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futurist_fieldguide:improv_exercises [2015-05-18 16:29] – majafuturist_fieldguide:improv_exercises [2015-05-18 17:05] – [Improv Exercises] maja
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 Improv exercises are meant to encourage spontaneity, co-creation and 'thinking on your feet'. They originate in theatre improvisation, where the performance is created on the spot without a predefined script. Outside of performing arts improv can be used, for example in team-building, training communication skills and therapy. In futuring processes improv can be helpful as an ice-breaker, a way to train the 'speculative mind' or visualise a scenario, an exercise in collaborative storytelling or worldbuilding or in any other phases where the process tends to become overly analytical, bogged down in rigid worldviews or overconfident. Improv can shake-up the status quo and take people out of their comfort zones in a playful and harmless manner.  Improv exercises are meant to encourage spontaneity, co-creation and 'thinking on your feet'. They originate in theatre improvisation, where the performance is created on the spot without a predefined script. Outside of performing arts improv can be used, for example in team-building, training communication skills and therapy. In futuring processes improv can be helpful as an ice-breaker, a way to train the 'speculative mind' or visualise a scenario, an exercise in collaborative storytelling or worldbuilding or in any other phases where the process tends to become overly analytical, bogged down in rigid worldviews or overconfident. Improv can shake-up the status quo and take people out of their comfort zones in a playful and harmless manner. 
  
-There are thousands of improv exercises available, that can be applied in as many different settings. On this page we will only mention a few techniques that we repeatedly use in FoAM's futuring workshops, with links to other improv resources online and in books. +There are thousands of improv exercises available, that can be applied in as many different settings. On this page we will only mention a few techniques that we repeatedly use in FoAM's futuring workshops, with links to other improv resources online and in books. The box is an example of (status) transactions, Tableau Vivant an example of with setting the scene and collective spontaneity and A word at a time is an example of an improvised storytelling exercise. 
  
 ==== The box ==== ==== The box ====
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   * Step 6: Once everyone has spoken and is sitting down, the exercise is over. Read out the list of gifts from everyone's boxes and reflect on the exercise.   * Step 6: Once everyone has spoken and is sitting down, the exercise is over. Read out the list of gifts from everyone's boxes and reflect on the exercise.
 +
 +
 +==== Tableau Vivant ====
 +
 +A Tableau Vivant or a 'living picture' is a still image with live actors. In improv, the participants portray a situation by standing still in a particular posture, with or without props. The benefit of a tableau vivant is that a complex story can be distilled and visualised as a photograph. It can be used as a warming-up exercise, or as part of [[incasting]]. 
 +
 +=== Process ===
 +
 +  * Step 1: Either you provide a situation to be portrayed, or invite the participants to chose one themselves (for example from a set of scenarios they developed as part of their futuring process). 
 +  * Step 2: Invite participants to discuss the situation and design a still image that captures its essence. If appropriate they can design a 'caption' or 'title' for their image
 +  * Step 3: Rehearse the tableau vivant and if needed make adjustments
 +  * Step 4: Perform the tableau vivant in front of an 'audience' (with or without a spoken or written caption. Take a photograph.
 +  * Step 5: Invite the members of the audience to interpret the image.
 +  * Step 6: After they come out of their tableau, allow the 'actors' to explain and comment on the interpretations. 
 +
 +==== A word at a time ====
 +
 +This exercise, based on the surrealist exercise //cadavre exquis// helps the participants to warm-up to collective storytelling and allows creative inhibitions to drop.
 +
 +=== Process ===
 +
 +Step 1: Explain the process: "This is a storytelling exercise, where each person offers one word to the person next to them, who gives another word to the next person and so on. The aim is to build sentences and a story together, one word at a time. Don't worry about saying something clever, just say the first thing that comes to mind and watch the unexpected narrative develop."
 +
 +Step 2: Begin with a word and 'offer' it to the person next to you (by turning your head, of making a 'giving' gesture. Try an inclusive word like "We" or "our" to make the story inclusive of the people present.
 +
 +Step 3: Let the story develop for a few rounds and feel when it is time to stop. The participants might stop by themselves, or if you find the story is nearing its end, put an end to it yourself.
 +
 +Step 4: Reflect on the experience.
 +
  
 ==== References ==== ==== References ====
  • futurist_fieldguide/improv_exercises.txt
  • Last modified: 2015-05-20 14:16
  • by nik