiative which is an initiative by the Berlin Senate to connect Berlin-based Startups and Startup Ecosystems with those in Japan and South Korea. The team has also build relationship with a network of production and marketing partners across Europe to help deliver the solution. Afiba Fashion Street is still in the prototype stage so the complete plan for engagement with stakeholders has not be implemented. That shall see engagement with regional, national and EU level stakeholders. The current emphasis has been local stakeholders in Berlin to help optimise the prototype before full scale implementation and scaling.
The main stakeholders required are intellectuals, creatives, product developers, financiers, regulatory bodies, consumers, collaborating partners, academic institutions, cultural institutions etc. The internal Afiba Fashion Street team constitute crucial stakeholders such as but not limited to intellectuals, creatives, product developers, marketers etc. However, to successfully implement this solution, a multi-level plan to engage with stakeholders at the local, regional, national and European level has been designed. For initial financing, the Afiba Fashion Street team is currently engaging with the BurgschaftBank Berlin that is currently running an initiative called BBBSocial to provide guarantees for enterprises in the social economy to obtain loans for projects in the social economy. The team is also in engagement with Investitionsbank Berlin which provides financing support for small and medium sized enterprises in Berlin and also coordinates Berlin Startup bonus which is a grant of up to EUR 50000 to support Berlin based Startups. The team has also engaged thoroughly with a network of Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists in Berlins Startup Ecosystem. For networking, the team has also participated in BetahausX Asia Berlin Expansion Labs initiative which is an initiative by the Berlin Senate to connect Berlin-based Startups and Startup Ecosystems with those in Japan and South Korea. The team has also build relationship with a network of production and marketing partners across Europe to help deliver the solution. Afiba Fashion Street is still in the prototype stage so the complete plan for engagement with stakeholders has not be implemented. That shall see engagement with regional, national and EU level stakeholders. The current emphasis has been local stakeholders in Berlin to help optimise the prototype before full scale implementation and scaling.
Global challenges
The goal of Afiba Fashion Street is to drive cross-social class engagement to enhance consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. In a continually globalizing world, identity is continually becoming more fluid. Nearly all modern nations need comprehensive immigration policies to account for immigrants in their territories. This new reality posses new questions in the areas of integration and assimilation of new peoples into new cultures. Afiba Fashion Streets solution provides a platform for carefully consistent engagement of different social groups to enable better understanding between social groups and to enable consensus building on cultural ideas that shapes national cultural life without imposition of the cultural ideas of one social group by another. Afiba Fashion Streets solution is unique because it protects the core culture of each social group whilst providing means of engagement amongst social group to ensure a shared sense of belonging. This is a contemporary global challenge that shall exacerbate in the future and Afiba Fashion Street intends to work in this space to optimise its solution to also be relevant in the future.
Additionally, in the hyper-capitalist reality of modern life, cultural ideas and products are easily commodified for short term profit at the expense of leaving behind a durable culture legacy for future generations and a focus on long term economic value of cultural products. Afiba Fashion Streets solution reimagines a new cultural institution that carefully shields cultural ideas/products from commodification to ensure sustainability across durability in the culture legacy for future generations and appreciable profits to sustain the business currently and in the future. Afiba Fashion Streets model of a new culture institution also address the a relevant global challenge of commodification of culture ideas/products efficiently and is good blueprint for other players in the culture economy
Additionally, in the hyper-capitalist reality of modern life, cultural ideas and products are easily commodified for short term profit at the expense of leaving behind a durable culture legacy for future generations and a focus on long term economic value of cultural products. Afiba Fashion Streets solution reimagines a new cultural institution that carefully shields cultural ideas/products from commodification to ensure sustainability across durability in the culture legacy for future generations and appreciable profits to sustain the business currently and in the future. Afiba Fashion Streets model of a new culture institution also address the a relevant global challenge of commodification of culture ideas/products efficiently and is good blueprint for other players in the culture economy
Learning transferred to other parties
Afiba Fashion Street is a culture production & dissemination enterprise. The goal is to drive cross-social class engagement to enhance consensus building on cultural ideas that shape national cultural life. To achieve this, a carefully designed creative framework intended to enable the production & dissemination of cultural products that are universal and timeless in their appeal to humans regardless of social class has been designed. Although the solution blueprint is currently being deployed by Afiba Fashion Street to enable inclusive platform for cross-social class engagement on cultural ideas, the solution blueprint transferrable for usage in any initiative that demands effective inclusive model for different social groups. In societies with multiple ethnic groups, the solution blueprint developed by Afiba Fashion Street can be deployed to enhance co-creation and experience in cultural life. Similarly societies seeking cosmopolitan character can effectively realize their cosmopolitan character by deploying Afiba Fashion Streets solution. In terms of methodology, Afiba Fashion Street has developed a creative practise that combines a foundational creative framework and a transdisciplinary creative media to efficiently produce and disseminate cultural ideas. This model can be transferrable or replicable to other scenarios of knowledge production and dissemination that combines a wide array of disciplines and expertise. Afiba Fashion Streets model of organizing a culture enterprise that elaborately prevents co-modification of cultural products can also be transferrable to new cultural institutions that aspire to shield cultural ideas/products from co-modification by the forces of modern capitalism and still remain as self-sustainable businesses.
Keywords
Culture Production and Dissemination
Shared Cultural Values
Cross-Social Class Engagement
Enrichment of National Cultural Life
Consensus on Cultural Ideas that Shape National Cultural Life
