A new project gives the world’s club scenes a Creative Footprint

We all know about a carbon footprint. Well, now cities can be assigned a Creative Footprint thanks to a new non-profit initiative.

The worldwide collaborative project measures and indexes urban space in cultural capitals, hoping to enable communities with the information and resources to realise their potential against adversity.

A range of information, gathered by 50 local experts on Musicboard Berlin, is calculated by a technology developed by professors and students developed by Harvard University. This data, including information like the amount of music venues and events in an area, the opportunities for 24-hour licensing and social media engagement, is analysed through multiple algorithms to come up with a score for the city out of 10.

The initiative, spearheaded by Lutz Leichsenring of the Berlin Clubcomission was launched this week at the Music Cities Conference in Berlin and gave the city a score of 8.02 out of 10.

The initiative also breaks down the Creative Footprint of different areas in the city. Treptow, for example, scored highest with 8.54, while Schöneburg scored a 7.69.

Leichsenring said: “We decided to start the project with Berlin because we believed that it would set the standard for music scenes around the world.

“The score of 8.02 out of 10 shows that the city operates at an extremely high level, but that there are still improvements that can be made.”

Berlin is the first of 10 cities the will receive a Creative Footprint from the initiative.

The Creative Footprint will also offer editorial features and documentaries exploring Berlin as a music scene.

Check out an interview with Tresor’s Dimitri Hegemann on Berlin's scene below.

[Photo: Camille Blake]