Concept for a media lab for young people in Seestadt, combined with a program of fact-based knowledge transfer and the possibility of practical work in the context of media production and the bonus option of certified internship

concept | programming | text alexandra reill 2015
production kanonmedia | vienna 2015

The treatment was developed for submission to sponsoring organizations and regional development offices.

CONCEPT

The mediaBase_Seestadt project provides new impulses for contemporary low-threshold cultural work on a bottom-up basis. Through the cooperation of experienced and aspiring media experts, “professionals” and “laypersons”, mediaBase_Seestadt offers residents and people from different regional neighborhoods the permanent opportunity to acquire know-how in contemporary media production, to deepen it in a creative way and to receive relevant certificates.

In the framework of projects lasting several months, which are developed together with the participants and institutional partners from youth and social work as well as from research and business, young people can discover, test, deepen their competence in media production, complete an internship and gain a certificate through competence checks based on the CEMES standardization recognized by the EU as a Best Practice Competence Check System.¹

The work projects range from offers for the public space of Seestadt to participatory performances, media productions and installations, radio and TV productions, Expert Workshops and high-level BarCamps, always in innovative production formats of the 21st century and organized in cooperation with specialized organizations from the production fields involved.

As an independent media lab, located in a new urban conurbation, mediaBase_Seestadt offers free infrastructure, workspace and communication space, the possibility of free experimenting within the framework of innovative media culture and regional development projects as well as the specific acquisition of know-how in the context of selective, multi-day intensive workshops and high-level-expert camps in the areas of graphics, video, audio, 3D and virtual reality, web design, social webbing and new approaches to communication, led by recognized experts in their field in cooperation with media and educationally trained youth and social workers. In this way, participants can acquire valuable knowledge and indispensable production experience, which are confirmed to them with quality certificates and which serve their professional development.

mediaBase_Seestadt operates in an interdisciplinary manner and serves as an innovative cultural mediator between youth work, social economy, technical and university education, labor market policy and economy. By networking with institutions and NGOs from these areas, there is an ongoing exchange between experienced media production experts, students, adolescents and young people looking for work, who at any time have the opportunity to obtain a certified internship based on an AMS [Austrian Labour Service] grant in the mediaBase_Seestadt to complete practical or work training.

The open structures of mediaBase_Seestadt send impulses to municipal and national institutions, thus enabling vocational and therefore also personality development in a procedural and thus lasting and sustainable way – always with a look at the individual needs, possibilities and interests of the participants.

TARGET GROUPS AND STRUCTURE

The target groups of mediaBase_Seestadt are young adults as well as institutions and NGOs from those fields who work with young people in terms of labor market and social policy as well as in the technical and university sectors.

Through the context of specific projects mediaBase_Seestadt offers the opportunity to meet in open spaces, to discover own interests and possibly still unknown job profiles and to develop basic know-how in the sense of deepening own interests. It finds and promotes creative and innovative talents and connects them with social and commercial areas of society to open up specific professional options.

The mediaBase_Seestadt is a place where young adults from Seestadt as well as from all over Vienna can try themselves out artistically and technically, discover and deepen their own strengths, take further training, tackle and gain practical, certified work experience and develop the courage to pursue careers “with a look outside the box“.

The day-to-day operation of mediaBase_Seestadt takes place in two rooms with basic infrastructure and access from the street [workspace and communication space], equipped with ten laptops and internet access. In this context, two employees who are trained in media education and in youth and social work program, coordinate and support the ongoing work of the participants on projects related to Seestadt, the Expert Workshops and LabCamps held by professionals in their field.

With a special focus on “sharing” and “open access to information”, mediaBase_Seestadt attaches great importance to an open exchange of knowledge, the free transfer of know-how and free access to equipment and technical resources. In everyday life, open access and sharing require a framework that enables appropriate openness, and so the mediaBase_Seestadt builds on the following structural pillars:

• Open Node

The mediaBase_Seestadt has regular opening times, during which the premises, the technological infrastructure and the know-how of the employees are open to everyone who wants to communicate and / or work there, who wants to visit the mediaBase_Seestadt. The mediaBase_Seestadt is a technologically shaped community lab, a place to meet.

• Open Technologies

The computers of mediaBase_Seestadt have all current licenses for professional media production in the segments of print, video, audio, web design, animation and 3D, so that there is continuous access to production options with a wide range of uses. In addition, access to specific expert software in areas such as 3D printing, video image processing, interactive media programming, video mapping etc. is available through the booking of experts, as these, through their licenses in combination with open source software, provide access to the relevant know-how.

• Open Traineeship

With funding from AMS Vienna and through networking with various private companies and educational institutions, selected participants who are looking for an internship have the opportunity to receive certified internships based on job testing or work training with a minimum duration of four weeks and a maximum duration of twelve weeks to complete.

These participants are involved in the ongoing projects of mediaBase_Seestadt with 30 hours per week; they acquire practical production experience and can continuously improve their production knowledge. At the same time, they have access to all Expert Workshops and Media BarCamps at any time, and their visit will count towards their internship duration.

Thanks to the close networking with such partner organizations mediaOpera and Salotto Vienna, extensive operational options and diverse access to knowledge and technological resources are available. Through this networking and the low-threshold offers for the participants, the mediaBase_Seestadt offers the ongoing opportunity for the specific development of products that are suitable for commercial use and can also serve the local area of Seestadt, be it in the form of projects to co-design public space, job orientation, looking for a job, starting a business or freely designing vivid cultural space.

In summary, it can be said that mediaBase_Seestadt networks with at least six decision-making segments: regional development, the research and education system, labor market policy, youth work, the art and culture system – and, last but not least: the individual needs and wishes of the participants.

Spaces are formed by people, and self-empowerment in eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose communication is the language of the future. To promote skills that a person of the future can happily and well use, courage and the freedom to innovate are needed. Thus, mediaBase_Seestadt promotes regional development at the interface between education, research and culture; social affairs and economy; the experiment connects representatives of different social profiles; and through technology creates local and translocal anchoring.

SUSTAINABLE USE

The mediaBase_Seestadt is set up at regional development level as a pioneer project, with the aim of becoming a sustainable center for innovative knowledge building and internship development in Seestadt Aspern, with the participants being continuously monitored and evaluated in their successful development.

In the outskirts of cities in particular, diverse and creative approaches to social development are in demand. Open and transdisciplinary communication from different organizations is needed to build cities of the future. Creative freedom is a premise for mediaBase_Seestadt, combined with the offer of profound knowledge transfer and the possibility of practical work in the context of media production as well as the bonus of the certified internship.

The goal of mediaBase_Seestadt is to provide a sustainable framework and structure for experimental and educational projects that are oriented towards the needs of the participants; this requires interdisciplinary communication and education in media production, practiced in internships based on job trials or work trainings and confirmed by certificates – for young people who are now trained as peer coaches to act professionally in exchange with representatives from business and social affairs, from education and research.

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1 Autor_in ungenannt: Das 3-stufige Verfahren zur Feststellung beruflicher Kompetenzen, in: CEMES, Competence Evaluation Method for European Specialists, http://www.cemes.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=95&Itemid=57&lang=de, Publikationsdatum ungenannt, Aufruf: 09/03/2015: „Mit dem EU-Projekt „CEMES“ wurde ein System europäischer Zertifikate für die Managementfähigkeiten und ein entsprechendes Prüfungsverfahren entwickelt. CEMES steht dabei für: Competence Evaluation Method for European Specialists. Dieses Projekt wurde in der Kategorie Transparenz und Anerkennung von Wissen durch die Europäische Kommission als bestes europäisches Projekt mit dem Helsinki-Award 2006 ausgezeichnet. In der Folge wurde das entwickelte Prüfungsverfahren als selbständiges Produkt „CEMES Kompetenzfeststellungsverfahren“ weiterentwickelt.
Im Rahmen des „CEMES Kompetenzfeststellungsverfahren“ können damit neben den 26 definierten Managementkompetenten auch andere Fachkompetenzen evaluiert werden. Die zu bewertenden Kompetenzen und die dazu gehörenden Fragen können entweder aus dem CEMES-Pool ausgewählt oder entsprechend dem spezifischen Bedarf entwickelt und neu hinzugefügt werden.“