Combining the Creative Arts with AoH

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Comment by malene Bichel on March 16, 2011 at 9:04am

thank you for this forum:-)

I am a danish singer, working with the "art of musical hosting" I am in a new project, that might interest some of you, -called "Global Units"

In Global Units we are building an open global community between musicians, composers and other artists. 

At the moment it is based in Copenhagen with monthly improvised concerts streamed out live.

A kind of jam session, but with no "downloaded" musical style, and no limits to the kinds of musicians and artists that participate.

Audience around the world can join a chatforum while listening to the concerts.

If you are interested, you are welcome as a musician, writer, documentarist, listener. And if you are curious about the way we work, we would like to offer companies to come - for the inspiration.

You are welcome to contact me for more information or check it out on:

http://www.globalunits.net/frontpage/introduction.html

Comment by Karo Korkeila on March 4, 2011 at 8:38am

Wow, so exciting to see that other people are also interested in this kind of fusion work :)

Comment by Janet Salisbury on October 24, 2010 at 1:21am

That sounds wonderful Dan - and the power of the arts to move people is why we have incorporated artistic expression into a series of public conversations in Canberra, Australia (see my post below). In our case, we have used mainly original songs written specifically around the topics concerned, but we have also used some well-known stories and poetry.
The way we use the music is to have a number of songs that reflect the issue of the conversation (eg reducing carbon emissions) and at key points during the conversation, when it feels right, we present the songs. We do quite a bit of preparation before the event to work out the course that the conversation might take (and we have also thought about the typical emotional journey that people take in any public meeting) - but we have to be flexible because we cannot know exactly what people will say. So, as the facilitator, I listen for cues in the conversation that lead into paricular songs. It is quite scary for both me and the singers - but when it works well it can be very powerful. For example, at one conversation we have quite a bit of tension going between some of the participants about the government's response to climate change. As the facilitator, it was really good to know that I could break the tension at any moment with a song we had prepared which starts with a very strident section - 'Why Why Why - what can't our leaders fix the problem ...' but then then moves into a beautiful harmony with the words 'More anxious days in the land we love ...' which moves people from adversarial protest towards their common human concerns. When I thought that moment was right, we sang the song and afterwards, the mood in the room was completety changed and we were able to go much more deeply into the issue. The music I mention above was written by Glenda Cloughley and is part of a wonderful work she has written called 'the Gifts of the Furies' which is a citizen's response to climate change (see www.chorusofwomen.org)

Comment by Ria Baeck on September 29, 2010 at 8:24pm

Hello Janet, what you are describing here sounds really great. Can I invite you to write a little more about it and also post the story under Conversations > Exciting New Developments?

Comment by Janet Salisbury on September 29, 2010 at 8:04am

Hi Jasmine
Since early 2009, I have ben facilitating public conversations meetings in Canberra, Australia that incorporate music as a way of deepening the emotional engagement with the topic. These 'Canberra Converastions' are hosted by a group called A Chorus of Women who write original music in response to contemporary issues. You can read about it here: http://www.chorusofwomen.org/whatsnew.htm#Conversations. I would love to talk to yo all about it and share your experiences.

Comment by Benjamin Aaron Degenhart on September 14, 2010 at 7:00pm

thanks for creating this space Jasmine!
here is a strong invitation to open the portals for consciousness... wider than ever: http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_cameron_tedxyyc.html

Comment by Simon Young on September 14, 2010 at 10:35am

Hi Jasmine, this looks fantastic! Thanks for the invitation.

Comment by Carl Chenery on September 11, 2010 at 8:45pm

Hi Jasmine, great to see this group and conversations here.

This feels like a step towards, or rhyming with, 'Social Presencing Theatre' that Otto Scharmer spoke about in Theory U, which at the time I had many questions about what that might look like.

Whilst not necessarily creative arts, I had a glimpse last week whilst Lord Nicholas Stern was speaking over three consecutive nights in Auckland about Climate Change, what might have been possible in the foyer with Worldcafe or other processes after each talk with the 400 people who were attending listening. What if we included comedians, artists in panel or performance on the 2nd and 3rd evenings.

I will allow my imagination to begin to stir...

Carl

Comment by Jasmine Cargill on September 11, 2010 at 10:19am

There is also a parallel group and conversation on the World Cafe Community site here: http://www.theworldcafecommunity.org/group/creativearts?xg_source=a...
and the beginnings of a conversation here:
http://www.theworldcafecommunity.org/forum/topics/combining-the-cre...

Comment by Jasmine Cargill on September 11, 2010 at 10:14am

Thanks for joining this group! I am increasingly interested in the intersection and fusion of the creative arts and participatory arts. I see this both as the next level of my work as a practitioner and as something that has huge value for the field. I'm in the early stages of this exploration and will share my experiences as they happen. I would love to hear from you!