(Y)our practive as a role play

Abstract

'(Y)our practive as a role play' is an experiment that I tailor to the organization. I have two questions and want to find out (1) how they define their role within the organization, and (2) how they represent that role within all the other actors that influence their practice. It will be a workshop in two parts, with a week in between in which I give them an assignment.

We start with an introductory round. I buy a big ball of wool. Standing in a circle we throw the ball to another, when you throw the ball, you describe the relationship of you to that person, and what that person means in relation to you. Expectations are immediately expressed from the people of the organization to the artists ('I'm curious to see what you will do this year') The artists subsequently comment that they found it difficult to describe to someone from the organization and what that person means to them, because there is a lot of work going on in the organization that they do not see or are not aware of.

Then I ask the group to write a letter to Roodkapje, the organization as a character, in which they describe their relationship with the organization, what they need and what they think the ideal situation would look like. I say that you can also come up with a fictitious name for your role within the organization, if that works easily. 15 minutes are allotted for this. Then they read these letters to the others.

After the workshop, the letters will be posted with the request to make a drawing based on your character, or role, in which you try to show schematically how you relate to the organization and to the other roles. There are three actors that must be reflected in your diagram: the placement, how do you come up with a metaphor for your practice? What is the landscape in which you work? The actors: who or what influences your practice, these may be other characters, places, or abstract concepts. Finally, you try to describe the connections: if you draw a link between two actors: how would you describe this relationship: for example nurturing, giving, equal, parasitic? The more specific the better.

When the drawings are shown a week later, this results in a conversation about productive versus reproductive labour, trust, chaos, waste within your practice and (whether or not) the need for exchange. Listening to the explanation of the drawings, I made a number of notes, based on which we continued the conversation.

Using the silent discussion method, I then ask the group to design a joint schedule, which we draw on the window of the office in Little Red Riding Hood.