Rural areas are often associated with certain and sometimes contradictory ideas. For example, the "rural" as an idyllic place of longing contrasts with the image of a traditional, non-innovative milieu. "KulturLandBilder" explores the question of the extent to which such self-images and images of others, narratives and ideas shape, promote or hinder cultural life and creative work in rural areas.

To this end, the project looks at two different perspectives: that of the actors in the cultural and creative industries and that of their addressees (users, customers, etc.). The researchers want to find out how the images of rural areas differ between these groups, how the actors deal with negative attributions and what role ideas of the urban and the rural play for cultural workers in rural areas. The aim is to raise their awareness of the relevance of such attributions.

The project investigates these questions by means of case studies on four initiatives and projects in the cultural and creative industries, which were selected in cooperation with the KreativLandTransfer project. The project team wants to gain insights into group-specific narratives with the help of social media analyses and in-depth expert and group interviews. In local workshops with live visualisation (graphic recording) and by documenting the project on Instagram, new images of space will be created and publicly discussed.

An additional, non-scientific perspective on the topic is to be opened up by a music competition "How does rural space sound". A journalist-in-residence programme is also planned, in which media representatives will accompany the work of the research teams and process it journalistically. The results will be made available to political decision-makers through policy briefs, among other things.

In the cooperation project with the University of Bamberg, the IfL will focus on the investigation of spatial semantics of rurality and rural culture using the example of non-profit cultural initiatives. The Bamberg project team is addressing the question in relation to the creative industries. The results of the coordinated sub-projects will be brought together in the broader context of the joint project.