![]() ![]() How can we get a project done with all this slime covering us? ![]() There are no boundaries, there is no me, there is no you. Slime connects everything, it enmeshes me to you, you to me, us to we, floor to my feet. What do I have left? Is there something in me that the stickiness didn’t touch? I can’t use any of it, all my ideas, my thoughts, are covered in slime. The beautiful new pens I bought for this project are full of sticky stuff. My room is full of sticky hand prints, my camera, and my body. When I touch my tools, the goo drips drops, and spreads all over my tool shed, my used-to-be-shiny studio floors, my keyboard, and my screens, everything is covered in slime. I feel like my hands are tied behind my back, and my lips are sealed with tape like I am inside in bubble wrap or extra durable cling film that keeps my emotions tight, small, and inside. And, as I am writing this text, I don’t feel free. I love artistic and personal freedom when it’s paired with response-ability ( Barad 2010, Quantum Entanglements and Hauntological Relations of Inheritance) and care. This text shares the good things we made, discloses our methods that supported the work, and tells a story about how to notice when methods, structures, and tools are not enough. This text reminds me to listen and take it seriously when my nervous system is in panic. This text reminds me to feel in my gut what is good for me and to make decisions based on that and not other reasons like money, career, or future potential. This text is to celebrate the learning that I-and we as a group- achieved. “The question is not whether we are enmeshed, but how we negotiate, suffer, and dance with that enmeshment.” (You can find a full list of our methods with explanations at the end of this text). We worked with tools like check-ins and check-outs in every meeting or work session Nonviolent communication Filming sessions with negotiations and changing roles Heart sharing Contracts Pleasure, excitement, and process-based working, to name a few. Between the residencies, we also had working time on our own to create and research. We organized the work as a group by meeting during two residency periods, first in Finland in January 2022 and then in Iceland in June 2023 as well as through Zoom calls. The need for safety and freedom in an artistic working group is always there, and our tools and methods made it possible to research my question in practice. My experience might have been similar no matter what the topics would have been. The fact that we aimed to work with vulnerability, touch, and sexuality made the need for safety more obvious. I want to underline that the topic of our artistic research project wasn’t the reason for the things that went wrong. When we started the working period, the questions that grabbed my interest, which is also the topic of this essay, were: “How and why might you work with people who hurt you in the past?” and “Is it possible to work artistically together after a serious conflict?”. We started our project with a long list of research questions, but for me, the most important question was: “How can we create safe enough environments for the whole crew when working with radical vulnerability?” This question hugs artistic work, production, emotional safety, and tools. ![]() I hope this text can be of inspiration and support for others who are working in freelance work groups and dealing with conflicts. This text is the result of a project funded by Kone Foundation, but as the topic is sensitive, I will not use the name of the project or the names of my colleagues. Good for you.An Essay about an Art Project Gone Wrong The Backbone and the Ground Maybe you had a particularly good day at work because your boss praised you for a project that was especially well done, and you are feeling joyful, hopeful, and optimistic about life. Once you find hopeful on the middle band of the wheel, you can see that the associated core feeling (nearer the center) is joyful, and the more specific, nuancedeeling (on the outer band) is optimistic. Let’s say, for instance, your first thought when you peruse the wheel is that you are feeling hopeful. To do this, you might sit down and look at the wheel when you have a moment to rest and contemplate, like after the end of a long day. The first is to simply use it to identify what it is you are currently feeling, and “drill down” further to discover associated feelings, so you can understand better your current state of mind and emotions. "There are two main ways of utilizing the wheel that I have found helpful. ![]()
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