laboratoire écologie et art pour une société en transition
research-education
Thanks to its experience in the field, least creates horizontal and sensitive learning environments with the aim of circulating knowledge and making jobs in the cultural sector more sustainable and better integrated into society.
Trandisciplinarity
least brings together local scientists, artists, thinkers, and professional experts to share knowledge and know-how. Experimenting, learning, and acting together by pooling everyone’s resources is the starting point for regenerating society and the way it works. By promoting alternative ways of perceiving, learning, and exchanging knowledge, least fosters the creation of a shared, decompartmentalised body of knowledge that runs counter to individual competition.
Convinced of the extraordinary capacity of artists to think outside the box, to invent, create, and poetise reality, least sets up research/action processes that are designed to provide a forum for sharing experience, speaking out, reflecting, and creating narratives. The infiltration of art into the various scientific and academic disciplines, but also into everyday life, will give rise to new concepts and possible futures.
In the field
Working on cross-disciplinary and co-creative projects in the field has enabled us to accumulate a wealth of skills and tools that feed into our way of working. We now wish to share this knowledge with artists and cultural players in the region, through forums and actions dedicated to training and discussion. Our aim is to create, in collaboration with other local entities, a sustainable alternative to the professions in the cultural sector, starting with that of artist. We want to offer a framework that will enable artists to provide real support to society in the complex transition we are undergoing and to allow their ability to link the sensitive and the intelligible to flourish and spread.
Professional sustainability
To make this possible, it is important to take care of the artists, the projects, and the communities involved. How can we support artistic practice? How can we expand the artist’s range of tools, the potential of the profession, and the continuity of a career path? How can we ensure support throughout the creative process? How can we encourage an ecology of production that is open to experimentation and research? How can we guarantee access to culture for all through participative and co-creative artistic practices? How can we ensure the cohabitation of different realities that complement the current systems of creation and production?
Time and space for learning
least shares these questions and seeks to respond to them collectively by providing time and space for learning. Workshops, courses, lectures, debates, walks, meals, or formats to be invented together: these learning practices are based on principles of participation and co-creation, as well as sensitive and embodied practices. Experts, thinkers, researchers, and artists are invited to assist in the learning processes in a horizontal context, with the aim of discovering different ways of working together, pooling and sharing experiences, and encouraging the emergence of spaces for analysis.
The Challenges of Participative and Co-creative Artistic Practices (2024)
Research
Thanks to its experience in creating transdisciplinary projects, least takes part in research groups in dialogue with Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) and standard universities. Our commitment is linked in particular to offering sensitive and co-creative practices to enable the evolution of knowledge, content, and formats in educational contexts. Since 2023, least has been involved in Faire commun: Évaluation Collective et Sensible des Communs de Rigot, an HES-SO research project, in collaboration with HEPIA, HEAD – Genève, and the OCAN (Cantonal Office of Agriculture and Nature). The aim of the research is to evaluate the common features of Parc Rigot through actions that have already been carried out and by developing the long-term management of the site by the new user community (IHEID, Collège Sismondi, CHC collective accommodation centre, Rigot Hospice général, etc.). In addition, the project seeks to develop methodological approaches for spreading these experiments to other spaces and neighbourhoods in the Greater Geneva area, with the aim of fostering the development of a living, sustainable city.