Hi Dave yes I enjoyed reading the link to Marys post and now reading Peters post above after yours I’m wondering if the emphasis in the “classroom” was to find out as much as possible about oneself and how the weakest link in my story might connect with the project/ problem/topic at hand. Find the patterns that link me (learner) personally. These could be serendipitous more likely the unconscious and the not necessarily obvious nor important. The messiness reveals patterns but unique for each consciousness. It cannot be packaged into a graphic organizer. It’s more like a mystery. I know as an artist when I am working it’s full of those connections that I don’t see until later and wow just the intention of focussing on something brings it forth in ways I couldn’t have planned. I
hesitate to write because I haven’t read all of
your literature and I have not thought about it so
long and hard. And I may embarrass myself! Embarrassment too is messy! but are there ways that you could consciously make space for connections by getting students to first connect with themselves then mixing things up and finding the loose connections and associations before exploring how they might relate in an obtruse or direct way to topic? Mary discussed the students passion for motorbikes as a way in…as a designer we are trained to juxtapose and make something new out of several disparate sources. Training us to form connections that maybe arent obviously there? Artists too…and alerting learners to those connections between
class/group members, emphasizing them, cultivating them as you are intimately and acutely
familiar!
I liked the way the ‘messy’ which both yourself and Pappas describe is individualized, unique unknown, it’s not a series of preconceived
sequences with homogenous outcomes.
It’s like in a rhizomatic rhythm one needs to open up relationships to oneself to the other etc and keep awareness engaged to locate the overt and covert patterns in these relationships/ connections all the while traveling the length and breadth of the topic/ project/discourse.
The tremendous trust you have in yourself and
your process is brave, exciting and awesome.