A Hybrid Start

And so it begins… With a hybrid kick-off on January 19th the long-term research project Going Hybrid, which will continue until December 2023, has entered its initial phase: figuring out what exactly ‘hybrid’ means to all of us as partners, and for the cultural field in general, as well as mapping out best and worst practices, gathering with experts in several knowledge sessions to discuss our research questions, and meeting with each other.

‘All of us’, that is, the lovely people framed so beautifully by our old friend Zoom (ha) here below. Going Hybrid is a collaboration between Hogeschool Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning Academie and The Hmm, MU, Varia, Hackers & Designers, IMPAKT, and Framer Framed. We’ll research three subdomains of hybridity: hybrid cultural events (experimental live broadcasting platforms), hybrid publications (exciting tools and formats within digital publishing), and living archives (ways in which we can incorporate all this hybridity into a living archive or website for our audience to enjoy).

But not to worry, we didn’t just stay on a dreaded Zoom call:

We quickly found out that this platform, Skittish, is a clear case of a bad practice, as it only signaled to us during the meeting that ‘free audio’ had run out, and we could ‘update by clicking here’. Not very handy, such an out-of-the-blue warning when you’re in the middle of a meeting on a platform that only works with audio and no webcam image.

Onwards and upwards we go, then! To find more best practices, to develop more tools, to discover more platforms, to gather knowledge from more partners, people, and places. And in the end: a public presentation and conference for you, yes you, to join, as well as a publication to read.

Dissemination partners for the Going Hybrid project are Domein voor Kunstkritiek, BK-info, rekto:verso, Eurozine, LIMA, Subbacultcha, Future Affairs/NRCSee All This, Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation.

Collaborating associations are Platform BK, De Zaak Nu and Federatie Creatieve Industrie.

Network partners are Fieldlab Digitalisering (DEN Kenniscentrum Cultuur & Digitalisering), Boekmanstichting, Public Spaces, Culture Commons Quest Office.

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