AW: Working with visual artists at an Open Space
Harrison Owen
hhowen at adelphia.net
Fri Aug 25 15:36:29 PDT 2006
Reinhard, my friend -- Somehow I seem to have become the "bete noir" in all of this. But really, I love the visual domain. In odd moments I am a (sometime) professional photographer of some 40 years. More to the point, I "think" visually -- which is to say that I have an image well before I ever find the words. And I really love your idea of the Law of Two Feet as "a law of two feet dancing."
All that said, the issue for me relates to the people (participants) doing for themselves what they can, should, must -- do for themselves. And anything that gets in the way of that "self-doing" is out the window -- so far as I am concerned. That the visual/plastic/dance domain is a rich environment, largely excluded from contemporary organizational discourse is a given. It happens. It should not happen. It is a travesty that it happens. But I truly believe that there are ways to re-open that environment without having a "resident artist" (No matter who, or how great) present. In my experience, given a few simple tools (paper, magic markers, paint, etc.) they will find the way. And -- an invitation always helps. In fact it is essential. If you can't say it, even really "think" it -- draw it, color it, make a "found sculpture" -- but Do It! And they will. And they do.
This is not personal. To my old friend Dave Sibbett, and my equally old friend, Jim Channon, who I think basically created the field in which you are a leading light -- I would say the same thing. I love what you do, and I am sure others love it as well. BUT -- until or unless you make yourself "totally invisible albeit absolutely present" -- I don't think you will add to the quality and power of the "space." That you have great insights, marvelous ways of looking at things, capacity to show nacient thoughts in all of their potential splendor -- is a given. But it is your act. Not the Peoples'. And that is the difference.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
301-365-2093
207-763-3261 (summer)
website www.openspaceworld.com
Personal Website www.ho-image.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Visuelle Protokolle
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 8:52 AM
Subject: AW: AW: Working with visual artists at an Open Space
insider, outsider, addendum, we can play with definitions ad infinitum. important for me, and i feel likewise for you, is not a role we play, but the reponsibility we feel to be there for the people. To do, to be what fits, as you say.
If i see, that i can be of help for someone, i always jump. i don't care then for selforganization, i simply go. or draw. For me it is fine, that you and me are different.
For me Open Space has some rules, which are made by humans, good ones, but i don't feel responsible for these rules. As i understood, Harrison when he definded those rules was influenced by visiting african tribes organizing big festivals without organizing. If he had been visiting westafrican tribes with an old tradition of documenting their meeting in drawings (what i would always prefer to the external visual person!!!), maybe he would have defined that as principle number five, or he might have seen them dancing at the end and could have defined I like of course, what Birgitt is writing in her parallel mail. So i am glad, that we had this dialogue, and am open to continue it ore leave it like that, because the important things have been said. I would rather draw what i feel, but this listserve is textbased.
You ask, how we work.
A. We accompany meetings and conferences and seminars of all kind and mirror them in drawings. we work with little formats, not like most of our American colleagues, who work on big wallpapers. So we can sit inbeteen the people and hear, see, feel what is going on. We use the 'Visual Language', a combination of images and words. we work with feltpens on cards, which we hang in rows of 6 to form a picture wall, where everybody can see, what was said, and also ask for corrections and additions. At the end mostly we transform these images into a slideshow of some minutes to let the day flow by, because almost everybody has forgotten more than 50 % of what he heard, saw and did during a day.
We would very much like a visual culture, where this service is fulfilled by some people who like that, and who got some training (mainly to forget their mind and prefixed ideas of what they should draw). Inbetween we go and do it.
B. We let people draw themselves. Either on templates, which we prepare with the client, and put an important question on it wich they answer with their drawings. We do that in groups of 8, and follow some rules which make people forget that they cannot draw.
Or we have "Storypainting sessions", were we split the group in story inventors, story drawers, a witness, and to show the result (a long strip of images with added sentences) a person like a medieval ballad-monger.
Or we let people draw their company, group ...as a human person on a flip chart in little groups.
Or we develop maps together, land- and seamaps, full of metaphors and dragons ...
C. We prepare sessions, conferences etc. with metaphorical maps, after gathering the content in interviews we document in drawings. That can take some months.
We develop gaims for companies, where the coworkers understand their company and the ideas of their bosses while they play.
E. We offer coaching with images (where we and the coached person draw, and were we use our KuS-Model with 7 process steps). We offer introduction into visual facilitation in workshops.
All this is what we produce, and i don't go into what background we have, how we always develop our services further, what images make with people, what we touch within people, how we help to sustain etc,....
For Open Space it would be beautiful to always have paper and colors available, flipchartsize or bigger. Colors might be broad (!!!) felt pens, chalk, crayons (careful with carpet floors), water colors. Yes, a person to introduce and help is helpful, but not necessary. But you must show the possibilities of using these materials as something normal.
And maybe you experiment with people documenting with drawings, on big or small paper!!!
The drawing should not be the theme, but a byproduct. That is one reason i don't call me an artist.
And if you ever find a client who asks for a visual person, there are beautiful people all over the place. You can look in the website of IFVP, our international organisation.
Reinhard
VISUELLE PROTOKOLLE
Kuchenmüller & Stifel
tel +39-0566-88 929
www.visuelle-protokolle.de
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Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] Im Auftrag von Michael Herman
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 24. August 2006 18:56
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: Re: AW: Working with visual artists at an Open Space
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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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