by Diana Ekzarova
The State of the Union (SOU) is an annual forum for high-level reflection on the European Union organized by the European University Institute. The conference acts as a bridge between academia and policy-making in Europe, bringing together heads of state, presidents and representatives of EU institutions, academic experts, business and opinion leaders, NGOs, think tanks, journalists and representatives of civil society.
For most of the agenda, participants are involved in panels, roundtables and networking breaks. This year, as in the previous two editions, the Democratic Odyssey team presented a play involving immersive environments, combining democratic deliberation and artistic activities - music, dance and painting - as a means of galvanizing a new form of participation.
Navigating the Storms
In the traditional, formal atmosphere of the SOU, the Odyssey’s play became a space for the active and inclusive participation of panelists, organizers, and the audience.
The plot – which revolved around the DO ‘crew’ and three muses of arts saving the ‘ship’ of the goddess Europa – was clearly a metaphor for the current state of democracy in Europe, which faces challenges in responding to climate change, defense, economic development, cultural diversity, and building a sustainable future. All of these elements have brought democracy to a crisis (or ‘storms’), where it is up the crew alone to save Europa’s ship.
This is where the theater comes in: to bring together all immersive art forms through audio and visual tools. The three Muses represented each of the arts with their respective instruments. Terpsichore, the muse of Dance, showed different ‘moves’, which the crew members used to address the guiding question. With the muse of Dance, participants formed little groups in which they had to propose and then guess the meaning of a series of ‘movements’ addressing the key question: the body, in this context, became a vehicle to express unity, harmony, communication, balance, shared vision, global and mutual trust, teamwork.
Urania, the muse of Painting, helped the participants to draw their answers on the canvas. In this corner, participants were free to express their ideas in any shape or color. Notably, this exercise brought together not only adults, but also the youngest participants.
With Euterpe, the muse of Music, the crew touched different objects, which were connected to a ‘Playtron’ (a keyboard, composed of sensors linked to the objects; thereby triggering sounds). Participants became an orchestra, tuning their instruments and discovering a kind of ‘music’ from samples of baby’s cries, clicking coins, ocean waves, and many others. The polyphony was harmonized at the finale of the event, as Terpsichore danced to the rhythm of the deliberative melody.
After deliberating while using all the above tools, the muses presented the crew members’ responses – the music composition and the dance of Terpsichore in front of the paintings created by the participants. It was a powerful, magical moment.
Art as a tool: deliberation opportunities
What made this event unique and innovative was not solely showing art but using it as a facilitation tool when deliberating with a crowd with different opinions. The experience helped the crowd to begin to unify their answers to the very complex question of ‘what needs to change in Europe to navigate future storms’ - via a deliberative symphony of brush and dance.
To translate this into a practical proposition: art not only allows one to express emotions but it can and should be used as a tool to measure public opinion: by the specific sounds, moves, colors, and forms representing problems with economy, demography, inclusion, defense, development and many others.
Traditional facilitation methods, such as discussion groups and Mentimeter polls, remain essential for deliberation. However, this experiment demonstrated the increased engagement of participants when addressing a complex question through civic arts.
Democracy can be articulated via art in the same way art can be created by the voices of the assembly. There is much work to be done to explore this further; and we will be doing so indeed in the upcoming DO Assembly in Athens and beyond. In the meantime, the experiment at SOU underlined just how powerful this intersection of art and civic expression can be, and the central role it could play in our journey.