The below text was generated by the School of Commons 2021 participants who took part in a Collective Writing workshop, reflecting on their time spent within SoC, during the July Intensive Weekend in 2021. The text is a merging of voices, perspectives, opinions and insights and serves to highlight the benefits and challenges of the SoC framework and how this environment can support, strengthen and interweave practices and processes. The version you see below is unedited, and serves as a raw and honest editorial introduction to ISSUES 2021, that we can invite you to read with care and attention.
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Hello and welcome, we'll leave 5 mins for everyone to join and to read the below info.
Please change your writing colour to GREEN (any shade) and please do not include your name in the boxes.
Hello and welcome to this collective writing workshop. We are happy to have you here.
Today is our first collective writing session as part of School of Commons. As we've now hit the mid-point of our labs, we wanted to use this space to reflect upon, weave, and anticipate our journeys, experiences, practices, and research. We hope to explore how our individual insights and experiences most likely are, and certainly can be, intertwined and connected. For this we have organised a series of set sections and prompts.
Collective writing has been a great inspiration for its foundations based upon feminist methodologies of researching, working, and creating together, and as a form of thinking outside of patriarchal parameters. It also presents an interesting form of commoning, of using words, language and written expression to manifest shared experiences and ideals and create shared meanings and understandings.
Here's how the session today is going to work today:
There are four sections to the collective writing workshop.
Each section will range from 10 minutes to 25 minutes in length. This is to allow shorter moments for response, alongside longer opportunities for pause, reflection and meditation.
Practicalities: We request that you all change your colour to a shade of GREEN. To do this please click the coloured icon with 3 people inside in the very top right hand corner. Once you do this you will see a box saying "enter your name" and a coloured square next to it. Click this square, select the new colour and press save. We also ask that you do not enter your name in the side bar but leave this empty. This is to keep the writing as blended and collective as possible.
Feel free to write as much or as little as you like during this session. Please also feel welcome to add to, embellish, highlight, and annotate the writing produced as much as you like. The aim is to first collectivly write and then collectively shape and expand these texts. At the end of each exercise, we will allocate 5 minutes for you to read the text as a whole. If you notice certain themes come up, feel free to name the theme or focus with [NAME OF THEME] to draw threads between our writing today.
We will be writing along with you, but please look out for the colour YELLOW which will signal to you when it is time to pause and read, or to move on to the next section.
Finally, we invite you to turn on some music, and to make yourself as comfortable as possible as we spend the next hour writing together.
Okay, let's begin with the first exercise. You'll have 10 mins from now to work with the below section.
SECTION 1: 10 minutes
We hope for this first section to be used as a warm up. For this, we would like to encourage reflection and meditation upon our experiences and journeys so far. This could be the journey your research or practice has taken, or the journey you have experienced personally.
Let us now take the time to think about and consider these experiences, to compost them to draw out things such as:
What has been meaningful..
What roads and trajectories (planned or unplanned) taken..
The challenges..
The joys..
Expected moments and less expected moments...
By experience and journey, you mean within the SoC??Yep:)
The moments where I have felt most connected to the School of Commons are the in-person (real-real life) moments. Jo and Marea have done a fantastic job supporting and creating a structure for us online, but the casual moments in-person have felt like they will have the most lasting impact for me persoanlly. The in-between, in-person and online offer different layes of communication and connection and it's been really interesting to see what kinds of conversation, connections/communication comes out of each + miscommunication or half/unfinished conversations that come out of random daily ineractions, love them. Eg. when the coffee is ready, you walk away as there are other people waiting, and your conversation with the person in line walks away with you.So much more organic than the beginning of a zoom call or online meeting where I always want to develop some kind of connection but always feels quite awkward and contrived personally, my biggist challenge now is to ballancing between the life matter and the practice, however keep communicating with SOC and participate the programs makes this tough year much more stable.It gives me motivation.
It was a unique experience for me in the sense that I somehow developed a new way of looking at the research and doing research. I realized that certain concepts defined within academia or similar insitutions can be challenged and we have the authority to dismantle those supposedly hegemonic structures and discover new ways of working and researching together. Even though I have tried this myself before in other projects/collectives, doing it collectively in a group of 4 people was my first experience which turned out to be very interesting. The primary challenge for me was our set-up in which other members of our group somehow were not so much included in the community of SoC at large. Therefore by time we developed a different level of commitments to the project which became a bit problematic as at the moment 2 of us feel like we need to take the major part of the responsibility in our shoulders. The other issue was not having a lot of physical moments together - when we had the first physical interaction with our group it was very useful in the sense that we got closer to our themes and had a space to reflect on our questions with more care - even though before we were meeting online in every two weeks. I wish we had more physical meet-ups and I do not think it should be too many - it just would be nice to add this physical touch to our online journey.
I love our Learn lab project, but sometimes I do not feel that it is integrally connected to SoC. Of course we have recieved amazing resources and support- but there is also so much we are doing outside of SoC for our project. Also sometimes there is a lack of opportunity to share our work within the framework of SoC in-person (just because of the circumstances).
I feel all layers of supports helps me a lot not just in practical sense but makes me less lonely- be part of community - a listening group - . I feel the same. And it feels like a frame for something seemingly limitless - limit of real-world. Isn't SoC real-world?. It feels like the stuff I am working on has a home or a purpose - even though I don't have an "official" framework in an institution or an obligation towards a professor.
I really expected this to be an experience that was really focussed on my research project, but actually over the process I've really stepped awap from focussing only on this. I still spend a lot of time working on school of commons stuff but it's now thinking about group projects and collabs, or meeting with fellow labs and this has actually been so much more interesting and special and unexpected. It's really put the human, the relationships, the process back into research for me. But it does mean battling with the challenge of not have the exact results or outcomes I initially expected/demanded of myself. So its trying to work with that too.<3
The exchange with the other members has been one of the most valuable experience, parcularly the openness to each other process and the shared understanding that the outcome is not always known and it can mutate. It has been exciting to research and explore with that kind of attitude and let other project inform and thread with my own. In a way SoC has provided a form of support for a bumpy process.It could be because of the circumstances we are doing this in, but I also expected collaborations or groups projects/crossovers to come together a little more naturally. SoC offers a network or a framework and showcases projects/methdologies/people that we wouldn't know of otherwise and set this president for collaborative working but I also hoped for it to be a more natural process of collab after collab bouncing off one anotherYes it would have been great to be able to meet more in person and do that on a regular basis. It is fascinating: being online has allowed many of us to participate even if not in Zuerich, which I'm super grateful for and think that overall has worked out ok, but at the same time I wonder how much more inspiration and good conversations we could have gotten out of it if we had been physically there and could bump into eahc other more often.
The trajectory of my project has slightly changed from the beginning, bringing me to an approach that is less "practical" than I expected, but nevertheless valuable.
My biggest challenge has been to stay motivated and to feel confident in what I've been doing and SoC in its whole has provided both energy to propell forward and the support to feel comfortable in exploring.
I could not foresee that the group of people would work out so well and bring so many interesting points of view and reflections, it has been refreshing to be around people from so many different disciplines and it has opened up my understadning of my own work and myself as well. I live otherwise in a bubble where everyone around me comes from the same profession.
Feeling part of a group has been meaningful. As literal as this sentence. A group that has its differences and welcomes more differences and similarities - or any other space outside the extremes. Feeling like a group has been meaningful. - What does it mean to feel like a group - a random people coming together and listening. Listening, might be the first letter in the group dictionary. Listening as a letter. <3 The challenge has been to realise that SoC is not 'the majority'. It's a unique place to share, unlike some other jobs I need to take -Possibility of full time SoC-like environments-
I am feeling in a space that I would like somehow the routine and real life to be, not that SoC is not real but it's a fragment of life, and I would like it to be a larger part of it- it has been a very different and interesting way of learning and interacting together, but I certainly fear I didn't have enough of it, I also fear it will end soon and then there won't be this structure of care, exchange and inspiration.yes me toowe should find ways to keep it going I would love to at least try it - I know this is always tough especially remote - but let's try. We rediscovered and unlearned things together and that I feel that is beautiful.Maybe SoC fellowship should last 3 years :D
This really speaks to me. I also have this sadness that as soon as I would step into a institutional frame a way of working like at school of commons is not really possible. - Is SoC real-world? -
Feeling supported and a part of a common that is open present and fluid has allowed me the space and time to reflect, consolidate and progress my thinking. It has expanded my consideration of collective and commoning - it has felt more possible and more nurturing than I could have imagined both in time and space. I didnt expend for so many shared threads to apprear so quickly at the start of SoC. There was a deep comfort in that - an ease. One of the key challenges has been the integration of the thinking but this weekend has been a great time for this. There have been highs and lows - going between pressures, from considering the output (writing for eg has been a little overwhelming) or the format (I feel I am always trying to start at the end and work backwards) to just making the time and space to be with the work by myself.
Please keep this thinking and these thoughts in mind as we now move into section 2 for the next 10 minutes..
Please now wrap-up and pause your writing, and spend the next 5 minutes reading what has been written. We invite you to comment on, add to, embellish, annotate the writing as a whole. Please do not delete anything.
SECTION 2: 10 minutes
From this position of reflection and composting, we now want to look more to the future. To anticipate our next steps, and the months ahead, both for us individually, as well as for our research, practice, relationships, dyanmics, responsbilities, aims as a collective.
Please take the next 10 minutes to think of at least two prompts or questions you would like to ask to everyone on this page that you think will help provide tools/thinking/jumping off points to fertilize our projects, our knowledge and our inspiration from hereon..
How can we find new, and meaningful ways to communicate and share with one another our process and ideas?what platform do we want to use to do this?
How can we build a foundation that can continue and be maintained (for those who want it) after the SoC experience has ended?+1+1+1+1Hopefully we can all finally meet in person in Zurich at the end of our SoC journey and I'm hoping being physically all together in one space may spark some new ideas or initiatives and form a more natural ways to form something going forward beyond Soc.
How can we influence academic working conditions or norms either from inside or from spaces like soc? I often think soc feels like a research union and at times almost a support group.+1+1+1+1 I had the same thought: why can't academic research feel more like SoC? and how can the value of it be recognised and communicated?What is considered as value in academic research nowadays is almost always tied to potential economic outputs in one or another way, so it feels like there is a very little chance of bringing SoC like mind into academia, not much space for it- but how can we challenge this by organizing ourselves in a different manner?yes finding ways to maintianed it independently like a spore that grows a new fungi and becomes independent from SoC but sitll is SoC
To me SoC has felt like "serious play" where you learn by trying out > how can this spirit of open research be communicated and maintained?
I love the idea of "serious play". The playfullnes in doing theory, doing research, thinking is often missing in traditional academic circles. I don't think it is necessarily the people who create this environment but the money part and the big institutions that require a lot of proof of xyz. It's also about focussing less or make or creating an outcome or a product and putting more emphasis into the process itself. Who were the people involved? Where did inspiration come from? What conversations, relationships, dynamics, settings added to this process? Perhaps "serious play" is still about have an aim or a goal, but focussing less on getting there or getting it done and more about the process that transpires along the way
The months ahead look like an attempt to complete planned research activities, weave it all together, through provided structures try to learn how is it going for other fellows and envision together how to continue in the afterlife, how can we keep singing songs in pairs, share one body and character, compromise, learn, unlearn, come together and interact. Would be nice to dedicate some time at the end to figuring out together what is the best way for us to stay in touch, maybe we could have a set date and time for meetings every 3 or 6 months? one link, one time, one date- all people? yes that would be great, yeees+
How the unique knowledge accumulated at SoC can be applied in different settings afterwards - whether it is an academia, cultural organizations and etc. Is what we are doing here should live as an isolated practice or there. is a way to give it a new form/lifewhat could this curriculum outline/offset? What ways can research be integrated to the academic curriculum
The financial issue SoC is experiencing at the moment is a much bigger reflection of what is going on with similar research institutions/initiatives and etc.I would be interested also in exploring the ways to keep such structures alive by crowdfunding and other possible sustainable models. Hopefully everything will work out well with their application and maybe we could have participated in the financial side of the things to fugure out how this works in generalMmmmm such as a collective pot of crowdfunding. There are also inssues with crowdfunding too but I think thinking of different systems and avenues for funding, and also different recourses required for an institution/inititive to continue outside of money alone is definitely essential
For the fertilizer to work, we need grounds that don't end up in landfall. We need MONEY to hold on to the ground. Then the question is - How can we generate money & sustain SoC-like communities while academic disciplines don't necessarily acknowledge knowledge outside the disciplines. - acknowledge knowledge :)- Thinking about the outcomes of research sometimes feels uncool but - How can we show SoC work & relationships to outside SoC? And how could this 'showing' influence other SoCs to emerge?Can we implant SoCs in other institutions?yees can SoC travel?Research that is done within SoC constitutes a small friction of a research that is in between spaces of the academic research - we resist the classical ways of researching in academia which I found very precious about SoC. I wonder how these initiative/schools can find new ways of sustaining themselves in the world of academia that does not recognize them as "academic".
Yes! It is annoying, that the only barrier is money yes, and also the labours- I don't think a lot of people care about official titles very much. But if you want to plan a life as a researcher you have to be acknowledged by these institutions. yeesYes but if someone wants to study master's lets say the current structures are pushing you towards doing a master's degree at this and that university, to get name and paper affirmation, BUT if i think about it now in a structure like SoC one can learn so much more- but it's not considered valid/credible enough somehow- so we all throw our money into some semi garbage institutions. Yes because you need to dance with the structures of the academia first to do a research that you want to do later. In a way SoC was also founded in a similar manner - they were in academia and after realizing the shortcomings of the institutions they founded this unique space i think knowing about these alternative structures is key to their formalising - i think this too is the practice of visablising the process and validating the methods
Please wrap-up your questions and move onto the next section where we can begin to discuss and answer the questions in more detail.
You can also begin to directly answer under each question above if that is easier.
SECTION 3: 20 minutes
Please now choose up to 3 prompts from the list below and begin to answer. Then please start to look at others answers and add to, or respond as you necessary.
Copy and paste the prompt you are answering, so others can answer under it too.the prompts are the questions we wrote above?Yep!
How can we build a foundation that can continue and be maintained (for those who want it) after the SoC experience has ended?
Not an answer but a question in response- how much are we willing/able to give to continue and maintain this project? A few hours of our time? A train ticket? A contribution to dinner? A weekend traveling? A place to stay over or to work from? Administration- coordinating schedules, recources, etc.? Really nicely expanded upon, and something that should be agreed upon and discussed by all who want to be involved. Perhaps this is something we can keep in mind and discuss in the run-up to the end of SoC commons. What does continuation/maintenance mean for each people? What do they know they are able to share/give/commit and what exact form does this take? And also what are the collective goals and aims in this continuation
A weekend travelling sounds good: like a yearly meetup. It's ofc tricky but if planned ahead it could be the most fruitful way to do it, cause online can get tiring, even though ofc some online checkins and communication are necessary too.
Maybe we can do a common calendar of events, conferences, festivals, concerts etc.love this we would like to visit seee who is in that city and how we can organize meet ups. Also if working from home trend continues we can maybe put some spots in calendar where we can host each other- come together and cohabitate for a little while. But for me it would also be interesting to come together as a bigger groupA common calendar/map showing who is willing/has possibilities to host each others soundds also great! Maybe an IG account to announce events? I feel like a calendar might not get updated/checked.
We can rotate roles in terms of who doeas the organising/admin for 6 months / a year then we switchthis sounds feasible and sustainable. this sounds fair.
We need MONEY to hold on to the ground. Then the question is - How can we generate money & sustain SoC-like communities while academic disciplines don't necessarily acknowledge knowledge outside the disciplines?
An exhibition? If someone knows how to make money by exhibiting, I want them to teach that to me :);pahahahah it was more to have a "window" to showcase the work. Hence the idea of the bar ahahh > An SoC bar :D? videos/some outcome that packages the knowledge in a simplified way? Each lab does fundraising in their own circles? As a way to continue their SoC research the following year and/or to fund a different lab for the following year.
How the unique knowledge accumulated at SoC can be applied in different settings afterwards - whether it is an academia, cultural organizations and etc. Is what we are doing here should live as an isolated practice or there. is a way to give it a new form/lifewhat could this curriculum outline/offset? --> Through practices already in place in different institutions / traditions. Broadly speaking, for academia, SoC knowledge could be shared in the form of a qualitative research - the interviews we had at the beginnning of SoC, for example - and published in a journal. If we want to influence knowledge in certain academia we might need to start speaking in their language to start the conversation - journal papers. For cultural organisations, SoC process could be shared in the forms of seminars / panels / events / publications. yeesThe format - or a new limitless format - could be suggested by individual labs - as a way of organic growth?I think to do this we also have to agree together who can speak, write, represent SoC at what form and how this can be done jointly. Although I feel a strong commoning ground our role within SoC is still unclear to me after our fellowship ends.You mean the role of each of us is unclear?No more what we will be within SoC
I agree - the role is unclear after the fellowship. But I feel soc will still be an available platform for all the former and future members. - SoC within SoC - another closed bubble? - It feels like kinship
How can we influence academic working conditions or norms either from inside or from spaces like soc? I often think soc feels like a research union and at times almost a support group.well put
One way to do it is for sure to talk about it with peers, and publish? Or to parasite the academies by proposing activities that are bringing the SoC approach, even if in a smaller version. Inoculating slowly the universities.This is such a nice idea! I know Casco in Utrecht are working on a Climate justice code to then take to institutions and ask for them to implement. Maybe this could be something similar? A code, or a doctrine, or a manual - or datasetes - that we present and propose to institutions and discuss with them how they can adopt and facilitate. And if they don't want to - why? Can we write and think of a brief manual for ourselves on how to do it? Like something where we outline our strategies-starting with something as simple as how to approach department heads/course coordinators, how to explain to them SoC approach and its value, how we can suggest smaller structure of SoC to begin with, what it could entail. Because I feel like some of us have strength in one thing and other in another- so bringing the forces together for parasiting academia would be nice.This is a wonderful idea. This could also developed maybe in the form of a protocol because as it was mentioned above several times, this issue is not an isolated case. Many SoC institutions are going through similar paths. So in a way it could be a valuable resource for us all.
Ask questions to heads of schools and academic boards - why are certain things the way they are. We could start with a set of questions instead of writing a code directly or a manifest. Let's organize a collective writing protest - we can write a letter
I like the idea of parasiting. Of course we can and should ask people to behave right- but I would rather find a way to tap into their resources and do what we want to do, without asking/getting permission- sometimes this needs privilege.
Privilege but also a strong community.
For the fertilizer to work, we need grounds that don't end up in landfall. - I find this interesting - its two fold. Detoxifying from the acedemic realm ... metabolising the process and arriving at the beginning again /for the 'output' to feel authentic .. for the theory to be validated.
Please now take the next 5 mins to read through all the different questions and responses (note some prompts and answers are in this section and some are in the section above). Again annotating, adding to, questioning, responding - just not deletion please :)
Now let's move onto the final section..
SECTION 4: 25 minutes
Now we would like to draw in the thread of commoning through our thinking and writing.
Please take the time to reflect and meditate, then write below how you feeling the commons or commoning has been present in your lab, your research and practice, and your experience. What is the impact of the prescence of commons?
There were some great ideas above about creating a manual or a code for what school of commons is and what we have done together in this setting to present to educational institutions as an alternative education model. Perhaps some of the ideas written below could form part of that code.
Some things to think about, (but feel free to take this response in whatever direction you see best fit)...
Are commons more present in your project, your methodologies, or the structures surrounding your project?
How can commons thinking and commons doing inform, enrich, evolve our research and our time together?
Could this applied on a personal, a collective, or even a societal level?
Personally I am not so much aware of the academically defined concepts of commoning. But on a more personal level I would say the way we worked/shared common resources and set up the meetings and even the language we used could be qualified as commoning. Also the theme that we are working on intersect with commoning quite closely as it is about reflecting everyone's voices in the work practice/project and etc. +1 *fellowship?Mmmm intersect is very important. And maybe where the commons was also so present because we weren't encourgaed to view everyones project or lab as an "individual" but more as one part of a collective whole, so I at least often was looking out for threads of themes, or interests, or methods in other projects that not only connected to mine but to others too so weave it all together
It's hard to quantify how much of the commons is part of my project, I think in terms of the methodology it proposes, it has a commonist aspiration. I did learn other commonist approaches and decentralisted methods during my research, could you expand of this?[I stumbled across "the hum": it's a group of people sharing/teaching the knowledge they have around decentralized organising. They have years long experience in cooperatives, so they came up woth some strategies and I havent fully dived into it but it seems interesting. They elaborate on group sizes and different layers of participation and on how to create accountability and emotional safety nice! in collaboration. I'm not sure they frame their work as "commoning" but still I think it's closely related. So it's really about organising and how to work together, which to me is the most difficult part of commoning, and the most exciting one. Maybe there's a point ot be made about the differences of "commoning knowledge," "commoning material goods/spaces" and "commoning as an approach"] so this is goign to expand with time. Interesting - I agree that there is a difference. And probably for different people different forms of commoning are helpful or possible. it would be great to do a "commoning tour" where we visit commoning projects around the world and then they come visit us and we exchange knowledgeeeee
I think the commons happened more in the way we interacted with each other in SoC, and I wonder if we could distill some principles. *a declaration of ...
Nice- we were begining to talk about this yesterday. I think in some small ways commons are involved in our LEARN project (for example we will release our 'record' under a creative commons license). I think that comes from the fact that our lab has individuals with commoning as a guiding value. In the end though we are a group of four working together closely on a project- I guess that could fall inside or outside of the commons depending on how you characterize the commons. For me a commons is a shared resource that is collectively managed- it does not necessarily have to be completely free and open, so I can see our work as a commons of four. Small, but tightknit and committed. Commons come in all shapes and sizes :) I also feel as though I have been part of many different commons during this time. Maybe they are just different "groups" of people, but I think the methods of sharing, the relationships and aims of each group become different so it is nice to see how commoning can underpin these different relationships, but manifests in different ways for different purposes
I think I'm still learning the commoning. I notice that I still don't use the common enough for the actual research work, but more as a support group or framework or as I said before a "home" for my thoughts and theories. I would love to feel even more comfortable letting the common actually into my process and into my work.
So I would say the commons are definitly present in my vision of academic work.<3
Commons thinking and commons doing could expose existing structures of hierarchies. Individually, I have been in a messy situation that directed my way of living and working. Talking to people through SoC, it became clear that the messy situations were shared - personal was not personal - personal was shared -. Gatherings of commoning, be it a research outcome, exhibition, chat over coffee, wine over chat, could tie personal to collective to societal to personal to a circle. -How? Share what we feel like sharing with each other, and extend this untangible relationships in other forms. Be a long-term listener? Work with each other? Publish together? Refer to a friend? Give honest feedback? Show emotions?
Commons is so often in these moments in-between, the ethereal and intangible and that is so hard to pin down. I'm wondering if we did want to put into writing, or to words, or a code how others (institutions or eduational models) could adapt or learn this model, how we would do it? What words we would use to pin down these feelings and experiences? Good point. This variapad actually would work perfectly as a code. Exactly because it is messy and spontaneous. It represents what we would ask for and radically differs or distinguishes itself from traditional forms of codes/manifests. very honest real uncensored emotional critical commoning.
Commoning is integral to the way I feel we need to move forward with education and learning - and also being together. In the arts, in education, in society. It can often we very difficult to enact this whilst still thinking in the structures of "finishedness" "perfection" and "hierarchy". For instance I find it very difficult to share my work and my process/progress unless it has an element of finishedness surround it. I think commons is present in my research in that I am looking at what commons-based infrastructures we can present to (and maybe enforce upon tehe) institutions and instituting - however the research process itself was NOT commons based initially. But I have learnt to share more, to discuss more, to understand research as more than just the end result but the process along the way. It's difficult to find ways to enact this into professional and personal situations but I think it it's vital
YES! I often wonder how we can get rid of this pressure or this mindset. Is it just training? Maybe it is about "being vulnerable" line between vulnerable and victim and asking to share or sharing the not-knowingness of a project, or asking more questions of people rather than presenting answers and through the practice of doing this perhaps we unlearn and relearn. This is why SoC has been incredible because it has offered a space for not-knowing, where we can present along the way. This was interesting about doing the Kitchen Sessions so early, I panicked so much as I had nothing "finished" to show at this point, but then ended up viewing it as a session where I could ask questions rather than present answrs.<3
Yes I was also nervous before the kitchen sessions - but then when they started and I realized that I don't judge in terms of "finishedness" at all I got less nervous and actually enjoyed it. Yes! It's like taking the time to be in the moment and to learn and enjoy it rather than present this finished product, argue your case, answers questions well etc. It takes that pressure off. So often when we go to talks or lectures or presentations it's again this presentation of a finished project/product and when there is opportunity for a Q+A at the end it's not really a space for unknowingness, it's a space for the speaker to give all the answers, or defend their project etc. They are still in this position of finishedness and knowingness and I think now we are in the position of researchers and makers it's hard not to replicate that. But it is important not to. I'm wondering how we continue to make spaces where there is this balance between others learning from our research and what we do, but also remaining open to using that space for learning too. It is interesting how important the balance between structure and freedom is in contexts like that. Also the need for deadlines etc. During our interview sessions on friday I thought maybe the groups within soc could be organised by different needs of structure.
As before, please now wrap-up and pause your writing and spend the remaining 5-10 minutes of the workshop to looks through the writing from this section, and then also the writing from the workshop as a whole to add any final comments, notes, addendums, questions, responses etc. Then we will wrap-up the workshop.
Okay, now wrapping up the workshop. Thanks so much for your time and your writing today everyone. I think what we've created here is very special and kind of the start of lots of different directions and trajectories, so I'm going to find a way to ensure we can keep this document and refer back to it because it could be something nice to come back to a few more times during the SoC process. I have also made a lot of notes about the potential desire to write codes or manuals for how we work together in this setting so will reach out again soon for if we want to take this any further as I think this is super interesting. I hope you've all enjoyed and gained something from this experience and that it felt collective. I'd love to hear your feedback so please get in touch and feel free to stay in this document and add to it as much as you like.
Thank you!!! And see you later xx
Thank you! <3
Thank you! It was really interesting and inspiring!+1 <3
Thank you
Thanks! See you this afternoon :)
It was difficult but also nice and we got to know a little more
The below text was generated by the School of Commons 2021 participants who took part in a Collective Writing workshop, reflecting on their time spent within SoC, during the July Intensive Weekend in 2021. The text is a merging of voices, perspectives, opinions and insights and serves to highlight the benefits and challenges of the SoC framework and how this environment can support, strengthen and interweave practices and processes. The version you see below is unedited, and serves as a raw and honest editorial introduction to ISSUES 2021, that we can invite you to read with care and attention.
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Hello and welcome, we'll leave 5 mins for everyone to join and to read the below info.
Please change your writing colour to GREEN (any shade) and please do not include your name in the boxes.
Hello and welcome to this collective writing workshop. We are happy to have you here.
Today is our first collective writing session as part of School of Commons. As we've now hit the mid-point of our labs, we wanted to use this space to reflect upon, weave, and anticipate our journeys, experiences, practices, and research. We hope to explore how our individual insights and experiences most likely are, and certainly can be, intertwined and connected. For this we have organised a series of set sections and prompts.
Collective writing has been a great inspiration for its foundations based upon feminist methodologies of researching, working, and creating together, and as a form of thinking outside of patriarchal parameters. It also presents an interesting form of commoning, of using words, language and written expression to manifest shared experiences and ideals and create shared meanings and understandings.
Here's how the session today is going to work today:
There are four sections to the collective writing workshop.
Each section will range from 10 minutes to 25 minutes in length. This is to allow shorter moments for response, alongside longer opportunities for pause, reflection and meditation.
Practicalities: We request that you all change your colour to a shade of GREEN. To do this please click the coloured icon with 3 people inside in the very top right hand corner. Once you do this you will see a box saying "enter your name" and a coloured square next to it. Click this square, select the new colour and press save. We also ask that you do not enter your name in the side bar but leave this empty. This is to keep the writing as blended and collective as possible.
Feel free to write as much or as little as you like during this session. Please also feel welcome to add to, embellish, highlight, and annotate the writing produced as much as you like. The aim is to first collectivly write and then collectively shape and expand these texts. At the end of each exercise, we will allocate 5 minutes for you to read the text as a whole. If you notice certain themes come up, feel free to name the theme or focus with [NAME OF THEME] to draw threads between our writing today.
We will be writing along with you, but please look out for the colour YELLOW which will signal to you when it is time to pause and read, or to move on to the next section.
Finally, we invite you to turn on some music, and to make yourself as comfortable as possible as we spend the next hour writing together.
Okay, let's begin with the first exercise. You'll have 10 mins from now to work with the below section.
SECTION 1: 10 minutes
We hope for this first section to be used as a warm up. For this, we would like to encourage reflection and meditation upon our experiences and journeys so far. This could be the journey your research or practice has taken, or the journey you have experienced personally.
Let us now take the time to think about and consider these experiences, to compost them to draw out things such as:
What has been meaningful..
What roads and trajectories (planned or unplanned) taken..
The challenges..
The joys..
Expected moments and less expected moments...
By experience and journey, you mean within the SoC??Yep:)
The moments where I have felt most connected to the School of Commons are the in-person (real-real life) moments. Jo and Marea have done a fantastic job supporting and creating a structure for us online, but the casual moments in-person have felt like they will have the most lasting impact for me persoanlly. The in-between, in-person and online offer different layes of communication and connection and it's been really interesting to see what kinds of conversation, connections/communication comes out of each + miscommunication or half/unfinished conversations that come out of random daily ineractions, love them. Eg. when the coffee is ready, you walk away as there are other people waiting, and your conversation with the person in line walks away with you.So much more organic than the beginning of a zoom call or online meeting where I always want to develop some kind of connection but always feels quite awkward and contrived personally, my biggist challenge now is to ballancing between the life matter and the practice, however keep communicating with SOC and participate the programs makes this tough year much more stable.It gives me motivation.
It was a unique experience for me in the sense that I somehow developed a new way of looking at the research and doing research. I realized that certain concepts defined within academia or similar insitutions can be challenged and we have the authority to dismantle those supposedly hegemonic structures and discover new ways of working and researching together. Even though I have tried this myself before in other projects/collectives, doing it collectively in a group of 4 people was my first experience which turned out to be very interesting. The primary challenge for me was our set-up in which other members of our group somehow were not so much included in the community of SoC at large. Therefore by time we developed a different level of commitments to the project which became a bit problematic as at the moment 2 of us feel like we need to take the major part of the responsibility in our shoulders. The other issue was not having a lot of physical moments together - when we had the first physical interaction with our group it was very useful in the sense that we got closer to our themes and had a space to reflect on our questions with more care - even though before we were meeting online in every two weeks. I wish we had more physical meet-ups and I do not think it should be too many - it just would be nice to add this physical touch to our online journey.
I love our Learn lab project, but sometimes I do not feel that it is integrally connected to SoC. Of course we have recieved amazing resources and support- but there is also so much we are doing outside of SoC for our project. Also sometimes there is a lack of opportunity to share our work within the framework of SoC in-person (just because of the circumstances).
I feel all layers of supports helps me a lot not just in practical sense but makes me less lonely- be part of community - a listening group - . I feel the same. And it feels like a frame for something seemingly limitless - limit of real-world. Isn't SoC real-world?. It feels like the stuff I am working on has a home or a purpose - even though I don't have an "official" framework in an institution or an obligation towards a professor.
I really expected this to be an experience that was really focussed on my research project, but actually over the process I've really stepped awap from focussing only on this. I still spend a lot of time working on school of commons stuff but it's now thinking about group projects and collabs, or meeting with fellow labs and this has actually been so much more interesting and special and unexpected. It's really put the human, the relationships, the process back into research for me. But it does mean battling with the challenge of not have the exact results or outcomes I initially expected/demanded of myself. So its trying to work with that too.<3
The exchange with the other members has been one of the most valuable experience, parcularly the openness to each other process and the shared understanding that the outcome is not always known and it can mutate. It has been exciting to research and explore with that kind of attitude and let other project inform and thread with my own. In a way SoC has provided a form of support for a bumpy process.It could be because of the circumstances we are doing this in, but I also expected collaborations or groups projects/crossovers to come together a little more naturally. SoC offers a network or a framework and showcases projects/methdologies/people that we wouldn't know of otherwise and set this president for collaborative working but I also hoped for it to be a more natural process of collab after collab bouncing off one anotherYes it would have been great to be able to meet more in person and do that on a regular basis. It is fascinating: being online has allowed many of us to participate even if not in Zuerich, which I'm super grateful for and think that overall has worked out ok, but at the same time I wonder how much more inspiration and good conversations we could have gotten out of it if we had been physically there and could bump into eahc other more often.
The trajectory of my project has slightly changed from the beginning, bringing me to an approach that is less "practical" than I expected, but nevertheless valuable.
My biggest challenge has been to stay motivated and to feel confident in what I've been doing and SoC in its whole has provided both energy to propell forward and the support to feel comfortable in exploring.
I could not foresee that the group of people would work out so well and bring so many interesting points of view and reflections, it has been refreshing to be around people from so many different disciplines and it has opened up my understadning of my own work and myself as well. I live otherwise in a bubble where everyone around me comes from the same profession.
Feeling part of a group has been meaningful. As literal as this sentence. A group that has its differences and welcomes more differences and similarities - or any other space outside the extremes. Feeling like a group has been meaningful. - What does it mean to feel like a group - a random people coming together and listening. Listening, might be the first letter in the group dictionary. Listening as a letter. <3 The challenge has been to realise that SoC is not 'the majority'. It's a unique place to share, unlike some other jobs I need to take -Possibility of full time SoC-like environments-
I am feeling in a space that I would like somehow the routine and real life to be, not that SoC is not real but it's a fragment of life, and I would like it to be a larger part of it- it has been a very different and interesting way of learning and interacting together, but I certainly fear I didn't have enough of it, I also fear it will end soon and then there won't be this structure of care, exchange and inspiration.yes me toowe should find ways to keep it going I would love to at least try it - I know this is always tough especially remote - but let's try. We rediscovered and unlearned things together and that I feel that is beautiful.Maybe SoC fellowship should last 3 years :D
This really speaks to me. I also have this sadness that as soon as I would step into a institutional frame a way of working like at school of commons is not really possible. - Is SoC real-world? -
Feeling supported and a part of a common that is open present and fluid has allowed me the space and time to reflect, consolidate and progress my thinking. It has expanded my consideration of collective and commoning - it has felt more possible and more nurturing than I could have imagined both in time and space. I didnt expend for so many shared threads to apprear so quickly at the start of SoC. There was a deep comfort in that - an ease. One of the key challenges has been the integration of the thinking but this weekend has been a great time for this. There have been highs and lows - going between pressures, from considering the output (writing for eg has been a little overwhelming) or the format (I feel I am always trying to start at the end and work backwards) to just making the time and space to be with the work by myself.
Please keep this thinking and these thoughts in mind as we now move into section 2 for the next 10 minutes..
Please now wrap-up and pause your writing, and spend the next 5 minutes reading what has been written. We invite you to comment on, add to, embellish, annotate the writing as a whole. Please do not delete anything.
SECTION 2: 10 minutes
From this position of reflection and composting, we now want to look more to the future. To anticipate our next steps, and the months ahead, both for us individually, as well as for our research, practice, relationships, dyanmics, responsbilities, aims as a collective.
Please take the next 10 minutes to think of at least two prompts or questions you would like to ask to everyone on this page that you think will help provide tools/thinking/jumping off points to fertilize our projects, our knowledge and our inspiration from hereon..
How can we find new, and meaningful ways to communicate and share with one another our process and ideas?what platform do we want to use to do this?
How can we build a foundation that can continue and be maintained (for those who want it) after the SoC experience has ended?+1+1+1+1Hopefully we can all finally meet in person in Zurich at the end of our SoC journey and I'm hoping being physically all together in one space may spark some new ideas or initiatives and form a more natural ways to form something going forward beyond Soc.
How can we influence academic working conditions or norms either from inside or from spaces like soc? I often think soc feels like a research union and at times almost a support group.+1+1+1+1 I had the same thought: why can't academic research feel more like SoC? and how can the value of it be recognised and communicated?What is considered as value in academic research nowadays is almost always tied to potential economic outputs in one or another way, so it feels like there is a very little chance of bringing SoC like mind into academia, not much space for it- but how can we challenge this by organizing ourselves in a different manner?yes finding ways to maintianed it independently like a spore that grows a new fungi and becomes independent from SoC but sitll is SoC
To me SoC has felt like "serious play" where you learn by trying out > how can this spirit of open research be communicated and maintained?
I love the idea of "serious play". The playfullnes in doing theory, doing research, thinking is often missing in traditional academic circles. I don't think it is necessarily the people who create this environment but the money part and the big institutions that require a lot of proof of xyz. It's also about focussing less or make or creating an outcome or a product and putting more emphasis into the process itself. Who were the people involved? Where did inspiration come from? What conversations, relationships, dynamics, settings added to this process? Perhaps "serious play" is still about have an aim or a goal, but focussing less on getting there or getting it done and more about the process that transpires along the way
The months ahead look like an attempt to complete planned research activities, weave it all together, through provided structures try to learn how is it going for other fellows and envision together how to continue in the afterlife, how can we keep singing songs in pairs, share one body and character, compromise, learn, unlearn, come together and interact. Would be nice to dedicate some time at the end to figuring out together what is the best way for us to stay in touch, maybe we could have a set date and time for meetings every 3 or 6 months? one link, one time, one date- all people? yes that would be great, yeees+
How the unique knowledge accumulated at SoC can be applied in different settings afterwards - whether it is an academia, cultural organizations and etc. Is what we are doing here should live as an isolated practice or there. is a way to give it a new form/lifewhat could this curriculum outline/offset? What ways can research be integrated to the academic curriculum
The financial issue SoC is experiencing at the moment is a much bigger reflection of what is going on with similar research institutions/initiatives and etc.I would be interested also in exploring the ways to keep such structures alive by crowdfunding and other possible sustainable models. Hopefully everything will work out well with their application and maybe we could have participated in the financial side of the things to fugure out how this works in generalMmmmm such as a collective pot of crowdfunding. There are also inssues with crowdfunding too but I think thinking of different systems and avenues for funding, and also different recourses required for an institution/inititive to continue outside of money alone is definitely essential
For the fertilizer to work, we need grounds that don't end up in landfall. We need MONEY to hold on to the ground. Then the question is - How can we generate money & sustain SoC-like communities while academic disciplines don't necessarily acknowledge knowledge outside the disciplines. - acknowledge knowledge :)- Thinking about the outcomes of research sometimes feels uncool but - How can we show SoC work & relationships to outside SoC? And how could this 'showing' influence other SoCs to emerge?Can we implant SoCs in other institutions?yees can SoC travel?Research that is done within SoC constitutes a small friction of a research that is in between spaces of the academic research - we resist the classical ways of researching in academia which I found very precious about SoC. I wonder how these initiative/schools can find new ways of sustaining themselves in the world of academia that does not recognize them as "academic".
Yes! It is annoying, that the only barrier is money yes, and also the labours- I don't think a lot of people care about official titles very much. But if you want to plan a life as a researcher you have to be acknowledged by these institutions. yeesYes but if someone wants to study master's lets say the current structures are pushing you towards doing a master's degree at this and that university, to get name and paper affirmation, BUT if i think about it now in a structure like SoC one can learn so much more- but it's not considered valid/credible enough somehow- so we all throw our money into some semi garbage institutions. Yes because you need to dance with the structures of the academia first to do a research that you want to do later. In a way SoC was also founded in a similar manner - they were in academia and after realizing the shortcomings of the institutions they founded this unique space i think knowing about these alternative structures is key to their formalising - i think this too is the practice of visablising the process and validating the methods
Please wrap-up your questions and move onto the next section where we can begin to discuss and answer the questions in more detail.
You can also begin to directly answer under each question above if that is easier.
SECTION 3: 20 minutes
Please now choose up to 3 prompts from the list below and begin to answer. Then please start to look at others answers and add to, or respond as you necessary.
Copy and paste the prompt you are answering, so others can answer under it too.the prompts are the questions we wrote above?Yep!
How can we build a foundation that can continue and be maintained (for those who want it) after the SoC experience has ended?
Not an answer but a question in response- how much are we willing/able to give to continue and maintain this project? A few hours of our time? A train ticket? A contribution to dinner? A weekend traveling? A place to stay over or to work from? Administration- coordinating schedules, recources, etc.? Really nicely expanded upon, and something that should be agreed upon and discussed by all who want to be involved. Perhaps this is something we can keep in mind and discuss in the run-up to the end of SoC commons. What does continuation/maintenance mean for each people? What do they know they are able to share/give/commit and what exact form does this take? And also what are the collective goals and aims in this continuation
A weekend travelling sounds good: like a yearly meetup. It's ofc tricky but if planned ahead it could be the most fruitful way to do it, cause online can get tiring, even though ofc some online checkins and communication are necessary too.
Maybe we can do a common calendar of events, conferences, festivals, concerts etc.love this we would like to visit seee who is in that city and how we can organize meet ups. Also if working from home trend continues we can maybe put some spots in calendar where we can host each other- come together and cohabitate for a little while. But for me it would also be interesting to come together as a bigger groupA common calendar/map showing who is willing/has possibilities to host each others soundds also great! Maybe an IG account to announce events? I feel like a calendar might not get updated/checked.
We can rotate roles in terms of who doeas the organising/admin for 6 months / a year then we switchthis sounds feasible and sustainable. this sounds fair.
We need MONEY to hold on to the ground. Then the question is - How can we generate money & sustain SoC-like communities while academic disciplines don't necessarily acknowledge knowledge outside the disciplines?
An exhibition? If someone knows how to make money by exhibiting, I want them to teach that to me :);pahahahah it was more to have a "window" to showcase the work. Hence the idea of the bar ahahh > An SoC bar :D? videos/some outcome that packages the knowledge in a simplified way? Each lab does fundraising in their own circles? As a way to continue their SoC research the following year and/or to fund a different lab for the following year.
How the unique knowledge accumulated at SoC can be applied in different settings afterwards - whether it is an academia, cultural organizations and etc. Is what we are doing here should live as an isolated practice or there. is a way to give it a new form/lifewhat could this curriculum outline/offset? --> Through practices already in place in different institutions / traditions. Broadly speaking, for academia, SoC knowledge could be shared in the form of a qualitative research - the interviews we had at the beginnning of SoC, for example - and published in a journal. If we want to influence knowledge in certain academia we might need to start speaking in their language to start the conversation - journal papers. For cultural organisations, SoC process could be shared in the forms of seminars / panels / events / publications. yeesThe format - or a new limitless format - could be suggested by individual labs - as a way of organic growth?I think to do this we also have to agree together who can speak, write, represent SoC at what form and how this can be done jointly. Although I feel a strong commoning ground our role within SoC is still unclear to me after our fellowship ends.You mean the role of each of us is unclear?No more what we will be within SoC
I agree - the role is unclear after the fellowship. But I feel soc will still be an available platform for all the former and future members. - SoC within SoC - another closed bubble? - It feels like kinship
How can we influence academic working conditions or norms either from inside or from spaces like soc? I often think soc feels like a research union and at times almost a support group.well put
One way to do it is for sure to talk about it with peers, and publish? Or to parasite the academies by proposing activities that are bringing the SoC approach, even if in a smaller version. Inoculating slowly the universities.This is such a nice idea! I know Casco in Utrecht are working on a Climate justice code to then take to institutions and ask for them to implement. Maybe this could be something similar? A code, or a doctrine, or a manual - or datasetes - that we present and propose to institutions and discuss with them how they can adopt and facilitate. And if they don't want to - why? Can we write and think of a brief manual for ourselves on how to do it? Like something where we outline our strategies-starting with something as simple as how to approach department heads/course coordinators, how to explain to them SoC approach and its value, how we can suggest smaller structure of SoC to begin with, what it could entail. Because I feel like some of us have strength in one thing and other in another- so bringing the forces together for parasiting academia would be nice.This is a wonderful idea. This could also developed maybe in the form of a protocol because as it was mentioned above several times, this issue is not an isolated case. Many SoC institutions are going through similar paths. So in a way it could be a valuable resource for us all.
Ask questions to heads of schools and academic boards - why are certain things the way they are. We could start with a set of questions instead of writing a code directly or a manifest. Let's organize a collective writing protest - we can write a letter
I like the idea of parasiting. Of course we can and should ask people to behave right- but I would rather find a way to tap into their resources and do what we want to do, without asking/getting permission- sometimes this needs privilege.
Privilege but also a strong community.
For the fertilizer to work, we need grounds that don't end up in landfall. - I find this interesting - its two fold. Detoxifying from the acedemic realm ... metabolising the process and arriving at the beginning again /for the 'output' to feel authentic .. for the theory to be validated.
Please now take the next 5 mins to read through all the different questions and responses (note some prompts and answers are in this section and some are in the section above). Again annotating, adding to, questioning, responding - just not deletion please :)
Now let's move onto the final section..
SECTION 4: 25 minutes
Now we would like to draw in the thread of commoning through our thinking and writing.
Please take the time to reflect and meditate, then write below how you feeling the commons or commoning has been present in your lab, your research and practice, and your experience. What is the impact of the prescence of commons?
There were some great ideas above about creating a manual or a code for what school of commons is and what we have done together in this setting to present to educational institutions as an alternative education model. Perhaps some of the ideas written below could form part of that code.
Some things to think about, (but feel free to take this response in whatever direction you see best fit)...
Are commons more present in your project, your methodologies, or the structures surrounding your project?
How can commons thinking and commons doing inform, enrich, evolve our research and our time together?
Could this applied on a personal, a collective, or even a societal level?
Personally I am not so much aware of the academically defined concepts of commoning. But on a more personal level I would say the way we worked/shared common resources and set up the meetings and even the language we used could be qualified as commoning. Also the theme that we are working on intersect with commoning quite closely as it is about reflecting everyone's voices in the work practice/project and etc. +1 *fellowship?Mmmm intersect is very important. And maybe where the commons was also so present because we weren't encourgaed to view everyones project or lab as an "individual" but more as one part of a collective whole, so I at least often was looking out for threads of themes, or interests, or methods in other projects that not only connected to mine but to others too so weave it all together
It's hard to quantify how much of the commons is part of my project, I think in terms of the methodology it proposes, it has a commonist aspiration. I did learn other commonist approaches and decentralisted methods during my research, could you expand of this?[I stumbled across "the hum": it's a group of people sharing/teaching the knowledge they have around decentralized organising. They have years long experience in cooperatives, so they came up woth some strategies and I havent fully dived into it but it seems interesting. They elaborate on group sizes and different layers of participation and on how to create accountability and emotional safety nice! in collaboration. I'm not sure they frame their work as "commoning" but still I think it's closely related. So it's really about organising and how to work together, which to me is the most difficult part of commoning, and the most exciting one. Maybe there's a point ot be made about the differences of "commoning knowledge," "commoning material goods/spaces" and "commoning as an approach"] so this is goign to expand with time. Interesting - I agree that there is a difference. And probably for different people different forms of commoning are helpful or possible. it would be great to do a "commoning tour" where we visit commoning projects around the world and then they come visit us and we exchange knowledgeeeee
I think the commons happened more in the way we interacted with each other in SoC, and I wonder if we could distill some principles. *a declaration of ...
Nice- we were begining to talk about this yesterday. I think in some small ways commons are involved in our LEARN project (for example we will release our 'record' under a creative commons license). I think that comes from the fact that our lab has individuals with commoning as a guiding value. In the end though we are a group of four working together closely on a project- I guess that could fall inside or outside of the commons depending on how you characterize the commons. For me a commons is a shared resource that is collectively managed- it does not necessarily have to be completely free and open, so I can see our work as a commons of four. Small, but tightknit and committed. Commons come in all shapes and sizes :) I also feel as though I have been part of many different commons during this time. Maybe they are just different "groups" of people, but I think the methods of sharing, the relationships and aims of each group become different so it is nice to see how commoning can underpin these different relationships, but manifests in different ways for different purposes
I think I'm still learning the commoning. I notice that I still don't use the common enough for the actual research work, but more as a support group or framework or as I said before a "home" for my thoughts and theories. I would love to feel even more comfortable letting the common actually into my process and into my work.
So I would say the commons are definitly present in my vision of academic work.<3
Commons thinking and commons doing could expose existing structures of hierarchies. Individually, I have been in a messy situation that directed my way of living and working. Talking to people through SoC, it became clear that the messy situations were shared - personal was not personal - personal was shared -. Gatherings of commoning, be it a research outcome, exhibition, chat over coffee, wine over chat, could tie personal to collective to societal to personal to a circle. -How? Share what we feel like sharing with each other, and extend this untangible relationships in other forms. Be a long-term listener? Work with each other? Publish together? Refer to a friend? Give honest feedback? Show emotions?
Commons is so often in these moments in-between, the ethereal and intangible and that is so hard to pin down. I'm wondering if we did want to put into writing, or to words, or a code how others (institutions or eduational models) could adapt or learn this model, how we would do it? What words we would use to pin down these feelings and experiences? Good point. This variapad actually would work perfectly as a code. Exactly because it is messy and spontaneous. It represents what we would ask for and radically differs or distinguishes itself from traditional forms of codes/manifests. very honest real uncensored emotional critical commoning.
Commoning is integral to the way I feel we need to move forward with education and learning - and also being together. In the arts, in education, in society. It can often we very difficult to enact this whilst still thinking in the structures of "finishedness" "perfection" and "hierarchy". For instance I find it very difficult to share my work and my process/progress unless it has an element of finishedness surround it. I think commons is present in my research in that I am looking at what commons-based infrastructures we can present to (and maybe enforce upon tehe) institutions and instituting - however the research process itself was NOT commons based initially. But I have learnt to share more, to discuss more, to understand research as more than just the end result but the process along the way. It's difficult to find ways to enact this into professional and personal situations but I think it it's vital
YES! I often wonder how we can get rid of this pressure or this mindset. Is it just training? Maybe it is about "being vulnerable" line between vulnerable and victim and asking to share or sharing the not-knowingness of a project, or asking more questions of people rather than presenting answers and through the practice of doing this perhaps we unlearn and relearn. This is why SoC has been incredible because it has offered a space for not-knowing, where we can present along the way. This was interesting about doing the Kitchen Sessions so early, I panicked so much as I had nothing "finished" to show at this point, but then ended up viewing it as a session where I could ask questions rather than present answrs.<3
Yes I was also nervous before the kitchen sessions - but then when they started and I realized that I don't judge in terms of "finishedness" at all I got less nervous and actually enjoyed it. Yes! It's like taking the time to be in the moment and to learn and enjoy it rather than present this finished product, argue your case, answers questions well etc. It takes that pressure off. So often when we go to talks or lectures or presentations it's again this presentation of a finished project/product and when there is opportunity for a Q+A at the end it's not really a space for unknowingness, it's a space for the speaker to give all the answers, or defend their project etc. They are still in this position of finishedness and knowingness and I think now we are in the position of researchers and makers it's hard not to replicate that. But it is important not to. I'm wondering how we continue to make spaces where there is this balance between others learning from our research and what we do, but also remaining open to using that space for learning too. It is interesting how important the balance between structure and freedom is in contexts like that. Also the need for deadlines etc. During our interview sessions on friday I thought maybe the groups within soc could be organised by different needs of structure.
As before, please now wrap-up and pause your writing and spend the remaining 5-10 minutes of the workshop to looks through the writing from this section, and then also the writing from the workshop as a whole to add any final comments, notes, addendums, questions, responses etc. Then we will wrap-up the workshop.
Okay, now wrapping up the workshop. Thanks so much for your time and your writing today everyone. I think what we've created here is very special and kind of the start of lots of different directions and trajectories, so I'm going to find a way to ensure we can keep this document and refer back to it because it could be something nice to come back to a few more times during the SoC process. I have also made a lot of notes about the potential desire to write codes or manuals for how we work together in this setting so will reach out again soon for if we want to take this any further as I think this is super interesting. I hope you've all enjoyed and gained something from this experience and that it felt collective. I'd love to hear your feedback so please get in touch and feel free to stay in this document and add to it as much as you like.
Thank you!!! And see you later xx
Thank you! <3
Thank you! It was really interesting and inspiring!+1 <3
Thank you
Thanks! See you this afternoon :)
Prologue. Josephine Baan, Marea Hildebrand, Philipp Spillmann