Co-participation, Synchronization, and Improvisation. Phenomenon of Sep Community and its Humanitarian Practices

Space of Change and Cultural ProgrammingNew humanitarian practices capable of transforming everyday life of small territories and creating a true space of action and interaction are always directly connected with the internal demand for change. Our research and project team leaders have almost a ten-year practice of cooperation with the community of Sep village located in the Udmurt Republic. A number of social and cultural projects have been implemented in the village: from Authentic Geography (2008-2011) to the opening of the Community Museum of Disappeared Villages (2017) [1-3] and Cultural Quarter (2018). [4] In the next 2.5 years, a new stage of the joint activity is connected with a peculiar institutionalization of the local community (the establishment of the Sep Community Cultural Center in a typical village House of Culture) [6] and its intervention beyond the village boundaries in the territory of the district s center (the creation of an immersive exposition built around Sep s audio content in Igrinsky District Local History Museum) [7]. A full-fledged creative cluster with stable horizontal ties with other settlements, professional and expert community, and the region and Republic authorities is being formed. Moreover, there is a rare possibility for the village residents to get competences in the field of museum work, collecting and archiving material and intangible heritage, its preservation, popularization, and promotion. The new generation involved in this large-scale experiment earlier actively participates in the long-term cultural reprogramming of the territory. The model of active participation facilitates the synchronization of joint efforts on the choice of the strategy focused not on "survival" as it used to be in the previous historical periods due to the social and economic paradigms change and the destructive practice of village settlements enlargement. Here, we talk about immersion and self-identification, opportunities for improvisation as the basis for creative freedom and the emergence of new cultural content.