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What is a Relational Creativities workshop?

As our network is comprised of people who study creative practices that take place within groups of people, we wanted our network workshop to reflect our object of study by being more creative than a straightforward knowledge-sharing exercise like a conference or presentation.

As we planned our workshop, we realised that the format could potentially be used for other kinds of networks, studies, and research gatherings, or even to produce creative outputs like zines or podcasts. Here we summarise our findings from planning and running a workshop designed with relational creativities in mind, in the hope that others planning similar events can find some inspiration from this experience.

Planning reflection

Inspired by the chapter “Conferences Should be an Exhilarating Experience!” in Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti’s The Chairs Are Where the People Go: How to Live, Work, and Play in the City, conference organizers Jennifer and Jamie Coates and AHRC Network Co-Investigator Iza Kavedžija wanted to plan a truly relational and interactive workshop. Instead of reading out papers, participants were asked to respond to one of a list of five writing prompts in a short statement of 500 words or less. We also asked for detailed biographical notes for each participant, and circulated these materials in advance of the workshop so that participants could get to know each other.

Individual sessions of 90 minutes each (see below) made use of the pre-submitted prompts in various ways. Our goals were to make sure that every participant had the opportunity to speak to the others about areas of overlap and difference in their research, and potential collaborations. We finished with a group editing session of our forward planning document, collecting ideas for publications and website content while wrapping up the previous session’s take-away points.

Reflecting back on the workshop, we feel it went well, and we would encourage you to try it yourself! However, a word of warning: this format places a lot of work on the shoulders of the organisers, and many things can only be done on the day of the workshop. Underneath the short description of each session in our schedule, you can find a list of ‘do’s and ‘don’ts’ for organising your own Relational Creativity workshop.

Pre-workshop activities

Pre-workshop writing submission

Please choose one prompt from the five below to respond to in 500 words or less. Participants’ prompts will be shared with all attendees before the workshop begins using a shared Google drive folder. Please include a short bio of 200 words.

Prompts:

1. In what aspect does your work deal with relations/ relationality?
2. In what aspect does your work deal with creativity?
3. How do you bring these aspects together in your work?
4. Can you give us an example (ethnographic and/ or conceptual) of relational creativity within your field or work?
5. How has the study of (relational) creativity inspired you to be creative in research?

Podcast pre-workshop activity

The podcast idea focused on the question of ‘what does it mean to be an author/maker in the context of relational creativity which is de-centered and distributed?’. In order to explore this question we built on a format of the Artery podcast (co-produced by Rob Simpkins and Iza Kavedžija) in which one scholar interviews one artist (or artist collective) on their creative process.

For the podcasting session we have decided to ask the participants only to consider who they might like to interview, should they be interested in contributing an episode to the podcast. In the session we aimed to collectively draft three shared questions that each interviewer would pose to their interlocutor, to ensure the coherence of the podcast as a series. The remaining questions would remain open and reflect the specific interests of the interviewer and the interviewee. In a follow-up online session we aimed to provide technical advice on podcast recording.

Timetable

Session plan

Welcome: Overview of the Relational Creativities network aims, introduction to the network website, identifying some planned outputs, and running through the schedule of the workshop.

Session 1: Introduction activity based on pre-submitted responses to prompts

Find another person who responded to the same pre-event prompt as you. Discuss your answers with the goals of creating a list of keywords or other mode of response that looks for commonalities and differences within your pre-event submissions.

To organise this session, ask respondents to group in the four corners of the room, plus one group in the centre, according to the pre-event submission prompt number that they answered, then ask them to find a partner from within that group.

Session 2: Podcasting

In this session, participants jointly planned and prepared questions for a collaborative podcast series of interviews with artists / creators / practitioners, which explored their understandings of artistic personhood, creative process, and responsibility.

To organise this session, the podcast host introduces the topic and layout, and group members then pitch ideas to the room. The podcast producers advise on what does and does not work well in a podcasting format.

Session 3: Website development

Bingo card: Find five people who responded to each of the five pre-event writing prompts to compile a ‘bingo card’ that checks off prompts 1-5. This will be your group for this activity. In your group of five people, plan out a ‘node’ to add to the website toolkit. This can be any media - written, illustrated, filmed, audio, or other material.

To organise this session, ask participants to match themselves with others based on where they stood in the first activity until they have a group of five people who all responded to different pre-conference prompts.

Sessions 4 and 5: Publishing working groups

In these sessions, we asked participants to join one of the following three groups, allowing members to switch groups during the break in order to attend two groups. Groups workshopped a draft proposal for each of the projects below:

• Group A: A group for journal article publishing in a special issue of the Asia Pacific Forum: Japan Focus (pre-arranged by the conference organizers with six available spaces).
• Group B: A group for creating an edited volume or special issue focusing on Anthropology approaches to relational creativity, with no pre-set target publishers or limited number of spaces.
• Group C: Serendipitous projects! If participants met a potential collaborator in Session 1 or Session 3, they could freely use this time to discuss a collaborative project - a co-authored article, zine, exhibition, anything!
• Follow-up activity: Each working group member contributed a 250 word abstract for their chapter / article / other output.

Do’s and Don’ts of a Relational Creativities workshop

Do:

• Create plenty of time for each activity in the schedule. It takes a lot longer than you’d think for people to move around and form groups!
• Try to ensure that cliques aren’t forming, especially around age or level of experience. This will make it harder for junior participants to speak up in the all-group sessions.
• Clear your calendar in the days after the workshop - you will have been ‘on’ for the full duration with no downtime, and you’ll be tired.

�ٴDz�’t:

• Try to control the flow of discussion too much - there’s plenty of time to bring disparate threads together at the end of the workshop.
• Have too many ‘do’s and don’ts’! It's helpful for participants to feel free to contribute, so activities that have clear structures but not too many rules are essential.
• Expect to complete every task you conceive in the workshop. To date we have completed around 50% of the things we discussed making or doing, which already
  amounts to a lot.

Creating your own Relational Creativities workshop

1. Think about your goals: what do you want to achieve by the end of the workshop?
2. Think about the participant demographic: what kinds of relationships do you want to build through workshop activities?
3. How can you build creativity into all aspects of the work, not only the topics you discuss? Depending on your networks and the location and dates of your workshop,
   you could add performances, visits to sites or events, and even movement-based sessions to your schedule.