[OSList] occupy Open Space?!

Mon Oct 10 07:09:15 PDT 2011

Artur – I am not quite sure I understand what you meant to say – but if you are asking whether I am suggesting or proposing “designing self organization” --  the answer is definitely No! I find that the natural forces of self organization take care of the essential design process all by themselves -- J But I do believe there is the possibility of enhancing the natural functions to improve the end result. It other places I called this “leveraging the power of self organization.” In a smaller way this is what we do, I think, with every Open Space. We do not ( I did not) design the process – been around for 13.7 billion years. Nor do we run the process. But we have found effective ways of initiating and sustaining that natural process. At first that was simple intuitive, blind, dumb luck (two martinis) – but over time I think we have all gotten smarter at the business. A lot of this has been about learning what we don’t have to do (no warm up, ice breakers, etc.) But there are things that we do that seem little in the moment, but have the capacity to deepen the impact and accelerate the process. For example – I think bounding the circle at the start is such a thing – the simple , elegant and slow walk by the facilitator around the circle at the opening.

There is a wonderful movie called “Temple Grandin.” It is the strangely beautiful story of an autistic woman who loves animals and spent a lot of time watching them – particularly cows. She noticed that cows do not naturally like to walk in a straight line, they prefer circles. When forced to walk in a straight line, they become anxious and disoriented. In a word, Temple observed a normative function of a natural (self organizing) system – Cows walking is circles. The practical application of this observation may be a little distasteful for some of us, but instructive for all that; having to do with the layout of stock pens for loading cattle, dipping them, clipping horns etc. Standard layout (at least here in the US) was always in straight lines – Straight shutes from the field to the truck, or whatever.  Temple noticed that the cows did in fact move from the field to the truck, but often they tended to bunch and panic – resulting in injury and sometimes death. She proposed curved shutes that followed the natural path of the cows. Result? No bunching, no panic – healthy cows..

Are we then just cows? I’m not sure I want to go there. But what is true, I think is that we, like cows, prefer circles to straight lines – no matter what our education.

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Artur Silva
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 6:11 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] occupy Open Space?!

Harrison:

Your suggestion is not "designing (for) the self-organization process"? 

With care

Artur

  _____  

From: Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net>
To: 'World wide Open Space Technology email list' <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2011 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: [OSList] occupy Open Space?!

Circles, Pat, Circles! Help them to see the power of circles. It happens naturally, of course, but with a little nudge it becomes “the way we do things.” As you know that changes the ethos dramatically. Have fun.

Harrison

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Pat Black
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 4:47 PM
To: Raffi Aftandelian; World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] occupy Open Space?!

The Occupy Minnesota is happening at the People's Plaza formerly known as the Government Plaza.  This is a whole range of people that range from anti-capitalist to Ron Paul supporters.  There were several hundred people there Friday and Saturday, fewer today.  The mayor of Minneapolis spoke through the people's mic on Friday and so did Jessie Ventura the former governor / wrestler.  The police are relaxed and have been ordered to leave people be within the constraints that have been set up.  There is lots of learning about process going on.  The participants are mostly young and just beginning to claim their space but there are a few old timers there as well and of course the people who live on these streets normally.  They seem to have their food and logistical pieces functioning well and are currently looking for ways to get more folks out so that their presence can be sustained especially when the weather turns.  We have been lucky weather wise so far but the season will turn before long and when it does it could be drastic.  I have seen 3 feet of snow and 20- zero on October 30th here, so this can be a life threatening concern.  

It has been great to be out there.  The energy is intense and full of possibility.  There are lots of sentences that include the word space and that is exciting.  I am hoping to spend a lot of time out there.  They are going to create something akin to an agenda wall with the causes that have brought people there.

Pat Black

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Raffi Aftandelian <raffi_1970 at yahoo.com> wrote:

dear open space and genuine contact friends (aka spaceniki and, perhaps, "wheelies")-

Tonight marked the spirited kick-off for Occupy San Diego, one of the many local initiatives around the world taking place in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Speaking as a process artist (OST facilitator and Genuine Contact Program certified trainer) and a charmingly flawed co-human with a heart who is planning on camping out (occupy?!) on site for  while, I wanted to share some thoughts and observations and also extend an invitation.

First off, taking part in all of this- tonight's march or attending the General Assembly (I was at last night's assembly- 130 people were there!)- really stretches me. I can't align with any of the adversarial language and expression here. So, as we marched today I was just silent, holding my multi-colored sign which read, "What does a wise, compassionate and glocal response to massive economic injustice look like?"  Heck, even calling it "Occupy" make me shudder!!!

It is physically just very challenging to be in the presence of all of that energy. That said, from the the *moment* I heard of Occupy Wall Street, I had an *immediate* intuitive hit that this is something different, that this is something that I have to support. And at the very least this initiative could be supported by bearing witness-- and the simplest way I could do that is just camp there, just sleep there. That's it. 

Perhaps the act of sleeping in a public space can be a way of claiming *and* opening space, a way of dreaming the New Story into being?

Also, I'm amazed to see how many different people locally have heard of the local Occupy San Diego initiative and how many different people I know showed up tonight! It's almost as if somewhere deep down there was a part of us that knew this is something we need to support.

One of the things that encouraged me while attending General Assembly last night was the readiness and willingness of people from disparate points of view to hear each other out. What I'm seeing is messy, imperfect, and I know and imagine that ball has been dropped. But overall, it's a rather encouraging picture. It's also encouraging to see meditation part of the picture, too. A 20+ minute flash mob still silent sitting meditation took place after the march tonight

And indeed it has a lot of open space feeling to it. The general assembly and committees had been meeting at Children's Park (high play and high learning anyone??) here downtown. The park is made up of large circular patches of grass bordered with concrete. Each committee met in a different patch - marked with the name of the committee. And you just went to the committee you wanted. And from what i could see, if you wanted to create a new committee, you could do that, too! (apparently, there is a process committee here, too).

I'm curious if there are other process artists out there on or off these lists who are also supporting Occupy... where you are. I'd love to enter into conversation (skype call anyone??) on or offlist to explore the ways we as process artists can support this initiative. Drop me a line!

much warmth from the pacific coast,

raffi

p.s. to catch some of the flavor of our local "Occupation," see 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/occupysd/
http://www.livestream.com/occupysd

p.p.s. I look forward to circulating widely this piece by zen teacher and peacemaker, Bernie Glassman
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/we-are-the-100/

p.p.p.s. to borrow a turn of phrase from a fellow spacenik who lives DownUnder-- "What can happen?"

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