In the participatory project How black do things look to you? the Department für öffentliche Erscheinungen approaches the population in nine selected, exemplary places in the Tyrol, collecting a picture of opinions and mood through participation. In this project the participatory function of public space is revived and the urban sphere becomes a location for exchange and the formation of opinion. The action calls upon participants to make their personal opinions visible, and also offers the opportunity for dialogue and social action.

The action project How black do things look to you? takes place in each participating town on two subsequent days. The map with the grey areas is distributed among the population by members of the Department. The participants are required to select their own personal “crisis stage”, to detach it, and to explain their selection briefly with a comment on the back. After this, they stick it to the movable transparent wall. The mobile, transparent walls allow for making the personal crisis images visible and legible to everyone. They assemble a differentiated picture of the mood in the place. The action and the process of How black do things look to you? is supervised, presented and documented actively by the Department für öffentliche Erscheinungen over the full period.

In this way, the Department responds to the theme of crisis. Crisis everywhere?! Abstract and concrete, in the financial world, in industry, and in private life. Economic measures, redundancies, losses, bankruptcies … – a scenario of threat? In the media there are reports on the crisis, there is a lot of discussion everywhere, but what do the people think, and how do they assess their personal situation? How does the Tyrolean population see its future?