Walking the circle - outside

[Erich Kolenaty]

Dear all,

I want to report a remarkable experience I made this week. I opened a space
for a new establishing network of artists, scientists and media people (
called "emergence of projects") here in Vienna. Around 25 people appeared,
in the expactation of getting new ideas, contacts and inspiration from each
other.
The idea was, to meet every two months- and whoever comes, is the right
person.

The starting session took place in the lounge of an artmuseum, who gave the
location and the beverages for free. Nice place actually, but when I arrived
there, I noticed, that the the main room for the session was nearly filled
up with one huge table and about 20 chairs around it (and some very usefull
sitting groups for the workshops in an additional room).

No chance to remove the table, no circle at all!!!!

Well, we had to start with some introducing proceedings, because the people
did not know each other and were very interested in who else had followed
the invitation and what meanings "emergence of projects" could have to them.
That was the easy part.

But how to open a space and walk the circle if there is no circle? For one
second I thought about walking the table, but that's too freaky, indeed..

So I decided to give to me and everybody else the imagination, there IS a
circle and walk it - outside. And surprise, surprise, it worked perfectly.
Though I always was in the back of somebody, I felt the space open up.
I defined a spot at the front of the table as the point to write down the
topics, people walked up and it worked like Open Space usually does.

My conclusion: Open  Space works even under irregular conditions, as long as
people get inspired and feel passion and responsibility.

Greetings from lovely Vienna.
Erich

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