AW: Working with visual artists at an Open Space

Michael Herman michael at michaelherman.com
Thu Aug 24 09:55:35 PDT 2006


thanks for taking up birgitt's challenge, reinhold.  a few thoughts to
follow what you say...

first, i am surprised that you say you are an os outsider.  i always think
of you as very much inside of this community and flow.

next, to where you finish, in reference to artists gathering in open space,
i agree with what i think you're saying, that it's a different matter when
artists gather to do their own work in open space, dancing, singing, etc.
that is not the central question here, which started with chris asking about
working with a visual artist/facilitator in an upcoming gathering.

then to the bit about text proceedings being boring and lifeless, i
absolutely agree with you about how such things can have the life squeezed
out of them by round after round of revisioning... but i actually find that
when we type the rough stuff and put it all on the wall, the wall just
vibrates.  the books we print for longer and larger events have a real spark
in them.  that they don't work for you may be true, but i have heard stories
of these books being desktop references for years after a big event.  this
to me gets to the issue of us being outsiders when we come to facilitate a
gathering.  it's not our job to say what the issues are, to tweak the
language of their expression, to set the order or importance or
connections... we invite participants to do all of that.

i would include in that same realm, that it's not my job to tell them *how*
they should document or *what* will have more life and meaning for them.  i
would never suggest a visual artist/facilitor unless they were bringing it
up in some way themselves, at least bringing up the need for one.  in the
same way, i don't impose a gallery of posters, a text document, a weblog, a
wiki, or voting as the document option.  i talk with them about what they
want to produce, what do they want to sustain following the meeting, and
what will make the results of the meeting *real* for them.   the important
thing for me is that it fits the purpose, the people, and that it is
something that *they* will be able to sustain going forward, if sustained
actino and movement is their intent.

you quoted...

Michael Hermann writes:

" is the artist's work beautiful, interesting, magical, and more? yes, of
course. but what if i am a great story teller? would i ever get up and
attempt to 'keynote' the closing circle with my own summation?"

  Of course Michael expects everybody to cry out "of course not!" But I say:
WHY NOT??????

my simple answer to why not is that i'm not a member of the group, i'm there
to give attention to the group, and -- i think -- make nothing.  i invite,
they make, they document, and they act.  not because i'm not smart, not
caring... but because i'm not *in* the group... i likely don't understnad
the issues well enough to comment, i'm likely not to be around when the
solutions have to be implemented... i may be *in the system* for the day(s),
but i'm not long-term committed to the work in the way that they are.

even if i have a brilliant ability to take them up the mountain and show
them the way and the future and the glorious swirl of everything, if i leave
them after teh last day with the expectation that they can do what i do, and
follw that thread without me -- *if* i have really guessed it right -- then
they will be disappointed when they crash.  so i always want them to do
everything for themselves, to choose what issues, language, formats and
colors that they know, that they can practice for themselves, and that they
accept for themselves as *real*.  if i take a group of spreadsheet jockeys
and leave them with gorgeous metaphors and drawings, they won't likely know
what to do with them when they get back to work, and the meeting will
disappear.  but if they create spreadsheets as documentation, then there is
no loss in transferring back to the *real* work.... everything in the
meeting is automatically *real* work, because it had a spreadsheet, like all
the other *real* work.

the situation is much different, of course, if they *ask* for an artist, or
ask to be introduced to new things, or suggest a purpose for which drawing
and art and dance and such would seem to be a natural vehicle.  then we can
have somebody along, and i might recommend a drummer or an artist or a
massage therapist, and let them make the arrangements directly, just like
the hotel choosing.  in those cases, i'm looking for people who can come in
as artists who know how to facilitate... to invite the art of others, not
bring their own art.  i'm looking for people who have an art about art
making.

you've said just a very little bit about how you do your work.  you've
called yourself a visual facilitator rather than an artist.  what i've heard
so far leads me to think that you are very much working in that realm of
inviting other people to express their own art.  so i'd like to hear more
and more about how you actually do that... and even more than that, given
that we are hundreds around the world here and most won't get to work
together with you... is there anything that we as facilitators can do to
make a more welcoming and workable invitation to people to express in other
ways.  perhaps there is something as simple as a long list of materials that
you could suggest to us, and that might be offered to a client... so that
they might choose to provide these for ppts.  maybe it doesn't work without
someone expert in using these materials to help people get started.  anyway,
i know what we usually do to open space for story/word expression and i'd be
interested in what it is that you do to "open space" for visual expression.
how do you make and support and sustain that sort of invitation?

michaelh

On 8/24/06, Visuelle Protokolle <mail at visuelle-protokolle.de> wrote:
>
>  Hi Birgitt,
>
> you are challenging me! So I jump into the ring, as an outsider.
>
> When Harrison Owen used the fourfold way of Angeles Arrien to form the
> method of Open Space, he did an ingenious job, as the world wide
> distribution of the method shows every day. But ...
>
> Now Open Space seems to me to be both, a method and a movement. The
> movement organizes OSonOssses etc. and spreads also with amazing speed.
>
> I am not part of the movement, but I admire the method, use it sometimes,
> and took part as a visual facilitator (I prefer that expression to visual
> artist)  several times, so also together with you. And since years I am a
> member of this list serve and follow the discussions.
>
> So if I am asking for a dialogue, what have I to say, and what do I
> expect?
>
> A dialogue for me is different from a discussion. In a discussion
> everybody tries to be right and convince the others, in a dialogue everybody
> listens and is ready to learn. So I tell my story, and am curious what will
> happen.
>
> Michael Hermann writes:
>
> " is the artist's work beautiful, interesting, magical, and more? yes, of
> course. but what if i am a great story teller? would i ever get up and
> attempt to 'keynote' the closing circle with my own summation?"
>
>  Of course Michael expects everybody to cry out "of course not!" But I
> say: WHY NOT??????
>
> For me the method of OS is brilliant at its beginning, excellent in the
> middle, and only slightly average at the end. I see no value in boaring
> texts, written by the obediant ones. I am no friend of spoken reports of
> group results. Words, words, words. I am missing the fire that was alive in
> the groups! Alive, not online, not typed, to feel it with your senses! And I
> know, that images can help a lot here.
>
>  Right now I take part in a project (not OS), where the client organized
> 200 interviews of storytelling, done in pairs, and the listening partner did
> write the story down. Then it was revised and typed, then revised again, and
> now all the stories are dead and boaring! A true storyteller would have used
> the content and would have given it a form to reach people, to bring the
> message to the public. For me that is beautiful! You also could build a
> scene play, dance the messages, sing them, draw them (what I did).
> Birgitt, you wrote:" when you gave us your gifts as a visual artist,
> people's learning ended up going much deeper through the art as a wonderful
> reflection tool. "
>
> Since for me you are the  one, who really added value to Harrisons method,
> by taking into account the givens, as  framework for the openness, by adding
> the 'Purpose' in the middle of the medicine wheel, and above all by daring
> to offer OS as an ongoing method within organizations, and to teach
> organizations to use it this way, may be you understand what I am asking
> for. It is not only a better way of documentation (what images of course can
> offer), it is the wonderful opportunity, no, the necessity, to transport the
> spirit of all what happens in Open Space first to all the senses of the
> participants and then to whom it may concern.
>
> All this for me is true in every Open Space session, and I know that
> people can be trained as 'transporters of spirit'. wether by drawing or any
> other way. In the meantime it is a good solution to have someone from the
> outside, as witness, as reciever, container, and that is what I can offer to
> be.
>
> If artists use Open Space for their themes, if they explode dancing,
> singing, drawing, beautiful. But that is not what I am talking about, unless
> all of us are keen enough to detect the artist insides themselves.
>
>
> Blessings
>
> Reinhard
>
> VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
> Kuchenmüller & Stifel
>
> tel +39-0566-88 929
> www.visuelle-protokolle.de
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *Von:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *Im Auftrag von *Birgitt
> Williams
> *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 23. August 2006 14:19
>
> *An:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Betreff:* Re: Working with visual artists at an Open Space
>
>  Hi Reinhard,
>
> You know that I admire your work very much and have appreciated your help
> in our workshops, and when you gave us your gifts as a visual artist,
> people's learning ended up going much deeper through the art as a wonderful
> reflection tool.
>
>
>
> What interested me in your mail to this list was your comment "I was
> hoping that your question would open a dialog I was seeking since years." If
> you have the energy for it, I would very much like to hear from you
> regarding what you were hoping the dialogue would be. I have an idea that
> you, who know OST very well, have some insights that we all could benefit
> from.
>
>
>
> Blessings,
>
> Birgitt
>
>
>
>
>
> Birgitt Williams
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Visuelle
> Protokolle
> *Sent:* Monday, August 21, 2006 2:34 AM
> *To:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Subject:* AW: Working with visual artists at an Open Space
>
>
>
> Hi Chris, and all you others,
>
>
>
> I was hoping that your question would open a dialog I was seeking since
> years. Since years I am on this OS list, feeling that you and me are seeking
> for the same treasure in and on similar ways.
>
>
>
> But then I get Harrison's "One caution about visual artists and other such
> addendum" and ask me, and ask you: Are you, like me, an addendum to the
> process of self organizing people, helping them a bit as we can with our
> tools, or are you the high priests and I am the addendum?
>
>
>
>
>
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen
>
> best regards
>
>
>
> Reinhard
>
>
>
> VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
>
> Kuchenmüller & Stifel
>
>
>
> tel +39-0566-88 929
>
> www.visuelle-protokolle.de
>
>
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *Von:* OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] *Im Auftrag von *Chris
> Corrigan
> *Gesendet:* Mittwoch, 9. August 2006 18:51
> *An:* OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> *Betreff:* 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
> Open Space Resources:  http://tinyurl.com/r94tj * *
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-- 

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-280-7838
michael at michaelherman.com

skype: globalchicago

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.openspaceworld.org

Inviting Leadership ...getting
the most important things done in
the easiest possible ways.

*
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