Bahman Iranpour is a filmmaker and PhD researcher at Zeppelin University, studying socially engaged art in Iran. His work explores independent, collective, and participatory art practices as tools for social change.

Lilli Kim Schreiber is a researcher, curator, and journalist focusing on artistic research, curatorial practice, and cultural mediation. She explores institutional critique, decolonial narratives, and the sociology of art.

Julian Kraemer is a Berlin-based artist and scholar exploring technocratic modernity through painting, installations, and media. His work questions societal structures and collective organization.

Mariem Bettouhami is a Tunisian vocalist and researcher exploring musical fusion and intercultural dialogue. Trained in music and musicology, her work spans opera, pop, Latino, and traditional Tunisian music. 

These individual areas of research extend beyond the scope of this project, reflecting the diverse academic pursuits of the team members. Together, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 collectives in Tunis and Cairo, selecting nine for in-depth analysis. By prioritizing self-description over external evaluation, we sought to gain a deeper understanding of how collectives define and organize their work, often through fluid, non-hierarchical structures.

Our research reveals several key insights. First, collective care practices, often overlooked, are integral to sustaining collective work and should be recognized as strategic methodologies. Second, collectives excel at distributing and sustaining resources, with their perceived inefficiency often serving as a strength through diverse decision-making processes. Finally, the study underscores the need for a new, more nuanced glossary to better capture the complexities of collective terminologies, which remain largely unrecognized in institutional policy frameworks.
These findings are disseminated through two main outputs. The first is a research article, which delves into the theoretical and practical aspects of collective infrastructures and provides recommendations for supporting such practices in the cultural sector. The second output is collectivize.org, a digital platform designed as an open-access resource for artist collectives worldwide. This platform fosters dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge exchange, offering a space to share experiences, resources, and strategies. By doing so, it aims to support sustainable collective practices and strengthen the global commons in the arts.