Cultural Infrastructures - A Status Update

We look forward to hosting a conversation at re:publica again this year:

As cultural practitioners, musicians and artists, we use and need certain infrastructures that make our work possible - we think of social media, streaming platforms, performance spaces or public funding schemes. Now, at a moment when the major social media are closely linked to the (incoming) Trump administration in the US, when the local political climate is deprioritising social and cultural budgets, and when AI is filling your slot in the playlist on streaming platforms (which have never worked for creators anyway), we feel more than ever that we can't really rely on the services that provide infrastructures for our work. And with the right-wing normalisation that is happening in many places, including Germany, this will certainly be felt more strongly in the governance of these infrastructures.

But what does that mean? Where to go, what to use, what to do? In this one-hour conversation, hosted by Andrea Goetzke and Eric Eitel from Music Pool Berlin, we would like to explore the state of the various infrastructures. And we'd like to re-imagine what these infrastructures could look like. What alternative models already exist? Can we influence or improve existing structures, or do we need to build something entirely new? How can we build resilient, equitable and sustainable infrastructures for our work and society? How do we want to redesign and reimagine infrastructures? We look at the issue from a perspective of equity that would allow every human being to thrive.

After the session at 19:45, there will be space to continue the conversation and meet each other, alongside music by a2n soundsystem.