Never underestimate what you can not see
Happyplaces Stories
I guess most lessons are already available in writing, learned by others. Like these phrases from the Bible:
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
The sentence I made up the day before leaving to Geneva, to do the first Happyplaces Project workshop at LIFT Conference felt good, so I printed it on the eye covers for the workshop participants:
‘You shall not underestimate what you cannot see.’
I guess being on my learning quest, talking to many people with many backgrounds helps me to get to universal insights, which I learn through experience, not by reading them somewhere. And then to find them somewhere already written down by someone else. On one hand, it makes me want to read as much books as I can, like Paul Hughes ferociously reads books to collect his timeless knowledge into his visual aphorisms, which then can be applied to timely contexts. On the other hand, all that written knowledge has been living in the authors mind for some time before he trusted it to paper, refined it, to at a certain moment, press the print button. Like a TED talk, a talk and a book are the products of spending a lot of time and careful considerations, but what I love is talking to people while they are shaping ideas in their heads.
That, to me, is the most precious aspect of the project. Sharing that moment with just a camera and questions. The camera as an alibi to ask questions, have a conversation with a focus — having something to talk about that is not directly related to what people do, but more on why and how they do things. And then see people think about it on camera. Which leads to less refined stories, just what they think at that moment — and that’s okay. To see the person, who he is (also just a person with doubts, questions, uncertainties), not person in his role, thinking from his role (acting from a controlled context, based on experience and experiences), too much considering what others might think of what he is saying (because that might affect his role).
Does that always happen? Surprisingly more than I thought. I guess that having true interest in the other and having some scheduled time to talk — not just do a Q&A — helps to learn more about someone’s ‘invisible’ matters.
I can, until now, count the occassions where that didn’t happen on one hand. Why it did not happen, looking back, is easy to understand. The person had too little time; too much on his mind that was distracting him; the context was wrong (not feeling free to speak); we got interrupted; or the person was in a certain situation (in-between jobs, stress at home, uncertain about life at large, etc.). In any situation, there were always things I couldn’t see or know that were influencing that moment. I’m getting better in noticing that, and then simply plan another moment. No rush. With one person I had already five great conversations, where we ‘forgot’ to film or pulling out a camera simply did not feel right. From the 85 people I met, I until now (December 2014) recorded 62.
There is no truth. There are only truths.
Everything has multiple realities.
That’s one of the key things Happyplaces Project taught me.
I went on a search to get an answer on how to create space in the multiple meanings of the word ‘space’. To find a universal answer to the question how people create space for themselves and others in which they could have their Happyplace. That’s why I asked a wide diversity of people. With all kinds of professions, roles, backgrounds, statuses, believes, origins and contexts. By asking many, there eventually should be universal truths, right? Truth is, they don’t exist. Of course there are common subjects, similarities. But no one is really the same.
Everything is different because everybody is different, sees things different based on where they come from, the music they listen to, their upbringing, they’re beliefs, the cities, streets, the space they grew up in. Things that people carry with them but which you cannot see.
And instead that it frustrates me, not to have found a single answer, I’m happy that I didn’t. Because it means that you can’t do wrong. That what you do, you decide, you create is always good. That it is your unique blend that makes you you and that’s why things can become unique, different, distinct.
This also what happened doing the workshop at LIFT, where we ‘collectively investigated the galaxy of spaces, shared stories and found happy places’. It was easy to promise participants that it would be ‘fun, moving, entertaining and useful, reminding you of something you never experienced before’. Why? We, Marieke and I, went there with a bit of an idea what we were going to do, but without a plan and expectations. I prepared a bunch of fluorescent vests with Explorer printed on the back. And those eye covers. One thing we agreed upon, was that we would do the workshop backwards, which was really just a way to create a context in which we could also figure things out along the way. These three things helped to create a collective safe space: everyone looked the same and a bit funny, everyone didn’t really know what to expect and the props were well-prepared, suggesting good preparation.
We asked the participants to cover their eyes, handed them tape and asked them to ‘claim their own space’ within the room we were in, with their eyes covered.
Instant mayhem, obviously. After the participants had some time to accommodate a little, they all started to claim spaces, all in their own way. And, according to their own new made up rules, strategies, beliefs. Some taped their space on the floor, only for themselves. Some people collaborated to claim a bigger or shared space. Some people took more drastic measures because they came to the conclusion that other people might their borders and started to mount the tape from wall to wall, so people would bump into it and they could feel that they were entering another space. Some became more physical, started shouting, or built constructions of stuff they bumped into. Or did a human helicopter — spinning around, meanwhile hitting others. Fascinating.
After 20 minutes we asked them to discuss and write down what happened, what they experienced, in groups.
Since LIFT Conference, we conducted this workshop several times (Spatial Planning Department City of Amsterdam, Knowmads Business School, HKU Master Interior Architecture), with a wide variety of participants. For me, the most fascinating learning was that everybody linked that experiece of being temporarily without vision, together with the assignment to claim a space to how they deal with limits and borders in their daily lives. Being pushed into this situation made that everybody created an instant strategy to deal with the situation. It made them think critically and then act. But as they said, in their daily lives this doesn’t happen all the time. Then you go with the flow most of the time, not continuously consciously considering what you are doing. Then we sometimes move into other people’s spaces without thinking to much about the impact what that might have on the other. That can be people’s physical private space, but it could also be that when someone is always in the limelight, he casts a shadow on others, taking away space from others to join in. In our daily lives were not continuously conscious of other people’s spaces and boundaries because we cannot see them or know about them. And because of that we’re constantly, mostly unintentionally, invading spaces of others.
With every new interview, talk or workshop, the universe of spaces is gradually expanding. All these spaces have boundaries. I guess knowing and being comfortable where your boundaries lie within those space together help shape your Happyplace. Together with Stang, I’m creating the Illustrated Map of the Observed Universe of Spaces where People find their Happyplaces as a handy guide. Just like those that exist for the observable universe. It will help to get a better understanding of the unseen, the invisible, and will help you to conquer new spaces or more considerately enter other people’s spaces and to never ever underestimate what you cannot see.
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