leadership learning

How will the project contribute to my learning about leadership?
In my practise managing participatory projects, I have often try to remain open to the contributions of all involved.  However, this has led to some confusion and a lack of direction.
To develop my leadership skills, i have been working to articulate a clear vision for a new direction.  Within this I have been reflecting on when to ask for contributions and what specifically this is achieving.
The journey I propose to undertake is an opportunity to put this into practise; I have identified a particular set of questions and designed a situaion to collect responses.  The group meeting provides an opportunity and motivation to continue to reflect on these themes and extend my learning from the others experiences.

Our Proposal

The SAJE project is a collaborative piece of research, undertaken by four attendees at the Extend programme: Susan Humble, Anna Francis,  Johnny Gailey  and Emily Druiff.  In Wakefield the group each discussed what they wanted to achieve, this has been refined through our conversations and we now have: 

What we each want to come away with: 

Anna:

I intend to research issues around sustainability and survival by exploring how artists can work with communities, and whether participants become co-producers. Questions to consider: What sort of exit strategies do the artists/organisations have in place in order to see the project continuing without them? Where is the artistic experience or object located within projects of this kind? I propose to visit 2 NVA projects: The Hidden Gardens in Pollokshields, 2003 to today and SAGE (Sow and Grow Everywhere.)

Susan:

In relation to a current walking project with visually impaired participants, I will reflect on the way I document and share our experiences.  I am concerned that current methods are focused on funding and justification.  I am interested to explore ways documentation could further participation by existing and new audiences.

I aim to shift my thinking around this by inviting the participants on a journey to meet a project, ask questions and crucially document this process.  The form of documentation and discussions we have on the train journey will inform the way I represent and share future events. 

I hope this will deepen the involvement of participants and explore ways to represent experiences by inverting usual leadership roles.

Emily:

I will look at the process of commissioning socially engaged practice within two organisations: Grizedale Arts and Peckham Space. I will do this by inviting people who have worked within each organisations with different roles including artist, participant and commissioner. Each member of the group will be invited  to engage in conversation over a durational meeting with the responsibility to document the conversations from the variety of perspectives involved. This documentation will then be fed back to the group for consolidation in a document or format to be confirmed.

Johnny:

I propose to visit two projects based in Yorkshire:

The SeaSwim project in Scarborough: http://www.imoveand.com/seaswim/

and the National Education Archive, held at Yorkshire Sculpture Park: http://www.ysp.co.uk/page/national-arts-education-archive/es

My primary area of interest is to investigate what happens to the artwork after the project - the stewardship - of what is produced, and whether if we are aiming through our participatory practice to foster a 'democracy of making' , we equally have to foster 'a democracy of looking'.

Key words

·         Survival

·         Sustained

·         Communities

·         Communication

·         Commissioning

·         Benefits

·         Authenticity

·         Honesty

·         Value

·         Permission

Over the past two months the group have swapped practices, publications, ideas and have put together the following proposal:

Proposal: 

Milestones

July                 Proposal

Aug-sept         Personal projects

Oct/nov          Group meeting to share findings

Dec                Compile outcomes

Jan                  Presentation

Our  proposal is to focus on the key principles which we believe underpin participatory artwork.  This focus would hold it all together while allowing room for individual exploration.  Each of us would embark on some research, looking at two participatory projects each, to provide the content for a discussion, which will then be brought together over a weekend to discuss experiences and findings.  This open-ended method would enable us to explore our own areas of interest in a way relevant to our work. The different areas of interest, expertise and practice will make the outcomes very rich. The project will draw on the experiences within the group to understand experiences of participation in meaningful ways and from multiple perspectives.  This will create opportunities for learning within the group as well as presenting heterogeneous outcomes that does not treat one form of practise as superior.

The project aims to present imaginative ways to connect with participatory practice.  The focus on environment and context potentially has important implications for ways we plan, conduct and evaluate educational and participatory projects.  We will propose new approaches to who we involve in these processes and whether this can have revitalising and generative effects on our thinking. As an extension of that, within the research carried out by the group the context for conversations around participation will be carefully considered, as each researcher seeks to create an intimate space for the discussion around the participatory projects explored. Through the methodology of creating an intimate space, each researcher will be aware of and note the context and environment,, and who takes the lead in the gathering/discussion.  This will add a layer to our research which will be further discussed at the weekend gathering.

Underlying principles or areas of interest will need to be strong for this to hold together.  Initial discussions have centred on:

1. What do we mean by ‘meaningful’ participation?
2. Where is the value located?
3. What motives do different stakeholders have for being involved in the process, at different stages of the project?
4. What is the importance of environment and context to participation
5. How do we authentically and honestly represent experiences

The project will seek to generate and understand social exchanges as part of meaningful participation in the arts. 

Each participant will have the opportunity to reflect on and extend their own practise through a research period.  Each researcher shall investigate their primary area of interest, however they will also have the three others' interests (as secondary interests) to investigate. This will generate rich content for a group sharing event.  A central focus of the project is exploring authentic and appropriate ways to represent experiences.  As this forms a part of the explorations and multiple perspectives, it is impossible at this stage to predict the method of documentation and outcome.

We do wish though to find a form that is appropriate – if we are seeking in our projects to foster ‘ a democracy of making’, we also must seek to create a ‘democracy of looking’.  The coherence of the project will be maintained by a common aesthetic as outlined by Bourriaud: “we must judge that domain of exchanges on the basis of its aesthetic criteria, or in other words by analysing the coherence of its form and then the symbolic value of the world it represents”.  The principles of participation and representation will be both employed and interrogated across all projects.

In gathering the research, we will pay particular attention to methods of retrieval – noting who is ‘leading’ the conversation and whether we can coach responses rather than being directive.  Through the process of planning, negotiating, researching and presenting, each participant will reflect their developing understanding of leadership.  This will be layered with reflection on ongoing professional development through participation in the Extend programme.

Step in and withdraw

Ahead of today's skype meeting I am trying to draw together the area of participation that I would be interested in exploring. Something I have grappled with a bit in my own practice is that when collaborating with someone, or making works which perhaps have this participatory (socially engaged?) aspect to them I worry that people don't always understand what I do.
The recent work I did in Harlech - where I worked with the local landlady to make a brochure as she was fed up that there wasn't one: some of the artists on the residency thought I was a graphic designer - and they were quite dismissive of what I was doing as a result. I suppose the point for me was around motives: If I am working with a local landlady to make a brochure for her town, it is not because I like making brochures, or because I think my brochure should be THE brochure for Harlech - but rather to say this is a possibility, this is a potential thing you can do to deal with the thing that hacks you off. Similar with the Bandstand from Common Ground: I was not interested in being the person to organise musical events on the local bandstand: I wanted to draw attention to the fact that no music events ever happened on the bandstand since 1997 when I moved here. So I organised for a brass band to come and play, put up bunting and flower baskets, organised for chairs for the public to sit on and gave out ice creams in exchange for people's feedback (this was just one art work of 18 in the park that weekend - see more detail here). People said to me, this is great, you should do it every week in the summer: and I said - no, you should do it every week in the summer. Since then Park Live! takes place: where various local bands, singers and other acts come and do performances on the bandstand. Who knows if it is a direct result of my concert?
There are other projects like this that I could mention: I suppose I am interested in a few things here: other artists can be critical of the activity, saying it is not art - what makes it art? What is my responsibility to the collaborator/participant? When do I step back and let the thing go? Is it enough to draw attention to the gap, or should I suggest a possible solution, or should I solve the problem? I am not a social worker, or a guardian angel - and don't want my work to be labelled as do-gooding. When working with others, like the landlady - is she a co-producer? In the long run, what is the value of the activity?
I think for our research i would like to explore a couple of projects which are labelled as socially-engaged. In particular looking at when the artist/organisation steps back and lets the public/community get on with it. How is that exit strategy managed? How does the community feel about it? I think NVA's Hidden Garden's project is one that has fascinated me for some time, and so I would really like to look at the history of it, and how it has managed to survive for such a long time - and thrive.
I would also be interested in looking at another NVA project: The Invisible College, as this is quite new, and I would be interested in seeing how they are going about involving people at this stage, and what it is they see as the 'art' in the activity.

Lifecycle

Link to The lifecycle of a project

drawing together

Drawing on the work all submitted so far, my proposal is to focus on key principles underpinning the work.  This could hold it all together while allowing room for individual exploration.   I would like us all to come together to discuss experiences, I think this would consolidate our learning, however firstly I feel I need to embark on some research to provide the content for the discussion.  Again this would enable us to explore our own areas of interest in a way relevant to our work.  This might not be the same for everyone.   The different areas of interest and expertise will make the outcomes very rich.

Underlying principles or areas of interest will need to be strong for this to hold together.  Here’s my attempt:

Meaningful participation

Value of experiences

Importance of environment and context to participation (broadened this from walking)

Authentic representation of experiences

The project will seek to generate and understand social exchanges as part of meaningful participation in the arts.  Through a democratic approach the projects will explore what we can mean by participation.  The importance of environment and context will be a key theme across the projects as will exploring appropriate and authentic ways to represent experiences.

The project will draw on the experiences within the group to understand experiences of participation in meaningful ways and from multiple perspectives.  This will create opportunties for learning within the group as well as presenting heterogeneous outcomes that does not treat one form of practise as superior. 

Each participant will have the opportunity to reflect on and extend their own practise through a research period.  This will generate rich content for a group sharing event.  A central focus of the project is exploring authentic and appropriate ways to represent experiences.  As this forms a part of the explorations and multiple perspectives, it is impossible at this stage to predict the method of documentation and outcome.

The coherence of the project will be maintained by a common aesthetic as outlined by Bourriaud: “we must judge that domain of exchanges on the basis of its aesthetic criteria, or in other words by analysing the coherence of its form and then the symbolic value of the world it represents”.  The principles of participation and representation will be both employed and interrogated across all projects.

The projects aim to present imaginative ways to connect with participatory practice.  The focus on environment and context potentially has important implications for ways we plan, conduct and evaluate educational and participatory projects.  We will propose new approaches to who we involve in these processes and where which can have revitalising and generative effects on our thinking.

Through the process of planning, negotiating, researching and presenting, each participant will reflect their developing understanding of leadership.  This will be layered with reflection on ongoing professional development through participation in the Extend programme.

Research questions

How important is the environment and context for learning and participation in the arts?

Can the environment have a restorative and generative affect on participation?

What can we mean by meaningful participation?

How should we consider value in relation to the arts?

In what ways can we capture and represent authentic experiences?

Milestones

July                  proposal

Aug-sept         personal projects

Oct/nov           meeting

Dec                  compile outcomes

Jan                   presentation

Taking Shape: Following Leads

Our discussions today have been about trying to get the collection of ideas and shared practice into something which is beginning to take shape: Emily's very good idea for each of us to set out our 'take' on the project so far seems helpful: so, here is my take on the discussions so far

Possible lead questions for project:

Walking as a participatory tool?

Walking as space for exchange and learning?

Why do walking practices create such good spaces for exchange?

Invite a number of participants, all of whom have been involved in an artistic project which has involved walking: they may have been an arts practitioner/event leader, participant or organisation. (I think we can each look at specifics afterwards and potentially invite 3 each, one from each of the headings.

They will be invited to attend a walking weekend together, with the aim of sharing ideas and experience from previous project involvement. There will be a series of topics to be covered in walk sessions: leading to a discussion of the use of walking as a tool for exchange and learning. 

The weekend may begin with a session on documentation and preferred methods for recording exchanges. It may also be useful to invite an external documenter.

Each participant will document their experience of the walking weekend in a way that they feel appropriately reflects their engagement, this will be collected and collated by the group (us) into a document (booklet? Map?) which can then be used as a manual/case study for practitioners/participants/organisations exploring walking as a participatory tool in future.

·         Duration - one weekend

·         Location - Grizedale, Allenheads or somewhere like that?

·         Delegates - a combination of practitioners, participants and organisations

·         Questions - Exploring Walking as an educational/participatory tool or space for exchange and learning.

·         Facilitation - Us 4? or an external person - might be good here for us to look at the leadership implementation

·         Documentation - The participants and potentially an external person.

·         Budget - £2,000 accommodation and food: £1,000 transport and £2,000 for documentation/publication/booklet?


LLater On after discussions via email that Walking could be the method and not the subject:


Glad the publications arrived! Blimey - was beginning to wonder where they had got to.I understand your misgivings re. focusing the project on walking: I personally think it makes sense and felt we needed an area of focus: but if it is not an interest shared by others - then fair enough.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for each of us to have a particular focus in relation to participation and participatory tools: for example: although I am interested in exploring 'meaningful' participation, there are other things in particular that I am more interested: it feels a bit woolly to me: I think I explore things through doing and testing: so like the idea that the activity itself tests the hypotheses. So as you say, this could be my focus: inviting some walking participants/practitioners/orgs and using the activity itself as something to look at: I am happy to do that and write a piece about the findings of the event that we put on. I guess another option would be for us to have 4 different events? and share the funding out equally: but perhaps agree on a certain amount for publication? This could be simply a double sided a4 sheet per project, with the 4 going in a card folder turning it into a publication? I am easy either way.

I also think it might be good to have something (an event/sharing activity) and maybe it is something we could bring to AirSpace after Peckham Space if it is developed? I think a publication is a good thing, but they don't have to cost the earth: if for example we go for a map fold a1 sheet (which makes sense for the activity/event) it may be quite reasonable: but yes I think we do need to go into more detail re. budget: for example: should we be paying participants to attend?

I would prefer to have longer to think about who I want to invite (I feel I need to do some more research) and also lets agree is this one big event or 4 smaller ones?  do we need to go into so much detail as exactly who we will invite or could we say the type of people we want to invite? I have already suggested 3 possible venues: any feedback on those or alternatives? Also dates: November? as that would give us time to get publication together for Jan.

Crazy Golf

Thanks emily and susan for sending the hard copies through... I've reviewed and got some thoughts. Anna, lots of good thoughts on the blog, thanks... So we're got various collated 'research' materials together on this blog...  I'm going to review all this on Tuesday if you don't mind, and will respond, seeing what connections we are providing.

One area, and please indulge me whilst I go round in circles, or whilst we're throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, I'm also interested in investigating is 'value' - and how that value is communicated.  Or what happens if that value can't be communicated and what you're left with is the art... You don't need to know the ins and outs of production and personal value when looking at a Picasso - you start with the object.  Often we have an impulse where we want to highlight the value, but we would give ourselves an easier job if we stopped chasing rainbows...If I come back to the question of mediation - often we talk over the artwork itself...

Value for me is important because if we value the work so highly, then what happens to it? When we created the 8m long drawings, we had an interesting discussion with the Scottish Parliament - I went to offer them, they said we don't accept gifts, I said who's talking gifts...  Often value gets bundled up with monetary value, which when the work is by non-professionals, it doesn't equate.Who looks after it? Does it get looks after? Or is it just ephemeral? Is that downplaying its potential.  I thought it very interesting that the only collection of work created in schools etc... is hidden away in the Yorkshire Scuplture park, and it seems that people aren't quite sure what to do with it... 
http://www.ysp.co.uk/page/national-arts-education-archive/es

If it was 1000 pieces created by 1000 people over 1hr, then I would imagine it would have less depth and resonance - but if it was 1 piece done by one person over 1000 hours then I would imagine then that is something to treasure... and the thing is, is that I think that this is whats possible - so much more than the 1000 pieces...

Finally, I also wrote this in a comment for susan below, following her comment on 'One armed bandit...' post but though it would be worth asking the group for answers..." Anyway I think I said this, but perhaps in our push for authentic we need to work out who we want to imagine the audience of our work to be... not who is or will be, but who could it be?"

walking too

I am also very interested in walking as a participatory tool and excited by an opportunity to focus on this.  I think Emily is asking some really good questions such as, Why do walking practises create such good spaces for exchange?  I would add, what is the impact of the environment on the converstaions we have?

I worked with artist Anthony Schrag on a walk with visually impaired participants that is documented on the project blog: http://artlinkambition.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/along-the-ledge/
I found documenting this quite challenging so it would be good to think about this some more.

I am planning another walk with Anthony and he is Tourist in Residence at Edinburgh Art Festival: http://www.edinburghartfestival.com/commissions/anthony_schrag/

Liz Lerman is another interesting artist and I think her Treadmill Tapes are a good example of documentation.  she is based in america but will be in edinburgh in november: http://lizlerman.com/tredLL.html

Walking Practices

Just woke up this morning with that urgent feeling: aaargh what are we doing? Then saw your post Susan and  it got me thinking about Walking.
When we were walking in Wakefield we seemed to have the best conversations, and quite a few of them were about projects we had done involving walking, and here is another one Susan, thanks for sharing Glasgow Women's Library's Heritage Walks. Really interesting.
I was just having a cup of coffee in bed (it's the weekend) and puzzling over the conversations we have been having: thinking to myself - which bits really seemed interesting, which bits got me thinking most? Yes participation is an interesting area - but I think I am most interested in exploring Walking as a tool for participatory practice: I like the way conversations work when walking. I have explored Conversation as Practice before, and considered shared activity as distraction technique to get to authentic/meaningful conversation. Walking somehow seems to create the space for that without necessarily needing distraction. Maybe it's because walking is meditative? Don't know, anyway - I am really interested in creating a space where we can explore Walking Practices? Walking crops up a lot in what I do, but I have never really explored why that is. I have a number of books on walking that I never get round to reading: maybe this would be a chance?  

Maybe Emily mentioned something about a walk as a practice sharing activity in a project you did? Could our project invite a number of Practitioners, Participants and Organisations who use Walking as a Participatory Tool together to stay somewhere for a weekend - I am thinking we could go and stay somewhere like: Grizedale or Allenheads or Merzbarn? Anyway, a place where there is good walking territory - this could be a city, but maybe rural is better - as less noise, so conversation may be easier. A series of walks could happen, where practice and experience is shared? and we think about how to record this? Could we use those video stabilisers that are on your head and film you walking along? Or audio and images etc. It would be important to capture the shared conversation. We could try to get to the essence of why walking practices seem to create such good spaces for exchange or other thoughts about walking.  Anyway, maybe I should stop now in case the idea is not interesting for anyone - and I get too far down the track. What do you all think about this as an idea?


LATER:
I just found this: http://walkingartistsnetwork.org/members-2/ and maybe the project you were talking about Emily was the Peckham Space Mobile Conference? I have just watched the video documentation - it looks like it was a fantastic project. I suppose I wasn't thinking so much along these lines: I find sometimes with conferences and symposiums there are a lot of talks/activities/workshops which explore the topic, but not much time to talk and reflect on that. Could the 'something' we do take a more reflective, different paced approach. A weekend walking could be more space to talk to people about what they do, and what their experiences have been, and a reflective commentary on the activity of sharing through walking may also create the documentation/space to explore approriateness of documentation that we have discussed previously.

minding the gaps

Thanks Emily for the detailed post and thoughtfulness. 

In Explorations in participation I did interviews for each project from 3 perspectives as you suggest; artist, participant, organisation.  You are right it is difficult to present the conflicts and failings but I did find less difference in response than I expected.  What I struggled with was what to do with the amount of information I collected.

I definitely work in the gaps and with small groups.  I’m finding my projects getting smaller in scale possibly even 1:1 collaborations with artists.  So definitely the 1:1000 but would also like to find ways to represent these experiences and works to 1000 people for one minute.

I don’t know how you measure the value in this and I don’t think there’s one to time to do this.  Often the learning in creative activity is in realising what has been done and the value might be in what it enables to happen next.  So I’m thinking I should follow participants, artists and works we leave for a longer period.  Perhaps returning periodically to reinvigorate our learning and follow their progress.

I've also been looking again at the work of Glasgow Womens Library a really interesting place.  Rather than setting up a project than representing experiences a lot of their work starts from sharing stories, representing experiences, such as their personal history walks.  Its always good to meet projects that approach subjects the other way round, to help us turn our thinking around.

1:1000 or 1000:1

Really enjoying learning more about everyone's projects: Thanks Susan for the publication, and I think it is worth exploring the idea of participants reviewing/evaluating the experience for themselves, to make it authentic. Emily: I really enjoyed the Peckham Space documents that you sent through. I couldn't help laying them out on the floor to look at them all together.

In terms of what I would like to see from representation (the question about organisation's voice) I would like to hear the participant's voice, but also the artist's - what value does the commissioned artist really get? Obviously money, but what else? What is learned, and how can that be shared with other artists/practitioners? There can be a conflict of interests for the organisation - if they are truly reflective and set out what didn't work, as well as what did, how will that go down with the funders?
Johnny: Thanks for the presentation and the different approaches. I love the scale of the work - and the finished drawing made with the kids. Also enjoyed the exploration of sites for creativity, and that often mediated sites are anything but creative spaces. This also links with some of the things that make me tick as a practitioner: not forcing something into existence like a sort of demi-god, but recognising what is there already, or what is happening and going with it. This reminds me of urban planners, trying to force people to walk a particular way, but Lazy Lines disrupt the order of this: the good planner recognises how humans want to walk/interact with a space and design from there. Jan Gehl's 'Making Cities For People' works this way.


Around permissions: a bit off topic but we have David Horvitz's piece "Without Permission" In The Window at AirSpace this week. We have displayed his work without asking for his permission.

One of the things I have really been thinking about since our meeting was Johnny talking about the value of participation: and measuring that. Thanks for giving more detail here: I was thinking about that model you presented Johnny, could be also exploring quality vs quantity.
Is it better to work with one person for 1000 minutes or 1000 people for one minute? 1:1000 vs 1000:1
I quite like the idea of a project which really tests this idea. How do you measure the value?

And then the other thing I meant to tell you about was the project I did recently in Harlech. Full details on my blog. This involved 3 different versions of 'How To Explore' a place. The first was a 'How To Explore' Kit for artists - the aim was to create a kit which can be used to explore a place in a different way than we might usually as a tourist. So this piece was an exploration of place from an artist's point of view. A lot of what I have done over the past few years has been around creating opportunities for artists and also sharing practice methods - through making kits and manuals for other artists to use. The Interrogation Manual is one of those: it is documentation of a project, but it also aims to be a handbook to be used by others - so for me documentation of participation can become a case book or toolkit. The How To Explore Kit then may be used by unknown artists, but is also a work in itself.

The second piece was a collaboration with another artist: Bethan Lloyd Worthington. I collaborated with Bethan last November on a project for the British Ceramics Biennial, details here. It turned out while I was in Harlech, looking for people to collaborate with (I am interested in how local people are experts on the places they live) that Bethan is from Harlech, and so a new (remote) collaboration took place, with Bethan leading me on a tour around her home town. This piece then saw an exploration of place from the point of view of personal, family ties to a place.

Then the final exploration piece was a collaboration with the Landlady of the local pub. The first night in Harlech I was told that though there is an enormous stand containing information and travel brochures for activities, companies and places around North Wales, there was no brochure for Harlech, something that the people there were quite concerned about - feeling that they had been left off the map. This initial conversation lead to myself and Rhian, the landlady - working on a brochure together. Rhian set out what must be seen in the area, and we designed a layout to document the sites she suggested (which I went and visited). This piece then was an exploration of place from the point of view of a business person, concerned with tourism in the area. Front of brochure:

And Back:

I think these three different approaches encapsulate some of the things I am interested in: and in particular the work with Rhian chime with ideas of small change - where we feel something is needed, or there is a gap, or a resource not being tapped, it encourages people to just get on and do something (however small) about it. 
So: to round up: where am I heading in thinking about a project which we might do together? From what has been said:
Could we set up a project (I know there may be a bit of resistance to this due to workloads) and then aim to document and represent the project from the point of view of 1/the organisation 2/the artist(s) 3/the participants and anyone else that might be relevant - and explore how these different viewpoints end up providing a 360 representation?
The topic of the project I am unsure about at this stage: but I am still thinking a lot about Johnny's 1:1000 and 1000:1.