Co-creation

Co-creation is a process shaped by multiple authors, where different agencies overlap and interact. In practical terms, this means that creative exchange is not simply “artist plus audience.” It can happen between artists, between artists and experts, or between artists and citizens, and the level of influence each participant has on the final result can vary widely. This is a crucial distinction for CO-VISION, since not every Local Debate needs to be co-creation in the same way. Some debates are exploratory and feed the process; others are designed as more direct methods of design and production.

The most useful way to think about co-creation here is as a spectrum rather than a binary. At one end, the exchange can function as an approach to innovation: people contribute ideas, observations, or references that enrich an artwork without determining it entirely. At the other end, co-creation can become a design method, where participants directly shape the output and the process is built around collaboration from the start.