Open Call_BERLIN_What threatens you?

OPEN THE BLACK BOXES is a participatory digital art project founded on the principle of “think global – act local”. It invites people across the world to submit a Single Word online in reply to one of two questions:

“What threatens you the most?”

“What are you most eager to preserve?”

OPEN THE BLACK BOXES provides an ongoing open-source database created by mapping people’s hopes and fears.The word-maps emerging from the participants’ replies in real-time reflect the evolving concerns of citizens globally.

OPEN THE BLACK BOXES offers real-time cultural and statistic material online for public use. Via visually engaging formats, the open-source platform reflects an ever-changing portrait of contemporary society. The project investigates the space between art, democracy and political action by focusing on how society responds directly to issues that affect us the most through the medium of art.

At a time marked by a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, social and environmental crises, we find ourselves in the clasps of multiple fears. We are in need of expression, and Digital Media offers the most liberating and ecological space for this action. By opening the ‘Black Boxes’ we symbolically bring to light the words that reflect what threatens us the most, or that which we are desperately eager to preserve. When put together, these single words help paint a magnificently insightful picture of our priorities, offering an opportunity to explore our shared public space, our shared fears, our shared aspirations. The main objective of this project is to help us visualise our angst and the hope that springs from it at the current juncture.

OPEN THE BLACK BOXES is a collaboration between the Greek artist Danae Stratou and the non-profit organisation Vital Space, a global, interdisciplinary, cross-media art platform addressing the pressing issues of our time.

The project builds upon the physical installation IT’S TIME TO OPEN THE BLACK BOXES! that Danae Stratou has exhibited across Europe, each time inviting people from the diverse local communities to participate: Athens (2012); Krems (2016); Paris (2017); Mallorca, (2017); London (2018); Ghent (2019). #opentheblackboxes