DESIGN HUB

LAC-DESIGN HUB

EUROPEAN CO-CREATION NETWORK FOR TECHNOLOGY-AIDED LANGUAGE & CULTURE IMMERSION

LAC-DESIGN HUB brings together actors from various creative and cultural sectors (CCS) (e.g. performing arts (especially theatre and music), language & culture education, av- and film production), creative information technology industry and applied linguistics to a so far unique European collaboration initiative:

An agile and strongly synergistic transnational co-creation network will be established as to empower and diversify the joint innovation potential of creative and cultural sectors, to boost their continuous professional development and innovation power through transnational collaboration, and to accelerate and continuously support the international distribution, visibility and impact of their professional performances and products through a technology-based ecosystem built around multi-institutional goalsetting, significant international outreach and long-term transnational co-operation prospects.

During the 3-year foundation project of the HUB (provisionally 1/2026 – 12/2028), CCS professionals from several countries across Europe will, at first, team up in regional “SUB-HUBS” and be guided through co-creative design and production of EXEMPLARY WORKS as to showcase the added value and the innovation power of the new European collaboration structure in clear terms. In this case, and as an up-to-date “kick-off example” for the HUB collaboration, this will be done through the co-creation of  film-based immersion adventures involving various performing artists in all countries and combining features of serious gaming, location-based experiences and value-adding extended reality (XR): Building on narrative, custom-authored screenplays with locally and regionally profiled approaches to globally relevant thematic areas such as linguistic diversity, cultural heritage and tourism, as well as intercultural (professional) communication, an exemplary set of simulative journeys will be produced, illustrating the substantial elasticity and the significant replicability of the simulation solutions with respect to both the contents design and the variety of user groups – ranging already in this case from diverse educational settings to “infotaining” and so far unique offerings for travellers e.g. on international flights to selected European destinations, demonstrating the strongly synergistic structures and the co-creation spirit behind the novel European design & production hub for promoting internationalization, social integration and life-long & -wide education for plurilingualism, intercultural understanding and sensitivity, as well as continuous professional development in exemplary working-life settings.

From the beginning on and as a common thread throughout all operations, special attention will be paid to climate-friendly and sustainable realization of green, entertaining and yet educative simulation journeys, paired with the gradually increasing integration of user incentives for physically active lifestyle and (especially mental) wellbeing. Global access to the film-based immersion journeys will be provided through an already practice-proven and ready-to-use online-laboratory for language performance and intercultural encounters that will, during the initiation phase of the hub, undergo an optimization process for future use as a sustainable, cost-efficient and both producer- and user-friendly distribution channel for simulation journeys and other works to be innovated through the LAC-DESIGN HUB also in the envisaged long-term transnational collaboration.

Building on extensive preparatory research throughout the past decade and the first international co-productions involving various user groups especially in educational settings in around a dozen countries across Europe and beyond, the main mission of the LAC-DESIGN HUB will be, at first, to consolidate, to extend and to systematize the multisectoral collaboration structures within CCS required for the described ecosystem to unfold its full potential: Along with the more general structures for design, production and international online-distribution of so far unique co-creation works, such as the film-based immersion journeys, additional functions and measures such as “regional radars” for foresight potential and development needs analyses, as well as continuous user-experience and -preference mapping for up-to-date content orientation, target group extension and appropriate quality assurance will be installed in the regular workflow of the hub. Along these steps, then, a systematic, “multi-level” approach will be introduced for tackling the present challenges faced in the creative and cultural sectors, including innovative pathways for continuous skills development and diversification, as well as for occupational prosperity also in international dimensions. At the same time, interestingly, so far unique solutions will be presented also for challenges and shortcomings experienced in the acquisition of plurilingual and intercultural competences amongst numerous key user audiences of the initiative: examples for reality-like immersion into multilingual and intercultural encounters for educational and professional purposes will be provided, as well as for simulative adventures enabling “infotaining” cultural tourism with options for a gamifed, immersion-type introduction into the linguistic characteristics of the respective destination – brought to the users by performing artists at each location and thus supporting European multilingualism in a so far unique manner.

Hence, the foundation project of LAC-DESIGN HUB will go far beyond  a „merely conceptual“ design of novel intersectoral co-operation structures and theoretical synergy development scenarios for the CCS: It will bring about a complete, both structurally and technologically optimized ecosystem for genuinely synergistic and co-creative design, production, distribution and implementation of co-creative works and include already at this stage various case-examples as to showcase the elasticity and expansion potential of the HUB – ready for instant global implementation and for further ambitious, long-term innovation work.

K.Haataja | CRI | LAC-DESIGN HUB | UPDATED: April 2025