Visual Practice Activation

PLEASE NOTE: Since the program is starting in a few hours, the initial enrollment process might be delayed. If you register, we will be aware of it and bring you into things just as soon as we can. Thanks for understanding!

A 6-day marathon of modules, reaching every time zone, functioning across and within regions. This is an opportunity for activation within the field visual practice, to come together in service of species and planetary well-being.

We will be experimenting with scale, inclusiveness, and delivery modes: We will use Zoom for the content broadcast and collective sense-making, and a dedicated Mighty Networks online community platform to complement the modules. And of course nothing can hold local groups back from gathering in person as they wish!

These modules, in essence, aim to:

• Awaken the intelligences of the open mind, open heart, and open will
• Deepen your practice of a visual sense-making discipline
• Cultivate your knowledge of social technologies

At a practical level, they will offer a way to:

• Receive key content in a time convenient to your location
• Practice in a local, place-based way, or with a dedicated virtual group
• Reflect as a community in cross-regional groups and as a whole
• Be organized and supported by a globally distributed team

CONTENT

The intent is to offer six unique sessions, that you can experience individually or combine as you would like:

• Module 1: The Basics (Saturday, March 21)
  This module will cover the basics of the practice, from the use of markers, to lettering, to drawing simple icons, and to framing a page. It will also cover a model we use for discerning what content to include, and what to leave out, when scribing.
• Module 2: Levels of Scribing (Sunday, March 22)
  Learn about the “art of scribing”—a practice that visually represents ideas while people talk—and its role in transforming conversation and decision-making. Participants will explore the profession through Kelvy Bird's "4 Levels of Scribing" and "Model of Practice", scribe a conversation, and consider how to apply these ideas professionally.
• Module 3: Dynamics of Listening (Monday, March 23)
  This session will include a review of "Levels of Listening" (Otto Scharmer) and "Conversational Dynamics" (David Kantor), and apply these frameworks directly into visual expression. Participants will practice conversing and drawing with different levels—factual, relational, and generative—to expand their awareness around ways of receiving and representing information.
• Module 4: Systems Scribing (Tuesday, March 24)
  Here we will share a new methodology that weaves systems thinking with realtime visual practice, to represent dynamics that occur in the moment and over time, between a scribe and a social body. This discipline develops a critical skill to facilitate a system’s ability to see and sense itself, as well as crystalize ideas into action. Expect to diagnose, make connections, and model while you draw.
• Module 5: Generative Scribing (Wednesday, March 25)
  In this module, participants will have an opportunity to sense into, and become in tune with, a social field - and draw from that place. We will attend to energy and essence, while learning to represent emerging future possibilities from a deeper kind of knowing. "Visual Presencing" will also be presented as an approach.
• Module 6: Advanced Practice (Thursday, March 26)
  If you have already participated in some of the Visual Practice Workshops (and these online modules) and are wondering what's next, this module is specifically for you. We will share our latest thinking, pool our collective knowledge and resource, and venture to the edges of our practice to explore what is next individually and as a community of concerned global citizens and scribes.

Who should participate?

• Anyone wanting to learn about scribing
• Scribes who want to bring systems thinking and Presencing into their practice
• Theory U practitioners wanting to learn visual expression
• Visual thinkers seeking to expand their capacity
• Advanced practitioners who are seeking their next professional steps

LOGISTICS

The structure is oriented around GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Please use this link to figure out conversions. The timing for each module is as follows:

• Part 1: Global Delivery
  Live online (with Alfredo) from 8:00am-9:30am GMT
  Live online (with Kelvy) from 1:00pm-2:30pm GMT
  Recordings of these sessions available from 4:00pm GMT
  Live online (with Kelvy) from 12:00am-1:30pm GMT
  Live online (with Jayce, in Chinese) from 7:00am-8:30pm GMT (next day)

• Part 2: Local Practice
  At your own pace, with regional options we are organizing - some in person, most online, but ideally with peers in your own, local language. This part takes place between the 2 global sessions.

• Part 3: Global Sensemaking
  Reflect cross-regionally as a community at large.
  Live online (with faculty host) from 3:00pm-4:30pm GMT
  Live online (with faculty host) from 6:00pm-7:30pm GMT
  Live online (with faculty host) from 9:00pm-10:30pm GMT
  Live online (with faculty host) from 5:00am-6:30pm GMT (next day)
  Live online (with faculty host) from 12:00pm-1:30pm GMT (next day)

TEAM

Kelvy Bird is an internationally recognized graphic facilitator, supporting groups by translating content and dynamics into visual formats that aid with reflection and decision-making. As co-founder of the Presencing Institute, Kelvy has helped shape many of the online and global community offerings, most recently the edX course u.lab: Leading From the Emerging Future, for which she provides extensive visual material. In 2016, she co-edited the anthology: Drawn Together through Visual Practice, and in 2018 released Generative Scribing: A Social Art of the 21st Century. An artist by training, Kelvy received her BFA in painting and BA in Art History from Cornell University. Her current residence is Somerville, MA, USA.

Alfredo Carlo is a designer of collaborative processes and is a graphic facilitator. He’s the founding partner of Housatonic Design Network and, since 2011, a partner of Matter Group. Together these networks deliver graphic facilitation and collaborative sessions to navigate complexity. Alfredo is also a member of The Value Web, a not-for-profit organisation made of international facilitators and designers, which helps large and medium-scale institutions all over the world in their processes of research for systemic and complex problem-solving. Alfredo currently lives with his family in Bologna, Italy.

We will be joined by an international team of skilled facilitators and scribes, including: Angela Baldini, Christina Hemmingsen, Jayce Pei Yu Lee, Karolina Iwa, Linda Hunter, Marcello Petruzzi, Michelle Sampaio, Mona Ebdrup, Raja Chidambaram, Rachel Hentsch, Raquel Benmergui, Reilly Dow, Sam Bradd, Svenja Rüger, and more!

REGISTRATION

In order to include a range of participation, we have offered a choice between two fees, based on the general strength of currencies: Global North and Global South. Please register at the appropriate rate.

• Global North: $120 per module
• Global South: $80 per module
• Scholarship – Email your request with your location, profession, and aspiration
• 10% discount – for Visual Practice Workshop or System Scribing Lab alumni

The registration fee does not include any supplies, though upon registering you will receive a 15% discount coupon for Neuland products, valid for one complete order in 2020.

Refund Policy: The amount paid minus a $20 processing fee will be refunded for all cancellations received in writing before March 13, 2020. No refunds will be granted for cancellations received after that time, but registrations can be transferred to other participants at no additional cost.