Text by Ibrahim Soetomo

Creative hub Indeks has published ‘Assembly Points’, a web-based toolkit inspired and adapted from the British Council’s Creative Hub Leader’s Toolkit. As part of the Creative Hub Leader’s Toolkit Hack programme, this kit consists of topics such as navigating an organisation, mapping risks, digital security, and psychological well-being. 

Indeks (2020) is a Bandung-based art collective focusing on archives and libraries, research and development, artist residencies, and film and moving image programmes. Based on their experience working in Bandung, Indeks aimed to make the original toolkit more applicable and agile to accommodate multidisciplinary creative practitioners for this hacking opportunity. In preparation, Indeks invited Kolektif Agora and Gulung Tukar as their think tank partners for an initial meeting.  

Kolektif Agora is a network of individuals that focuses on urbanization issues and economic growth through knowledge reproduction and publishing. Gulungtukar, on the other hand, is a multidisciplinary space in Tulungagung, a regency in East Java, which aims to create an inclusive space for the local creative practitioners. "Tulungagung is a region a bit farther from the city. The characteristics and workflow are different from the centre, which has lots of private sector circulation. Meanwhile, in the region, they depend on authorities such as the art council. Permission from the local government is also important," said Rizki Lazuardi, one of the Indeks members. 

The conversations with both collectives during this meeting have been foundational. Both collectives, which have different approaches and backgrounds than Indeks, have broadened their understanding of how a hub operates. They raised questions such as, "What is a creative hub? Is it a coworking space or an ecosystem?" They also mapped several factors, such as stakeholders, space owners, legal matters, and even the impact of online working during the COVID-19 pandemic; such subjects will make their way to the toolkit.

After the initial meeting, Indeks proceeded to three facilitated meetings to help them shape the topics available in the kit. The first facilitator was Amanda Mita. She is part of Riset Indie, a research collective on media, technology, and socio-economic issues. One of the issues raised here is community capacity building, which Indeks deemed important to know. Indeks also learned about Tuckman’s Five Stages of Group Development and Outcome Harvesting. We can find how Indeks adapted the prior in the first kit on initiating a hub, and the latter on ‘Defining Milestones’.

Indeks also thought about the importance of psychological well-being, especially during the pandemic. They invited clinical psychologist Shafira Fawzia as the second facilitator. In this meeting, they talked about the importance of caring and understanding ourselves and colleagues during the Work from Home period, as well as ‘Zoom fatigue’. We can read the further discussion on wellbeing in the last part of ‘Assembly Points’.

With researcher Afra Suci as the third facilitator, Indeks gained insights into digital security and ethics. This is also due to the pandemic, where migration to online working happened unprecedentedly. Not only can we mitigate the risk, but we can also map the potential of online work and digital behaviour.

Indeks began to compose drafts of the toolkit. To gain insights and first impressions, they then organized try-out sessions consisting of three online sessions and an offline one at their place in Bandung. By utilizing the Miro board app, Indeks invited artists, friends, and colleagues from various regions to participate in the online tryouts. "We decided to invite not only practitioners from Jakarta, Bandung, or Yogyakarta because creative hubs from other cities are more dynamic. For example, they often use a café for sketch jams. The practice is different," said Lazuardi. 

They received different outcomes and challenges. Some were not familiar with the toolkit format, and some were with the questions. The major difference between online and offline sessions is the pace; the offline session took twice the time. They also revised the kit layout for a better user experience.

‘Assembly Points’ took roughly seven weeks to make. The next phase is to keep boosting awareness of the toolkit even though the project is over. Now that we can access it online, Indeks aims for it to be applicable to creative practitioners of different stages; to map their potential and challenges, especially in embracing multidisciplinary attitudes, usually done by creative hubs in Indonesia. The kit will not only guide but ensure us a healthy and safe working environment. Mental health and digital security are important things to consider in a working environment. Indeks also hopes other initiatives can give feedback regarding the toolkit, and even hack it to suit their own needs.

‘Assembly Points’ is not a ‘linear’ toolkit, and we can always start over. As hoped by the British Council through the Creative Hub Leader's Toolkit programme, this kit will let hubs keep evaluating their vision and charting new paths.

Visit Assembly Points and the original Creative Hub Leader’s toolkit to learn more. 

 

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