First sketches

@elizabethwillmotth : It's great to see how you meshed the 3 threads that spoke to you most! Interesting the similarity you found between the video @gwynjones shared about the astronauts' take on the 'overview effect' and the video about the San-Francisco fog. I think that the intensity of the experience (body&mind) required to achieve that same feeling may vary hugely between people. Just like @aldodemartelaere said. Hence it's useful to multiply the sensory experiences. To me roughly speaking there are 7 of these senses:
- 5 (Aristotle): Hearing, Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste
- 1 (neurology): Kinesthetic = awareness of movement (balance & acceleration, Temperature, pain, time etc)
- 1 (buddhism): Mind (non physical sensations and perceptions)

As well as creating environments for sparks to emerge, I believe it is important to suggest various gateways for people to connect with other likeminded people. So once inspired to act, they can go on creating their own path …

@gwynjones: Are you planning to be a UK charity and to fundraise in the US? If so, we've just reached the necessary quorum of board members to set-up Spring Fund USA. It should be up and running this summer. Your charity might benefit from its mechanism. Here is the website in progress FYI:http://www.spring-fund-uk.org/usa/

@rachelbwickert, I realise I'm lagging behind a bit. I read some of your texts you refer to above (awakenings and science and bodystorming), and here follows my attempt to understand them. I realise this is at most a very small part of what you are thinking, but let me know whether I'm driving on the right track. This is important to me, to know whether I can actually contribute something to the discussion.

The meaning of legal concepts is embedded in practices. By their very nature, practices are open-ended. To really get a grip on their meaning, one should participate in those practices.

However, that is not always possible, and might not even be desirable. Art comes to the rescue here. As participating in its creation - somehow - offers an 'alternative' to participating in those practices, hence to understanding the world that lies embedded in them. Empathy comes in here, too. As the creative process enables us to understand and respect worlds that would otherwise remain closed to us.

But participating in creation does not only enable understanding. It also fosters a sense of belonging, and stimulates our capacity to act in the creation of a better world, in some sense. Hence the therapeutic value of creative engagement.

One of the links I see between art and societal practices is that they both have an inherent richness that makes our involvement with them endless. One can never be a specialist in them. For example, one can return to the same poem, painting, or piece of music, over and over, and will always discover new things.

But what is of interest here, is not so much 'Art' with a capital, but the participation of potentially everybody in creative activities. And what makes an activity creative, is that the whole person - which means thinking as well as the senses - are intensely involved.

@sam, I made a donation on sunday for your book 'Garland', and am very curious now. I wanted to say something about your website too. Did you know that part of it is unreadable on an Ipad (at least on mine, but I suspect it's a general problem): after a few seconds, the screen turns black. Damn!

Anyhow, a good afternoon to all of you (also to @gwynjones and @elizabethwillmotth, I hope I'm forgetting nobody

Oh sorry, I didn't mean @sam but @samburcher!

HI Aldo,

I have emailed you a PDF copy of Garland. Thanks for letting me know about the problem with my website. I will try to get that fixed. Hope you enjoy the book.

@aldodemartelaere Yes, you are definitely on a similar wavelength!

Have you heard of the Indian Parable of the Blind men and the elephant? (pic attached)

As you said, while much of our individual knowing is embedded into our 'doing', our shared humanity gives anyone a potential to access the essence of things. The means vary hugely depending on what you were born with and your experience.

I found this simple truth struggling in our world where hyper specialised expertise is valued more financially and otherwise than other types. To me all are as relevant when it comes to finding a way forward as a collective to solve a complex problem e.g. be it a trans-generational familial trauma, a personal crisis, the dying of bees, a company dysfunctional culture etc.

The arts/creative activities level out that difference of value allocated to different types of knowing by enabling all present to reconnect with their own whole humanity and therefore to the collective even if only for an instant. It is as if it was opening an extra-verbal channel…

That has been my experience of the theatre workshop I did for instance: http://rdwbizz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-rainbow-of-desire-boal-method-of.html

@gwynjones @elizabethwillmotth @aldodemartelaere @samburcher

I've been on the look out for inspiring examples of news innovative artistic collaborative concept. I stumbled on this one from the Big Live Arts Group (a loomio group based in New Zealand). It has got many of the essential ingredients that we've been discussing about e.g. the mix of open innovation, tech/scientific insights, the arts/crafts, sustainability, collaboration via cross-fertilisation, community spirit regeneration, autonomy and experimentation.

They are happy for me to share it so here it is attached. Any sparks? ;-)

Hi Rachel,

I've just got back from five days farming in Devon. Can't open your link for Big Live Arts, so will search through Google and get back to you with my thoughts. Sam

Hey @samburcher, farming in Devon sounds fab! Attached the snapshot of the google doc FYI…

page1

page 2

and some of the pics that go with it!