IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES
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July 2019
The Taos Institute's mission is to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value, and their application in relational, collaborative and appreciative practices around the world.
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The Many Ways to Get Involved!
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Brief Encounter with The Taos Institute
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July 2019
"W
hen our body-mind-relationship finds shelter, the barest illusion of a wall can be found in a shadow, in a leaf, or in a tree branch. Our Nest was an invitation to the public to rediscover shelter and relationship in rest and play.
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Participating in the “Livingness of Life”: The Feather Nest Community Project
By Bojun Hu (Taos Associate),
Emily Wong (dance artist) and Ilda Freire (architect)
In this article we share a special and innovative project designed to build community. The Feathers Nest project is our attempt to engage with the wider public around forms of relationally oriented movement improvisation. We created the Nest in Beijing, China, where economic growth and capitalistic production have also led to aching bodies and chronic feelings of not being enough or not working hard enough. With the Nest, we wanted to co-create with the public a context to transcend our stereotypical modes of relating to one another. We wanted to remind people and ourselves about the experience of being present in the primordial nest/home, being cared for, and participating in the “livingness of life” through meeting one another as living bodies (Shotter, 2004).
In the beginning, we had the image of a room full of feathers, in which to rest, swim, and dance. In the months that followed, we began to design a nest space and create audio guides that would foster a moving meditation. To create this participatory public art project, we sought help and collaboration with various organizations (Taos TAG Grant, Lispace architects, Beijing Contact Improvisation community, Minsheng Art Museum). In the nest creation process, despite trying hard to control everything from the materials to the location to what the participants would experience, we found ourselves continuously encountering the unexpected, challenging us to stay open to different possibilities of bringing the Nest into being.
In the Nest, we designed three structured ways to experience relationships: individual and partnered audio guides, participatory public performance, and a two-hour guided group movement-based workshop. In unstructured Nest experiences, people could also rest, sleep, talk, dance, and move. Participants, ranging in age from 2 to 65, signed up to experience the Nest. Participants were both those native to China and people from other countries. All structured experiences were translated into both Chinese and English.
More than a physical space, the nest was a relational space. In their feedback, participants shared how they began to experience themselves and experience “relating” itself differently. One participant described his experience with his body, “Because of the spiral shape, it reminds me of everything that spirals: the wind, air-currents, the human body’s movements. The feathers and the soft carpet really stimulate our tactile sense; it really helps to sensitize through the skin the entire nervous system.” Many participants described the experience of relating to another through touch, “The touch I was given was tender and light, sometimes we were not even in touch, but I felt that the dance was continuing. And I started to cry because it was like I was given permission to be exactly how I was, and there was also the gentle touch supporting me.” And “The touch really felt very warm and light. I think if we all treated one another inter-personally with the same type of care and touch, relationships would be much easier...When I was dancing with different people, their boundaries felt different, looser, softer. Inside, you still know who are your friends from outside, but the possibility that you’d roll on the floor together outside the Nest is very slim. It really transcended the boundaries for me.”
Many other people talked about the magical nature of their experiences, being a child again, where “anything can happen.” One participant shared that having experienced much trauma in her life, she felt unsafe in many unfamiliar places, but being in the Nest felt like a homecoming. She explained, “I had no idea what to expect of this event, and when I got here, I didn’t know what to do with myself. But even in the beginning, just seeing the Nest, I felt safe. In the Tibetan mythology, there is a place, a circular structure just like this one, where you go to before you die. It has all sorts of animals and ghosts in it. Going there can be very scary for people. And if you experience something like it while you’re alive, then your passage into death will be a more peaceful one. This is what I experienced here.”
Others, shared their experiences and relationships were beginning to be put into words and explored; “I was sometimes a part of it, sometimes I was on the outside of it. Sometimes I would feel my own blood flowing inside me, sometimes I would see and feel the feathers, sometimes it felt like a movie scene to me.” “I noticed while touching and moving that some people opened up very quickly and totally, while other people, no matter what I did, there continued to be a layer of something between me and them.” “I felt more comfortable interacting people of the same sex than opposite sex.”
Bachelard (1994) reflects that we can tremble and feel unsafe behind the thickest walls. However, when our body-mind-relationship finds shelter, the barest illusion of a wall can be found in a shadow, in a leaf, or in a tree branch. Our Nest was an invitation to the public to rediscover shelter and relationship in rest and play. When inside the Nest, people formed a group organism, and participated in dialogues that were already happening, carried out with a variety of languages, including the language of touch. Participants listened with their minds and bodies, let go of their expectations, and played with the unfolding of relationships.
Bachelard, G. (1994)
The poetics of space
. Boston: Beacon Press.
Shotter, J. (2004)
Responsive expression in living bodies: The power of invisible ‘real presences’ within our everyday lives together.
Cultural Studies,
18(2-3), 443-460.
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Professional Development Opportunities
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Upcoming Events
Workshops
October 31 - November 2
with Sheila McNamee and Harlene Anderson
in Durham, New Hampshire
August 13 - Sept. 17
Live calls on Tuesdays at either 10:00 AM US Eastern or 8:00 PM US Eastern. Choose your best time.
Nov. 4 - Dec. 9
Live calls on Mondays at 10:00 AM US Eastern time.
Friends of the Taos Institute Events
July 3-6, 2019
Antwerp, Belgium
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August 13 - September 17
a 6-week online course for everyone!
For all the information and to register visit:
Click Here.
Facilitator/Presenter - Rich Furman, MSW, PhD
This six-week online distance workshop is designed to empower scholars, doctoral students and practitioners to increase their ability to write and publish. It adopts a strengths-based, developmental approach that deconstructs strategies unknown to most scholars. Conducted by an Rich Furman, coach, therapist and professor, participants personalize lessons to meet their scholarly goals and dreams through writing exercises, on-line discussions, weekly group conference calls and video lectures. This workshop helps participants master skills and knowledge within four domains:
1) Writing productivity
2) The ins and outs of writing articles, books and dissertations
3) Managing the journal selection, submission and peer review processes
4) The psychosocial barriers that inhibit these three other domains. This last area is a special focus and expertise of the facilitator and makes this course a unique and fulfilling experience.
Register to secure your place in this workshop that will get your writing and on your way to being published.
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October 31 - November 2
with Sheila McNamee and Harlene Anderson
in Durham, New Hampshire
Join Sheila and Harlene in beautiful New England for an intimate workshop. Bringing their breadth of experiences together, the workshop will introduce social construction and relational practices for those new to it and will help those familiar with it deepen their understandings and practices. Additionally, focus will be on the practical application of constructionist ideas in organizations, therapy, education, and community development. We will focus on relational constructionist understandings of language and meaning making, polyvocality, transformative dialogue, and appreciative and future oriented perspectives. Participants will learn how social reality is constructed in language and the implications of this for our understandings, knowledge, and everyday practice. Participants with a background in social construction will have an opportunity to explore issues of special relevance to their projects and practices.
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Nov. 4 - Dec. 9
Live group calls on Mondays at 10:00 AM US Eastern time.
Relational theory now provides cutting edge ideas relevant to practices across the professions. The major theoretical shift is from the traditional focus on individuals to the relational processes that are co-produced. This 6-week online course introduces common premises and orienting ideas central to relational theory. The course consists of six modules with online conference meetings, readings, videos and online dialogues.
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New Book
Thriving Women, Thriving World:
An Invitation to Dialogue, Healing and Inspired Actions
This book is a celebration of women. It is an invitation to journey from #MeToo to thriving women via Appreciative Inquiry, dialogue, and story telling. It addresses topics, through an appreciative lens, that may be difficult to talk about, yet must be talked about to heal social wounds and create conditions for women to thrive worldwide. If you are wondering what to do in response to the global cry of #MeToo, this book is for you.
Authors: Diana Whitney, Caroline Adams Miller, Tanya Cruz Teller, Marlene Ogawa, Jessica Cocciolone, Haesun Moon, Kathryn Britton, Angela Koh & Alejandra Leon de la Barra
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A Video on
Radical Presence
with Sheila McNamee
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More Ways to Get Involved
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Join in with the Relational Research Network's new project:
The RRN Support Learning Community
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July 17, in Spanish, and July 24, in English
The Relational Research Network is hosting conversations beginning in July, with researchers who want to to critically think about how inquiry and research processes connect and inspire us when we look at them through the lens of a relational practice. The questions we will explore:
- How can a research project have a relational focus or become a relational practice?
- How can we do relational research and have meaningful conversations about our work?
- Hear about a research project and be in conversation with others in the learning community, engaging through questions, challenges, or issues related to your research project.
- Having the opportunity to be in conversation with other researchers to network, co-learn and create opportunities for collaboration.
July 17, in Spanish, and July 24, in English.
See the full schedule for these conversations - The RRN Support Learning Community - by visiting
our website.
You will need to register in order to participate or "sit in" and listen to these learning conversations.
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Appreciative Inquiry Community Jam!
Practices Amplified, Connections Elevated (PACE)
Fri, Oct. 4 - Sun, Oct. 6, 2019
Everyone is invited to join in the AI Community Jam! You won't want to miss it!
Join in a multi-generational gathering of students, practitioners, and the curious celebrating Appreciative Inquiry, strengths-based and positive approaches to change, work and life.
Join us for conversations, reflections, and a variety of activities and discover endless opportunities to accelerate the PACE with:
- Curiosity
- Sharing
- Belonging
- Vision
- Learning
- Connection
- Innovation
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International Journal of Collaborative-Dialogic Practices
This free journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices. Issue 8 is now available.
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WorldShare Books
FREE downloadable books in 12 different languages.
With over 28 books in English and many more from around the world, you will enjoy reading about education, spirituality, organizational life, community building, group dynamics, leadership and more.
Order your free book today!
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Positive Aging Newsletter
FREE
newsletter in 9 languages sent right to your email.
By focusing on the positive aspects of aging, and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research not only brings useful insights into the realm of practice but creates hope and empowers action among older people. By moving beyond practices of repair and prevention, to emphasize growth-enhancing activities, practitioners also contribute more effectively to the societal reconstruction of aging.
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Manuscripts for Downloading
Access hundreds of articles and papers on topics such as:
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Collaborative Practices
- Dialogue
- Appreciative Cultures
- Creativity and Improve
- Narrative Practices
- Relational Learning
- Relational Research
- Qualitative Research
- and so much more!
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Donate to the Taos Institute
Given the current global context into which we are moving, the work in which we are engaged is more important than ever. We invite you support the work of institute.
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John Shotter Memorial Fund
John Shotter's death on December 8, 2016, was a profound loss for the scholarly world, for the Taos Institute, and for many of us personally.
Read more
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Jane Magruder Watkins Scholarship Fund
Support students who apply for a need-based scholarship to support their participation in Taos programs.
Read more
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Peggy Penn WorldShare Fund
Supports the publication of new WorldShare Books on topics related to the work and interests of Peggy Penn, Ph.D.
Read more
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