Only For OPENLOT 

WELCOME TO OPENLOT (POLYSET Playing Rules) 

A shared practice-space for artistic research, collective play, and self-organised time.

🔍WHAT IS OPENLOT?

OPENLOT starts as an empty space and empty timetable — both are shaped by you and others over time. It's a yearly format based on a method (developed by artist Vladimir Miller).

You’ll find:

• A free, open accessible and shared studio environment

• Materials, tools, tech, support and even a small budget

• Fellow artists, researchers, thinkers, doers and possible co-workers

Move in with your practice. Work alone or together. Build your working space. Set your own rhythm and process and communicate it on the schedule for others

💡 There is no pressure to produce anything. OPENLOT is a space - enabling process.

🌀WHAT IS A POLYSET?

🔍The Polyset is yearly recurring, collective practice space. It's like a collective studio hangout, transdisciplinary atelier or turbo residency — with a few radical twists:

• No fixed structure, plan, or hierarchy

• No chairs and tables but material to build them 

• No roles like “audience” or “visitor” 

• Every practice negotiates space and time with others

• Make space for others (not just yourself)

• Your presence shapes the space and what happens inside

👉 Polyset = shared time + shared space + mutual care + creative autonomy

🌈 HOW TO JOIN & PARTICIPATE

• Ideally, spend at least a few days in the space

• Drop in, start small, grow your presence

• Respect the evolving nature of the group

💬 We have a daily check-in at 13:00 – be present to make it possible
📣 Anyone can invite others – guests become hosts inviting new guests

“A space is only truly available if it’s changeable.”

- Vladimir Miller

🧩 WORKING TOGETHER

• Use what’s in the space (tools, materials) — but ask before moving or repurposing shared things. There is also a storage nearby with a lot of construction material.

• Store bags, coats and private stuff at the wardrobe, no shoes policy 

• Build light: any structure should be safe even if it falls and no heavy things hanging

• Think co-habitation – not domination

• Take inspiration of these following PAF principles (read the full version to understand)
  “Don't leave traces”
  “Make it possible for others”
  “The do-er decides”
  “Mind asymmetries”

🗝️ ACCESS & KEY

• It’s open every day – from the first person who arrives to the last one who leaves. 

• Key is in a coded box outside and always needs to be there!

• Code is shared verbally with anyone who’s been in the space at least half a day
  (do not send it in a chat!)

• Last person locks both doors and returns the key
  (don’t forget to twist the numbers!)

• There is a little nipple inside the lock to keep it open if closed without locking it, if its up people can pull and the door is open. The last person locking the door should ensure that the nipple is switched down again (try and pull it you cant open its right)
  Nipple up = locked, Nipple down = closed 

💸 MATERIALS & BUDGET

• Check the space & storage first

• Ask others or in the chat - maybe sb can bring

• Up to 10€ per person per need: no questions asked

• Over 10€? Ask one more person to share the benefit

• Bigger shared costs? Decide together at the daily meeting

 🧾 Always write your name, amount & attach receipt to the spending sheet

🛡️ INSURANCE & LIABILITY

To join, you must either:

1. ✅ Sign the self-responsibility form every day
   (the moment you drop in)
   ✅ Or join our ECHOLOT Association once, and forget about signing papers everyday (45€/year, includes damage insurance and lots of advantages)

♻️ CLEANING AND RECYCLING

Please be responsible and green, don’t leave traces, and help make the space welcoming for everyone. You can find the full guide to cleaning in the Das LOT wiki. Before you leave, take some trash with you. Weekly cleaning party on Fridays.

🧠 AWARENESS & CONFLICT

OPENLOT follows:

• Das LOT’s House Rules

• ECHOLOT’s Awareness Concept

• These Playground Rules

You’ll find them all in the wiki - together they form our shared Code of Conduct
Conflicts? Try resolving them through space & time first (scheduling), if needed in the meeting. If they cannot be solved - feel free to contact us:

 📬 ahoi@lot.wien or Instagramm @das.lot
📮 Anonymous letterbox inside

🖼️ THE MINI-MUSEUM

Kick-off ritual: 

• share your practice

• Set up a small installation with past works, texts, images, etc.

• Add your current question, need, or challenge

• Walk through each other’s practices — like a soft-start exhibition

Daily reflection rounds:

• 1 → 1 min per person

• Day 2 → 2 min...and so on

Final day = Mini-Festival (invite friends or keep it intimate)
everyone X minutes depending on the amount of days before)
Keep in mind: It's Not a showing, but a sharing
We highly recommended it, but it's flexible — make it yours!

🤲 GENERAL MINDSET OF OPENLOT

✨ Take space – give space
✨ Receive trust – give care
✨ Share time, materials, knowledge
✨ It’s not a project – it’s a process
✨ Come as you are & start wherever you are