Poojitha and I have been having weekly meetings with Liam Green, Creative Producer: College Culture & Community about some initiatives.
There are two events we have been in discussion about. They are the only two from our more extended list of ideas that might be able to happen before the end of the year. I’ve drafted proposals for them:
**update, neither of these events will be happening in the 2022 calendar year for timetabling reasons, finding dates for Jan/Feb (22/11/22)
Event #1
Proposal Title
Not Alone but Together: Connecting CSM Post-Graduates
Location
Platform Bar
Proposed Date(s)
28/29th November 2022
Materials
Nametags, pens/paper,
Staffing
Depending on responses, 2-3 people to welcome people, ask to use nametags, help facilitate conversations, and oversee.
Concept
An invitation to meet each other across disciplines, courses, and programmes, celebrating CSM’s diverse range of post-graduates. There are 36 post-grad courses at CSM filled with people working on independent projects at an advanced level. There are countless areas of overlap, with students working along similar lines of inquiry and having no knowledge of each other. This event would be holding space for post-grad students who would like to interact with each other, and testing the use of Platform Bar as a site for more formal programming.
In collaboration with MA artist Teddy Godwin, part of whose practice revolves around facilitating conversations, there would be pop-up conversations “agitating” the space.
The event is also an entry point into a space that normally can feel uninviting: the most common thing people say about it is “Platform Bar seems full of cool people but everyone is in their own group, you can’t meet people there.” What if you had a hand inviting you in and a group of fellow students eager to meet you and discuss?
It can feel like a warm, bubbling stew with lines of knowledge being shared and an invisible web forming. It can feel like the glow of connection when you have an exchange with someone new, when new connections are made and pathways are formed. Words bounce off walls with conversations between. Not alone, but together.
Other deliverables
Promotional materials (digital and physical posters) designed and distributed, Eventbrite or another sign-up method.
Event #2
Proposal Title
Feast of Conversations
Location
CSM Street
Proposed Date(s)
6/7 December or late Jan/Feb. Durational for 2-3 hours.
Materials
6-10 tables, 36-60 chairs, paper and pens, post-it notes, menus to guide conversations, and informational signs to invite people in.
Staffing
1-2 people would need to help facilitate, invite people in, and gently re-direct people to the menu of conversations if they aren’t participating.
Concept
Feasts and festivals historically enliven the dark points of the year: for the Feast of Conversations, sustenance would be derived from words rather than food. Setting a table and inviting open participation is a powerful gesture of inclusion and participation. Visually, it would activate the street in a striking way, claiming what is on a daily basis a thoroughfare into a place for students (and staff) to engage with each other.
With a minimum of six tables (preferably ten), people would sit in pairs facing each other across the table. Between them would be a large sheet of paper (or large rolls of butcher paper covering the entire table), pens, and a menu with questions to ask each other. Instructions would be simple: to introduce yourself, not interrupt the other person, make eye contact, and work through at least 5 of the questions before moving off-script. Writing down points from the conversation, doodling, or drawing is encouraged. At the end of the conversation, each person would be invited take a post-it note(s) to draw or write a small reflection of what they learned about themselves and/or their conversation partner.
Other deliverables
Promotional materials (digital and physical posters) designed and distributed, Eventbrite or another sign-up method (along with drop-ins welcomed), menu questions and menu designed and printed.