seekicks: Start-up Studio
Basic information
Project Title
seekicks: Start-up Studio
Full project title
seekicks: Start-up Studio
Category
Regaining a sense of belonging
Project Description
seekicks is an ongoing creative platform enabling access to knowledge and resources in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship for design and art students, graduates, and professionals. One of the experimental formats we work on is the Start-up Studio. In the studio, we explore collaborative entrepreneurial skills development for arts and design practitioners.
Geographical Scope
Regional
Project Region
Berlin, Brandenburg, Saarland, Germany
Urban or rural issues
Mainly urban
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
The Start-up Studio is an educational format, beyond curriculum, in the context of art and design. The studio is one of the main elements of the platform seekicks.org that has been funded through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action since July 2020. The platform aims to provide access to knowledge to equip creatives with skills for the 21st century.
The central notion of the Start-up Studio is the question of artistic agency: How can creatives internalize the sense of agency and understand the impact they create or can create in the social context? In a broad sense we are aiming for a shift where creative potential is not instrumentalized but able to find or to frame for itself new contexts of implementation. This is where entrepreneurship comes into play.
The studio aims to foster collaborative entrepreneurial skills of arts and design practitioners. Setup as six-month prototypes, each studio round presents a unique assemblage of activities and workshops opening a dialogue between the disciplines.
The value of designing for open-ended collaborative participation in this way connects everyone involved in the project to shared concepts, ‘unlocking, amplifying and analyzing individual creative potential’. The studio currently runs the third prototype with a diverse group of participants from various backgrounds. They are supported by a group of experts with coaching, development of novel enterprise models, understanding economic contexts in a form of discussions.
The central notion of the Start-up Studio is the question of artistic agency: How can creatives internalize the sense of agency and understand the impact they create or can create in the social context? In a broad sense we are aiming for a shift where creative potential is not instrumentalized but able to find or to frame for itself new contexts of implementation. This is where entrepreneurship comes into play.
The studio aims to foster collaborative entrepreneurial skills of arts and design practitioners. Setup as six-month prototypes, each studio round presents a unique assemblage of activities and workshops opening a dialogue between the disciplines.
The value of designing for open-ended collaborative participation in this way connects everyone involved in the project to shared concepts, ‘unlocking, amplifying and analyzing individual creative potential’. The studio currently runs the third prototype with a diverse group of participants from various backgrounds. They are supported by a group of experts with coaching, development of novel enterprise models, understanding economic contexts in a form of discussions.
Key objectives for sustainability
With regard to sustainability, the Start-up Studio is currently accessible to graduates, students and other creative professionals from various disciplines. The accessibility is one of the most important aspect as many entrepreneurship programs have specific applicant’s profile in mind. The initiative is attached to our structural model which is a »distributed network«. The »distributed network« is a self-directed network including representatives and experts from art schools, educational organizations who are committed to foster innovative educational formats in the context of art and design as well as to enable change and access to knowledge in this area.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
One of the key objectives, beside accessibility and inclusivity is to introduce the participants into the development of innovative enterprise research methods. A particular approach we base our assumptions on is the connection between the creative and business practices: how those two practices are interlinked, how the business practice can benefit from creative approaches and methodologies and eventually how a business can be shaped by creative thinking. The positive effect of this approach is that participants don’t have to abandon their ways of working but can expand them while diving into new areas and business contexts.
Key objectives for inclusion
The central element of the initiative is the idea of creative agency which underlines the notion that creatives should take an active role in shaping an inclusive and fair world. To make it happen, they need to understand how the current political and economic systems function, its mechanisms and flaws. The promise is here: the more creatives with diverse backgrounds (unusual suspects) are participating in the entrepreneurial activities, the more diverse initiatives and businesses emerge.
Results in relation to category
We have carried out three prototypes so far on the local level focusing e.g. on peer- to-peer learning, self-directed learning, collective approaches. The studio is currently at the stage to link these activities to the formats on the European platforms as e.g. ELIA and open it up to participants from other European regions.
How Citizens benefit
With the studio we also aim to expand the idea of art and design and see it as a thinking tool that can find in purpose not only in physical implementation but in various societal constellations. With recent prototypes, we started our engagement with the city by working on various locations, involving organizations from the city of Berlin and also collaborating with the city through the format of summer schools. Our next collaborative summer school with Pratt New York is coming in July 2023.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
While the mainstream entrepreneurial initiatives are still focusing on the individual aspects of a creative person, the Start-up Studio addresses the notion of collective agency in order to tackle current societal challenges.
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
Apart from representatives in art and design, we have been interacting with experts from leadership, marketing, architecture, business development, communication, natural sciences. Various inputs contributed to the fact that the initiative is open for various participants and also can cater various needs.
Methodology used
Method framework: The concept of the start-up studio takes a learning by doing approach - to support people who are exploring how and why to found a venture.
The Start-up Studio uses the following three approaches:
Scaffold: bespoke workshops form a fixed structure that gives people a recognizable space for guided learning.
Reflective: open- space to stimulate peer to peer learning to allow needs to emerge and giving the participants the opportunity to design part of the process themselves.
Networks: Enabling connections to be made that can support participants to realize opportunities, address practical needs, and foster lasting networks with each other and beyond.
The Start-up Studio uses the following three approaches:
Scaffold: bespoke workshops form a fixed structure that gives people a recognizable space for guided learning.
Reflective: open- space to stimulate peer to peer learning to allow needs to emerge and giving the participants the opportunity to design part of the process themselves.
Networks: Enabling connections to be made that can support participants to realize opportunities, address practical needs, and foster lasting networks with each other and beyond.
How stakeholders are engaged
In our work we are continuously shaping concepts with a group of representatives from various stakeholders e.g. local organizations as the Senat of Berlin, Haus der Statistik, University of Arts Berlin; regional: School of Sustainable Development Eberswalde, national: K8 Institute for Strategic Aesthetics and HBK Saar, european: ELIA, Cumulus, Imagination Lancaster and the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths.
Global challenges
With regard to global challenges, we are primarily working on shaping the programs to transfer new skills, expand current curricula and introduce open-minded and inclusive approaches in education. Our efforts are linked to the European Skills Agenda which links to the green, digital and social transition.
Learning transferred to other parties
Both, the methodology of the studio as well as the formats can be transferred to other places and can be used in other contexts. These include especially: the set up of the studio which consist of already fixed elements (scaffolding) and emerging topics depending on the needs of participants; studying and questioning of current practices in art and design (model analysis), working on overlaps between individual practices of participants to come up with processes that could strengthen collective approaches.
Keywords
- future skills
- creative agency
- entrepreneurship
- collective
- communities
