Dear OS listers,
As Jon Harvey has already reported on the os list, two weekends ago the first
open space was held for our Wosonos 2012 event. The Improbable office booked
the space for us and I opened the space. It was a great turn out considering we
had limited time to drum up support and interest. Thank you for helping make
that happen. There was a lot of enthusiasm and lots of sessions called and of
course the beginnings of the rumblings from the field that come up when one
takes the initiative on starting an event like this. I got to meet some faces
for the first time and also met some people I didn't know I knew.
So here's my feedback on the whole event. On Sat/Sun we had a day and a half in
open space.
After the event there are a number of things that are "up" for me. One is
Improbable's heart responsibility towards creating an event like this and
ultimately what the nature of their involvement is. Improbable took the
initiative on making this invitation happen at the 2010 Wosonos, thanks to
Matilda with support from Jon and Romy, and it was as such that it was accepted
in Berlin. With this we have been handed an ineffable something, we have been
entrusted with it and we have responsibilities towards it. It is like a gentle
flame (a metaphor which came up a lot over the weekend) and We feel a onus to
look after this and make sure it doesn't go out. We must honour its journey
from Berlin and its previous historic invocations it will be coming to us via
Chile and end up in the UK. So we are Honouring the past whilst looking towards
creating a new space for it to burn brightly in the future. So at present we
are cupping it in our hands trying to shield it from our autumn winds here. At
the same time we mustn't hold it too tightly so that the flame gets smothered
and loses it's oxygen and spirit. So can we balance the fact that we made the
invitation and are the trustees of this accepted invitation without controlling
it too much?
All these challenges seem like a perfect opportunity to use what OS is designed
for. As a company (theatre not business although it of course is both) some of
the benefits we have are of being a very small organisation who has in the
past facilitated some very big events so we have some experience here. We also
have a pool of people in our own open space community (mostly but not wholly
from the artistic world) who have a passion for and interest in open space and
it's divergent possibilities and uses.
My personal interest is in finding out if we can use open space itself to
unfold an emergent organisation/community/team who will help make all this
happen. Can we learn how an organisation might create itself out of open space
principles? At the crux of the process we hope to use this opportunity to hold
a space where open space practitioners feel welcomed, where we are welcoming
amongst ourselves and consequently in a good place to turn outwards to the
world to invite people to the UK. We are creating a community that welcomes a
wider worldwide community.
In this first OS we did the minimum of "organisation" hoping that the people
who turn up will take responsibility for doing/changing things they want to
make happen.
So the tension we find ourselves holding in is looking after the trust that has
been placed in us to host this event with the desire to not "control" or
dictate how it happens. This is also important to us as we genuinely cannot do
this alone and need the support of others in order to manifest this event.
At the moment we are still negotiating the fact that some people are turning up
and ask: "How are you going to be doing this?" Well ultimately it will of
course be how are we going to do this?
The idea for what the event should be included some of these criteria:
It should be: An exciting party; Open to all; Have many by-products that are
beneficial to the UK open space community & worldwide communities; Help build
and coalesce the latent UK community which is "out there"; Ensure all the
people who want to be a part of it are given the opportunity to do so.
Welcoming people from the wider world to our Open shores. Transparency is an
essential ingredient for the central host team.
I also saw lots of the prime ingredients for the fertile compost open Space
thrives on. This is a list of the criteria for OS to operate at a high
performance level.
#1: A real business issue:
Yes we have it. A commitment to make this event happen in 2012 in the UK for
the UK OS community and the world.
#2: Voluntary self selection: so our invite has gone out and already a group of
interested people have shown up. There is a commitment to do a number of open
spaces which invite the UK OS community to take part. This has been flagged as
hopefully not just being London centric so our reach has to go further but I
imagine those who can and are interested in working with us will come to the
next open spaces or stay in touch with us. We are aiming to do open spaces
outside London to pick up other memebers of the community and widen the net.
This continued activity of opening space in different spaces will unfold its
own self selection process. Anyone who is interested in other parts of the UK
who wants to host an invite in your area of the UK please let us know!
#3: High levels of complexity: Already the challenges we face are I feel beyond
the ability of one single "old style" directive organisation of encompassing or
holding. The challenges we face in looking after the UK and world communities
their demands,dreams and hopes for the event are incredibly complex.
#4:High levels of diversity:
This is an interesting one. I actually feel there was a good level of
practitioner diversity at the event but feel the call to do further events
really wants to engage with this. Ambassadors will be essential in fulfilling
this criteria on all the potential colours and possibilities.
#5:Presence of passion and conflict: Yes present and correct I feel: in the
feedback on how we did the event, gossip and certainly present in some of the
sessions and interactions I had. Hurrah!
#6:Decision time of yesterday:
People keep asking us when its going to happen on the OS list and also who's
doing it so I guess we are already late by some peoples clocks!
The reports from the first OS have already gone online as a blog for the people
who were there to contribute to and comment on.
Overall
Speaking for Improbable I'd like to say what is important for us is our aim to
ensure all the people who want to be a part of Wosonos 2012 are given an
authentic opportunity to do so. At the moment I feel that as a core
organisation unfolds or emerges we will be part of that or have a strong
relationship to it. We aim to maintain the links with the world community and
the world institutes. As this story tells itself Improbable must make a
decision as to what level of responsibility we take in it. As this happens we
will make an informed decision as to how central we are to that organisation
either as a company or as individuals. It is all unfolding.
In terms of actions, what needs to be decided and actioned on is: Where and
when the next open space to continue creating this team happens? Who hosts it?
We already have one offer which we need to say yes or no to soon. I'd like to
know if there are more out there? Either from the people who came to the event
or others who didn't come. So that would also include all kinds of offers from
suggesting a good space, a good place in the rest of the country to go to or
include, offers to host with or without our support etc.. Etc..All variations
considered! Please put the word out and get in touch with us as soon as
possible!
Best wishes to you all out there in the world
Phelim x
Sent from my iPad
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