improvising democracy

a moment to catch up on the past year

2011-07-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Toward the end of July last year it seemed that I was running out of steam trying to stay engaged in some sort of meaningful work or project in Seattle. Yes I was doing a little community development work for Sustainable Seattle but I was starving for real action, and preferably for something closer to 'home'...ideally my own neighborhood of Capitol Hill.
I had been poking around as usual, going to community meetings, various open houses, meetings of arts organizations, developers, architects and city planning groups only to find myself feeling more and more beat down by what seemed the shear inevitability of what these people were all up to. This sense of 'powers that be' along with my inability to find any kind of 'voice' in the face of them, to find some way to contribute, be some small part of the solution, was getting to me...
Finally at the end of one of these many meetings (what a bore so many of them were) a conversation with what happened to be a neighbor and our shared frustration of this mechanized beast of progress lead us to follow up with more discussion over coffee somewhere. We tried a couple of times to meet until I raised the stakes for the both of us by suggesting we bring our chairs and our own coffee to a street corner in the neighborhood.
The simplicity and obviousness of this act sparked not only further meetings at that corner but also an active invitation for others to engage...to join in matters that only our local community had the wisdom to come up with any adequate answers or solutions to.

This social setting that we created for two or more hours at a time, once, twice or more times a week at that corner sparked enough interest among people either walking by or being invited, to develop into a facebook group that we called 'stories from the corner' that went on through to the end of that summer.
Simple, obvious and yet revolutionary for those of us who continued to show up for this cause with no name.

improvising...

2010-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

improvisation often looks like nothing much going on...

...scratch, scratch, squiggle, squiggle....

...i'm just saying....

social improvisations back in seattle

2010-04-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

After months on the road I'm finally settling back down to my Seattle life and working on a platform from which to continue my social experiments and improvisations. I'm currently on the look out for 'community space' here on Capitol Hill. Nothing can happen without a stage to work upon, a space cleared and ready, just like any artist has the studio.
An opportunity to help plan and program something in the empty space of a recently vacated business that's actually owned by a church has come across my path these past few days. The church is interested to turn the space to some sort of neighborhood benefit. I've made a short proposal for a multi-use 'community center' that will help 'facilitate and develop collective neighborhood knowledge, wisdom and resources'. It would have similar qualities (and more) to this share space in Santa Rosa that I recently found about http://bit.ly/c183Mk

The 'learning and social innovation space' that I envisage would try to strike the right balance between casual café-like, art gallery space (for spontaneous conversation to occur) and more organized or facilitated dialogue and learning to occur on an ongoing basis. I see room for co-working, hacker space and a partnership opportunity for some sort of adult learning extension or coaching institution to do their work there, maybe working with the Seattle Library System to push their edge of themselves http://www.infogramme.org/index.php/2010/02/25/le-coworking-un-modele-davenir-pour-les-bibliotheques/ ?
The co-working area would be a way to stimulate an interesting mix of opportunity for independently motivated freelancers and artists to find a way to meet with curious neighbors who have spare time and motivation to get involved with and benefit a worthy project or enterprise.

I see this as a project in learning and improvising just how to create environments that arouse and incubate people's curiosities, interests and commitments by tapping their inspirations, dreams and ideas...creating healthy spaces to seed and grow their (spiritual, physical and mental) awakenings and activities. I believe that if stories can be heard and the human journey shared, serendipities will develop and with them the building of strong local neighborhood sense of purpose and meaning.

With all our various internet and virtual technologies we seem well connected and yet these same mobile and global networks now contribute to some weakness in communicating and connecting face to face. There are big gaps in how we meet (especially at local, neighborhood levels) that cry out for quality physical space to bring together the learning that virtual worlds stimulate. At local neighborhood levels our abilities to communicate, to share talents, resources and strengths have some catching up to do, there's much potential between neighbors waiting to be developed...learning to truly communicate, collaborate and create who we are, sustainably, together.
Our various different ways of doing things, our differences in how we like to learn and find satisfaction from life around us are what keep us somewhat separated within certain social spheres and boundaries of work and play. In creating a 'multi-use' space, by 'mixing it up', throwing some of those differences into a bit of chaos, my thought is that some interesting dynamics (and hence innovations) will develop. Those who come to use the space, are stimulated by it's diversity of activity, taking bits and pieces from it all, will in the end generate enough flow to keep it going and then inspiring others to join in where they can. The strength (and challenge) of this space will be in it's ability to hold various opposing forces of diverse neighborhood energy...

some more useful links in thinking about this community learning and development stuff here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifelong_learning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coworking
http://www.theschooloflife.com/

http://www1.cpinst.org/

http://www.artofhosting.org/thepractice/

http://www.goodnewsgooddeeds.org/

http://www.themeltingpotedinburgh.org.uk/

http://motivespace.org/about-2/

http://www.schoolfactory.org/Main/HomePage

http://www.urbancraftuprising.com/about.html

http://rhizome.org/editorial/3281

http://catalystinstitute.com/vision/

new delhi, india

2009-10-10T03:58:00.000-07:00

improvisation is the essence of life in india, people live it each moment to survive; you cannot walk the streets without having to improvise, negotiate your way among other pedestrians, among the bicyclists, rickshaw drivers, roaming animals, buses, cars... you're in constant communication and contact with life at almost every moment in this ever-unfolding, co-creative dialogue and story of civilization evolving...
...this is why i come, some part of me craves this full on experience of public life that's been so systematically removed from the western experience (and which more and more so here, especially as tourist, you can also remove yourself from)
i don't want to seem too idealistic, it is hard sustaining oneself here in this chaos, yet in the end how else can it really be? who we are is chaos, the state of ever changing possibility, why resist it?
i think of india using such words as 'essence' and 'life'... there is some sort of living at the edge here, of life up front, with knowing, having to stay awake, having to communicate, negotiate one's way yet balanced with a sense of lila (play) or flow so that it all never quite, crashes or self destructs...yes, in india you learn to dance....
anyhow, i'm in india once again, touching back in again to this ancient way of being who we will always be as humans...

improvisations on the road

2009-06-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

have been out here this past month (europe at the moment) on an extended road trip, losing myself to the moment and creating opportunity to connect and relate with the world in a much more 'on the street' way, improvising with various people mostly through this hospitality network here http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/mishek/ you can scroll down to references on this profile of mine for recent people i've spent a little time with
this really is about democracy for me if both parties come away from the exchange of some time together feeling more connected, empowered and enriched in their sense of what is possible among strangers, this is not always easy, truths need to be told, something offered, somehow given up, especially the longer you stay in one place, which is what i'm building up to...

a discussion with myself about democracy

2009-05-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

mmm, what is democracy?

ordinary people (the demos) doing ordinary everyday things that in the end somehow bring a little extraordinary change and benefit to the greater whole,
....people doing things that bring out an awareness of (or create a new sense of) the greater whole
....people taking everyday, creative acts that stimulate a vision for the larger sense (the ocracy?) of who we are within a particular social collective
...people doing things that bring out and capture a more authentic sense of their own identity and hence [strengthen] the identity of the group, and the nation....

it's madness...it's complex and as simple as the action of a couple of words

2009-05-21T23:44:00.000-07:00

...this is what i need to come back to again and again, the thing that will always pull, keep some fascination and interest for me, the thing i need to acknowledge...the madness, the chaos, the meaninglessness and hell that is my life...
i don't think there's any need to change any of this because it's also the nature of this universe, why bother working against such forces?
the only way to make sense of any of this daily non-sense of mine is to somehow simply observe and then also know (this can be hard) when to act...
...just like the action of these words being placed here in this particular pattern on this page (looks ok eh?)
this is more than i've accomplished in a while, somehow these bit's of bits coming together out of the mystery and chaos of a life attempting to be lived, attempting to create, from this mind of mine...cohering, self organizing themselves into some new life (potential) here on this page.
well that's it again for now, just setting a bit more background context of what it is that i'm working with and creating from,
my particular 'complex'...while i try and keep it simple

“Improvisation is too good to leave to chance.”

2009-05-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

this a quote from Paul Simon (the singer) and is a good summing up of my interest in the topic, it takes work and it's a constant practice as i go about my day...

to speak (or write), to create, it's hell...

2009-04-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none." ~ Miles Davis

I need to regain some courage to write here.
Taking these words of Miles Davis to heart will be a good start.
Blogging can't be that hard, can it? Yeah, well up until now it has been something more like pulling teeth. Funny eh? Mistakes are at the core of improvisation and what it's about. Sounds like a good theory but it is hard to just go and make them....

web 2.0 technological improvisations leading us back to...

2009-03-17T00:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so more about the internet, web 2.0 thingy. It's completely changed the way I (and many of us) now relate and think about our world. Tim O'Reilly describes it here...

"Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices...delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an 'architecture of participation,' ... to deliver rich user experiences."

This to me is about a whole new way of participating and re-creating our worlds... participating and designing in improvisational and potentially very engaging and empowering ways...i say 'potential' because for real change it must also translate in the communications of our daily lives, into interactions that do not solely remain computer based experiences or interfaces.
The challenge is the creation of these new physical interfaces to match the virtual ones. Making new ways to connect, ways to organize, to share ideas/information in real, day to day ways that don't always involve having access to web technology. And so I've been following an emergent field of neighborhood based learning spaces such as these examples.... The School of Life (http://www.theschooloflife.co.uk) and the Hub (http://the-hub.net). Places where people can come to network, share, learn, create and unorganize themselves...remix and improvise their worlds a little, maybe gaining some little inspiration and power to change their worlds....

first blog update for the year 2009

2009-01-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

Looking back over the past year it seems my main platform and focus for exploring/improvising democracy has been within the web 2.0 world ... facebook, twitter, linkedin, plaxo, delicious, biznik.com, couchsurfing.com ... some good slow learning and insight about the kinds of people who show up on these forums, what they post about, what inspires them to take action (if they do at all) and maybe thus develop a voice,

I've watched my own levels of interest and engagement wax and wane (especially on twitter) as 1: my 'community' changes and grows and 2: i get more confident in my writing and learning to capture the essence of an idea that somehow inspires me.

In the end i do think it's how our online interactions end up translating into real world actions that most inspires us to engage and continue to connect,
For example, couchsurfing.com to me ends up being one of the best examples of online connections opening, often quite spontaneously, to real benefit and result for all involved...
And so i think a lot about ways to better facilitate all the great web 2.0 connections we end up with into actually useful face 2 face time.

It's often surreal for me to walk into a coffee shop with so many people focusing on their laptop screens, chatting, im-ing, facebooking, twittering, etc. almost completely unable to make the same leap of connection to the people sitting all around them,

What makes us so literate online and yet still so ignorant of one another in person? what makes us somehow more curious and compelling to one another online than in actual life?
Well, i suppose we have devised ourselves a lot of interesting and quite useful online networks, groups, forums, tools and links to learn and interact from, the web has become an endless world of learning...

Ok, so now it's time to translate some of this learning, bring some of it back into the real world, maybe to the coffee shop, to the street somewhere, to your neighborhood...

It's time we learned to apply some of these online experiences and tools to our more immediate worlds, making some real and necessary connections with one another to change what's right in our faces, to change some of what we've been ignoring or simply just given up on....

More on maybe creating some of this social space/place ontime (as much as we have it online) in my next posting...

room to improvise

2008-12-30T23:36:00.000-08:00

anyone checking this blog out (myself included) might think it pretty dead, not much going on at all...
and yet in it's way it's just doing what any improvisation needs to do...make mistakes, fall flat, fail...
indeed, it's current state (of failure) has got me curious enough to put some words down here, maybe just enough scraps of a frame to build more from...a new level up, or another one down?
doesn't matter...it's an improv, just stay with it as i've apparently done so far,

giving myself room to try something out here...

all there is to do now, is nothing...that's all folks, just wait a bit please...

2008-08-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

  "The more people do, the more society develops, the more
problems arise. The increasing desolation of nature, the
exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration
of the human spirit, all have been brought about by
humanity's trying to accomplish something. Originally
there was no reason to progress, and nothing that had to
be done. We have come to the point at which there is no
other way than to bring about a 'movement' not to bring
anything about."
(Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution, 1978)

 ...democracy is here, no need to improvise or do
anything else with it, just, get with it where you are...
  ok, ok, enough already.

people working together?

2007-12-06T00:36:00.001-08:00

Came across this quote from Tim Merry... There is an urgency. There is an urgency to slow down. So I believe we should pause and reflect. Doing this alone is great, but I feel more and more it is important to reflect with people: From the slowing down and reflecting [with] people, strong sustainable decisions emerge. We have to take time to listen to the diversity around us. I am working alot with music now and more and more as I work with groups here I see how it represents us. If you do not stop and listen in music you cannot play with the others. But still you have to hold your distinct identiy or it will all sound the same. The greatest music also descends into madness and chaos and comes out the other side again something new but connected. Sambe bands are a classic example of this. So we should make our decision making processes more like creating music, where we have to listen, communicate and rock it from our distinctness, welcoming our diverstity to the table, because it makes us sound fantastic! When we hit it, we feel the groove, in our hearts, bodies and souls, and right in the middle of everything.-- Tim Merry - http://www.co-intelligence.org/wisdomsurvey.html#merry _ _ _ _ _ _

what is it? how do we do it?

2007-08-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

The idea here is of somehow better drawing out our community and cultural creativity in the way that we meet as citizens, as activists, as legislators and simply as PEOPLE. How can we play more (innovate) in the ways that we communicate and dialogue who we are and what it is that we may be able to contribute to this city in which we live? I'd like to experiment with our assumptions of who we think we are are, creating the environment in which to do this... exploring, discovering 'places' both in our neighborhoods and at City Hall.

The idea is called Improvising Democracy...

How do ordinary people get inspired to engage in public life, in the democratic process? Is there a way to help the people inhabiting the neighborhoods and streets of this city (of Seattle) to feel that they do indeed have a stake in the future of this place? Encourage them to dream, to imagine a new reality? To take an idea and believe in it enough to take an action however small? How can we make this easier for them to do, simpler for each of us to be able to find that heart, that faith in a vision and end up making some difference?

When the whole process of democracy gets too overwhelming, too complex to somehow engage in or even relate to then it's time to try out something new, time to innovate somehow...even to improvise a bit here and there...and maybe even a lot! To try SOMETHING we must! It often takes a bit of trying something out, a lot of mistakes before 'something' eventually works. We can take the cue from children. They do eventually turn into adults, but play at it a lot before getting there. We can't afford to stop playing now. But we'll need more spaces than just that waterfall and pool at City Hall to play and splash around in if we're to somehow come together to create the future in this new world that's constantly desiring to come alive within us...