The Global Resonance Project

COCREATION (NOUN)[ koˌkrɪˈeɪʃ(ə)n ]

[1] a cultural technique to create global solutions in the anthropocene with everyone and everything.

[2] in distinction to co-creation as a methodology to include users in the design of products, cocreation describes the fundamental notion that all creation is cocreation: a deep practice and cultural technique, leading participateurs to let the new emerge from transformative processes.

[3] a multistakeholder process to work from a basis of resonance, connection and multiperspective understanding towards necessary innovations for the complex global challenges of the early 21st century.

The Idea

Every process is art. Every process is a sculpture made from dynamic interactions.

Every process undergoes phases and qualities such as resonance, transformation and cocreation.

The Global Resonance Project is a process sculpture in preparation. It is the first step in a series of projects to understand and work with global processes of fundamental transformation and cocreation.

The Global Resonance Project is conducted by Jascha Rohr, founding member of the Cocreation Foundation. The Cocreation Foundation’s mission is to understand and develop the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the cultural technique of cocreation as a means to create an abundant and peaceful world for the approximately 10 to 12 billion people which will need to share and coinhabit this earth within a healthy and sustainable ecosphere.

We understand that in order to develop and promote this technique, we first have to immerse in the global fields and processes of cocreation already existing as well as in those fields and processes which are in dire need for cocreative solutions. This deep quality of cognitive research, of connection building, listening, understanding, thinking and theorising, of prototyping and vision-sketching we describe as building resonance. The Global Resonance Project will build resonance with all forces, elements and participateurs relevant to understanding and forwarding cocreation.

Practically the Global Resonance Project has the intention to connect to and learn from the main actors in the field of transformation, cocreation and process facilitation in various fields such as politics, business, sustainability, social rights, science, education, and others. We will learn from these actors needs, sufferings, endeavours, hopes, ideas and projects.

The goal of the Global Resonance Project is to create a thorough understanding in the field of cocreation by following this resonance process of inquiry, exchange, learning and dialogue to produce:

• a series of generative discussions between Jascha Rohr and forward thinkers, activists and artists captured and published on video
• a series of published articles by Jascha Rohr and the above-mentioned cocreators of this project
• a series of field mappings to visualise complex conceptual ideas on cocreation
• all leading to a comprehensive pattern language of cocreation in a foundational book, describing theory, methodology and practices of cocreation

The Process

The Global Resonance Project is conducted by Jascha Rohr. The process is set up as a generative journey of inquiry, exchange and learning, consecutively producing the outputs above, while engaging other actors in the field to participate and contribute to these outputs.

The journey of inquiry of the Global Resonance Project works like a dream line, where the steps of the journey derive from the necessities and insights of the immediate previous steps. The mappings, videos, encounters and articles are snapshots and stills of the larger dynamic of this process of resonance which will show itself in its overall form at the end of the project. Thus the process is open, generative and alive.

On this journey, Jascha will meet leading-edge activists, thinkers and artists already working in the field of cocreation and will get into contact with their projects, ideas and learning processes. By moving from one actor to the next, he will leave behind a traceable path of writings, videos and visualisations, while connecting the actors in a global discourse on cocreation, thus spinning a net and creating a field of resonance for all to connect with. He will seed ideas, memes and connections of cocreation while simultaneously harvest the dialogue in an abundance of insights shared with everyone.

The Seeds

There are three seeds of cocreation, being carried to all stations on the journey:

• a talk on cocreation for inspiration and information
• a workshop format for disseminating knowledge, methods and practice of cocreation, and
• the Cocreators Club to kick-start communities of practice

Global Cocreation Talk

In the global cocreation talk, Jascha will introduce the Cocreation Foundation, the Global Resonance Project, its intention, aim and process with an interactive, engaging and inspiring talk on the need and the possibilities of deep cocreation as a global practice. Jascha will hold the talk in free speech accompanied by his iconographic scribing. The talk itself will evolve with the process of the projects, presenting its current findings, opportunities, open questions and patterns found so far throughout the project. The talk is intended to inspire and invite to join the community of cocreators and to further follow the project and the Cocreation Foundation.

Global Cocreation Workshops

While on the journey, Jascha will offer global cocreation workshops to share, reflect upon, learn and train the up-to-date theory, practice and methodology of cocreation.

These workshops will engage participants in a direct process of participation, collaboration and cocreation while working on one or many concrete projects with relevance to the participants and their respective community in their fields of work, e.g. sustainability and environmental design, political innovation, business development, city planning or social design.

Workshops will be hosted and organised by local partner institutions. The workshops of 1 to 3-days, will be based on the need, interest and advancement of the participants.

Co*Creators*Club

With the Global Resonance Project we will also seed the Cocreators Club. The Cocreators Club is an independent project of the Cocreation Foundation. However, the synergetic potential of being on the journey for the Global Resonance Project and starting to build a global community of practice has to be seized.

We know that there are pioneers of cocreation all over the world. The Cocreators Club is meant to build an informal community of practice for everyone working on participatory, collaborative or cocreative projects in line with the foundation’s values and goals. Thus the Cocreators Club will be a membership club by invitation and commitment only. While it might seem strange on the first hint to restrict this community from open entry, we know that the nurturing of new ways of thinking, acting and establishing attitudes needs a protected and hosted atmosphere. We want for cocreators from all fields of life to engage in the open and frank exchange of ideas, experience and projects as well as to personally immerge in shared processes, learning and understanding. The overall aim of the Cocreators Club is to support cocreators in their work and processes from local to global scale. The club is meant to function as an incubator for emerging constellations of participateurs, projects and processes.

On the journey of the Global Resonance Project we will host and seed first constitutive club meetings to form local hubs of exchange and thus local nodes of the Cocreation Foundation, too.

The Harvest

A Blog of Cocreation: A Process Diary

Jascha will write a diary of the process of the Global Resonance Project which I will be published regularly on a blog. This diary will capture the dynamic of knowledge and creation unfolding around the project. The blog will in itself be a written product and documentation of the project with the aim to make the unfolding dynamic of the knowledge creation visible.

Field Mappings

Mappings are visualization of abstract fields, results, processes and forces. Jascha uses these mappings as a means to communicate abstract ideas (e.g. the process sketching in this paper).

Medium Publications

While producing writings from the findings of the journey, it is the plan to engage our partners in adding their thoughts, projects and methods as well. We will therefore create a curated medium.org publication.

A Series of Future Cooking Videos

Every conversation with a leading artist, activist or thinker will be recorded and published as a Future Cooking Video. This way we will get a body of documented conversations as crystalising points for further work and cocreation.

The conversations will be lead in an inquisitive but informal style. Jascha and his partner for discussion will engage in a privat cocking session while discussing ideas to cocreate the future. The filming and editing is done by local teams, who can apply for this task. This way we will get a generative anthology of conversations. The videos will be published in a youtube channel of the Cocreation Foundation and distributed via social media.

Community of Cocreators

Through the talks, workshops and the Cocreators Club, the Global Resonance Project will start building an international community of cocreators: people who share the values and attitudes of the Cocreation Foundation and who work towards the Understanding, Development and Deployment of Cocreation as a cultural technique for the challenges of the anthropocene.

Foundational Book: Patterns of Cocreation

The final harvest from the Global Resonance Project will be a foundational book on cocreation as a basis for further discussion, on theory and the development of necessary methodology and practice.