Original Cultures activities

Original Cultures’ CEP involves a process of “visits” whereby artists from European countries go to Japan and Japanese artists come to European countries (at different times) to participate in a series of activities that stimulate and promote cultural exchange through the performing arts.

The CEP’s core activities are:

• Cultural events: artists will take part in existing and/or newly created, cultural events where they will showcase their own work as well as work created live within the scope of the CEP. These events can take the form of festivals, live showcases in public or private venues and exhibitions in art galleries or similar cultural spaces.
• Workshops and collaborative works: workshops will be set up in the host countries and focus on 3 main elements. The first element will be the creation of unique collaborative works of art between artists within each art strand. The second element will focus on allowing the public to witness the creative process behind the creation of the collaborative works. The third element will involve setting up practical workshop sessions where invited members of the public can learn from the artists within each art strand in a hands on, focused format. Following the workshops, the collaborative works will be used across other CEP activities.
• Seminar: complimenting the workshops, seminars open to the public will be held where the collaborative works will be showcased and where artists can further interact with each other and the audience to discuss, explain and reflect on the different aspects of the cultural exchange.
• Remix project: following the workshops, selected elements of the collaborative works (both audio and visual) will be made available online for artists in the countries participating in the CEP to use in the creation of new works. In addition, short video edits of footage from the events will also be made available to soundtrack. The remixes thus created will then be released via the website. This activity furthers the cultural exchange process and allows it to continue once the physical elements of the CEP are finished, working in parallel with the release of various documental media content. In addition, it allows for non-participating artists in the respective countries to be involved with the cultural exchange.
• Documentation: by recording and documenting every aspect of the CEP using audio, video and text media and making it available online, Original Cultures plans to create a free, interactive and always available documentary of the cultural exchange process. In addition to the website, the documentation will be released and spread virally through social media sites (facebook, myspace, twitter, youtube, etc…), podcast feeds (linked to the website and branded) and additional new media channels alongside traditional media outlets such as print (magazines, newspapers) and radio. The documentation also opens up the possibility for monetization and the release of physical products such as a DVD.

In addition to these core activities, Original Cultures is looking at developing and implementing additional activities:

• Artist promotion: Original Cultures will make a variety of additional promotion channels available to artists during their stay in each country to allow them to further promote themselves, their work and their culture in the country outside of the project’s scope. This may include meetings with local music labels, radio stations, magazines, art galleries, promotion agencies and promoters etc…
• Cultural Network: to facilitate the entire cultural exchange program as well as to give it longevity and reach beyond those involved in any one event, Original Cultures aims to create and foster the growth and development of an international network of artists, labels, organisations and cultural entities in Europe and Japan. Among other things, the network will facilitate communication between all involved in the cultural exchange program, thus allowing for the actual exchange between artists and their representatives to continue once everyone has returned to their respective countries and helping the continuation of activities, works and mutual interests.

The goal is to develop additional activities and variations in the future to allow the cultural exchange program to grow as well as to provide both the public and artists with additional incentives for involvement.