House of Hearts
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Full project title
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Project Description
The House of Hearts weekly live stream of arts, music and open talks in times of the COVID-19 lockdown portrayed a vast number of European and international artists, musicians, food bloggers, pilots, social entrepreneurs to keep connected within the European dimension. Exchanging informally within the private surroundings of the artists’ own living rooms, kitchens or other private places to deliver a strong sign of hope and reconnection, impulses, inspiration, music and art.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
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Description of the project
Summary
THE HOUSE OF HEARTS PROJECT
A LIVE STREAM OF INSIGHTS AND PERFORMANCES
The House of Hearts – a live stream of arts, music and open talks in times of COVID-19 and
lockdown portrayed a vast number of European and international artists, musicians, food bloggers,
pilots, social entrepreneurs to keep connected within the European dimension. Exchanging in a live
stream through the private surroundings of the artists’ own living rooms, kitchens or other private
places to deliver a strong sign of hope, impulses, inspiration and music and art. A weekly series that
connected people of different European and international cities with up to seven participants in one
live stream.
An open exchange with a mix of personal opinions and feelings, music and art performances for about
90 to 120 minutes every Thursday night:
A film-maker in London talked about his social projects and how he gathered a community to support
the poorest in the city. A start-up social entrepreneur in sewing kits from Berlin showed us how to sew
your own mask within five minutes. An Italian food blogger gave tips to create your own pasta-dough
with only flour and water. A pilot from Austria explained the positive and negative feelings he had
while flying the big planes all over this world and how he feels now that he has lost his job due to
COVID-19.
Most of all we spoke the international language of music to inspire and sustain. Not only for symbolic
reasons, did we stream from an isolated floating office and connected into the living rooms of more
than 50 artists in the times of the Austrian lockdown.
VEREIN 08 | i ♥ laden
www.verein08.at
STREAMS - YouTube
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbeOeb8pt4XVMt8c0VA2Lo-OP7vMTcWvl
Key objectives for sustainability
The House of Hearts live stream of arts, music and open talks in times of the COVID-19 lockdown portrayed a vast number of European and international artists, musicians, food bloggers, pilots, social entrepreneurs to keep connected within the European dimension. Exchanging in a live stream through the private surroundings of the artists’ own living rooms, kitchens or other private places to deliver a strong sign of hope and reconnection, impulses, inspiration, music and art.
In the arts and the performative culture we aim at the principle of a direct speech, direct immersive experience between an artist and an audience. the direct contact is a key to endeavour the artistic message. The wide range of contemporary production also involves international perspectives. Artists and their language, artistic expression, special dialect, special cultural heritage, they all are key elements in many intercultural productions. Many of them need to be placed directly on stage in front of an audience. There are artistic expressions though that can be enabled nowadays where certain artistic expressions can easily be stated, communicated and shared with artists not moving from their place of origin, their centre of productive activities. in our format initially there wasn’t any other option, due to a common worldwide lockdown we were driven into this solution, but experiencing the outcome and the impact of developing an intercultural international participative format we saw that sometimes the very core values can be transmitted much more direct and authentic through this concept: it makes a different for a viewer if the protagonists are in their very own surroundance and when we talk about poetry and exchange internationally at the same time with people the city poet living in Cincinnati, while being connected live with Rumania and India and Corea.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The project “House of Hearts” is an artistic, human expression of the logics of the lockdown. After 20 years of running an art-room, an alternative living room or salon in the Heart of Vienna, introducing international artists, scientists, new projects, a hub for special projects and initiatives, we directly switched to build up a digital channel, an online living room to keep inspiring people with ideas, messages and mainly artistic performances. in connecting into the privacy of 3 to 6 or sometimes more “digital living – rooms” (via zoom, twitch and other plattforms) we created an atmosphere of open, direct, private exchange and an audience could experience people they would normally see on a stage and with a distance now on actualy further distance (as they where united from worldwide) but by experience much closer, as in a private surrounding and talking as artists but in the same role also as private people. this brought a very open and honest approach to everything that was said, expressed and performed. The aesthetic expression and quality of experience was measured by the impressionistic approach of uniting a diverse and exciting cultural pool of people, sharing their various voices, experiences, styles and cultures from so many different places and times in the world, simultaneously on one digital stage. this perfectly worked out and the goal was to create something like a felt atmosphere during the two hours of intervention streaming every thursday evening. When it is 10am in the morning in Arizone or 3h in the morning in Dehli…it makes something in an atmosphere for an audience, and for the artists participating as well.
Key objectives for inclusion
The key objectives of our initiative “House of Hearts” was to establish an experience within the context of “times they are a changing”. Whether people are afraid of the current situation and the future to be expected, whether they are quick in adapting in changing surroundance . All these personal experiences were shared openly in the format we produced mixed with artistic expressions. Artists – very many times for the first time every – presented us works they have created in times of lockdown, and telling the stories that were bound to the inspiration. The extremely rich heritage of European voices, dialects, cultural expressions as well as international voices gave an audience as well as all the participants a feeling of identity, a feeling of “being in the same boat AND being heard, seen and understood” even if not agreeing mutually on every opinion. We mixed artistic expressions and performances with tools and workshops to create your own mask on a sewing machine by inviting a Canadian woman based in Berlin running the biggest start up for the collection of sewing patterns, showing us how to manage to create your own mask within three minutes. In the beginning weeks of the first lockdown. These presentations were created to spread joy, hope, information, invitation to engagement, social design, participation and we spent a lot of time and input to unite the participants who found interest in other guests. There were even jobs, that were given to participants in our format, who talked about their skills and not knowing how to keep on doing in the context of lockdown in April 2020 ff. This project wants to show that by just letting shapes form over time, give room and space to an initiative that there shall be time to properly develop and form a project by time, by trial and error, by being open for discussion amongst the participants. It was a lighthouse to many for inspiration in very disturbing and uncertain times.
Results in relation to category
As a counterposition to the common tv series “house of cards”, a storyline of intrigues, want for power, selfishness and more we wanted to dig deeper and show a wide range of human beings all over our planet sharing openly joy, hope, consolation, inspiration, thoughts, ideas, also openly sharing fear of the future, by many a common feeling, the fundamental elements within the human nature. I think it makes a difference to give these elements a stage, an open stage for citizens to experience the power and the substantial effects and impacts of our souls, finding trust in the inner values and opinions, become more open to share and discuss them and treat the “inner fortune” like they would have more public awareness. During the duration of the project many new relations were established. Open talks, open thoughts helped to also broaden empathy and sympathy. Many collaborations and even jobs were a measurable impact, without planning, but through the atmosphere created and the simple roll-out of the format proceeded to connect people all over the places. After two years we can state that it helped people in these times not only in everyday orientations (by coincidences an Indian graphic designer got a job within a science platform, a german pantomime started working with a French musician aso), but in finding an exchange, the spirit of human nature in a series of weekly talks, of consequent exchange and performance with an easy access and participation mode.
How Citizens benefit
The benefits of performances, music, poetry and many other artistic expressions are not only to inspire, share hope, but also to broaden the field for other topics, for opening up a forum where everyone participating felt like being invited into a living room. in this atmosphere it becomes easier for people to be heard, or to follow inspirations. We invited next to the various artists filmmakers, musicians, comedians, pantomimes, poets also food bloggers, young entrepreneurs, social workers, pilots and many citizens out of civil society who shared crucial experience, different from each other, but alike in the gravity of what it means in their lives as impact, to show the quality and equality in the face of fate and how we can equally react and how the arts can give a strong voice of hope, and paving the way via inspiration, identity and many other ingredients that can strengthen a character in everyday life. the direct way of speech, the spontaneous o-tones, reactions by artists, to follow simultaneously and without any “framed” or censured guidelines, like we know by many media platforms, have created an atmosphere of privacy although in the same time a public inclusive platform, these only in the first impression contradictive poles were important pillars of the main principles of the “House of Hearts”. As a counterposition to the common tv series “house of cards” we wanted to dig deeper and show a wide range of human beings all over our planet sharing openly joy, fear of the future, hope, consolation, inspiration, thoughts, ideas, the fundamental elements within the human nature. I think it makes a difference to give these elements a stage, an open stage for citizens to experience the power and the substantial effects and impacts of our souls, finding trust in the inner values and opinions, become more open to share and discuss them and treat the “inner fortune” like they would have more public awareness.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Culture / Art / Music 4.0
The core concept of "House of Hearts" is a radical inclusive and uncompromising low-threshold access policy. Whitin this project it was possible to assist and enable different individuals from all over the world to participate in and open discussion about different aspects of the current situation. Among the participants where scientists, artists, museum workers, musicians, artists and many other professionals who had no or very little experience with the live broadcasting technologies. An important aspect of the project is this open and collaborative learning and self-enabling spirit as well as a strong "failing-culture" of trial and error. If things don't work out as planned all participants improvise and develop new strategies on the fly.
Core strategies:
1. Reducing the skills gap
Arts and humanities are fundamental pillars of any education system, and in today’s technology-dominated world their contribution to the school curriculum is more important than ever.
2. Trust in technology
Today more than ever, art is necessary to build an emotional framework to make sense of the dialogues at the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Art and culture build trust; the trust we need to bridge conflicting views and interests, to overcome current barriers and obstacles with dynamic and innovative approaches, and to understand the values that are embedded in any process of technological innovation.
3. Musical production as a societal template
Art forms like music enable our societies to leapfrog the shortcomings of current developments and give us the possibility to deep dive into the consequences of futuristic “what if” scenarios on broad scale. Now!
Learning transferred to other parties
We developed documents and "how-to-do manuals" for our community and the people we adressed in order to participate that help and enable people to connect with our broadcasting setup and join our commincation channels without the need of expensive software or equipment. In the case of an already existing prior knowlege or hardware-setup for broadcasting we also developed intermediate- and expert-level documentation to synchronize live audio inputs with partners from around the globe.
Our "setup-guides" and individual assistance enable small groups and individuals to use their smart phones, laptops or basicly any other "audio-transfer system" to participate.
With experts in the field and complete beginnes alike we managed to integrate more than 23 countries worldwide and inspired and encouraged partners and participants to experiment in this field on their own.
We have gained lots of experience in setting up live performance and live streaming scenarios with an absolute minimal hardware investment and have been fearlessly experimenting with different formats in terms of moderaration and "co-hosting". Our findings may be used for other groups in order to plan and setup their own streaming concepts or "digital performance channels". These setups include technical, organisational and progerammatic dimensions and were aimed at a maximum freedom of expression for the participants. Many times the people involved waited for "their sign" and we found ways to tackle this "problem" but also keep up the sense of a close and intimate "livingroom atmosphere".
Our strategies to create a welcoming, open and radically inclusive atmosphere evolved over time and lead to a framework of preparation, action and postproduction that can be easily integrated in other contexts. If necessary we might also offer training in all the dimensions: programme, technical setup, organisation, communcation.
