Life offers chance encounters with destiny. And to be clear from the start – this is not about my professional destiny, but is about the destiny of meeting others in a field of potential. As the timeless poet Rumi penned:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
This perfectly echoes my own conviction leaving EuViz 2018—the annual, global conference for visual practitioners, held this year at Rungstedgaard in Denmark. Over 180 burgeoning social artists gathered in blazing summer heat to explore the bounds of our work. And this we discovered: we can’t go back to sleep.
I was honored to deliver a 3-hour keynote session on generative scribing, and my heart has been profoundly moved by what we experienced in the room together. My aim with this post is to share the session beyond the confines of a hotel ballroom, to convey the larger movement that was felt, and to keep us—a social body of practice—awake.
Many stories influence this one; these are the primary three, followed by the presentation, the experience, a sampling of photos, and a magical video encapsulating the whole day.
- The birthing of an “engagement process“: July 2018 with the Presencing Institute.
- The Visual Practice Workshop that preceded the conference, where we howled at the blood moon from the beach and tried to stay awake for the eclipse. About half of the group stayed on as organizers, crew, and participants of the larger gathering.
- Other workshops over the past year and half that seeded the field, so that when a container needed activation at the conference, there were over 25 people ready to energetically hold the larger group to help it see itself more clearly and grow.
The MAIN PRESENTATION (commentary under each picture once you click in)
At this point, to convey the feeling of level four scribing, i played a video by Abby Johnson:
And then i continued to describe generative scribing and the role of containers:
Ripley Lin, from Taipei, had been scribing this whole time. Here is her stunning image.
(Photo by Visual Facilitators)
Here we shifted into the more experimental part of the session, diving into “source” and an exercise with resonance. I read a chapter from my book, everyone drew with black marker into an A3 sheet of cream colored paper. I then referred to Arthur Zajonc‘s framework of “Focused Attention” and “Open Awareness”, rang a bowl three times, and asked everyone to practice attending and opening, in succession.
Participants hung their drawings on a wall of windows, stepped back in silence, absorbed the field of energy the images generated, then returned to small groups to converse about the “after image”—any impressions, feelings, gestures that arose as a result of the absorption.
From there, we began the third part of the session and shifted into a fishbowl dialogue. Participants from five previous workshops initially seeded the center chairs, and the incredibly poised Anna Siegel anchored the circle. People rotated in and out as they felt moved to be part of the unfolding conversation. It lasted about 40 minutes, and could have gone on much longer had we not needed to break for lunch!
Oh, and i scribed that final fishbowl—in part to give a demonstration of my “live” work, and also to synthesize the conversation of the conversation, the resonance of the resonance.
Remarkably, i barely remember the content. It was an immersive exchange, and I rely on others now to help recall what was expressed. Reflective highlights from fellow practitioners:
- Scribing as swimming. Not only swimming, but diving. Scribing as dancing. Art surfacing in the scribing (the kiss). Connecting to source and distilling the essence. In Finnish we say “päästä iholle” : get to the skin/ your skin/ someone’s skin. It is something to do with getting close & feeling—both as something emotional & tactile. Something to do with permission & trust. – Raquel Benmergui
- Generative Scribing brings us to a place where we have an opportunity to connect with parts of ourselves and with others like never before. Which explains emotions, feelings, resistance, and shifts. I’m always surprised by what it brings up and welcome it by remembering “let come/let go”. – Heather Martinez
- I felt an energy accumulate in the room and in me. Or resonate. I felt very emotional. So now the question is in my head, that Karolina Iwa expressed: “How do [we] become kung-fu jedis of and open heart & keep it open, being at the same not more protected than a shell-less snail??” – Laura Lagaaij
- Let‘s put the spirit into practice – let’s cross the pond together – Ben Fellis
And notes from the dialogue, tx to Marieke van der Velden:
- ‘how far can we go in reflecting what wants to be seen – when clients aren’t there yet?’
- ‘in case you feel alone, as a scribe, trust that you are NOT. there is a sense of belonging. you are with your clients. and also: you are part of this bigger community.’
- ‘stop chasing. lean back and trust what happens next. what wants to be seen will unfold.’
A SAMPLING of PHOTOS (Copyright Orest Tabaka)
And last but certainly not least… A VIDEO ENCAPSULATING the WHOLE DAY (by the Visual Facilitators team of Christian Rath, Tim Rath, Rico Reutimann, and Joep van der Laan).
It was a magical time. Thank you EuViz! “There is a field…”
AND…… this post would NOT be complete without mentioning the 2 other keynotes, by Martin Haussmann/Karina Antons and David Sibbet, which obviously fed the field. (Full schedule of the conference activities is here.) And and and – a HUGE shout out to the organizers, some of whom worked for years behind the scenes to pull this off: Coordinators Christina Hemmingsen and Mara Callaert; Stream Leads: Bea Broskova, Nicolas Gros, Olivier Pesret, and Sabine Soeder; MCs Karolina Iwa and Anna Siegel; Bookstore by Aušrinė Balkaitytė; Environment +++ by Mona Ebdrup; Branding and marketing by the team of Visuality; Support from the International Forum of Visual Practitioners; and crazy-generous Neuland – keeping us all with markers in hand and surfaces to drawn into.
