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Co-Working und Co-Creation, ein feiner Unterschied

Urknall 2013, so die Veranstaltung im neuesten Co-Working Space in München. Und es ist ein Urknall für manche, weil hier der erste Co-Working aus einem global erfolgreichen Franchise seine Eröffnung feiert. Die Besucher sind bunt gemischt wie man es aus anderen Hubs um die Welt kennt. Da war alles vom Redakteur über dem IT Techniker zum Coach und Berater. Storytelling, Theater und Gesprächsrunden behandelten die Werte, die Besucher und Co-Working Space in das neue Jahr bringen wollen.

Mein Workshop, an Theatermethoden angelehnt, hat sich dem Unterschied zwischen Co-Working und Co-Creation gewidmet. Der Unterschied scheint auf der Hand zu liegen. Beim Co-Working arbeitet man im gleichen Zimmer. Man teilt sich lediglich einen Schreibtisch. Bei der Co-Creation teilt man ein Projekt und eine Vision. Co-Creation im Hub bedeutet sich gegenseitig helfen und zusammen Ideen ausprobieren, auch wenn man nicht unbedingt in einer Firma zusammenarbeitet. Was bedeutet Co-Creation aber für einen, der neu in einen solchen Co-Creation Space eintritt.

Von Kreativität, Geduld und Offenheit

Für mich war die Haupterkenntnis aus dem Abend, dass Co-Creation viel Zuhören bedeutet. Grade in einem Umfeld in dem Spezialisten aus vielen verschiedenen Bereichen zusammenkommen wie im Hub. Eine Zusammenarbeit, die über das Teilen eines Schreibtisches hinausgeht braucht viel Verständigung. Sie braucht auch Offenheit für ungewohnte Werte und Freude am Ausprobieren fremder Herangehensweisen.

Einstimmungsübungen für Co-Creation

Für alle, die sich auf diesen Co-Creation Space freuen, will ich mit zwei kurzen Übungen Co-Creation einstimmen.

“Überaktiv Zuhören” Wenn das nächste mal jemand eine Idee an euch heranträgt, dann antwortet mit folgenden Worten: “Was mit an deiner Idee gefällt ist …, und wir könnten auch …”

Warum? Wer es ausprobiert, wird merken, dass man kurz darüber nachdenken muss, was jetzt eigentlich an der Idee des Gegenübers gefällt. Dieser Moment des Konzentration auf die Kernaussage des anderen wird immer wichtiger, je weiter wir in unserer Arbeit und Denke voneinander entfernt sind.

“Unbedingte Zusage” Mutige können sich mit folgender Übung auch kopfüber in die Welt eines Gegenübers stürzen. Wenn ihr das nächste mal in ein neues Restaurant oder Projekt eingeladen werdet, schaut was ein lauter Ausruf “Au Ja!” bewirkt.

Warum? Weil eine klare Zusage zu einer Ideen viel Energie freisetzt diese zu gestalten. Statt mit der Entscheidung zu hadern, ob man eine ungewohnte Sache probieren will, kann man eher drauf einlassen und Wert darin finden. Probiert es aus.

Ich wünsche allen im Hub frohe Co-Creation im Jahr 2013

Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. With games, learning is the drug.

Ralph Koster, “A theory of fun for game design” 2005

Thank you Ralph Koster for this excellent quote to start my blog. Learning and play are two interlinked concepts. Whenever we play, we learn. This happens to children who learn to walk, run and talk as well as grown ups who learn to strategic planning in chess games or hand-eye coordination when playing tennis. When we are completly focussed on learning a skill, we often enter the state of play. Play is the ultimate enabler to learning. The challenge is to device of games that teach the right things.

#quote

Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. With games, learning is the drug.

Ralph Koster, "A theory of fun for game design" 2005

Fun is another word for learning.

Raph Koster in "A theory of fun for game design" 2005

Games are not fun because they are games, but when they are well designed.

Sebastian Deterding, Games and Learning Society conference 8.0

Nothing that is learned under compulsion stays with the mind. Do not, then, my friend, keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play. That will also better enable you to discern the natural capacities of each.

Plato in "The Republic"

Der Mensch spielt nur, wo er in voller Bedeutung des Wortes Mensch ist, und er ist nur da ganz Mensch, wo er spielt.

Schiller in "Über die ästethische Beziehung des Menschen"

Oder zumindest alle, die ich kenne.

This blog is moving

As the improsign projects advances, it needed a webplatform that enables more dialogue. You can find what has become of it here:

improvisign.drupalgardens.com

After reading and thinking about Improvisation I come to the understanding that it is part of everything we do. Improvisation happens when we work, when we talk, when we play music, when we play theater and when we design. I realized that improvisation does not happen as such, it always happens in a context. Improvisation happening in a context I call instantiations. Playing Improv Theater is just as much an instantiation of improvisation as having a conversation. To understand what can be called Improvisation, and what cannot I look at characteristics of these instantiations. I call them symptoms. When we want to diagnose an illness, we can only observe the superficial marks of it, it's symptoms. We cannot see the illness as such. The same goes for Improvisation. We can only observe symptoms, and than judge that they fit into the model we call improvisation. Depending on the instantiation, the symptoms vary. Jazz improvisation bears different characteristica than theatrical improvisation. However, some symptoms appear in all instantiations. I worked out the following:

Little or no time passing between planning an action and executing it (Jazz players reacting to each other in real time)

An iteration between observing, reflecting and acting (Jazz players picking up on each others melodies)

A heightened awareness for the environment and immediate feedback from the environment (Improv actors inventing props and the audience apllauding)

A heightened sense of one's own actions (Jazz player listening to the sound of the last tone before playing the next)

An accompanying set of rules and boundaries within which Improvisation happens (Rules of Harmony in Jazz)

Often an almost un-dokumentable process, but a clear documentable product. (Easy to record a song, but hard to record why it was played in that way)

The product of improvisation has immediate value for the improvisor (The jazz player enjoys his own performance)

The product of improvisation depends on the character of the improvisors. (Jazz fans can hear and identify who played a specific solo)

The Hero's Journey in Improv.

Campbell's Hero Journey Model can be a metaphor for entering an improv stage. Coming from the normal life, maybe work, family or school we enter a space of the unknown. On stage anything can happen. Friends can become enemies, strangers can become friends.

Often the stage confronts us with our fears. In my experience the dominant fear on any improv stage is a boring play. Nothing scares an actor like an unsatisfied audience. In improv the play will only be interesting, if the actor's have overcome their fear to fail and their hope to succeed. The play is good, if the actor is free of hopes and fears about the play and pays attention to the moment.

Several other things can be learned from improv. I meantioned overcoming fear as an predominant example.

When we leave the improv stage we can take the improv experiences back to our ordinary life. I sometimes encounter situations where I realize, that Improv experience helps. These can be good situations, maybe telling jokes at work, or bad sitations like a fight with a colleague. When we reflect on Improv we can overcome our fears in these situations. That is the moment Campbell calls "return with the elexier". That is how we learn through Improv.

the-lin-see-blog

improsign-blog

When playing improv theater I encounter Christopher Vogler's "The Hero's Journey" twice.

The Hero's Journey is an archetypical model of a story. Many movies follow the structure. Star Wars and Matrix are famous example. In Improv it is obvious, that some of the stories I see on stage also follow these archetypical storylines.

However, when I am on stage myself, I dive into the "special world". I encounter some of my deepest fears on stage. When I leave the stage I often take something with me into my normal life. The process of entering an improv stage is a Hero's Journey in itself. I think if we want to learn through improv, it is through Vogler's model.

iamtheadventurer

Where we had thought to find an abomination, we find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (via iamtheadventurer)

I read "Truth in comedy". Here are the improv basics basics basics I got out: Don't ask about the scene. Tell your assumptions. Listen to other players assumptions. Build upon them. Accept and build upon other players ideas. Justify everything someone else says. Make others look good. All ideas are incorporated. Reality is funnier than jokes. Take the scene serious. Don't be smart, be obvious. Stay in the moment. Don't plan ahead, listen to what is going on now.

I planned this session of improv theater for the we-space theater. It is predecessed by a warm up session. Most formats start by giving players a place and a relationship, than counting down from four to start the play. 1.) Human Orchestra Setting: Groups of 4 arranged in a half circle Goal: Reopen the play space. Create safety through common extrovert bahviour. Activate everyone. One player is director. He gives each group a sound. The group repeats that sound rhythmically. The director makes groups louder and quiter, finally ending the piece with a great director gesture. 2.) Freeze Setting: 2 Players on stage, the rest in the audience. Goal: Practice creativity. Create trust in the process. Being obvious. Trying out characters. Have variety in play. Fun. 2 Players are on stage and start acting. Anyone from the audience can call freeze. The scene freezes and the new player enters the stage. He taps one of the frozen players on the should, they exchange positions. A new play emerges from the body positions of the old play. Scenes should not be longer than a minute. 3.) Gibberish poets Setting: 2 Players on stage Goal: accepting impulses. Reading other players. One player introduces the other as a foreign poet. The other starts telling a poem in a phantasy language. The first player translates. 4.) Sitcom Setting: 2 players on the edge of stage, 2 in the centre. Goal: Accepting Impulses. Reading other players. Practicing subtext. The center players start playing. When the audience claps the scene freezes. The edge players comment what the centre players are thinking like in a camera box in a sitcom. 5.) Accept this Setting: 2 players on stage Goal: Accepting drives the story. It does not mean doing what the other tells you to. Two players are given a conflicting situation, eg. Robbery. The rule is that all suggestions are accepted, even outrageous ones. 6.) Squareplay Setting: 4 players in each corner of the stage. Goal: Finishing stories. Spontaneity. Thinking about motives. The 2 players in the front corners start acting. A clap interrupts the play. The square of players revolves one corner. The two new front players start acting. After several claps the same two players are in the front corners and finish their previous play. 8.) Speeddating Setting: 2 players on stage, sitting on a table. Lights off Goal: Spontaneity, trust the process, fast fun When the lights go on the two players act a speed dating scene. The light goes off and a new player replaces one of the players. A new scene emerges when the light switches on. 9.) Screamcircle Setting: standing in a circle, arm in arm. Goal: close and leave the play space and the session Players are looking down and choose someone elses pair of shoes. When they look up on that person, and two eyes meet, These two players scream and leave the circle.

I thought about Yosef's idea of design embedded in improvisation embedded in design.

Both words are only concepts. The connection they have is constructed through discourse. There can only be perspectives on the connections between improvisation and design. Here is mine:

If improvisation is acting within a frame than design is changing the frame. Of course changing a frame has it's own frame, that makes things complicated.

Design and Improvisation have the following thing in common:

Both have products such as music, drama, industrial products or services .

Both describe a creative or transformative process.

Things design and Improvisation do not share:

Design creates products that other people than the designer use.

Design is always intentional.

A designed product only creates value when used. A product on the shelf is no good.

Improvisation creates products useful for the improvisor, eg. jazz

Improvisation can happen unintentional.

Improvisation is immediate. It's value emerges in the moment.

Improvisation lives of frames. Jazz improv only works if the musician knows the frame harmony, rhytm and his instrument well. Improvisation happens within frames.

Design changes frames by altering the "world of the artificial": it changes the products, houses and cities that surround us.

If Design sets the frame in which we live improvisation happens when we explore these frames.

Design and improvisation include parts from each other as both have their own frame that can be explored and altered.

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