#11 Communication in public spaces

Talking about social, individual or even critical issues is at the heart of every form of political education. However, it is precisely this core that is being shaken by the current challenges posed by the global pandemic and is being particularly challenged in many cases. Closed kindergartens and schools, closed youth clubs and clubs, closed sports clubs - almost all places of school and extracurricular political education have been inaccessible for over a year. So how can we implement the core element of discussion, communication and debate when hardly any encounters are possible? This is precisely the question that we at JoDDiD have been dealing with in recent weeks and would like to present an idea that we believe is easy to implement and that already represents a long tradition of social communication, especially in urban areas: Street art.

Legal walls or even non-permanent forms of street art, such as sticky notes, stickers or spray chalk, lend themselves to intervention and communication stimulation in school grounds, in front of the youth club or in nearby public spaces. As an established artistic moment, opening up communication via street art is also particularly suitable for cooperation with art lessons.

Creating asynchronous, external spaces for time-shifted yet joint encounters, design and communication. How can this be done? For example, by providing a large publicly accessible wall or exterior wall surface with sticky notes or post-its. Or making facades available for design with free forms of street art (graffiti, tags, stickers, posters, printed tiles...). Approaches to such artistically asynchronous communication can be questions such as: What are you missing right now? What do you wish for? What is good for you right now? What would you like to say to this place and the people here? What impression do you want to leave? What are you most looking forward to when you can be here again? What is the first thing you will do when you return? What don't you miss? What are you scared of right now?

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