Working on Democracy

How can we make democracy visible in public spaces where it has been strengthened or threatened in the past and could be positively or negatively influenced in the future?

This question is at the heart of the project Working on Democracy. The focus is on topics such as (dis)information, economic factors, technology, extremism, inequality, and climate change. In workshops, residents and students explore these topics together.

The goal is to develop digital sculptures that can be experienced through web-based AR applications, making democracy directly tangible. Each intervention is linked to a specific location in the region with historical or current relevance. The workshops are designed and supervised by a team from Hannover University of Applied Sciences, HfG Offenbach, and the Augmented Bahnhofsviertel initiative. They develop user-friendly digital tools to facilitate participants’ creative engagement with the topic. The results not only make these locations visible but also enhance them, providing information that was previously inaccessible. This creates low-threshold, interactive opportunities for discussion, encounter, and participatory learning.