16 April 2008

LabforCulture launches an online participatory project which invites people from around the world to share their personal interpretations of intercultural dialogue, Open Lines to Intercultural Dialogue.

The project looks at visualising language and exploring the variations and similarities of people’s interpretations of intercultural dialogue. Everyone is invited to contribute in their original language and in English and even to add an audio interpretation. The site is designed to intuitively navigate through the submissions by following recurring words that appear in the individual submissions.

A Dutch student, living in Utrecht says, "according to me, intercultural dialogue is about being open to and having genuine respect for and interest in an unknown culture." This submission links to all others that use the words: genuine, respect, culture or unknown.

LabforCulture produced Open Lines to Intercultural Dialogue to contribute to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and to experiment with using online tools to encourage debate and discourse across the cultural sector. The convergence of ideas, artistic perspectives and technologies is a key element of the work of LabforCulture in stimulating cultural collaboration and facilitating intercultural dialogue across Europe.

To see more online content on cultural collaboration go to the site and to read about using online tools in culture see our last newsletter.

Further Information:

1. Go online: http://openlines.labforculture.org
2. Press information contact: Nicola Mullenger: nicola@labforculture.org
3. LabforCulture is a partnership initiative of the European Cultural Foundation and is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
4. LabforCulture is a unique tool for artists, cultural professionals, organisations and networks across the 50 countries of Europe, and a platform for cultural cooperation between Europe and the rest of the world. It provides a wide range of linked information from funding possibilities to cultural news and through their open community space the arts and culture sector can post blogs, search contacts through the online profiles or simply make an announcement about an arts event. The site is in five languages: English, French, German, Polish and Spanish. http://www.labforculture.org/