Let’s make a book

Member’s meeting 22/8

At Teaterverket this Tuesday Lisa, Gry, Ida, Anna and Maia opened up the first practice-based INSISTER SPACE meeting with wondering what we actually want to do when we meet to work, and what these meetings should consist of.

It resulted in lots of talk, some colourful notes and a social realistic artwork as shown at the end of the post.

We talked about having a leader for each meeting, someone who takes responsibility for their proposals or lack of same. This can work as a practice of doing things badly, or not perfectly, and remembering that (in this space) that doesn’t point back to that person but to the given task, plan, or structure. The clear but short-lived leadership can also propose a practice for the non-leaders of giving feedback and coming with a suggestion for another meeting that would fit their own needs better. We talked about working together not in uniformity or agreement but in co-existence and friction. The value of taking risks, of presenting things that are not ready and of taking responsibility for things that are not necessarily great.

We wondered

We also went around things like:
– the need for structures
– hatred of mingling
– creating a library
– creating ‘The Boring Stuff Book: a Lexicon of Knowledge for the Freelance Dancer‘, also maybe named ‘A Choreographer’s Handbook: The Prequel‘ – a book that gathers updated information of invoicing, contracts, applications, festivals, venues, organisations etc.
– the follow-up finishing of the whole trilogy with the production of ‘A Choreographer’s Handbook: The Sequel’, a book of scores on how to feedback and develop art and practices.
– the way women labour to make men’s work make more sense

This and much more that again can be looked at in the images of papers below

/Maia (this meeting’s leader)