CRAFT TELLERS' ROOMS n o i t i Ed
Conversation Thread Kit
Unknown Voices Challenge 2022
Before you start reading, keep in mind that this is the digital version of an experience that goes beyond sight, appeals to more senses, consists of textures, smells, and even flavors. I hope we can meet on a real life occasion for tea time! Laura
CONTENT
1 Tea bag
Colorful threads
1 Tool Book
1 needle
“When there is a risk of getting lost, we follow a thread. It allows us to find our way as we enter a disorienting labyrinth… A thread is our connection with a future we cannot simply anticipate. It protects us from confusion and takes us to a place we must still discover…” Alexander García Duttmann
Follow the thread: Considerations
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Manufacturing Note
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Safety/Care-Warnings
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Craft Tellers' Rooms - BrabantNext Edition 6 Instructions
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First Impression
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Tea Time For Another Time
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Considerations: Mending/repairing, has taken a back seat in the textile trade; has gone into the hectic pace of everyday life, lack of time, and work overload cause what appears to be damaged to be discarded. Is it then in this time repairing a revolutionary act? On the following pages, I invite you to have a cup of tea while you repair those conversations you did not finish because you were going to miss the train. 1. spend a few minutes linking your hands and your thoughts and embroidery unguidedly what you are missing to give someone else time. 2. prepare to connect the thread to the needle, the needle to the surface, the surface to your desires, and so on and so forth. 3. at the end of the pages, ask yourself if you are ready to share a cup of tea.
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Manufacturing note: Before we start weaving/connecting our stories, I'd like to briefly tell you mine, so you know what brought me here. My name is Laura; I am pleased to meet you. Some months ago I moved from Bogotá, Colombia to Breda, The Netherlands. To start a Master Imagineering studies. During this time, I have felt the need to connect. After a period of isolation thanks to the Covid pandemic, where hyperconnectivity has played for and against relationships and interactions, and in my role of foreigner in this country, I wonder how I can reconnect with others, how I can have open and honest conversations, how I can inspire others to meet again in safe, quiet, comfortable spaces. On the other hand, the province of North Brabant is wondering about the "unknown voices” (stories that remain hidden in terms of participation), who they are, where they are, and how to connect with them. I have decided to describe the "unknown voices" as follows: Everyone is unknown until they make the right connections. At that moment, those voices are heard and the dialogue can begin. My interest about connecting and the province’s need of identify voices converge on: “Craft Tellers’ Rooms”.
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SAFETY /CARE-WARNINGS WARNING: IMPORTANT HEALTH AND SAFETY INFORMATION; READ BEFORE USE TO REDUCE THE RISK OF PERSONAL INJURY, DISCOMFORT, PROPERTY DAMAGE, INCLUDING DAMAGE /CHANGE OF YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Communication is key: what is the story you want to tell? Pay attention to the words you use to tell your story and make a connection. Communication also means listening to others and giving them space to express themselves. Empathise: meetings are a safe space for sharing stories there is no room for judgement . Play a role: allow yourself to be vulnerable, transparent and open, you are not representing interests, people or things that are different from your values, needs and passions, allow yourself to be and to be present. Couriosity: what is it that inspires you? Allow yourself to be carried away by the curiosity of entering a new space, meeting new people and be captivated by the experience, leaving prejudices aside.
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CRAFT TELLERS’ ROOMS – BRABANTNEXT EDITION
Game board: Province of North Brabant What: Meetings in inspiring places in the province where cosy and diverse conversations emerge while everyone practises a textile craft (crochet, embroidery, knitting, macramé). The goal is to gather information, both about the issues people care about and the unknown voices that want to be heard. This is the point at which our stories can be woven, knotted intertwined and stand the test of time.
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Instructions: Welcome to the Craft Tellers' Rooms, when you decided to be curious, you started the game. The following is a non-linear process to begin writing a new story for the meetings. Feel free to start at whatever point you feel most comfortable, and I hope to see you at the next Craft Tellers' Room. Are you ready?
Things take time, time needs rest
of s ld itie r l o w ibi A ss po
Inspiration
B
Ideation
Craft Tellers' Rooms
A
C
F A new end is a new beginnig
Tell me w hat y drea ou m an d I'll a co tell y ncep ou t
D E
More than flirting, an official date
ion Implementat
a red ve is ect o w A nn h co whic s knot
IMAGINEERING APPROACH
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Inspiration - Topic definition for the conversations A-ppreciating: To understand, analyze and appreciate the strengths of the system that is being investigating. B-reathing: To cool down, re-think and zoom-out to have the whole picture, this phase helps to avoid jumping into conclusions too soon.
Ideation - Define rooms (Hosts) and environment of the meetings C-reating: To work toward the main goal and give meaning to the path that creates a concept which supports the desires of the project. D-Developing: To involve, evolve and emerge. Here is the phase to engage all of the important actors try out the ideas, fail and iterate.
Implementation - Craft Tellers' Rooms new edition E-nabling: To give a space physical or virtual to the ones involved to connect, interact and co-create the new reality. F-lourishing: To ambition the future, allowing a continuous, dynamic, generative, never-ended process.
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Mental Note. People need authentic relationships, this game is about woving them, no longer about the craft or the conversations during the meetings, but about what happens around it, what happens before and after you and the group sit around the table. This connection has no words, only feelings.
“People in the community are in need of assets and it can be anything that can be a place like this, can be networks, it can be knowledge, can be money, can be anything. But it needs to be seen by the people themselves. And then from there they build something …So we need to bridge that. But it can't start from the institutions bringing activities just to people. So it really needs to be the other way around” Ger Pepels – Teller in Craft Tellers’ Rooms FutureLab Lochal (June 10-2022)
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Roles: Host
Facilitator
Co-Facilitator
Tellers Producer(s)
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Step 1: Establish roles and topics for conversation during the sessions. Sometimes the game starts with just the facilitator and producer. It is important that they hold meetings together where they determine the topic and scope of the meeting. This can be in the office to talk about something that is happening in the team, such as a comfortable/uncomfortable environment, feedback on a process, or brainstorming for projects, or it can be on a large scale to talk to citizens about for example,the different tasks of the province: Health and Safe Environment, Energy Transition, Climate proof, Sustainable Urbanisation, Sustainable Competitive Economy.
Step 2: Make as many meaningful connections as possible between the different roles. The connections must be related to the topic in order to design eye-catching strategies for addressing tellers. It is up to the various role players to decide if they want to collaborate and co-create each session or if the facilitator will do so. *At the time this guide was created, "Craft Tellers' Rooms" had already been tested and the first connections had been made (Breda: The Wild Knitting Room - Maurice Spapens, Tilburg: FutureLab Lochal - Jenny Janssens and Wij West - Joy's van Lieshout, Eindhoven: International Creative Women - Sally Ocaña). Future players can take advantage of this instead of starting from scratch again.
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Step 3: Meetings. Minimum duration 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once connections are made, it is important that the facilitator, cofacilitator(s), and host(s) work together to create a safe and comfortable space. Set up a table with chairs around which all participants can see each other, and provide materials (yarn, thread, needles, etc.) and inspirational items such as books or handcraft projects. Provide cookies and drinks and play background music. The welcome is important, the facilitator needs to give the participants space to enter the room and explain the basis of the craft (it is important that at least one of the roles knows the basis of some crafts), settle the room with some handicrafts, present the purpose of the meeting and let the tellers introduce themselves. The core of the conversation: The facilitator asks the first triggering question and leaves room for the conversation. The next part is to follow the thread of the conversation, give the opportunity to hear and be heard, ask questions to keep the conversation lively, and keep track of time (time means a lot to people). Do not forget to wrap up the conversation by asking participants, for example, what was the most inspiring part of the talk? Or what would they like to get off their chest in relation to the discussion?
*The opening and closing are very important to create that living room atmosphere that we strive for to provide a safe space for people. ** Making is the key, let tellers choosing what they want to make or have in their hands, when people have something to do with their hands during the conversation, they are in a comfortable area where they do not feel they are in the spot.
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The First Impression The first edition of the Craft Tellers Rooms took place in Tilburg, Breda and Eindhoven in the province of North Brabant, thanks to various connections that lead us to other connections.
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*The Craft Tellers' Rooms are based on trust and sharing, the moment you start making connections you sew an imaginary thread between the different roles, it's not about expecting something from the other but about collaborating from each strength.
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What people said
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What hosts said "I would like to try again and find a way to bring more people, how this woman (one of the tellers) changes from the beginning to the end, that was magic" Joy's Van Lieshout
"I will love to host more sessions, it went really well, we can have different central topics, like emphaty for example" Jenny Janssens
"I never had that many internationals in The Wild Knitting Room, if you want to do this every Friday you are more than welcome" Maurice Spapens
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Tea time for another time Along with this book you have a tea bag, a needle and colorful threads, the tea represents a new opportunity to connect with a person who may be interested in the meetings from different roles, the invitation is to embroider the tea bag and give it to someone to sew one of the steps for a new edition of Craft Tellers' Rooms.
Tea time... Embroider tea bag here
...To share stories 16
Laura Méndez / betterwritealetter@gmail.com / @Dear_ima_diary
Weaving Communities