Category: practice

• Something and nothing

  Aug 16

  Something out of nothing. It begins with silence, a blank page, an empty room. I make a noise, a line; I open a door, walk in. Mostly, it’s the sound,… more ›

• How co-creation comes to me

  Jul 26

  How Poetry Comes to Me It comes blundering over theBoulders at night, it staysFrightened outside theRange of my campfireI go to meet it at the Edge of the light Gary… more ›

• The imagination and co-creation

  Jun 27

  Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of Ursula K. Le Guin, in awe of her extraordinary gifts as a writer and of her qualities as a human being. I was 60… more ›

• The artwork in co-creation

  Jun 19

  The relationship between the process and the product has been debated throughout my working life. Many of the community artists with whom I’ve worked placed process first, sometimes to the… more ›

• What I do (1)

  Jun 14

  I’m not an artist. I can do art, as anyone can who wants to. I’m quite good at thinking about art, in a limited way, focused on content more than… more ›

• Italo Calvino on listening

  Jun 12

  ‘I speak and speak,’ Marco says, ‘but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. […] It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear.’… more ›

• A strategy for uncertainty

  May 17

  Improvising means coming prepared, but not being attached to the preparation. Everything flows into the creative act in progress. Come prepared, but be willing to accept interruptions and invitations. Trust… more ›

• Guide or companion

  May 10

  Some years ago, I began to imagine my role in co-creation work as similar to that of a mountain guide. Even on the same paths, the same peaks and passes,… more ›

• Mark Haddon on Listening

  Apr 29

  “The nearest I’ve come to joining any religious group was in my late twenties when I started attending Quaker meetings. I liked the inclusivity and the absence of dogma. I… more ›

• What it’s like to run a workshop and why it makes me happy

  Apr 17

  Happiness is often misunderstood and therefore undervalued. Following Matthieu Ricard and other Buddhist writers, I have come to see it not as a passing elation dependent on external events but… more ›