CATALYSE_Shaking_Hans

2. WHAT IS “SHAKING HANS”?THE INNOVATIONPROCESS BY CHARLES LANDRYTHE IDEA OFSHAKING HANSHOW WE FOUNDTHE IDEAThere were four teams of ten people from companyfounders to researchers – all selectedbecause of their experience in cultural projectsspilling over into such fields as Energy/Climate,Economy/New Work, Urban Development andInterculture. They all did not know each othercoming from different age groups, differentcountries and backgrounds. The groups weremixed with participants from the Ruhr Regionand Europe.The teams were each given a topic to considerthat had been developed through a three-monthconsultation process with activists and experts,who understood spillover impacts, in the RuhrRegion a few months earlier. They were chosenfor being innovative in relation to the economy,the environment, intercultural issues and urbanspace. Each team had five hours to thinkthrough an idea and within that time to create aphysical manifestation of the project. They alsohad an international expert to guide this artisticdesign process with the help of a facilitator.The teams gathered at the end of the day ina room full of materials to create something outof pieces of wood and metal, Styrofoam, string,wool, paints, cartons, paper, chairs, pallets, theodd wheel and general garbage.The following day each team had to present theirproject in any way they wished ranging from asimple description to a play. Shaking Hans, aproject about Urban Development presented itsidea involving all the participants and got themost votes.PARTICIPANTS OF THESHAKING HANS TEAMThe Shaking Hans team was led by Charles LandryThe team comprised: Daniel Brekalo (Gigo) Brekalo/WaendeSüdost Essen, Jan Bunse and VilimBrezina/Urbanisten e.V. Dortmund, Anne Kleiner/Dezentralefür forschende Stadterprobung,Ringlokschuppen Mülheim, Susa Pop/Public ArtLab Berlin, Janjaap Ruijssenaars/Universe ArchitectureAmsterdam, Andrius Ciplijauskas/Beepart Lithuania and Philipp Olsmeyer/Trädgårdpå Spåret: Ideell föreningThe Urban Development team concentrated on aquestion: How can we increase the recognitionby the public and decision makers for thevalue of creative projects and processes? Thechallenge for the group was to create an ideathat could be interesting enough to influencepeople to appreciate the positive impacts ofimaginative projects for urban development andcommunity building.To begin the process of imagining someone inpublic space we created a stereotype. This was“Hans” (it could have been a woman too). “Hans”tends to be inward looking, he is somewhatsceptical about connecting, he tends to be a bitprejudiced and he is slightly self-satisfied andcomplacent. He is a big consumer and is a partof that culture of entitlement. He expects othersto provide for him. He is not a shaper, maker orco-creator of his evolving city. Crucially thereis a “Hans” in all of us.The challenge we set ourselves was to convinceour “Hans” to be less sceptical about gettinginvolved in urban life and engaging withhis community in order to increase his trustand confidence in other people to the benefit ofall. In addition the idea needed to be catalytic,replicable, scalable, flexible and relatively easyto do.Then the team had really got going and ideasstarted flowing. On large scale sheets therewere ideas, slogans and phrases and what shoneout was the notion of bringing “Hans” out ofhimself and this formed the core of the projectencapsulated in the slogan “From the familiarto the unfamiliar”. His favourite room at homewould be transferred, as a longer term art installation,to a public space. It might start withhis sitting room or bedroom and then the installationmight grow to incorporate his kitchen.To launch the project our “Hans” would be thereinteracting with the public for a weekend andthen other “Hans” stereotypes might take over.With a kitchen this transferred domestic spacecould become a temporary café. There couldbe associated events, from the humorous to theserious, small workshops, shared music performancesand more to discuss the power and potentialof the public realm. The core idea can bedeveloped in numerous ways including invitingthe general public could be invited to shape.We left the room to physically build our projectidea and someone said this is a celebratingsceptics project and then another shoutedits Shaking Hans. That was it, this was the titlewith its implied double meaning of both shaking“Hans” into having a consciousness about theimportance of public space and then too thatinteracting in the public realm is about a minimumof two people symbolically shaking hands.One key point - the Shaking Hans title - was saidquietly in passing, by someone who had hardlysaid a word up to that point, but for us it wasthe essence, but to see its importance involvedsome understanding of what the public realmis about.The physical model was centred on two chairsstuck together on a wooden pallet representingthe inward looking and the transformed “Hans”as well as large ball of wool roughly 200 metreslong. In the performance in a dialogue the old“Hans” described why he as he is – inward-lookingand uninterested - and the new Hans describedhis transformation process as a moreengaged citizen triggered by the interest of thepublic in him. As this dialogue is going on thewool slowly goes around the auditorium connectingthe project group and each member to eachother symbolically representing the notion ofshared public space.0809