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Flotilla debrief, Friday, 14 December 2012 10:34:48 AM

Rasa, Shelli, Tim, Nik, Maja, Uroš, Bart, Carole, Alkan, Christina, Pacome, Dismas, Natalya, Marko

three questions about how we work together on interesting things in this scenario:

yourself and the collective
the flotilla as a possible future
the prehearsal method

you and the collective

Tim

• like being permanently stoned in a safe space
• useful even if something self-imposed, creating a feeling of value by making our lives more difficult then more easy - like setting yourself a small maths problem
• the ladder added an extra degree of silliness to the proceedings, but was it necessary?
• gamemaster roles unclear
• engineering problem with the power - what is the scenario and what is a “real” issue? - unclear where the line was between this
• made-up responsibilities, but the feast the only real responsibility

Carole

• entering a very pretty and welcoming space, a home but different from home
• inspired by the names - first session transported me to the ship
• took me a while to realise about the electricity crisis - need a system in place for critical or dangerous situations
• names created an imaginary of a faraway land and involved a long rite of passage in choosing, which turned my journey into something else
• an emergency at home meant I had to leave my persona for the whole afternoon - really affected my personal experience - frustrating
• need to be very prepared for a 24-hour period in another role
• enriching over-excitement about so many great ideas and things to do
• felt everything took a long time to do - took ages to do simple tasks

Bart

• challenge to still be yourself while being something different
• difficult for a non-human
• inspired by Ben Okri
• I was not an agave plant
• wanted to stir up things if I was bitten by a rat
• impressed by the level of activity that developed
• struggle the first day, next day easier
• talking/interacting with objects, non-human entities, e.g. automaton
• lots of ideas about the future development of the non-human
• people created a multiverse, talking about external world a challenge
• surprised by the activities - not more done with the mayhem
• wanted to see people find resilience in their flotilla roles but people took up their typical roles in daily life
• the fiction vs nonfiction tension

Rasa

• natural role to play, suited me very well: serving food, organising, etc.
• festiveness worked well
• as a collective we have such a great bond with partners - like a family coming together, no need for ice-breaking
• great diversity
• group was a nice mix - at least one person you didn’t know but also lots of people you know
• names were great but difficult to remember
• creating the feast was extremely special - wow!
• some things quite silly and not necessary but they brought interesting dynamics

Christina

• activities very interesting but without aim or purpose
• only 24 hours to invent these purposes
• no real tasks or problems to solve (except preparing food)
• difficult to leave the scene of Marko’s departure and go and meditate
• constant business - strange to me
• skills make the group very resilient, but we had to invent tasks to use our skills - we managed this very well

Pacome

• didn’t want a specific role - nice to be a passenger
• food - basic task
• a passenger staying longer becomes something else
• ritual very important and nice for creating the fiction
• the mix of reality and fiction: a tool or liability?

Uroš

• came late to the ship which changed my experience - missed the rite of passage, of leaving something behind
• at first tried hard to observe and analyse
• then just enjoyed being at FoAM - a time off, a different tempo
• roles not very structured, not boredom, though some element of laziness

Dismas

• French kissing created quite a lot of poisons…
• choosing the name, chance to read about the culture novels
• collective responsibilities confused with many ideas
• being a cook was flexible - learnt a lot of things, e.g. making bread, schnapps, French kissing workshop, gardening
• working and living together with diverse people really good
• flotilla structure perfect
• all activities a bit chaotic
• openness about sharing information
• getting answer from flexible demeanour you got a flexible answer
• Theun was always trying to find time to sleep
• power cut - contingency plans for this
• real world vs imagined scenario - need to preempt the future
• never tried yoga - everyone talking about energy - bringing energy to people
• collecting resources for the future

Shell

• entry to the Flotilla very moving, opening it up to people not currently at FoAM
• enthusiasm and stress about the costumes was really touching because it showed how important they were for everyone
• many different roles esp. with documentation - really nice but on reflection maybe just one role would have been better - as a quiet meditation
• meditation on responsibility
• relationship to the collective - sometimes I need my own space
• didn’t take time to be there for myself
• dinner was magical
• a vague scheme materialises
• sense of humour really resilient
• to see the space transformed into the Flotilla was magical
• not sure if I understood the role switch - getting into character - maybe more distance to get into character
• magic to be floated away on the Flotilla

Maja

• continuous weight of responsibility of captain
• this ship would have sunk
• things going wrong - electricity was a simple thing but nothing happened
• magnifying glass on how things already are in this group
• amazingly strong with simple clear fun tasks, celebrations - rare to find such trust and ease of togetherness - we could run a restaurant or club easily
• but I’d be really scared to rely on other when things go wrong
• marko’s escape got done really well
• but the shared purpose part was lost in the flurry of activities that are nice but not relevant beyond the group
• very painful because it became crystal clear that many things need to change

Nik

• three main components of the exercise:
  • feast
  • publication
  • maintaining and exploring the scenario
• good at randomly dissipating nervous energy - exciting and frivolous things
• a distance between activities and scenario - making the connection was difficult
• feast leaving behind apocalyptic visions
• the world didn’t end
• publication a good task to reflect on
• brought into focus patterns and antipatterns
• getting into character and finding a place within the scenario enjoyable
• we were building something, but it was very unclear

Natalya

• as a mushroom, mixed feelings
• didn’t know the people or the space
• confused with the costumes - over costumed, over-theatrical - just wanted to shake people out of this
• wanted to some inner connection
• lack of observation, decisions about how and what to do - ok for one day but not longer
• overplayed and artificial, but very enjoyable - still need to digest the experience
• Slovenia was very different - more time to develop
• good to see the same people in different situations but still within one network

Marko

• lost my resilience
• just had an intense month of real-world practices
• liberating situation - thought it was going to be very different - expected very concrete tasks - realised this was not the case
• stoned or removed from reality but shared common interests
• leaving the Flotilla was like bringing an inner world into the outer world - great sense of purpose in the morning - we actually had the ladder, otherwise would have to use sheets
• interesting to see what we were doing made sense
• role-playing was great
• sleeping arrangements and rhythms of sleeping interesting - rest extremely important for resilience
• tendency to sleep in this scenario - in any normal gathering no one would just start sleeping - quite beautiful
• morning really well executed - really sad to leave
• sent SMSs to report my progress after disembarking the Flotilla
• met the Slovenian prime minister (surrounded by about 20-35 women) at the airport after the Flotilla - how to explain where I’d just come from?
• 24 hours very short - read the bulk of the documentation just before the scenario
• shows we still have a child inside - this is the most important and resilient lesson we can learn
• how I described the Flotilla to others: “I was just with a group of very beautiful people”

Alkan

• had a screw loose
• struggle with the whole issue of personal vs collective
• compressed 24 hours was a nightmare come true, was dreading it
• will never be resilient in this kind of scenario
• planning was nice, but got flu just before starting - this made the lack of inner connection to the scenario more pronounced and made it unenjoyable
• but lot of beautiful little moments - like the the late-night silent “ghost” party
• but difficult to find a connection with prehearsal overall

Cocky [via email]

• the group dynamics were going down the drain
• the ones not willing to participate or giving to the whole might have the hardest time, and were just sucking energy from the others
• this mechanism amplified on the Flotilla
• everybody was sort of more floating around rather than heading towards a clear direction
• for myself, I would prefer not to to dedicate myself for/in a community (unless i could fulfil the role of a passenger)
• feels too enclosed - the Flotilla felt more like a cut off entity from the world instead of living in the world

Trudo [via email]

• IMO it proves that linear, and non linear travel are best suited as a way of working, collaborating, or simply getting together
• overall, the 24-hour timeframe, and the politeness of the participants prevented much of the fragility to break
• timeframe was short, on the positive: no need for a lot of magic to make us believe in the trip

Nico [via email]

• it is not an everyday thing for me to find company to speculate without boundaries
• somehow it ended happening that about a couple of dozen of us where gathered in the same space at the same time
• it is a efficient exercise to spend the most valuable resource that we all have (time) under this conditions
• being shameless in proposing new subjects which are then fed by the others is a dynamic in such interesting projects
• I just found a great tool that can be used many times and that will be shared with many others

Loes [via email]

• I think the well established setting (location, costumes, food supplies, gifts) was very good and turned out very important
• appropriating a role went quite naturally when you can stay close to your own person
• there was place for different ambiences: serious thoughts, silence at the campfire, fun, party, ..
• open questions that were posed:
  • what does the outside world look like during flotilla?
  • what catastrophes would make us actually change our lives this drastically?
  • would you ever join a community like flotilla?
• the prehearsal reflects very well the travels and experiments we've taken during Resilients - it was good to have this experience with the whole group

what resilient and what fragile

• respect
• agreement on shared means
• shared supply issues

• issues with taking care of your own trash, awareness of your traces - cleaning up after yourself but goes beyond this to an awareness of the space, of others, of what you use
• as a group we could have resolved this - seeing the real problems and addressing them immediately with people able and willing to help
• issues of self-sustainability and responsibility

• documentation - important but fragile

• lack of clarity in certain situations - e.g. in an emergency: what is an emergency and what to do?
• but this is in conflict with the fiction
• weird in-and-out fiction-real situation contributed to this feeling of being lost

• set of principles (not rules)
• imbalance in principles
• rules and responsibilities emerging spontaneously
• how to self-organise when working together
• roles and real things - if every role had a concrete duty it might have enhanced the prehearsal
• practical down-to-earth survival vs cultural creative resilience - Carole did not know we were doing both - work and life - bot resilient and fragile
• ritual important - concretely for the group and keeping the fiction alive - bridge between everyday life and the fiction
• no game master, laws of physics - fragile

• 100% commitment fragile
• sharing knowledge, resources - resilient

• number of people involved - a limit to the number of people in a group that can function without resorting to formal rules - 25 people?
• original idea of flotilla to have 100-200 people - a mini-society

• demon of resilience - high expectations
• angel - playfulness and lightness
• and for non-humans? - they are both angels and demons

• time for feedback
• e.g. group photos a time for feedback, time out, “reality” checks

prehearsal method

• names - good for another role but took too long to remember
• introduced a fictional element that had less to do with us or our context
• made the exchange more difficult
• everything too complex to do in 24 hours
• people went out of role
• first shift too short - too many things to do
• first shift too long?

• boat metaphor good
• 4 hours a good time - long enough but short enough

• actual design of the flotilla not clear
• unexpected future but no unexpected things happening
• Rasa for example had lots of predefined tasks - she knew what would happen - but most of us didn’t have this sense
• Rasa not aware we would have to divide roles so strictly beforehand
• unequal situation - e.g. Rasa was at home and knew the space/scenario
• time to allow roles to evolve - part of the [pre]design or collectively decided
• everyone involved in the prehearsal should be involved in the scenario preparation from beginning to end - or else have a much more defined structure
• dilemma of more or less structure - if other people are coming in more structure is needed
• a neutral or new space

• methodology really important and takes time - is it really in character, performing, are you playing roles or is this necessary?
• extrapolation of yourself - what would have made this more clear?
• email terrible way of communicating complex stuff - so much left unsaid, what is really important and not
• briefing as important as the prehearsal: more time to talk before going into the prehearsal - deeper collective briefing
• no focus on the dinner the night before, and the morning was also chaotic

• last big meeting 6 months ago, wanted to catch up and talk about our projects but if I’m this character what do I do?
• an unstructured day where there were no roles, names, responsibilities would have been good

• but with formal thing first then people are committed
• tried the informal gathering in June but only two people would have been there
• handbook discussion first?

• preparation vs playing - different between preparing it for ourselves and preparing it for others
• confusion over playing for yourself and for others

• Marko’s role can fit in the scenario - so let it happen
• strictness vs spontaneity
• we could work Marko beforehand, didn’t know about Bart’s

• several briefings?
• e.g. only told our stories once
• but if at every shift change there was an elaboration of the story it would be more effective
• sit down for 20 minutes to write down our roles as a ritual

• prehearsing a skill you can learn?

• if we were on a ship, where are we going, what was the weather, sensual experience of being on the sea?
• scenario round the ship itself - out to sea on its own, travelling round from place to place?
• work on narrative details would have made it more effective
• lots of details not decided on - the network, the water, etc.
• world-building - more frequent discussions would helped this

• integrate a crisis plan for all participants

• building up the values of the flotilla - curiosity, integrity…

• characters - picked beforehand, not changing characters quickly
• confusing changes of characters
• could have made roles more clear from the beginning
• observers - where the ship was heading to - observing even the music as a way of telling where we were
• clearly integrated we could know where we were

• never put your eggs in one basket
• never put all resilients in one boat

• world-building vs improvisation

• develop links, foster the mycelia, where will the mushrooms pop up