behind/beyond PABR –  a sound project 

by Kathrin Wildner with Katharina Pelosi and Tanja van de Loo

behind/beyond PABR is an ongoing exploration and comment on the participatory scientific-artistic research project PABR, looking behind methodological formats in order to transfer the terms and tools to urban practices and extended publics beyond scientific and artistic communities.

The aim of PABR is to make research more inclusive, more democratic. It is an important task in societies that are increasingly based on commercialised knowledge production to make research practices accessible to everybody. behind/beyond PABR looks at the findings of PABR and discusses ways of extending the (foremost academic) approach and language of the well-elaborated online text formats into other media, in order to make it accessible for wider publics. The transfer of the formats into participatory collaboration with urban political actors will be tested and commented on in the form of re-readings and interviews.

behind/beyond has a look behind the written texts of the online publication, relating the research formats to urban politics and activist practices, discussing them with urban practitioners and feeding them into participative settings as well as alternative institutional practices.

A close re-reading of the texts about the research formats on the website of the research project (PABR, https://pab-research.de) is guided by questions of the HOW and WHO of thinking and acting. Above all: What can we do with these formats? How can they be applied in urban actions? We will discuss these questions with urban practitioners and activists. Furthermore, in order to reach beyond   scientific and artistic communities and to include political activists, political educational projects, etc., we conceptualise and compose short sound files and make them accessible on social media platforms such as SoundCloud, Instragram, and Twitter. The publication and promotion of the sound files in social media channels as formats of engaging audiences guarantees that the knowledge is fed back into current urban practices. It is thus a necessary extension of knowledge transfer.

behind/beyond can be read as an ongoing circle of participative knowledge production of PARB.

Researcher:

Katharina Pelosi, audio artist and sound designer in the field of performance, radio play and installation. Her award-winning sound designs and radio plays have been performed in numerous  theatres and festivals.

Tanja van de Loo, graphic designer and developer of practice concepts and campaigns. Her work is based on intensive conceptual research, many years of work experience in participatory urban policy contexts and outstanding graphic interventions.

Kathrin Wildner, urban anthropologist, member of metroZones Berlin.