Notes



Dear participants,

we have come up with some thoughts on

HOW TO COME CLOSER

~ We’re here to support each other, not to tear each other down. We’re dedicated to co-thinking and constructive critique.

~ We will be seeing a variety of presentations today; questions on working methods, concepts and baby ideas, confusing bits and pieces and well crafted material. They can’t all be judged as if seeing a piece. Each may need a different place of understanding and different approaches to engaging with it.

~ You can always design, direct, and ask for specific feedback that you want.

~ If you are asked to give the requested specific feedback, try to do that.

~ When receiving feedback, use the time to take it in, rather than justifying or adding more of your own explanation, unless it is necessary to do so.

~ Feedback may not be true. Feel free to disagree. But also feel free to stay curious about what it is you’re disagreeing on – why don’t you want to go there?

~ Same goes for when you don’t necessarily connect to the presented material - stay curious, can you be asking questions that still support the presenter as well as your own thinking?

~ How do you share what you work on?

Do your five-minute presentation again, this time...




…do it while moving continuously. This could be both a movement sequence, gesture that is significant in your work, or any quotidian, random movement, activity.




…do it imaging you are a week before the premiere: how do you talk about the challenges / problems now?




…do it from the perspective of one week after the premiere / presentation / end of your research: what was the best & worst feedback you received from your audience?




…do it from the perspective 10 years after: what are you looking back on, how do you contextualize it then, into your wider worker, could it be a milestone in some sense?




…present it from perspective of someone or something that is participating or playing an important role in your project (like a collaborator, object,  tool , confidant, concept, image, technique).




…do it while taking a 5-minute walk outside.




…do it as if your project was a different kind of medium. Re-conceptualize your material as if it were a short movie / a novel / a Fluxus happening in public space / an app.




… do it by including the objects that are in your backpack. Introduce them as if they were part of what you’re working on.




...do it by placing yourself in different proximities to the audience / group (intimately close, touching, out of the range of sight / hearing, on the verge of it) and / or use different bodily positions (lying down, facing the wall).




…do it while constantly playing with the audience’s gaze. Play with who or what you’re looking at (looking only at one person, looking at no one, looking at all listeners equally, direct your gaze to a particular point in the room).




…do it by saying everything that was left unsaid (either in the last presentation you gave today, or throughout the course of the project).