Working with visual artists at an Open Space

Harrison Owen hhowen at adelphia.net
Fri Aug 11 13:30:41 PDT 2006 

One caution about visual artists and other such addendum. There is no question that visual reflection of the conversation can add a powerful dimension to the understanding of all the people. And the caution is -- the visual artist must be part of the conversation and not The Show. The good ones I know manage this juggling act very well -- which makes them good. But there are some others, and a serious conversation prior to the gathering about "place and role" can be very helpful. For me the real art is the people and the conversation. Everything else is just a supporting player. The same would go for technology. Over the years I have been approached by any number of bright techies who have created what they think would be the "perfect" addition to the OS bag of tricks. In one case the folks were peddling "Computer Based Decision Making." Everything passed through a computer by way of large screens. They were incensed when I declined their offer -- but I pointed out to them that I thought it was entirely possible that the folks could handle a conversation face-to-face. :-)

One of the early folks in the "Visual Facilitation" arena, David Sibbet, is an old friend. He may in fact have been the originator, but in any event he created something he called Group Graphics. In fairness, the product was marvelous -- but I did tease him a bit by suggesting that if he really wanted to do Group Graphics, then everybody should get in the act -- in whatever way they felt useful.  And actually in the First International Symposium for Organization Transformation we did just that. All 250 delegates were offered crayons, paints, magic markers, whatever and confronted by yards and yards of butcher paper. At the time nobody had a clue what Organization Transformation was and even less ability to talk about it intelligently -- so we drew it. Collectively. Seemed to work.

Harrison
 
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD  20854
USA
301-365-2093
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website www.openspaceworld.com
Personal Website www.ho-image.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Chris Corrigan 
  To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU 
  Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 2:03 PM
  Subject: Re: Working with visual artists at an Open Space


  Romy:

  Great to hear from you!  Thanks for those links and stories, they will be very helpful.

  Cheers,

  Chris


  On 8/11/06, Romy Shovelton <romys at compuserve.com> wrote:
    Hi Chris

    If by visual artist you mean what might also be called a graphic facilitator...
    I use this in almost every event/programme I'm involved in

    Captures the essence in '3d' (not literally), with instant visceral memory (mind, body, spirit) for those who were at the event – recalling the feelings etc that they had during the commitments etc they made. Heck of a lot more effective than report filed invisibly on the shelf. 

    Also brilliant for telling the story to others who weren't there. Eg. with event I did for the 40  most senior people in our DTI (Department of Trade & Industry)... The graphic was used afterwards to bring the Minister up to speed with the decisions etc. 

    The graphic becomes the output of the people, in the sense that they are asked to interact with the graphic facilitator to ensure that what's visualised portrays their experience.

    Used it recently to record appreciative stories of the work of an organisation that was going thru some fairly traumatic changes. Did the storytelling the afternoon before going into a day of Open Space about moving forward (with outputs also captured in a graphic). 

    These graphics were then photographed so that they could be reproduced in various sizes and used a motivational posters around the whole organisation (in many different locations). Often we 'encapsulate' the original and post it on the wall. One I did for the Small Business Service is still there some 3 years later – being used as part of the induction process for new people. 

    Also used graphics to capture stories in N. Ireland – working with young people and then adults – again before a day's Open Space (captured).

    Dunno whether this is what you are looking for...
    Trusting it helps a little

    Romy

    Ps the person I mainly use is Tim Casswell who is UK based, so probably not the best for what you are needing. And... to get a flavour of the work we do, you could look at www.creativeconnection.co.uk and see Visual Minutes... tho' I reckon many of the outputs he and I have capture show the potential more than some of the pics on the site eg. the balance of pics and words is more even in our work. Btw I used to use folks from Grove who have a different style – they are all over the US. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    From: Chris Corrigan <chris at chriscorrigan.com>
    Reply-To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
    Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 09:51:07 -0700
    To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
    Subject: Working with visual artists at an Open Space


    Hi mates:

    I have an opportunity coming up in the fall to work with a visual artist for an Open Space I am doing.  The clients wants us to work together and I'm excited by the possibility, but haven't ever done that before.  

    So what kind of good stories do you have of working with visual artists (and visual art as a modality) in Open Space.

    Daniel?  Reinhardt?  Is Nancy Margulis around?  Others?

    Chris

    -- 
    CHRIS CORRIGAN
    Consultation - Facilitation
    Open Space Technology

    Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot
    Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com

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  -- 
  CHRIS CORRIGAN
  Consultation - Facilitation
  Open Space Technology

  Weblog: http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot 
  Site: http://www.chriscorrigan.com
  Open Space Resources:  http://tinyurl.com/r94tj * * ========================================================== OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist 

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