1:1 scale — action at the real scale of life rather than at the level of a model; the more useful it becomes, the less it “looks like art” — and the better for UC.
Aesthetics that harm the place — a form or mode of running an event that damages the environment or affects residents negatively (noise, light, heavy infrastructure); a signal that the action should be redesigned.
Arte Útil — the “useful art” movement: projects are meant to serve people in real terms, activate change, and turn recipients into co-creators-users.
Art coefficient — the difference between the intention and the effect of a work; a measure of “how much art” is revealed in an action or thing.
Conceptual figure — a simple framework of thought that organises a complex process (it does not impose an aesthetic, but provides a shared language of work).
The conceptual figure of UC — an understanding of the process along the axis PROPOSAL → USE → MAINTENANCE, with feedback leading back to PROPOSAL.
Cycle Closure (Ø) — a plan for meaningful ending / slimming down / transferring care; what remains, what is returned, and who closes the process.
Decision footer — the concise conclusion of a card: We sustain / We revise / We phase out / We transfer (U6).
Egalitarianism / Access (E) — a filter of inclusivity: removes financial, linguistic, and sensory barriers; ensures that users are not limited to a narrow group.
EVAL — a part of each criterion: a concise evaluation of “what actually remained and what should be improved” after a given period of time.
Ex ante — checking assumptions before the start (the T/O/M filter, Risk Areas); if something does not pass, we return to PROPOSAL.
Ex post — evaluation after completion: what works, what does not, and what should be revised / handed over / phased out.
External Effect — a valuable, unplanned “side effect” of use (for example, a new ritual, a tool, a bottom-up adaptation).
Flows and Boundaries (FB) — where resources come from, what happens to waste or outputs, and whether costs are being shifted “elsewhere.”
Hero mode — everything resting “on one person”; a fragile system with no transferability of roles.
Hospitality — clear rules of access and of feeling “at home” (plain language, a low threshold of entry, the possibility for new people to join).
Horizon of Evaluation (T/O/M) — three boundary conditions: Time / Durability of Use (what remains over time), Ownership / Shared Responsibility (who carries the project), More-than-human (do no harm; care for the place).
“Just enough” scale — limiting intensity and capacity so as not to overburden people or place; a preference for lighter or more dispersed forms.
MAINTENANCE — long-term care and continuity of action after the project; the measure of the effect’s real vitality.
More-than-human (M) — an expanded perspective that includes non-human beings and systems; a project should have at least a neutral, and ideally a regenerative, impact.
n/a — not applicable — a mark used for a field or criterion that does not apply to a given project.
Ownership / Shared Responsibility (O) — shared creation, shared decision-making, and shared care distributed among many people; a counter to “hero mode.”
PLAN — a part of each criterion: the hypothesis of change, target group, tools, rhythm, and rules of implementation.
Post-artistic era — a condition in which art merges with everyday life; a high “art coefficient” may occur outside institutions, in the practices of life itself.
Post-growth — “just enough” rather than “more”: restraint, shared resources, and usefulness over the production of effects and constant scaling-up.
Posthumanism — a perspective beyond anthropocentrism; co-creation with non-humans and technologies, and responsibility for the whole web of life.
Premiere-centrism — the fetish of the “opening” at the expense of continuity; high attendance at the start, followed by emptiness.
Profiling Criteria (U1–U6) — six dimensions for describing a project’s “life in use”: from intensity and depth, through care and locality, to resilience and transferability.
PROPOSAL — a clearly described possibility of use: what / for what purpose / for whom / under what conditions; the point of reference for later evaluation.
Red flag — a brief warning signal indicating a typical error or risk (for example, hero mode, token consultation, attendance without change).
Reflexivity (RE) — self-diagnosis of meaning: what we omit and why, what would happen without the project, and what side effects we generate.
Relational aesthetics — the design of situations and micro-communities; relationships as the primary medium of the work.
Rebound effect — a paradox in which growing visibility or success increases the scale of burdens, thereby worsening the ecological or social balance.
Risk Areas (E / FB / RE / Ø) — four “filters” for typical gaps: E (access), FB (flows and boundaries), RE (reflexivity), Ø (cycle closure).
Snowball — Ludwiński’s metaphor: art “grows” by absorbing ever more areas of reality until it merges with life.
Social sculpture — society understood as a material to be shaped; “everyone is an artist” in the sense of co-creating the common good.
T — Time / Durability of Use — the continuation of practices and relationships over time, within the limits of available resources; more important than whether “the object is still standing.”
Token participation — participation without agency; meetings held merely “to tick the box,” without users having any real influence.
TRACES — evidence of use and effects (documentation, decisions, artefacts of competence); the basis for credible evaluation.
Transfer “as it comes” — copying a format without local adaptation; this risks “colonising” new places.
U1 — Intensity — who uses the project and how often (scale, rhythm, diversity); red flag: movement without care.
U2 — Depth — what changes in practices, competencies, or procedures; red flag: attendance without change.
U3 — Maintenance / Care — who carries the project and under what conditions (roles, rotations, instructions, care budget); red flag: hero mode.
U4 — Locality — rootedness in place and co-decision-making by users; red flag: token consultation.
U5 — User / Community Resilience — autonomy after the project (competencies, networks, simple procedures); red flag: without us, the project does not live.
U6 — Transferability — what belongs to the core and what is local surplus; instruction and adaptation protocol; red flag: transfer “as it comes.”
USE — implementation and real use by people, confirmed by traces; the middle link in the UC axis.
Usage Coefficient (UC) — a measure of vitality: use + maintenance + trace; what matters is practical, durable benefit.