 |
| Bizarre objects covering the workshop tables. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
Fourthland came to the Cabot Institute from
London to give a workshop which would help us look into how
resilience forms an important part of our research across all disciplines.
Walking into the room with weird objects laid out and the sound of an Irish
choir repeating a hypnotic chant, I instantly knew this would be a very
different kind of exploration of our academic research.
A resilient performance
Fourthland started
their artistic performance by holding a rope and folding it up…cue lots of
confused looks around the room and people shifting uneasily in their
seats. I couldn’t help thinking what on
earth have I signed myself up to?! Asking
everyone to close their eyes, Fourthland continue to set up the room with props.
 |
| Folding of rope. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
Upon opening of eyes,
everyone was asked to communicate through gestures and not use their voice. A
volunteer was plucked from the room to randomly play a piano whilst
participants took hay, eggshells, string and a big dish of what looked like the
biggest poppadum I had ever seen - it was actually a flat bowl made from wax.
Manipulating all these ‘ingredients’ separately in small groups by making
straw bundles, ‘moving mountains’ with eggshells, and weaving string in and out
and around the room, binding the room together, there was a sense that this had
meaning in a way that could not be explained verbally. This is where writing about the experience is
tough. What on earth was happening, what
did it all mean and where was the relevance to resilience? I couldn’t quite see it at that point…
Fourthland continued
and read from a scroll rolled up in a rolling pin. The scroll contained all the thoughts of the
researchers that had contributed to our resilience programme over the last few weeks. Contributions
came from social science, engineering, arts, and the sciences. After all the noise and manipulating of
simple materials subsided, a group of volunteers sat at the front of the room
(named the ‘keepers of culture’) reflected on what they thought had just
happened.
 |
| The Resilience Workshop at Cabot Institute. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
Digesting the workshop
Taking the time to
digest what had just happened was critically important at this point. We had spent 20 minutes inside this weird
bubble of wax and string and sound and eggshells and straw and a whole load of
visual and aural bombardments. How was
the room making sense of it all? I was intrigued.
First reactions were
that lots had happened without actually seeing it. Everyone was so engrossed in their little
task with their simple material that they didn’t feel like they saw everything
that was going on but everyone seemed to sense
most stuff that was happening around them, regardless of whether they saw it or
not. It wasn’t until everyone stopped and looked around at the transformation
of the room that we all realised just how much we had changed our simple
materials and our presence in the room.
Cycling and circles
were prominent, connecting everyone – whether it was a circular straw wreath,
circles in the eggshells or circles of string around the room.
 |
| The creation of a circular straw wreath by Cabot Institute academic during Resilience Workshop. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
The people sat around the large wax dish,
were told to deconstruct it but ended up remoulding it and building something
up instead which demonstrated how resilient we can be. Even if we destroy
something, we can still make something out of what remains. The group reflecting
on the deconstruction of the wax bowl felt destructive to change it but then this
feeling reversed once they realised that the wax warmed in their hands and
became quite malleable. The wax group described resilience through beeswax in that
it can be remoulded if you hold it in your hand long enough but you can also
snap it causing a shock. The snapping led to a remoulding of the wax which
seemed like a natural process.
 |
| Workshop participants breaking up a wax bowl. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
The group who had the
straw (four male academics) weren't quite sure why they were creating bundles
of straw or where they were going with it but they quickly and quietly started
a production line to build a big nest. It felt meaningless to them whilst
making the straw bundles but reflecting on it afterwards, they felt that they
were creating something new, creating new life, and undertaking the basic
processes of being human.
 |
| Making straw bundles and a nest. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
The string group,
with a bundle of string and no scissors started by miming cats cradles to each
other but then realised that not having scissors meant they had to think more
creatively about what they were doing with the string…so they connected
everyone in the room up. Once everyone in the room was connected they then
turned to making the string look more attractive, embellishing it with knots
and some borrowed straw. The string
group felt that this process made them question permission e.g. who they could
tie up with string, were they allowed to go around the room with the string in
the first place? They noticed that there was a bit of risk-taking involved in
tying around people and creating trip hazards. In the space of boredom they
associated their permissions. No one had said they couldn't do what they were
doing, so they just assumed that they could. Thinking about resilience it was
interesting to see what permission allows
you to do but also where it restricts your resilience.
 |
| Tying the room up with string and embellishing with straw. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
The eggshell groups
were told to ‘move mountains’. They got into a rhythm of piling up the
eggshells to be ‘something’ and moving them around in a collective action
without collective words. One eggshell group found that they had both been
working on the same creation but that once they spoke to each other - one was
working on creating an ‘island’ and the other a ‘sun’. They had the same collective result even
though they weren’t working with the same idea.
An important lesson – collaboration with people whose ideas or beliefs
we don’t hold or understand is vitally important for being resilient to
whatever life throws at us. It seemed that order was created out of the chaos
of those eggshells.
 |
| Two people worked on this pile of eggshells in silence. One thought he was creating an island, the other the sun. Image credit Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
Artistic interpretations of resilience
After hearing peoples
general reactions to the performance, Fourthland started to explain the
artistic meaning behind the performance.
Each of the resources on the table (straw, eggshells, wax, string) were
‘scarce’ and Fourthland wanted to see how people would be creative whilst the
items on the table were running out. The room worked across their academic disciplines
by not speaking but creating new things.
Fourthland asked how people would describe the process if we were
to tell it again. A silence ensued whilst participants gathered their thoughts.
Someone said it was ‘child-like’, others said it was ‘different’ and
there was audible pleasure in the room emanating from ‘giggles’. There was uncertainty about what
was being created and people wondered what the story was and what their part
was in it.
Fourthland discussed how long the process should have taken.
Usually they go for forty minutes and interrupt half way through. This time
they went for twenty minutes to see what happened when people knew they had
limited time. Reflecting back, knowing
that we had limited time to create something from nothing seemed to really
kickstart the academics. Knowing that
the Cabot Institute academics have it within themselves to work together on
issues of resilience around future cities and societies, climate change and sustainable
engineering, it made me realise how important this whole process had been. In a way it was life affirming because the
work they do now has much more meaning and importance, and allowing creativity
of ideas through a collective consciousness is invaluable to the future of
humanity.
Academic interpretations
Below are some of the academic interpretations of the resilience
workshop, all meaningful and thought
provoking:
- One scientist thought the workshop was about the individual stories and that life was precious.
- “It was less about looking for someone else in the room who knew what was happening and more about what I knew”.
- “We took away our human stuff e.g. language and knowledge, and sought an older part of ourselves, like making eye contact in order to make and do and continue”.
- A social scientist asked about cooperation and what happens if something happens that is malign like external shocks? What happens to that group cooperation? If the shock came you would need to know that you can all come together to get over that shock.
- Another point well-made was that there was a whole load of people who weren't in the room. “Every time we try to be resilient we are excluding certain groups”.
Future thoughts on resilience
Fourthland said that the process was all about stories and myths
in stories. However one academic counteracted this and said that these myths
already exist, for example, in cultures such as Native American Indians and
Aborigines. These cultures have passed down ‘myths’ and ‘stories’ generation to
generation that will get us through our important global situation. The
academic said we shouldn't necessarily create new stories but “listen to the
stories that already exist”.
I don't know about anyone else in the room but Fourthland
totally blew my mind and I feel rather differently about life and the future of
life. It is looking increasingly likely that ours and future generations will
have to cope with a more uncertain world as global governments are not pulling
their weight with regards to environmental policies and regulations around
emissions, climate change, environmental degradation and more. But the
resilience that lies inside every one of us and the innate capacity that we
have to work together even when we have nothing in common gives me much hope
for the future.
-------------------------------------
This blog has been written by Amanda Woodman-Hardy, Coordinator at the Cabot Institute. Follow @Enviro_Mand. |
| Amanda Woodman-Hardy |
To find out more about Fourthland visit http://fourthland.co.uk/
Fourthland will be holding a resilience exhibition at the
Arnolfini in Bristol 26-29 November 2015. More details, all welcome.
If you fancy experiencing what we experienced, they are also
holding a conference on 28 November 2015 to explore resilience further. Please contact
fourthlandinfo@gmail.com for more information.
For another perspective on this resilience workshop, read Cabot
Institute Manager Hayley Shaw’s blog Resilience: The power of being bored and mindless
Fourthland conference and workshops 26 November - 29 November 2015, bookings open:
- isik knutsdotter of Fourthland: back to where we have not quite been
- back to where we have not quite been: Handed Down and Handled
- back to where we have not quite been: Public Dreaming workshop
- back to where we have not quite been: Conference
- back to where we have not quite been: Constructed by Many Mouths
- back to where we have not quite been: Visual Matrix