The Burlington Shebang Journal
August 2014
Phase 1 Open Studio (August 31, 2014)
Seeing where a Shebang ends up on the web site to the processing experience of Kingston to the beginning of the processing experience of Burlington. I gain an insight into how the Shebang unites.
-
Big Space, techno space, big windows, noisy AC
-
New group
-
Younger age in the artists
-
Sadness
-
Fear? Not sure? Anxiety? Not as confident and connected as Kingston – a new group
-
“Yes lets!”, heartbeat activity was the great community connector
-
The wall dance was a way or reconnecting with me and sharing with those dancing beside me
-
Witnessing and being witnessed.
-
Fluid moving into and out of the space
-
More individuality
-
Willingness to play
-
Shared sadness
-
Shared openness, open to public party feel
-
Yes, lets!
-
I sent more motifs of Burlington
In discussion with Soraya afterwards I was talking about the therapeutic nature of process work as a deepening connection to self but that this was not therapy. She questioned me about this why is it not therapy? First of all the intent is that this is a creative process, the group of artists come together as artists – they are willing to explore the creative process and share, that is their intent. They are not coming together to do ‘group processing of emotions. The exercises for sure tap into emotions and that is grist for the artist. Andrea is also not a therapist and did not have the intent of doing therapy, her intent is to tap into the creative process and see what emerges from the group. Her intent is to hold the space for the artists to feel safe and collaborate and create something. A process is set up, something emerges, it may be the seeds for a product or it is the product. At this point in the Burlington process I felt they were building trust and became more familiar with the fluid nature of the Whole Shebang. To reiterate what Andrea said at the start of my translating journey
I’d like to propose that any time a new person (guest artist, partner, collaborator, translator or general public) is introduced to a group we think of that meeting as bringing that person into a ‘loop’.
The most obvious loop is a circle formation, and starting and returning to a circle formation is deeply established in the Shebang Process.
This is what I found the Burlington day was for me – a looping and knitting of the participants into a more secure fabric so that the next explorations will creatively emerge.
That is what I have today.
I hope it is something.
