PARIS GALAXIES
a Vision for the Greater Paris
 Future research about the making of the Great Paris in 2030

 An experimental project developed by LIID, attached to Institute ACTE (Sorbonne University),
awarded the Paris 2030 research grant (City of Paris)
in collaboration with Paris College of Art and emerging actors of the creative metropolis.
Creative Constellation Inquiry, 2013-14
  • Article 3 (EN): Creative Constellation Inquiry, 2013-14

 

The Paris Galaxies research team conducted in 2013, with the support of the Paris 2030 research grant from the City of Paris, a vast field inquiry to identify the “creative constellation” of the Greater Paris, and the type of practices that actively contribute to the emergence of the Greater Paris area.
The aim was to draw an aesthetic audit of this constellation, to understand finely the bottom-up urban dynamics, and future potentials (See “Paris Galaxies in Perspective, aesthetic audit critical report“).

The team thus created a vast database of the 300 creative hotspots of the Greater Paris area, i.e. 300 places, structures of projects, all located outside of the (small or old) Paris perimeter, and considered as artistic, cultural, creative or innovative in a broad sense.
This database gathers a lot of information to be used in the audit and to develop later on a full online map and collaborative tool (see map & platform research in progress). It includes: name, creative fields, address, website, team, contact, access, transportation time from the Chatelet Station, number of years of existence, subjective comments regarding the place and its aesthetic positioning, information source, etc.
A rich bank of images collected online, complements the database, allowing to visualize the hotspots and to give a brief but truly significant preview of the style of places or programs.
The inquiry included a series of workshops with French and international students from the Paris College of Art (Design Management Dpt), “Cultural Projects in the Public Space” Master program at Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University, and the Art Management Master program at Neoma in Rouen (See page dedicated to the Rouen Art-Based Urban Lab).
The hotspots investigation was complemented by a UX (User Experience) research where students had to give their critical analysis on a series of hotspots they visited, and according to 4 criteria: place/architecture, artistic programming/creative content, mediation/communication, and access/urban surroundings.

Students from the Paris College of Art (Oct-Dec 2013) were then invited to design future scenarios as fictional narratives including a selection of hotspots and fictional characters (resembling themselves). These elements will serve for the last chapter (due in 2015-16) of the Paris Galaxies project consisting in designing future vision for the Greater Paris in 2030.

As a more in-depth research on a specific site (Nov 2013-March 2014), students from Neoma Art Management Master explored possible future art projects to be programmed along the rehabilitation of the St Sever station in Rouen, meant to become with its new high-speed train line, part of the Greater Paris (See Rouen Art-Based Urban Lab page).

Students from the Sorbonne’s Cultural Projects in the Public Space Master program did only a brief creative research via the web (See page “GP Representations and Parties Prises”).